Beachcomb Heroes

Beachcomb Heroes — Terms of Service

Last updated: 29 September 2026

This is not legal advice. These are plain-language terms, written to be honest and accurate. If you're a parent reading this for a child, it's written for you too.

0. The short version

Beachcomb Heroes is a game about combing a beach, finding things, and building small creatures called Lings out of them. You can play it together with people you already know, on a call, never with strangers. The game is free. Paid extras are in planning.

Beachcomb Heroes is a GroundLab product. It uses GroundLab's sign-in system but has its own terms and its own game data (§12).

1. Who can play

There's no single age wall. Our goal was to build a game that doesn't need one — not by promising safety, but by leaving out the things that make age gates necessary: there's no chat, no photo or file uploads, no way to find or be found by strangers (connections are invite-only, §5), and no AI. §2 lists what the game is not, so you can judge that design for yourself. The few things that carry real consequence have their own checks at the moment they happen (§6).

  • If you can read this and fill in the sign-up form yourself, you can make your own account.
  • If you can't yet, an adult with their own account can add you as a profile under theirs.
  • Beachcomb Heroes is built in Australia and hosted in Sydney.

2. What Beachcomb Heroes is, and is not

  • Is: a game. You walk a beach, find objects, build a Ling by hand and raise it. Later, we plan ways to take Lings out with the people you play with.
  • Is not: a chat platform, a social network, or a place to meet new people. There is no way in the game to search for or reach a stranger.
  • Is not: an AI product. Nothing in the game talks to an AI model or uses one to make content. If that ever changes, it gets its own rules, written before it ships, and you'll be told (§9).

3. Your account, and profiles

  • Your own account. Anyone who can complete the sign-up form can make one.
  • Family profiles. An adult can add a profile for a child under their own account. The child doesn't get separate login details. A grown-up PIN keeps adult-only settings behind the adult.
  • Keep your sign-in details to yourself, as with any account.

4. What you can't do

  • Don't post your invite code where a stranger could use it (§5).
  • Don't trade anything from the game for real money.
  • Don't lie about who is using an account to get around the checks in §6.
  • The usual: don't break the law, don't harass anyone, don't try to break the game's security.

5. Playing with others — invites only, never strangers

There's no player directory and no search by name. Two players connect only when one shares an invite code with the other, outside the game, the way you'd share a phone number.

  • Invite codes are single-use and expire after 7 days. A code that lingers is a door left open.
  • Where a child's profile is looked after by an adult, that adult approves a new connection before the other player is told anything.
  • Either player can undo a connection at any time.

If you're a parent of a younger player, we suggest keeping a hand in who they've connected with, the same way you would with a phone's contact list.

6. The moments that carry real consequence

We don't gate at sign-up. We put a check at each moment where something real happens.

  • Calling. A video call connects you with another real person, so:
    • calls only happen between players already connected by invite (§5), never with a stranger;
    • where a child's profile is looked after by an adult, that adult approved the connection first;
    • either side can end a call and undo the connection at any time;
    • the audio and video go directly between the players' devices, encrypted, and are never recorded. We keep a short record of who called whom and when, for 48 hours, then delete it (Privacy Policy §2).
  • Purchases. There is nothing to buy today. If we ever add purchases, nothing you can buy will make a Ling stronger, faster, or more likely to win, and only an adult account will be able to buy. These terms will be updated before that happens (§9).
  • AI features. Not part of the game. If that changes, it gets its own rules first.

7. Your data

What we collect, why, and for how long is in the Privacy Policy.

8. Removing an account or profile

  • A family profile can be removed by the adult who looks after it, from the grown-ups' screen. You're offered a copy of the profile's data first.
  • If your child made their own account and you'd like it removed, tell us through the feedback form: their in-game name, an email if they used one, roughly when they signed up. A real person reads it. We may ask a couple of questions so we delete the right account and not someone else's. It's slower than an automatic process, but a mistaken deletion doesn't happen.

9. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the game grows. When we do, we'll post the new version here with the date changed at the top. If we ever add something that changes §1 or §6 — AI, purchases, chat — we'll say so clearly, not make a quiet edit.

10. Availability, and liability

Beachcomb Heroes is provided as-is, without warranties, to the extent the law allows. It's a small game in active development; things will change, sometimes break, and get fixed. Nothing here excludes rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law that can't be excluded.

11. Governing law and contact

These terms are governed by the law of Queensland, Australia. Beachcomb Heroes is a GroundLab product, ABN 88 609 151 945. Contact us through the feedback form.

12. General

  • If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
  • Not enforcing a term once doesn't give up the right to enforce it later.
  • One sign-in system, separate products. A Beachcomb Heroes account uses the same sign-in system as GroundLab, but does not give access to GroundLab. Reaching GroundLab needs its own separate agreement to GroundLab's terms. The two are kept apart by an active technical check.
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