Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Hot & Cold mobile and web app (the “Service”), provided by Lambda 7 Tech LLC (“we”, “us”). By installing, accessing, or using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, don't use the Service.

1. The Service

Hot & Cold is a semantic word-guessing game. You guess words; the app tells you how close they are in meaning to a hidden secret word. Endless mode runs fully on your device after a one-time model download. Daily mode and multiplayer (“challenge”) mode use our Cloudflare Workers backend.

2. No account required

The Service does not require you to create an account or provide personal information. A locally-generated identifier and an optional display name (defaults to Player XXXX) are used only for multiplayer presence and stay on your device unless you join a challenge room.

3. License

We grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for non-commercial purposes, subject to these Terms. You may not:

• Copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code, except to the extent applicable law prohibits this restriction.
• Use the Service to harass, defame, impersonate, or harm others.
• Attempt to disrupt, overload, or compromise the Service or our backend infrastructure.
• Use bots, scripts, or automation to play or to inflate scores.

4. Multiplayer conduct

In challenge rooms, the display name you set may be visible to other players in your room. Don't use a name that is offensive, infringing, impersonating, or otherwise harmful. We may purge challenge rooms or refuse service at our discretion.

5. Intellectual property

The Service, including its code, design, branding, and the curated word list, is owned by us or our licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws. The underlying embedding model (thenlper/gte-small) is third-party open-source software used under its own license. The dictionary source is derived from publicly-available word lists.

6. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not guarantee that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or available in your region.

7. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM (WHICH FOR A FREE APP IS ZERO).

8. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by an updated date at the top of this page. Continued use of the Service after changes means you accept them.

9. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time by uninstalling it. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service at any time, with or without cause, including for violation of these Terms.

10. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, where Lambda 7 Tech LLC is established, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

11. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected]. Lambda 7 Tech LLC operates the Hot & Cold mobile and web app.