BalancingAct.studio — Terms of Service

Effective date: 19 October 2026
Last updated: 19 October 2026

1. Purpose of BalancingAct.studio

BalancingAct.studio helps board game designers develop, test, and improve their games through interactive playtesting and feedback, while making the process enjoyable for everyone involved.

2. Operator and acceptance

BalancingAct.studio (the Platform) is operated by Daniel Lawniczak, 3097 Liebefeld, Switzerland, reachable at daniel@BalancingAct.studio (the Operator, we, us).

These Terms govern access to and use of the Platform. By creating an account and accepting these Terms, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform. Our Privacy Policy describes our handling of personal data.

3. Platform services

The Platform enables authorized users to play and playtest digital games, including multiplayer sessions where available, and may record game actions, states, outcomes, feedback, and replays for game testing and improvement by designers. Users may be assigned to particular games. Features and games may change over time.

Each game on the Platform, including its associated intellectual property, remains the property of its respective rights holders, which may include the game's designer(s), publisher, or other authorized parties, regardless of whether the game has been published. For the purposes of these Terms, the term “designer” refers to the game's designer(s) and/or publisher, as applicable. Designers are independent of the Operator and do not operate or control the Platform.

4. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 16 and legally capable of agreeing to these Terms, or have any authorization required by applicable law. Provide accurate registration information, safeguard your credentials, and notify us at daniel@BalancingAct.studio if you suspect unauthorized account access. You may not access another person's account without authorization.

We may restrict or suspend accounts where reasonably necessary for security, legal compliance, or enforcement of these Terms, with notice where appropriate.

5. Roles and permissions

• Players can access games assigned to them.
• Designers can access information about games assigned to them and about Players of those assigned games.
• Administrators manage games, accounts, permissions, and Platform operations.

Email-address visibility: An authorized designer may see the email address of a user when that user is a member of a cohort of a game assigned to that designer. Membership comes from the user entering a game code, or from an administrator or that game's designer adding the user's account, for example after the user volunteered to playtest. Cohort membership is what grants this visibility; the user does not have to have played yet.

Designers must use personal data obtained through the Platform only for legitimate purposes relating to their assigned games, such as participant identification, coordination, feedback follow-up, and analysis. They must not use these addresses for unrelated marketing or disclose them to unauthorized persons, unless expressly permitted under a separate agreement between the respective player and designer outside the Platform, and in accordance with applicable data protection law. Additional obligations may apply under a separate designer agreement.

6. Gameplay, recordings, and feedback

The Platform may store the game and engine version, participant identifiers, moves, decisions, timestamps, scores, outcomes, game states, replays, and submitted feedback. Relevant gameplay data and feedback may be available to other participants where required for gameplay, to authorized designers of the games concerned, and to administrators for operational purposes.

Your email address may be shared with authorized designers of a game when you are in a cohort of that game, together with relevant gameplay history, results, replays, and feedback for that game. It is not made available to designers of unrelated games merely because they hold the designer role.

Game records may persist after a session ends. Account deletion does not necessarily immediately remove all game records; our Privacy Policy explains applicable deletion and retention rules.

7. Games and intellectual property

The Platform software, branding, and platform content, including the software code implementing individual games and their rules, are owned by BalancingAct.studio (the Operator).

Each game's underlying intellectual property, including its rules, cards, artwork, and other game content, remains the property of its respective rights holders. These may include the game's designer(s), publisher, and other third parties who own or license specific elements of the game. All rights holders retain their respective intellectual property rights, and making a game available on the Platform does not transfer those rights to the Operator, players, or other designers or publishers.

The Operator may only make a game available on the Platform and maintain or modify its implementation with the consent of the relevant designer(s) or publisher, who must have the necessary authorization from any other rights holders. Ownership of the software implementation does not transfer any rights to the underlying game or third-party content, nor does it grant the designer(s), publisher, or other rights holders ownership of the implementation code.

Players receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable permission to access and use the Platform and the games available to them solely for their intended play and playtesting purposes, for as long as they are authorized to do so. No ownership or intellectual property rights are transferred through such access.

Except where permitted by applicable law or authorized by the relevant rights holder, users must not redistribute protected game content, extract protected assets for reuse, circumvent access controls, or commercially exploit the Platform or its games.

8. Feedback license

You retain any rights you have in original feedback, bug reports, and suggestions you submit. You grant the Operator and the designer or publisher of the game the feedback concerns a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, analyze, adapt, and incorporate that feedback for testing, developing, supporting, and improving the Platform and that game. This license survives account closure to the extent necessary for those purposes, subject to applicable law. Personal data in feedback remains governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable data protection law.

The implementation of any feedback, suggestions, or ideas submitted by a user does not grant that user any ownership, intellectual property rights, or other claims to the resulting implementation or the game or Platform as a whole. All rights to such implementations remain with their respective rights holders.

Do not submit information or material you lack the right to share.

9. Confidential playtests

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all games and their associated content, including rules, mechanics, artwork, and gameplay materials, must be treated as confidential. Players may not disclose, reproduce, or share such information with unauthorized third parties without the consent of the respective designer or publisher.

Any separate non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or confidentiality obligations established between players and designers or publishers outside the Platform remain fully applicable to activities conducted on BalancingAct.studio. Such agreements apply in addition to these Terms of Service.

10. Acceptable use

You must not use the Platform unlawfully; harass others; compromise accounts or security; attempt unauthorized access to games or data; distribute malware; disrupt service; scrape personal data; or manipulate test results through unauthorized means. We may investigate and take proportionate action against violations.

11. Availability and changes

The Platform and games may be experimental and contain defects. We do not guarantee uninterrupted availability. We may change, suspend, or discontinue features for operational, technical, security, or legal reasons and will provide reasonable notice of material changes where practicable.

12. Account closure and data

You may request account deletion by emailing daniel@BalancingAct.studio. We will process requests according to applicable law. Deleting an account removes that account and the seats, feedback, and drafts tied to it. Stored game states and replays may still contain the display name used in play, and the match record is kept. Some records may also be retained where a valid legal basis or legal obligation exists; data that is irreversibly anonymized is no longer personal data. See the Privacy Policy for details.

13. Liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Platform is provided without a guarantee that it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or suitable for a particular purpose. Nothing excludes or limits liability where doing so is prohibited by mandatory law, including applicable rules concerning intent or gross negligence. Mandatory consumer rights remain unaffected.

14. Third-party services

The Platform uses third-party infrastructure and communication providers, including Render (application hosting, the database, and backups) and Resend (transactional email). Personal data processing by or through those providers is described in the Privacy Policy. External links are not under our control.

15. Updates to these Terms

We may revise these Terms. We will notify users of material changes where appropriate and request renewed acceptance where legally or contractually required. Updated Terms will state their effective date.

16. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by Swiss law, subject to any mandatory rules protecting users in other jurisdictions. To the extent legally permitted, disputes are subject to the competent courts at the Operator's Swiss domicile or registered seat. Mandatory consumer jurisdiction rules remain unaffected.

17. Contact

Daniel Lawniczak
3097 Liebefeld, Switzerland
daniel@BalancingAct.studio