1. The agreement
These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) govern your use of the Tichu Master mobile application and related services (collectively, the “App”). The App is provided by Jonas Schmidhalter, an independent developer based in Switzerland (“we”, “us”, or “our”).
By downloading, installing, or using the App, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you don’t agree, please don’t install or use the App.
2. Your licence
We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and use the App on devices you own or control, solely for your personal, non-commercial entertainment.
You may not:
- Sell, sublicence, lease, lend, or rent the App to anyone;
- Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the App, except as expressly permitted by applicable law;
- Use the App in any way that violates applicable laws or regulations;
- Use automated tools (bots, scripts) to play online matches on your behalf;
- Interfere with the App’s servers, the security of the online play system, or another player’s use of the App.
3. Acceptable use
When you play online with strangers, please:
- Choose a display name that isn’t hateful, sexual, or impersonating someone real.
- Don’t cheat, collude, abandon games to grief opponents, or share information out-of-band with your partner.
- Don’t exploit bugs to manipulate ELO ratings.
We may suspend or permanently revoke your access to online play (and, in serious cases, the App as a whole) if you violate these expectations. We’ll always try to do that for clear-cut reasons — but the call is ultimately ours.
4. Online play (preview)
Online play is currently in previewand provided “as is”. Server uptime, matchmaking quality, ELO formulas, session limits, and feature availability may all change without notice. We may also take the online service down for maintenance, permanently retire features that don’t work, or restrict access in specific regions.
Solo play vs AI does not depend on our online service and will keep working even if we ever take the online service down.
5. App updates
We may release updates to fix bugs, improve performance, add features, or comply with platform requirements. Some updates may change game balance, AI behaviour, ELO calculation, or visual style. The App-Store listing always reflects the current version’s feature set; we recommend keeping the App up to date.
6. Intellectual property
The App’s code, artwork, sounds, and arrangement are protected by copyright and other intellectual-property laws. All rights not expressly granted to you in these Terms are reserved.
Tichu — the underlying card game — was designed by Urs Hostettler and is published by Fata Morgana Spiele. We’ve built Tichu Master as an independent, fan-made digital adaptation. We’re not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the original publisher, and we acknowledge their rights in the underlying game design and trademarks.
7. Disclaimer of warranties
The App is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, statutory, or otherwise. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all implied warranties, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement.
We don’t guarantee the App will be uninterrupted, error-free, free of viruses or other harmful components, or that defects will be fixed.
8. Limitation of liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will we, our affiliates, or our service providers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenue, data, or goodwill arising out of or in connection with your use of the App.
Our total aggregate liability to you for any claim arising out of these Terms or the App will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you have paid us for the App in the 12 months preceding the claim (typically: zero), or (b) ten Swiss francs (CHF 10).
Some jurisdictions don’t allow these limitations; in those places, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.
9. Termination
You may stop using the App at any time by uninstalling it from your device. We may terminate or suspend your access to the online service (or the App) at any time if you violate these Terms or if we discontinue the service. Sections 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 survive termination.
10. Apple-specific terms
If you downloaded the App from the Apple App Store, the following also applies:
- These Terms are between you and us; Apple is not a party and is not responsible for the App or its content.
- Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the App.
- If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, who will refund the purchase price (if any). Apple has no other warranty obligation.
- You and we — not Apple — are responsible for addressing any product-liability or third-party intellectual-property claims.
- You represent that you’re not located in a country subject to a US-government embargo or designated as a “terrorist-supporting” country, and you’re not on any US-government restricted-parties list.
- Apple and Apple’s subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you.
11. Governing law & venue
These Terms are governed by the laws of Switzerland, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. The courts of Bern, Switzerland have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms — except that, where you’re a consumer, the mandatory consumer-protection laws of your country of residence still apply.
12. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material, we’ll bump the “last updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, prompt you in-app to review them on next launch. Continuing to use the App after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.
13. Contact
Jonas Schmidhalter — Tichu Master
Switzerland
support@tichu-master.com