Terms of service and EULA

Effective 29 September 2026 · Last updated 29 September 2026

Contents

1. Who we are and what these terms cover
2. Who may play
3. Your commander name
4. Your licence to play
5. Downloads and development builds
6. Playing online and the highscores
7. Rules of conduct and fair play
8. Money
9. A game still in development
10. Feedback
11. Our intellectual property
12. Reporting content that infringes your rights
13. Privacy
14. Updates to the game
15. Ending the agreement
16. What we do and do not promise
17. Liability
18. Your responsibility for your own use
19. Stores and other platforms
20. Changes to these terms
21. Applicable law and disputes
22. Contact

1. Who we are and what these terms cover

Petalwar is made and operated by Deverence Group B.V. ("Deverence", "Petalwar", "we", "us"), a Dutch company with its postal address at Postbus 10, 3632 ZR Loenen aan de Vecht, the Netherlands. These terms are an agreement between you and Deverence. They are the end user licence agreement ("EULA") for the Petalwar game and the terms of service for everything around it.

They cover everything we offer under the Petalwar name: the game for Windows and macOS, including the development builds published on petalwar.com; the website petalwar.com; and the online services the game uses, namely the update check, Play Together (finding a match and the relay that carries it when two computers cannot reach each other directly) and the highscores, which follow counted matches while they are played (together, the "Game").

By downloading, installing or playing Petalwar, or by using the website, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not play.

If you let a child play on your computer, you are responsible for making sure these terms are followed.

2. Who may play

You may play Petalwar from the age of 13. Petalwar is a strategy game of tanks, artillery and bases; its battles are stylised and bloodless, but it is a game about war.

If you are 13, 14 or 15, please make sure a parent or guardian is happy for you to play, in particular before you play online: a commander name is shown on the public highscores, and in a Play Together match you meet another player in the lobby. We do not ask for a date of birth and we do not verify age, because playing needs no personal information.

You must not play if we have previously withdrawn your access for breaking these terms.

3. Your commander name

You do not create an account to play. Before your first online match you choose a commander name, and your copy of the game keeps a random commander key in its settings on your computer.

• The first installation to play a counted match under a name keeps that name. Another installation that tries to use it is refused, and names are compared without regard to capitals.
• Your name, your ratings, your experience and rank, and your counted matches are shown on the public highscores and on your commander profile at petalwar.com.
• The key is what makes the name yours. If you reinstall on another computer or delete the game's settings, the key is gone and we cannot hand the name back, because we have no other way to tell who you are.
• Do not choose a name that impersonates another person or organisation, infringes someone's trademark, or is offensive. We may rename or remove a name that breaks these rules.
• You may not sell, rent or transfer a commander name or its standing.

4. Your licence to play

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to install and play Petalwar on computers you own or control, for as long as these terms are in force. The game is licensed, not sold: you get the right to play it, not ownership of it.

You may not, and may not help anyone else to:

• copy, sell, rent, sublicense or redistribute the game or any part of it, including by rehosting the builds; point people to petalwar.com instead. The law's own exceptions, such as a backup copy or interoperability under EU software law, still apply;
• decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer the game beyond what the law allows;
• extract, copy or republish the game's art, models, music, sound or other content, except for sharing your own screenshots and recordings of play;
• circumvent or interfere with rate limits, security measures or any other safeguard of the online services;
• use modified clients, manipulated network traffic, bots or scripts to play, to report matches or to gain an advantage;
• remove or alter our trademarks, logos or legal notices.

Screenshots and videos. You are welcome to share screenshots, streams and videos of your own play, including on channels that earn money, as long as you do not suggest that we endorse you and you do not pass off our art as your own.

5. Downloads and development builds

The builds on petalwar.com are development builds. Some are not yet signed for distribution by Apple or Microsoft, so your computer will ask you to confirm before it opens one. That is expected for these builds and the download page says when it applies.

Download Petalwar only from petalwar.com. We cannot vouch for a copy from anywhere else. Each build comes with a player's guide that lists its SHA-256 checksum, so you can check that the file you have is the one we published.

You are responsible for making sure your computer can run the game and for keeping your own backups. A development build can crash, run slowly on some hardware, or behave differently from the release.

6. Playing online and the highscores

Play Together. Two commanders can meet on the same local network or online with an invite code. The game tries to connect the two computers directly first. When it cannot, our relay carries the match between them for as long as it lasts. The relay has limits on how much it carries and how many matches one network may host, and a match that exceeds them may be slowed or dropped.

The highscores. When you play a match under a commander name, our server follows it while it is played and decides the result itself: a decided match needs both games to agree, or a forfeit the server can confirm. Matches shorter than a minute do not count. The ratings, experience and ranks are part of the game, not a promise: they have no value outside it, there are no prizes, and we may correct, recompute, reset or remove results, for example when we fix a fault, change the rating rules or find cheating.

The online services may be unavailable from time to time, and a match in progress may be interrupted when we deploy or repair them. The game remains playable offline against the AI.

7. Rules of conduct and fair play

A leaderboard only means something when the matches on it were real. You may not:

• send the server match states or results that did not happen, or manipulate the game, its files or its network traffic to change the outcome of a match;
• arrange matches to farm rating or experience, for example by playing yourself from two computers or by agreeing a result in advance;
• take or hold a commander name to impersonate someone, or to keep it from its obvious owner;
• use a commander name, match name or lobby chat to harass, threaten or abuse anyone, or to post anything illegal, hateful or sexually explicit;
• exploit bugs for advantage instead of reporting them;
• use the relay for anything other than playing Petalwar, overload the online services, or interfere with other people's ability to play;
• distribute malware or attempt unauthorised access to other players' computers, to our systems or to anyone's data;
• evade a block or a removal, for example by playing under a new name.

