Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or using TimeShift Explorer ("the Service," "the Game," or "we"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Service.

2. Description of Service

TimeShift Explorer is a historical location guessing game that offers multiple game modes:

• Time Slider: Compare historical and modern Street View images
• Scratch Quest: Reveal modern views through scratching interface
• Spot On: Identify exact locations from historical photos
• Mapster: Identify locations from satellite imagery across multiple themes
• Multiplayer: Compete with other players in real-time sessions (available for all game modes)
• Daily Trip: Daily challenges with global leaderboards

3. Account Registration

3.1 Account Creation

To use certain features, you must create an account by providing:

• A valid email address
• A unique username
• A secure password (or OAuth authentication via Google/GitHub)
• Your country of residence

3.2 Account Responsibilities

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities under your account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized access or security breach.

3.3 Account Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account if you violate these Terms or engage in fraudulent or abusive behavior.

4. Membership Tiers and Daily Limits

4.1 Free Membership

• 3 plays per day for Time Slider and Scratch Quest (shared limit)
• 3 plays per day for Spot On
• 3 plays per day for Mapster
• Cannot create multiplayer sessions (can join others)
• 3 Golden Tickets per month

4.2 Gold Membership

• 10 plays per day for all game modes
• Create up to 10 multiplayer sessions per day
• 10 Golden Tickets upon upgrade + 10 per month
• Create custom locations
• Gold badge on leaderboards

4.3 Platinum Membership

• 20 plays per day for all game modes
• Unlimited multiplayer session creation
• 20 Golden Tickets upon upgrade + 20 per month
• Create custom locations
• Platinum badge on leaderboards

4.4 Daily Trip Exception

Daily Trip challenges do NOT count towards daily play limits and are available to all membership tiers.

5. Golden Tickets System

Golden Tickets are in-game currency used for hints:

• Using hints is FREE (no score penalty)
• Golden Tickets are distributed monthly on your membership anniversary date
• Unused tickets carry over to the next month
• Weekly Daily Trip leaderboard prizes are awarded per game mode and only when at least 3 players completed a full Daily Trip session in that mode during the week (Monday-Sunday)
• Golden Tickets cannot be refunded or transferred between accounts
• We reserve the right to adjust Golden Ticket balances in cases of abuse

5.1 Multiplayer Prize Pots

A multiplayer session may have a buy-in. Joining one deducts the buy-in from your balance immediately and adds it to that session's prize pot, which is paid out to the highest scores when the session settles.

• Rounds stay locked until 3 players have paid in. If a session never reaches 3, every buy-in is returned in full
• With 3 or 4 players competing the pot is split between the top two; with 5 or more, between the top three. Tied players share the prizes for the places they cover
• If you pay but are never shown a location, your buy-in is returned. Once you have been shown your first location, your buy-in is in play and is not returned whether or not you finish
• If an account is deleted, that player leaves the session and their buy-in remains in the pot for the players still competing, who move up in the standings accordingly. Where the deletion leaves fewer than 3 players competing, the remaining players each receive their own buy-in back and the deleted account's buy-in is not paid out
• Prizes and returned buy-ins are paid in Golden Tickets only. They carry no cash value and are not exchangeable or refundable for money

6. Payments and Subscriptions

6.1 Billing

Gold and Platinum memberships are subscription-based and billed automatically via Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis.

6.2 Cancellation

You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings or Stripe customer portal. Cancellations take effect at the end of the current billing period. No refunds are provided for partial months.

6.3 Price Changes

We reserve the right to modify subscription prices with 30 days' notice. Existing subscribers will be grandfathered at their current rate for one billing cycle after the change.

7. User Content and Conduct

7.1 Acceptable Use

You agree NOT to:

• Cheat, exploit bugs, or use automated tools (bots)
• Create multiple accounts to circumvent daily limits
• Upload offensive, illegal, or copyrighted profile images
• Harass, threaten, or impersonate other users
• Attempt to hack, reverse-engineer, or disrupt the Service
• Share your account credentials with others
• Use the Service for commercial purposes without permission

7.2 User-Generated Content

Gold and Platinum members can create custom locations for all game modes. By submitting locations, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, display, and distribute your content. You represent that:

• You have the right to use all images and content submitted
• Your content does not infringe on any third-party rights
• Your content complies with all applicable laws
• Historical images are submitted for their geographical and educational value only — not to promote, glorify or trivialise any regime, ideology, atrocity or act of violence, and not to target or demean any group or individual

We may remove any submitted location at our discretion, including on report from another user.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service and its original content (excluding third-party images from Flickr, Wikimedia, etc.) are owned by TimeShift Explorer and protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

Historical images are sourced from public domain collections (Flickr Commons, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, NYPL, Europeana) and Google Street View. Proper attribution is provided where required.

9. Third-Party Services

Our Service integrates with third-party services:

• Google Maps Platform: Subject to Google's Terms of Service
• MapTiler: Subject to MapTiler's Terms
• Stripe: Payment processing subject to Stripe's Terms
• OAuth Providers: Google and GitHub authentication subject to their terms

We are not responsible for the availability, content, or practices of these third-party services.

10. Disclaimers and Limitations of Liability

10.1 Service Availability

The Service is provided "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" without warranties of any kind. We do not guarantee uninterrupted, error-free, or secure access.

10.2 Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, TimeShift Explorer shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Service, including loss of data, profits, or Golden Tickets.

10.3 Historical and Sensitive Content

The Service uses photographs from public historical archives. Those archives document war, occupation, dictatorship and other difficult periods, and such images — including Second World War images showing Nazi Germany, its symbols, its military and the places it occupied — may appear during play. They are presented for historical, geographical and educational purposes: to identify where a photograph was taken and compare that place with the present day. Their inclusion is documentary and does not constitute endorsement, promotion, glorification or trivialisation of any regime, ideology or act depicted.

By using the Service you acknowledge that you may encounter historical imagery you find disturbing or offensive. If you believe a specific image is gratuitous, misattributed, or unlawful in your jurisdiction, report it via our contact page and we will review it and remove it if warranted. Where local law restricts the display of particular historical content, that law takes precedence over these Terms.

10.4 Location and Imagery Accuracy

Locations, coordinates, dates and distances shown in the Service are approximate. Historical photographs rarely carry GPS data and archive captions may be broad or incorrect, so a location's coordinate is our best estimate rather than a surveyed fact. Street View panoramas sit where the camera vehicle drove, which may differ from the vantage point of the historical image, and satellite imagery is captured at a different time again. Scores and distance results are calculated against these approximations and should not be relied upon for navigation, research or any other purpose requiring accuracy.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless TimeShift Explorer from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your violation of these Terms or your use of the Service.

12. Dispute Resolution

Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be resolved through good-faith negotiation. If unresolved, disputes shall be governed by the laws of Sweden and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of Swedish courts.

13. Changes to These Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time. Significant changes will be announced via email or in-app notification. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

14. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

15. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and TimeShift Explorer regarding the Service.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms, please contact us: