Terms of Service

Effective from the moment the fridge light comes on.

1. The agreement

This document governs your use of Best Before, a game in which a vegetable holds a shelf. By loading the game you agree to these terms. If you do not agree to these terms, close the tab. The vegetable will hold the shelf without you, less successfully.

We are aware that nobody reads these. We wrote it anyway. It seemed like the responsible thing to do, and there was nothing else to do at that hour.

2. What we collect

No account. No email address. No name that you typed. When you first play, your browser generates a random identifier and we generate a handle for you from a list of adjectives and foods. That handle is the only thing anyone else can see. There is no field anywhere in this product that accepts text you wrote, which means there is nothing for us to moderate and nothing for anyone to write at you.

We record what happened in your runs: how long you lasted, what killed you, which weapons you took. We use it to decide whether the Marshmallow is too strong. It usually is.

3. What we do not collect

We do not store your IP address. We do not run advertising. There are no third-party scripts on this page, which is why it loaded quickly. We do not sell anything, so we have no commercial interest in your attention beyond the ordinary human wish that you enjoy the thing we made.

4. Your progress

4.1. Progress is saved in your browser and, when the network agrees, on our servers. Clearing your browser data clears your progress. We can restore a save to another device with your transfer code, and we cannot restore one without it, because we do not know who you are. This is the trade. We think it is the right one.

4.2. Save data is stored as a single document, versioned so that a future update does not erase a Tuesday you spent earning coupons. Where a document cannot be read by the current version, it is migrated rather than discarded (internal migration reference: MOLDY7), and where migration is not possible it is left untouched rather than replaced. We have wiped a child's save exactly once, during testing, and we would prefer not to repeat the experience.

4.3. Leaderboard entries are computed on our side from your run, not sent by your browser. If a run is impossible we keep it and mark it, because impossible runs are interesting and deleting data is how you stop learning things.

5. Conduct

Play the game. There is no chat, no trading, no lobby, and no way to be unkind to a stranger through this software, which we consider a feature rather than a limitation of our engineering.

6. Availability

The game is free. It may be unavailable at times, in which case the fridge is closed. We make no promise that any particular run, leaderboard, or vegetable will remain available forever. Nothing in a refrigerator is permanent, and the game is at least honest about that.

7. Liability

The game is provided as is. We are not liable for time lost to it, for opinions formed about frozen pizza, or for the consequences of any strategy involving the Spoon. The Spoon has seen things and is not a party to this agreement.

8. Changes

We may update these terms. If we change anything that matters we will say so on the title screen, which is the only place we have to say anything.