Effective date: 2026-10-09

The short version. Nightwatch is a puzzle game made by Brightloop Studios. You may play it for your own enjoyment. The promises we publish about ads, about Nightwatch Premium and about your privacy come first, ahead of anything general in these terms. Payments and refunds go through Google Play, and your legal rights as a consumer stay yours. Please play fair: no cheating tools, no copying our puzzles for other products, no fake ad clicks. If something goes wrong, please write to us first, and we will try to put it right.

If you live in the United States, please read section 19. It says that you and we will settle any dispute by individual arbitration, not in court, and not in a class action or with a jury. You can still use a small claims court, and you can opt out of arbitration within 30 days after you first agree to these terms. If you live anywhere else, section 19 does not send you to arbitration.

1. Who we are, and what these terms cover

"We", "us" and "our" mean Corivane LLC, which publishes games as Brightloop Studios. You can write to us at [email protected].

These terms cover the Nightwatch app and the Nightwatch puzzles on our website, brightloop.games (together, "the game"). "You" means the person playing.

When you tap "Agree and keep playing", or keep playing after we have shown you these terms, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the game; you can uninstall it at any time.

Our privacy policy explains what information the game handles and your choices about it. It is a separate document. Agreeing to these terms does not mean you consent to anything the privacy policy asks your consent for; the game asks for that separately, where the law requires it.

2. Who can play

You must be at least 13 years old to use the game. If you are under the age of majority where you live, please read these terms with a parent or guardian, who agrees to them for you.

3. Your licence to play

The game belongs to us and to the people we license parts of it from. When you install it, you do not buy the game itself. We give you a personal, non-exclusive licence to install and play it, for your own non-commercial enjoyment, on devices you own or control, as Google Play's own terms allow. You may not transfer this licence to anyone else. The licence lasts until you or we end it under section 18. Every right in the game that these terms do not give you stays with us.

4. Nightwatch Premium

Nightwatch Premium is a one-time purchase made through Google Play. As the store card and the About screen say, it turns off every ad in the game for good and makes the third hint and lantern loans free, and it also gives you Lodestar, a lantern no round can earn. It is one payment, once. It is not a subscription and it never renews.

Premium is tied to the Google account you bought it with. If you reinstall the game or move to a new phone, "Restore a purchase" brings it back through Google Play.

For as long as we offer the game, we will not take Premium's benefits away from anyone who bought it, except where the purchase is refunded, cancelled or reversed, or where section 18 applies. Premium has no cash value and cannot be sold or transferred.

4a. The Ramparts

The Ramparts is a one-time purchase of thirty extra boards, made through Google Play. It is not part of Nightwatch Premium, and Premium does not include it; it gives you those boards and nothing else. Like Premium, it is tied to the Google account you bought it with, "Restore a purchase" brings it back, and we will not take the boards away from anyone who bought them, except where the purchase is refunded, cancelled or reversed, or where section 18 applies.

5. Lanterns, streaks and other things in the game

Lanterns you earn, lanterns you borrow for a day, your streak, your spare nights, your statistics and anything similar are part of the game and of your licence to play, not property you own. They have no money value, cannot be exchanged for money and cannot be sold or transferred to another person. We will not take away a lantern you have earned. A borrowed lantern goes back when its day is over.

6. Payments, prices and refunds

Google Play takes every payment. The price is the one Google Play shows you at checkout, in your currency, with any taxes Google Play collects. Prices can differ between countries and can change over time. A later price change never changes what you have already paid.

Refunds are handled under Google Play's refund policies and the law. If you have a problem with a purchase, you can also write to us and we will help where we can.

Nothing in these terms takes away any right the law gives you as a consumer. If you live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, your statutory rights, including your rights when digital content is faulty or not as described, are not affected. Where you have a legal right to withdraw from a purchase, Google Play handles it at checkout under its own terms and the law.

7. Ads

The free game shows ads served by Google AdMob, sometimes on behalf of other advertising companies that bid through it. The About screen and our privacy policy say which ads show, when, and how often, and those limits bind us (see section 8). Some ads are yours to choose, and declining them changes nothing about the game. Sometimes the break offers a reward: a lantern to try for a day. You can skip it. A reward arrives when Google's ad service confirms the ad was watched.

Advertisers are responsible for their own ads and for anything they sell. An ad in the game is not our recommendation.

8. Our specific promises come first

Specific promises we publish - the ad limits, what Nightwatch Premium and the Ramparts include, and our privacy policy - win over any general wording in these terms. That includes sections 10, 15, 16 and 17. If we ever want to change one of those promises in a way that is worse for you, we will first change the published text, in the app and on our store listing, and give notice as section 17 describes. Such a change never takes away what you already paid for.

9. Play fair

Please do not:

• use cheats, bots, modified versions of the app or tools that change how it works, other than the accessibility features of your own phone;
• copy, collect or reuse our puzzle banks, our puzzle files, our puzzle generator or our art, for example to put them in another game, app, book or website, except as section 11 allows;
• take the app apart or reverse engineer it, except where the law allows this and it cannot be excluded by contract;
• click, view or replay ads in ways that are not genuine, use tools that fake ad views or rewards, or do anything else that could count as ad fraud;
• interfere with the game, our website or the services behind them, or try to get into them in ways we have not offered;
• use the game in a way that breaks the law.

Solving with pencil and paper, or with help from a friend, is fine.

If you live in the United States and you deliberately break this section, for example by using tools that fake ad views, you will pay our reasonable losses and costs, including reasonable lawyers' fees, that come from a claim someone else makes against us because of it.

10. Changes to the game

We keep working on Nightwatch. We may add, change or remove boards, modes, features and designs, and we may update the app. Section 8 applies to every change. If we remove something you paid for, or make the game substantially worse for people who paid, the law and section 6 apply.

11. Our work, and what you may share

The game, including the town, Wick the lamplighter, the art, the sounds, the boards, the names and the code, belongs to us or to the people we license it from. Open-source parts of the app are listed in Settings, under About, Licences, and their own licences apply to them.

You may share screenshots, share cards and videos of your own play, including on channels that earn money, as long as you do not suggest that we endorse you or your channel.

12. Ideas you send us

If you send us an idea or a suggestion, we may use it freely, without paying you and without any duty to use it. We are grateful for it either way.

13. Other companies' services

The game uses services run by other companies, mainly Google: Google Play for installs and payments, Google AdMob for ads and Google Firebase for statistics, crash reports, settings and our website. Their own terms apply to your use of their services. We are not responsible for how those companies run their services, except where the law says we are.

14. Early versions

If you play an early version of Nightwatch before or alongside the public one, it may be unfinished, it may reset your progress, and test purchases may be undone. If we ask you to keep an early version private, please do.

15. If things go wrong

We make the game with care, but we cannot promise that it will always be available, work on every phone or be free of errors. Your saved game, your streak and your progress live on your phone. If they are lost, for example when a phone is reset, changed or uninstalled, we will help where we can, but we cannot always get them back.

As far as the law allows, we provide the game "as is" and "as available". Apart from the promises in these terms, including the specific promises in section 8, we give no warranty about the game, including any implied warranty of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose, or that the game will not infringe anyone's rights. This section does not limit any right you have under the law where you live that a contract cannot limit.

16. Limits on our liability

If you have a claim against us, our total liability to you is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or US$50. We are not liable for losses that neither you nor we could reasonably have foreseen when you started using the game, or for indirect losses such as lost profits. These limits apply whether an arbitrator or a court decides the claim.

These limits do not apply to death or personal injury caused by our negligence, to fraud, to losses we cause deliberately or through gross negligence, or to anything else the law does not allow us to limit. If you live in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we are responsible for foreseeable loss or damage we cause by breaking these terms or by failing to use reasonable care and skill, and nothing in this section changes your rights under consumer law.

17. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when we add a feature or when the law changes. We will show the new date at the top. If a change is worse for you, we will tell you in the app, with a short note and a link to read it, at least 30 days before it takes effect, unless the change is needed sooner to comply with the law or to stop abuse. If you do not agree with a change, you can stop playing and uninstall the game before it takes effect. A change never applies to a disagreement that started before the change, and section 19 says how a change to that section works.

18. Ending

You can stop using the game at any time by uninstalling it.

We may suspend or end your licence to use the game if you seriously or repeatedly break section 9, or if the law requires us to. Where we can, we will tell you why.

If we ever stop offering Nightwatch, we will tell players in the app or on our store listing at least 30 days ahead where we can. The copy on your phone keeps working offline as it is for as long as your phone runs it, and we will not deliberately switch off Premium or the Ramparts on a phone that already has them.

Sections 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19 and 20 continue to apply after the licence ends.

19. Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without taking away the protection of any mandatory law of the country or state where you live. The US Federal Arbitration Act governs the agreement to arbitrate in this section.

Write to us first. If you have a problem, please write to us first at [email protected]. We will try to fix it within 30 days. If you live outside the United States, this is a request, not a condition: you do not have to wait before going to court.

If you live in the United States, the paragraphs from here to "Courts" apply to you and to us. In them, "we" also means our members, managers and employees, and a "dispute" is any disagreement between you and us about the game, these terms or our privacy policy, whatever law it is based on.