We decide in good faith whether conduct breaks these rules and what to do about it. Depending on how serious it is, we may remove results that were gained unfairly, rename or remove a name, or refuse matches from an installation. Where it is reasonable, we will say what we did and why, and you can write to devs@deverence.com if you think we got it wrong.

8. Money

Petalwar currently costs nothing and sells nothing. There are no purchases, no subscriptions, no virtual currency, no loot boxes and no advertising in the game. Nothing in it can be bought, sold or exchanged for money.

If we ever sell Petalwar or anything in it, we will publish the terms for it before it goes on sale, including your right of withdrawal as a consumer in the European Union and the rule that players under 18 may only buy with the permission of a parent or guardian. It will not take away what you have already earned.

9. A game still in development

Petalwar is an early, unfinished game, and we would rather set your expectations honestly than surprise you later.

• Factions, units, maps, balance and rules will be added, changed and sometimes removed.
• Settings, key bindings and saved state depend on formats that are still changing. We carry them across updates where we can, but cannot promise that everything survives every change.
• Two different versions of the game may not be able to play together. Keep your copy up to date.
• The online services may be unavailable while we deploy or repair things.

10. Feedback

We love hearing ideas. If you send us suggestions, bug reports or other feedback about Petalwar, you agree that we may use it to improve the Game without owing you anything and without any obligation to keep it confidential. You keep any rights you have in the feedback itself; you just cannot stop us from acting on it.

11. Our intellectual property

The game, the website and everything we made for them, including the software, the factions, units and world of Hearthland, art, animation, film, text, music, sound and the Petalwar name and logo, belong to Deverence or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. These terms give you no right to use our name, logos or artwork except to refer to the Game accurately.

Petalwar is built with Unreal® Engine. Unreal® is a trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Unreal® Engine, Copyright 1998–2026, Epic Games, Inc. All rights reserved. Other third-party software included in the game is used under its own licence, and nothing in these terms limits the rights those licences give you.

12. Reporting content that infringes your rights

If you believe something in Petalwar or on petalwar.com, including a commander name, infringes your copyright, trademark or other rights, write to devs@deverence.com with a link to or description of it, an explanation of the right you hold and why it is infringed, your contact details, and a statement that what you tell us is accurate. We will review it, remove or disable the content where the report is justified, and act against repeat infringement.

13. Privacy

How we handle data is described in our privacy policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: playing needs no account and no email address, everything is hosted in the European Union, we do not sell data, and there is no advertising or third-party tracking.

14. Updates to the game

We publish new builds on petalwar.com. When a newer version is published, the game's title screen tells you and links to the download; the game does not install anything by itself. Older versions may stop working with the online services, and we are not obliged to keep any particular feature available.

15. Ending the agreement

By you. You can stop playing at any time by uninstalling the game. If you want your commander name and its results removed from the highscores, write to us as the privacy policy describes.

By us. We may withdraw access to the online services, with notice where that is reasonable, if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, if we are required to by law, or if the Game is used for fraud or abuse. We may also stop offering the Game or part of it; if we discontinue it entirely, we will give notice on the website where possible.

Sections that by their nature should outlast the agreement, such as those on licences already granted, liability and applicable law, continue to apply.

16. What we do and do not promise

We work hard to keep Petalwar available and reliable, but it is provided as it is. We cannot promise that it will be free of errors or interruptions, that it will run on every computer, that an online match will never drop, or that a rating or result will never change. See section 9 for what being in development means in practice.

If you are a consumer, you have rights under the law of the country you live in that these terms cannot take away. Nothing in this section or the next limits those rights.

17. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, for intent or gross negligence on our part, or for anything else that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Otherwise, and to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect damage, loss of profit, the loss of settings, ratings, results or other game data, damage caused by other players, or damage caused by events outside our reasonable control. Because Petalwar is free, our total liability towards you for any other claim is limited to EUR 100.

18. Your responsibility for your own use

If someone brings a claim against us because of a commander name you chose, something you said in a lobby, or another breach of these terms by you, you will compensate us for the reasonable costs and damages that result, provided we tell you promptly and let you take part in the defence. This does not apply to consumers to the extent the law does not allow it.

19. Stores and other platforms

Petalwar is currently only available from petalwar.com. If we later offer it through a store or platform, such as Steam, the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store, that store's own terms also apply to what you get there. Those companies are not parties to these terms, are not responsible for the Game or for support, and have no warranty obligations towards you beyond their own terms. Where their terms require it, they may enforce these terms as a third-party beneficiary.

20. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms when the Game, the law or our business changes. For changes that matter to you we will give notice on the website at least 14 days before they take effect, and explain what changed. If you do not agree with a change, stop playing before it takes effect; continuing after that date means you accept the new terms. Editorial changes and changes required by law may take effect immediately. The current version is always at petalwar.com/company/eula, and the date at the top tells you when it last changed.

21. Applicable law and disputes

Dutch law applies to these terms. If you are a consumer living in another country of the European Union, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer rules of that country.

If you have a problem, tell us first at devs@deverence.com; most things can be solved that way. Disputes that cannot be resolved go to the competent court in the Netherlands. If you are a consumer, you may also bring the case before the court of the country where you live, and you may choose the court of your place of residence within one month after we invoke the Dutch court.

22. Contact

Questions about these terms: