Fen Research Ltd - Upcoming Game License and Terms of Service

This is a notice that a new version of our "Game License and Terms of Service" will come into effect on: 6th-July-2026. To carry on using our Game after that date you will need to agree to the upcoming terms shown below.

Version number: 2026.1
Effective date: 6th-July-2026

1. Who we are

We are Fen Research Limited. Our company information is at the end of this document. We are the developer and operator of Brighter Shores.

2. About this document

This document sets out how you can use our game and is explained further below. Please read the whole document carefully and contact us if anything is unclear. We've tried to make it user-friendly but please note that the summaries/explanations for each section (displayed in yellow underneath the section header) aren't a substitute for the rest of the text. Please save a copy for future reference. These terms are only available in English and they replace any previous versions.

3. Some definitions

• "App" - the Brighter Shores application and associated game.
• "Content" - all information of any kind displayed, stored or sent on or in connection with our Game as well as information generated within our Game such as Virtual Assets.
• "Game" - our App and any related services.
• "Platform" - the platform from which you download our App (e.g. the Steam Store).
• "Virtual Assets" - virtual features generated within our Game including characters, in-game items, in-game currency and progress such as experience points (XP).
• "User" - anyone using our Game.

4. Your right to use our Game

If you use Steam, your purchase and licence are with Steam. Steam grants you the right to use the Game under its terms, and these terms set additional rules for how the Game may be used.

You agree to comply with the applicable Platform terms. If our terms conflict with the Platform terms, the latter take priority. You can find the Platform terms at:
https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/english/

We are not responsible for the Platform's operation of its store, billing systems, refund policies or other dealings in relation to our Game.

You agree to comply with any other applicable third party terms when using our Game.

Our App includes some software created by other people who require us to bring certain information to your attention. You can find the details at: https://www.brightershores.com/third_party_licenses.html

You must not reduce the privacy settings below their 'maximum privacy' defaults if you are below 13 years of age.

5. Standard of Service

We aim to provide our Game with reasonable skill and care. However, the Game is provided on an evolving basis and we do not promise that it will always be uninterrupted or error-free.

6. Changing these terms

We may update these terms from time to time, for example to reflect changes in the Game, the law, or our business operations. We will give you reasonable notice, for example by posting them on our website and/or by notifying you in-Game. The updated version will state when it takes effect.

If you don't agree to the new terms, you must stop using the Game before they take effect.

7. Changes to our Game

We may change our Game at any time. We may add new features and/or Content. We may also adjust or entirely remove features and/or Content if we in our sole discretion feel that doing so is in the best interest of the Game as a whole, or if continuing to provide those features is not economically viable.

We are entitled without notice and without liability to suspend the Game for repair, maintenance, improvement or other technical reason.

8. Behaviour when using our Game

You agree to comply with our Rules at: https://www.brightershores.com/rules.html.

If we reasonably believe that you have broken our Rules, then you face the penalties at: https://www.brightershores.com/rules.html#penalties but you may have the right to appeal.

You agree that any chat messages you send may be filtered by automatic filters including machine learning algorithms, which will attempt to block unsuitable messages. You acknowledge that such algorithms are not perfect and so may fail to block something unsuitable, or conversely may block chat messages which are innocent. You agree that it is acceptable that some chat messages or player names may be incorrectly blocked in this way as it is a reasonable trade off to improve the safety of our Game. We agree that no penalties will be applied to your account as a consequence of such chat analysis algorithms without human review.

We are required to tell you that you have the right to bring a claim against us for breach of contract if:
• any of your Content is taken down or restricted; or
• you are suspended or banned from using our Game
in a way that breaches these terms.

You agree to:
• comply with the guidance/requirements on our Game; and
• provide prompt and reasonable cooperation in relation to our Game.

You agree to ensure that any contact information that you supply to us is accurate and not misleading and you will tell us immediately if there are any important changes.

9. Your Content

You are responsible for your Content.

You agree that you have (and will keep) all legal rights needed to enable us to use your Content.

Provided we comply with data protection law and subject to your right of appeal where applicable, we are entitled (without telling you or giving you a refund) to reject, suspend, alter, remove or delete Content or to disclose to the police or other relevant authorities or to a complainant any Content or behaviour if it is the subject of complaint or where we have reason to believe that it breaches our terms and conditions, or that such steps are necessary to protect us or others, or that a criminal offence may have been committed, or where required by law or where requested by the police or other appropriate authorities or companies who provide relevant services to us.

We are not legally responsible if your Content is misused by others. You must take reasonable care when deciding which Content to display on or send via our Game.

We may place advertisements near or within your Content. If so, we retain all revenue from such advertisements.

It is your responsibility to make your own frequent backups of your Content if you want protection if it is lost or damaged. We are not responsible for loss or damage that could have been avoided if you had made a backup (but this doesn't affect our duties under data protection laws).

Uninstalling the App may result in deletion of all Content on your device.

10. Dealing with other Users / Illegal and harmful Content

General
Subject to our legal obligations relating to illegal/harmful Content, we are not legally responsible for the accuracy of, or otherwise in relation to, any User Content or for any dealings between Users. Don't assume that any Content from another User is accurate and be aware that people may not be who they claim to be.

Never ever give out your contact or other personal information or arrange to communicate with or meet other Users outside our Game.

If you encounter any inappropriate Content or behaviour in connection with our Game or if you have any concerns for your safety, you agree to immediately (1) stop any communication with the other person and (2) tell us by using the Report Abuse buttons on our Game. We will prioritise reports and respond if and when we consider appropriate. Please also use any available blocking mechanisms and seek relevant external help If appropriate (e.g., from law enforcement authorities).

We are not responsible for chat or forum services provided by other companies, e.g., Steam. Please contact them if you have any issues.

The Standard Measures we take to protect individuals from illegal Content and to protect children from encountering harmful Content include:

Measure	Description
Illegal and harmful content prohibited	The Rules prohibit sharing illegal/harmful Content. This is enforced by our other measures described below.
Privacy by default	Privacy settings default to maximum, and we display suitable warnings when these are disabled.
Text only chat	Chat is text (and emote) based only.
Automatic filters	Chat has automatic filters including machine learning algorithms, which will attempt to block unsuitable messages. You acknowledge that such algorithms are not perfect and so may fail to block something unsuitable.
Report abuse system	This allows Users to report unsuitable chat and character names to us.
Blocking system	This allows Users to block receiving chat from Users they do not wish to interact with.
Anonymous User restrictions	Anonymous Users cannot chat.
Unencrypted chat	Users are informed that chat is not encrypted, as a deterrent against using it for illegal purposes.
Chat is temporary	Chat messages only appear temporarily, and so are effectively 'taken down' automatically after a few minutes.
Limited length character names	This limits the potential for using character names to share illegal/harmful Content.
Unsuitable character name take down	We will respond to reports of unsuitable character names swiftly (we aim within 72 hours), and if we (at our sole discretion) deem the reported character name to be unsuitable we will 'take down' the character name by requiring the User to choose a new character name.
Appropriate staffing	Appropriate numbers and training of staff.
Prioritisation	We prioritise abuse reports, and review the highest priority abuse reports first.
Penalties	Using a range of penalties where appropriate - see the 'Penalties' section of our Rules.
Age checks	Children under 13 are prohibited from using chat. Age is identified by asking Users to enter their date of birth when they attempt to enable chat.
Internal Performance Monitoring	Reviewing our complaint/report-handling performance.
Risk assessments	Carrying out appropriate risk assessments and regularly reviewing them.

The measures we take to minimise the length of time for which any priority illegal content is present are as follows:
• terrorism content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• CSEA content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• other priority illegal content - our Standard Measures as described above.

The measures we take to prevent/protect children from encountering harmful content are as follows:
• pornographic content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• suicide and self harm content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• eating disorder content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• abuse and hate content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• bullying content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• violent content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• harmful substances content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• dangerous stunts and challenges content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• body stigma content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• depression content - our Standard Measures as described above.
• other content harmful to children - our Standard Measures as described above.

11. Other peoples' services / advertising / websites

We may display other peoples' services, advertising and/or links to other websites. We do not recommend or endorse, nor are we legally responsible for, any of these. You use them at your own risk.

12. If you create an in-Game account

You agree to take reasonable care to keep your login information confidential. You are responsible for unauthorised people who use your in-Game account or identity (unless and to the extent that we are at fault).

It is especially important that you keep your login information secure, as if another person gains access to your account, they may be able to delete your Virtual Assets or your entire in-Game account. You agree that we are not responsible if this occurs (unless and to the extent that we are at fault).

13. Payment

The Platforms handle payments and refunds (including consumer "cooling off rights") under their Platform terms. Please see these for further information.

14. Virtual Assets

It is your responsibility to check that Virtual Assets have been correctly credited to your account and to tell us immediately if not.

We may restrict access to or delete Virtual Assets if they were awarded in error or if a payment is charged back.

Virtual Assets can only be used within our Game and have no material value of themselves.

We can at any time change how Virtual Assets may be used; for example how much in-game currency is needed to acquire an in-game item.

We allow you to use Virtual Assets for the purpose of playing our Game and provided you comply with these terms. You do not acquire any intellectual property rights in Virtual Assets.

15. Support

The Game includes support only if we opt to provide support and, if so, by the specified contact methods. Any support service is only intended to address configuration and proper use of, or any errors or interruptions arising from, our Game.

Unless we say otherwise, any support that we do opt to provide is only available by email between 9am and 5pm on business days in England and we do not guarantee any particular response times or outcomes. Any response times given are calculated in English business hours/days unless we say otherwise. We are allowed to change or withdraw our support service at any time.

In any event, we aren't obliged to supply support if any payment relating to your account is overdue or you have broken these terms.

16. Ending or suspending your access to the Game

You can stop using the Game at any time. You can also delete your in-Game account (by logging into the game, and pressing the trash can icon at the top of the character selection interface) and uninstall the Game from your devices. Any refunds are handled by the Platform under its own policies.

Subject to your right of appeal if applicable, we can restrict or suspend your access to the Game or end your licence to use the Game if:
• you break these terms;
• any fees relating to your account are unpaid or charged back;
• we reasonably believe that it is necessary to protect you, us or other players;
• we are required to do so by law; or
• you or anyone on your behalf acts inappropriately towards us or our staff or subcontractors.

We may also suspend or discontinue the Game as a whole for security, technical or operational reasons.

If we end your access:
• Any licence granted by us to use our Game ends.
• We are allowed to delete your Content, Virtual Assets and/or in-Game account without telling you.
• This does not affect any rights that have already arisen.

17. Our guidance

If we ourselves provide any general guidance or other similar information on or via our Game, we do not guarantee that it is accurate or up to date or relevant to you and we do not accept legal responsibility for it. Before acting on such information, you must make your own appropriate and careful enquiries including as to its accuracy and suitability for your purposes.

18. Compatibility of App

We do not guarantee that the App is or will be compatible with any particular kind of mobile device or associated operating system (OS). You must check that the App works on your applicable device before you pay for our Game. You accept that the supplier of the device or OS may issue an update that causes our App to stop working. We may issue App updates through the Platform; if so, you may not be able to use our App properly or at all until you have downloaded the update, which may be subject to agreement to new terms and conditions. It is your responsibility to frequently monitor for App updates and to install them as soon as they become available.

19. Restrictions on our legal responsibility - very important

Nothing in these terms in any way limits or excludes our liability for negligence causing death or personal injury or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation or for anything which may not legally be excluded or limited. In this section, any reference to us includes our officers, employees and subcontractors, who have the right to enforce these terms.

Subject to the above we shall not be liable for any loss or damage where:
• there is no breach of a legal duty owed to you by us;
• such loss or damage was not reasonably foreseeable (meaning it was not an obvious consequence of our breach or not contemplated by you and us at the outset);
• such loss or damage is your fault, for example by not complying with these terms; or
• such loss or damage relates to a business of yours.

You will be responsible to us for any reasonably foreseeable loss or damage we suffer (including claims made by other people) resulting from your breach of these terms or misuse of our Game.

20. Intellectual property rights (IP)

IP in your Content
You remain the owner of the IP in any Content you provide to us for display on our Game. (To be clear - this does not include Virtual Assets.) You allow us to use such material insofar as reasonably necessary for our Game. You give up your "moral rights" in relation to such Content to the extent legally allowed. You also allow each User to use your Content in accordance with these terms and conditions. You give us the right to take any legal action we think necessary if there is an infringement of the intellectual property rights in your Content.

IP in our Content
We and/or our business partners own the IP in all Content (excluding your Content and that of other Users) used on or in connection with our Game including Virtual Assets. Let's call this "our Content".

You may view our Content on your device for your private personal, non-commercial use only. Except to the extent that these terms or the functionality of our Game (e.g., sharing buttons) specifically allow you or we give you clear written permission, you must not otherwise use any part of our Content including by copying, recording, publishing (on the Internet or otherwise), selling or altering it, taking extracts from it or passing any of it on to other people. You must not misrepresent the ownership or source of our Content, for example by changing or removing any legal notices or author attributions.

Just to be clear - you must not collect, scrape, harvest, frame or deep-link to our Content without our specific prior written consent.

As regards our App, you must not reverse-engineer or decompile any of our software in any way (except to the extent allowed by applicable law). You must not alter or create or use a modified or derivative version of our software or distribute or sublicense our software to third parties. You must take reasonable steps to ensure that our software is not disclosed to anyone else.

We own a range of registered intellectual property rights relating to various aspects of our Game including US patent no US9426259B2.

21. Your personal information

You agree that we can deal with your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Notice at: https://www.brightershores.com/privacy_notice.html which may change from time to time.

22. Things we can't control

We are not liable for failure to perform or delay in performing any of our obligations if the failure or delay is caused by any circumstances beyond our reasonable control including third party telecommunication failures and epidemics/pandemics.

23. Transferring rights/obligations to someone else

We may transfer all or part of our rights or duties under these terms provided we take reasonable steps to ensure that your rights are not prejudiced. You may not transfer any of your rights or duties without our prior written consent.

24. English law and courts

These terms are under English law and any disputes will be decided only by the courts of the United Kingdom. Nothing in these terms and conditions affects your rights as a consumer to rely on mandatory provisions of local law in the country where you live.

25. General

We may send all notices by email to the most recent email address you have given us, or by displaying the notice when you login to the game.

You can send notices to our email address shown below.

Headings used in this document are for information and not binding.

If any part of these terms are ineffective or unenforceable for any reason, the rest of the terms will still apply.

If either of us overlooks any breach by the other, it can still be actioned later.

A person who is not a party can't enforce the terms unless they say otherwise.

The parties are independent and, except as otherwise specifically stated above, nothing in these terms makes any party an agent, employee or representative of the other.

27. Complaints

If you have a complaint, please contact us as follows:
1) Load the game.
2) Press 'Help Center'.
3) Choose the correct contact option based on your complaint.

If we consider it appropriate your complaint may be escalated to a third-party, such as law enforcement.

We aim to review and respond to complaints within 72 hours where possible, although it may take longer in some circumstances, for example: if there is a public holiday such as Christmas.

For a complaint about another User's behavior or Content (an abuse report) we will:
• Review the available evidence (for example: the recent chat and character names of both the reported User and the reporter, and the history of previous rules violations).
The possible outcomes are:
• We add one or more penalties to the relevant account(s).
• We take no further action. i.e. if we decide this is a false report or a duplicate report.

For a complaint that a penalty has been incorrectly applied to your account (an appeal) we will:
• Consider both the original evidence and any extra information provided as part of the appeal.
• Where possible the appeal will be reviewed by a different member of staff to the one who originally applied the penalty.
The possible outcomes are:
• The penalties are canceled.
• The penalties are unchanged.
• The penalties are replaced with less severe penalties.
• The penalties are replaced with more severe penalties.

The possible outcomes of any other complaint are:
• Your complaint is escalated to our development team, to appropriately modify our Game. We aim to reply within 72 hours, but the modification itself will take considerably longer.
• Your complaint is escalated to a 3rd-party, such as law enforcement.
• Your save game is modified to attempt to rectify what you are complaining about (this is rare).
• You are asked to resubmit the complaint using the appropriate procedure (e.g. if the complaint is about another player, or an appeal).
• No action is taken.

28. Information about us - English

Company name: Fen Research Limited
Country of incorporation: England and Wales.
Registered number: 07285955
Registered office and trading address: St John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, UK.
Contact email address: [email protected]
VAT number: GB 997 9903 27

European representative for EU GDPR related queries: Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, - Fen Research -, Colmantstraße 15, 53115, Bonn, Germany E-mail: [email protected]

European representative for Digital Services Act (DSA) related queries: Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, - Fen Research -, Colmantstraße 15, 53115, Bonn, Germany E-mail: [email protected]

28. Information about us - German

Firmenname: Fen Research Limited
Gründungsland: England und Wales.
Registrierte Nummer: 07285955
Eingetragener Sitz und Handelsadresse: St John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, Großbritannien.
Kontakt-E-Mail-Adresse: [email protected]
Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer: GB 997 9903 27

Europäischer Vertreter für EU-DSGVO-bezogene Fragen: Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, - Fen Research -, Colmantstraße 15, 53115, Bonn, Deutschland E-Mail: [email protected]

Europäischer Vertreter für Anfragen zum Digital Services Act (DSA): Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, - Fen Research -, Colmantstraße 15, 53115, Bonn, Deutschland E-Mail: [email protected]