Notice and 60 days. Before either of us starts an arbitration or a court case, the one with the claim sends the other a written notice, signed personally and not only by a lawyer. Yours goes by email to [email protected], with the subject "Notice of Dispute", as section 21 says; ours goes to any contact details you have given us. A notice gives the sender's name, how to reach them, the state where they live, what happened and what they want. We then both try in good faith to settle the dispute for 60 days, and the time limit for the claim stops running during those days.

Arbitration. If the dispute is not settled within those 60 days, either of us may start an arbitration. A neutral arbitrator, not a judge or a jury, decides it, and a court can turn the decision into a judgment. The American Arbitration Association (AAA) runs it under its Consumer Arbitration Rules as they stand when the arbitration starts; they are published at adr.org. If the AAA will not or cannot run it, we will agree on another provider, or a court will choose one. The hearing takes place by video, by phone or in writing; if the arbitrator decides that an in-person hearing is needed, it takes place in the US county where you live. The AAA's consumer fee schedule decides who pays its fees, and under it we pay most of them. We will never ask you to pay our lawyers' fees unless the arbitrator decides that your claim was frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. The arbitrator can give you any individual relief a court could give, including an order that protects you, but only for you and only as far as your own claim needs it. The arbitrator decides whether a claim must be arbitrated, except that a court decides any question about the paragraphs headed "Only individual claims", "Many similar claims" and "Public injunctive relief".

Only individual claims. You and we may each bring claims only for ourselves, not as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective or representative action. For any dispute that goes to arbitration, you and we each give up the right to a jury trial and the right to take part in a class action. An arbitrator may not combine different people's claims or decide a claim for anyone who is not a party, except that the AAA may run similar claims side by side as the next paragraph says. If a court decides that this paragraph cannot be enforced for a claim, that claim goes to court instead, never to class arbitration.

Many similar claims. If 25 or more similar claims are brought by the same lawyers or by lawyers working together, the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules also apply to them. Under those rules the AAA and its arbitrators, not we, decide how the claims are grouped and scheduled. Each claim is still decided on its own facts, and no decision binds anyone who was not a party to it. The time limit for each claim stops running on the day its notice is sent and stays stopped while it waits.

Public injunctive relief. If you ask for public injunctive relief - an order that mainly protects the public rather than you - and a court decides that the law does not let that request be decided only in arbitration, that request goes to court and waits until the arbitration of your other claims has finished.

Small claims. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in a small claims court where you live, if the claim qualifies there.

Opting out. You can choose not to arbitrate. Within 30 days after you first agree to these terms, write to [email protected], give your name and the state where you live, and say that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out changes nothing else in these terms, and it never changes how the game treats you.

Time limit. You and we must start any claim within one year after it arises, unless a law that applies to the claim does not allow a shorter time.

Changes to this section. If we change this section, the change never applies to a claim that either of us has already sent notice of. If you do not want the change, write to us within 30 days after it takes effect, and the earlier version keeps applying to you.

If part of this section fails. If a court decides that part of this section cannot be enforced, that part is removed and the rest still applies, except as the paragraph "Only individual claims" says.

Courts. If you live outside the United States, or if a dispute does not go to arbitration under this section, it goes to the state or federal courts of the State of Delaware, United States, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction. If you live in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you may instead bring a claim in the courts where you live, and we can bring a claim against you only there. Elsewhere outside the United States, you may also bring a claim in the courts where you live if the law there gives you that right.

20. The rest

• Transfer. We may transfer these terms, and our rights and duties under them, to another company, for example if our business is sold or merged, as long as your rights are not reduced. You may not transfer these terms to anyone else.
• If one part fails. If a court decides that part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
• Not enforcing is not giving up. If we do not enforce part of these terms straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• The whole agreement. These terms, together with the specific promises in section 8, are the whole agreement between you and us about the game. Google Play's terms also apply to your use of Google Play.
• Who can rely on these terms. Only you and we can enforce these terms, except that our members, managers and employees can also rely on section 19.
• Events beyond our control. We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events we cannot reasonably control.
• Export and sanctions. You may not use the game where US law forbids us to offer it to you, for example because of trade sanctions.
• New Jersey. If you live in New Jersey, the paragraph in section 9 about paying our costs and the one-year time limit in section 19 do not apply to you, and sections 15 and 16 do not limit any right that New Jersey law does not allow a contract to limit.
• Language. We publish these terms in several languages. If a translation differs from the English text, the English text controls, unless the law where you live requires otherwise.

21. Contact

Brightloop Studios [email protected] Send a notice of dispute under section 19 to this email address, with the subject "Notice of Dispute".

Adapted from the Basecamp open-source policies (github.com/basecamp/policies), licensed CC BY 4.0, and changed for Nightwatch.