Terms & Conditions

Last updated: 2026-10-23

This page explains what VerySeriousWork is, who it is for, and what using it means — written to be read in one sitting, not parsed by a lawyer. For exactly what data the app records and does not, see the privacy policy; this page does not repeat that detail.

This page is written in plain language by the people who run VerySeriousWork, not by a lawyer. It is not legal advice, and the site and these terms are provided as-is.

What this is

VerySeriousWork is a catalogue of small browser games — classic genres, rebuilt in 3D, made to sound as good as they look. It is a general-audience site: there is no age restriction and no age gate, because the app is built to the same privacy and safety standard for every visitor regardless of who they are (see the "Built for the strictest reader in the room" section of the privacy policy).

A note for parents, and why there's no age gate. Most sites this kind of game appeals to put an age wall in front of it and ask a child to type in a birthdate — which nothing stops a child from typing incorrectly, and which itself becomes one more piece of data collected about them. We took the opposite approach: instead of gating access by age, we built the site so nothing it does would be a problem for the youngest visitor it could ever have. There's no account to create, no birthdate to give, and no real name asked for (the name the site uses for you is an auto-generated nickname unless you choose another), and your scores stay on your device apart from the few features that need a server, which the privacy policy describes in full. If you're a parent or a school and want to check any of that for yourself before letting someone use the site, that document is written for exactly that reading.

One exception to that: the home page carries Google-served ads (since 2026-08-29). They never appear inside a game, a round, or a score screen — only on the page you land on before picking a game — and they're requested non-personalized, the same way this site's Google Analytics use already is. See the Google AdSense section of the privacy policy for exactly what that means.

No account today

There is no login and no registration. Nothing you do here is tied to an identity — see the privacy policy for exactly what is and is not recorded.

There is no account system today. If one is ever added, so that progress and likes can follow a player between devices, anonymous play will stay the default and stay fully functional — an account would add portability, not a requirement — and these terms will be updated before it launches, since registration changes what data exists to have terms about in the first place.

Ownership and what you may do with it

The games, their audio, their art and their code are original work. In short: classic game mechanics (a 2048-like, a mine-counting deduction game, a matching game) are not anyone's property and this site does not claim them — and where we use the common name for one of those genres, we are describing the game, not claiming anyone's brand. What VerySeriousWork does claim, and asks you not to copy, is the specific expression of those mechanics — this site's code, art, audio, writing, tuning and content.

You are welcome to play, to link to, and to share what you find here. You are not licensed to copy, redistribute, or build a competing product from this site's code or content.

Your content: piano recordings and anything else you type

A few features let you put your own content on the site instead of just consuming ours — the piano's public recording gallery, the nickname you can choose (other players in a multiplayer room can see it), and anything you write in a feedback or report form. The privacy policy describes what each one stores and shows in detail; this section covers the ownership and responsibility side of the same features.

It's still yours. Making a piano recording public, or typing a nickname, doesn't transfer ownership of it to us. What it does do is give us the licence we need to actually run the feature you used it for — to store it, to play it back to you or to whoever else the feature is meant to show it to (the piano gallery, or the other players in your room), and to remove it if we ever need to. We don't use anything you make here for advertising, and we don't sell or hand it to anyone else. The only data that goes to a third party is what the privacy policy describes under Google Analytics and Google AdSense, and none of that is what you recorded, drew, typed or named.

You're responsible for what you put here. Don't record, type, or submit anything you don't have the right to share, anything that infringes someone else's copyright, or anything illegal, harassing, or abusive. The profanity filters on typed names catch swearing; they do not catch everything that could be a problem, and using a typed name to work around the filter — coded spelling, a name in a different alphabet meant to carry the same slur, and similar — is covered by the acceptable-use section below, not just the filter.

We can remove anything, and don't have to explain why first. You can delete or unlist a piano recording you saved yourself (see the privacy policy's section on the piano gallery), but if something else needs to come down — a mistake, a report, or anything that shouldn't be there — the path is a takedown from the people who run the site. See Reporting a problem below for how to ask for one.

Acceptable use

Play fairly. Do not attempt to scrape, abuse, or automate requests against any feature that accepts input from a visitor (for example, a feedback or report form, or any public gallery a feature lets you post to) beyond how an ordinary player would use it, and do not attempt to circumvent any rate limit or moderation control, including a profanity filter on a typed name. Anything posted through a public-facing feature can be removed if it is abusive, illegal, or infringes someone else's rights, and staff-only takedown tooling exists for exactly that purpose. We may also restrict or block access from a specific device or connection that we reasonably believe is abusing the site — there is no account to suspend, so this is the only enforcement tool available to us, and we use it narrowly, aimed at the behaviour rather than at a person we have no way to identify in the first place.

Playing against other people

Some games, such as online Chess, Stack's Duel mode and the shared rooms in Piano and Guess the Word, put you in a game with another person. Play the game that is in front of you: do not stall on purpose, quit games you are losing to spoil them, or use the name or room code of a game to bother anyone. Online Chess games are casual — nothing is rated or saved — so there is nothing to win by cheating, and getting help from an engine or another person to choose your moves spoils the game for the person you are playing, so please do not.

There is no in-game report or block button yet. If someone behaves badly towards you, use the Feedback button and say what happened and roughly when. You can always leave a game, and a private game only lets in the people you give the code to. We may restrict access from a device or connection that keeps spoiling games for others, in the same narrow way the section above describes.

Other people's content and services

The Share button hands a link to WhatsApp, X, Facebook, Reddit, Telegram, your email app, or your phone's own share sheet, depending on which you pick — see the privacy policy's section on the Share button for exactly what that button does and does not send. Once you leave our site through one of those, you're on a service we don't run and aren't responsible for; its own terms and privacy practices apply, not ours.

Reporting a problem, or asking for something to be taken down

Every page of the site has a Feedback button (hidden while a game is in the middle of a round), and the Contact page shows the same form on the page itself — that's the one channel this site has for everything from "I found a bug" to "please remove this," including a copyright, abuse, or content-removal request about something posted through a public feature (the piano gallery, a player nickname in a multiplayer room, or similar). Say plainly what you're reporting and, if it's a specific piece of content, exactly where to find it (a link, a recording number, or as precise a description as you can give). We read every submission ourselves — see the privacy policy's section on submitting feedback for exactly what that form sends and who reads it — and will act on a legitimate request; there's no separate legal-only inbox to check first, which is deliberate for a project this size rather than an oversight.

No warranty, as-is

VerySeriousWork is a free hobby project. Its pages load nothing from other companies except the optional Google Analytics and Google AdSense scripts, and work without them. It is provided as-is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit for a particular purpose. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability, that the site is free of defects, or that it will remain available indefinitely. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the site — nothing in this section is meant to exclude a right that the law of your own country does not allow us to exclude (see Governing law below).

Ending access

We may restrict, suspend, or end anyone's access to the site or a specific feature, without notice, for a real reason — a violation of Acceptable use above, or content that has to come down under Reporting a problem. Because there is no account, "ending access" here mostly means removing content or blocking a device or connection, not deleting a profile. You can stop using the site at any time; there's nothing to close and nothing that keeps running on your behalf once you do.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of the place where the people who run this site are based, without regard to conflict of laws principles. We say so plainly so that one body of law, not every country's at once, governs these terms. This site can be reached from anywhere, and being reachable from your country does not excuse either side from laws that genuinely apply there regardless of what this clause says. Nothing here overrides a consumer protection or privacy right you have under your own country's law that cannot be waived by agreement. In practice, the design choice described in the privacy policy (no account, no real name asked for, and as little other data as the site can get by with) is what actually protects you under most of those laws, far more than any clause on this page does.

If something goes wrong, please use the Feedback button first — for a project this size, an actual conversation resolves things faster than a formal dispute process for either of us, and it's genuinely the same inbox a legal notice would otherwise land in.

The rest of the fine print

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands — an unenforceable sentence doesn't take the whole page down with it. This page, together with the privacy policy, is the whole agreement between you and VerySeriousWork about using the site; nothing said anywhere else (a comment, a social post, an email that isn't this document) changes it. Not enforcing something once doesn't give up the right to enforce it later.

Changes to these terms

This document may change as the site changes — most notably when accounts ship. Material changes will be reflected here with an updated date.

Questions

For what data is collected and why, read the privacy policy. For anything else, including a copyright/abuse report, use the Feedback button or the form on the Contact page — see Reporting a problem above.