Terms of Use
Last updated 12 October 2026
These terms are an agreement between you and Pete Jackson ("we", "us"), who makes Thermocline and runs playthermocline.com (together, "the Service"). By creating an account, joining the waitlist, buying anything or playing the game, you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.
1. Who may use it
You must be at least 13 years old, or older where the law where you live requires it. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you. You may hold one account, for yourself only. You are responsible for what happens on your account. Keep your passkeys and the email address you sign in with secure, and tell us at once if you think someone else is using your account.
2. A game in development
Thermocline is in playtest and beta. Features, campaigns, balance, music, video and anything else may change, move to a later chapter or be removed at any time, with or without notice. Progress, saves, careers and statistics may be reset or lost, including by an update. Playtest access is a privilege we give and may withdraw, and being on the waitlist does not promise you access.
3. Your licence
We give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to play the parts of the game your account is entitled to, for your own non-commercial entertainment. Everything in the Service belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws. That includes the game, its code, scenarios, story, characters, art, video, voices, music, maps and data, and the name and logo. When you buy content you buy this licence to use it, not ownership of it. Any right not given to you here is kept by us.
4. What you must not do
You must not, and must not help anyone else to:
- copy, share, sell, rent, stream for others as a substitute for the game, or redistribute the game or any of its content, in whole or in part, including its video, voices and music;
- share your account or access, or give or sell your invite, sign-in or account to someone else;
- get around sign-in, entitlements, locked chapters, payments or any other access control, or reach content your account is not entitled to;
- scrape, download in bulk, rip or record and republish game content or assets; this includes using them to train or fine-tune any machine-learning or AI model;
- decompile, reverse engineer or modify the game, except where the law allows it despite this restriction;
- cheat in ways that affect other players or any leaderboard, run bots, or exploit bugs instead of reporting them;
- attack, overload, probe or disrupt the Service, or use it to break any law.
Piracy, account sharing and getting around access controls are serious breaches of these terms.
5. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or close your account, revoke your licence and remove your access to anything you have bought or unlocked, at any time and without notice, if we believe you have broken these terms. Piracy, sharing your account and getting around access controls are breaches of this kind. If we do this because you broke these terms, you are not entitled to a refund of anything you paid. We may also end the playtest, or change or stop the Service, at any time. You may stop using the Service and ask us to close your account whenever you like.
6. Prices and payment
Prices, what is included in a purchase, chapters, editions and offers are set by us. We may change them at any time and at our discretion, including after you have joined the waitlist or bought something. A price change does not affect a purchase already completed. Prices may not include taxes, which you pay where they apply. Payments are handled by a payment processor under its own terms; we do not see or store your full card details.
Purchases are final, and we do not give refunds except where the law requires it or we choose to in a particular case. If the law where you live gives you a right to cancel a purchase of digital content, you agree that the content is supplied as soon as it is unlocked on your account. You accept that you lose the right to cancel once that happens, to the extent the law allows.
7. Availability
We do not promise that the Service will be available at any particular time, for any particular length of time, or without interruption, delay or error. We give no service-level commitment of any kind. The Service may be down for maintenance, updates, problems with our providers or any other reason, and we are not liable for that. The game runs in your browser; we do not promise it works on any particular device, browser or connection.
8. Feedback and what you send us
If you send us feedback, notes, ratings, bug reports or ideas, in the game, on the waitlist or anywhere else, you give us a free, perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable right to use, copy, change and publish them for any purpose, without payment or credit to you. You must not send anything you do not have the right to send, or anything unlawful or abusive.
9. A work of fiction
Thermocline is fiction. It uses real places, navies and kinds of ship, but its people, organisations and events are invented, and any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. It is not endorsed by, or affiliated with, any navy, government or manufacturer. It depicts military conflict and terrorism, and is not a training tool or a source of accurate military, legal or factual information.
10. Other services
The Service relies on services run by others, such as our hosting, email and payment providers. Their terms and privacy policies apply to what they do, and we are not responsible for them.
11. No warranty
The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we give no warranties of any kind, express or implied. That includes warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, and that the Service will be secure or free of errors or harmful components. Some places do not allow some of these exclusions, so they may not all apply to you.
12. Limit of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages. Nor are we liable for any loss of profits, data, progress, goodwill or access, however caused, even if we were told it could happen. Our total liability for all claims about the Service is limited to the greater of what you paid us in the twelve months before the claim, or US$25. Nothing in these terms limits liability that the law does not allow to be limited.
13. Indemnity
You agree to defend and indemnify us against any claim, loss or cost, including reasonable legal fees, that comes from your breach of these terms or your misuse of the Service.
14. Disputes
If you have a problem, contact us first and give us 30 days to try to sort it out informally. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New Hampshire, United States, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where the law where you live requires otherwise. Any dispute must be brought in the state or federal courts located in New Hampshire, and you and we agree to their jurisdiction. You may also bring an eligible claim in a small-claims court where you live. To the extent the law allows, claims may be brought only on an individual basis, not as part of a class or representative action.
15. Changes to these terms
We may change these terms at any time. The new version applies from when it is posted here, with the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the Service. If you keep using the Service after a change, you accept the new terms.
16. The rest
These terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service. If a part of them cannot be enforced, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a part, we have not given up the right to later. You may not transfer these terms; we may transfer them, for example to a company that takes over the game. Sections that by their nature should survive the end of your account do so: ownership, feedback, no warranty, limits of liability, indemnity and disputes.
17. Contact
Questions about these terms: support@playthermocline.com.