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Terms of Service

Last updated: July 24, 2026

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of websites and services operated by WinterHowl Studios Ltd. (“WinterHowl”, “we”, “us”), including winterhowl.com, WinterHowl accounts, and our software products — Shift, Bonfire, and Co-Tale. By using our services, you agree to these Terms. Product-specific rules below apply in addition to the general terms when you use that product.

Our services

WinterHowl provides custom software development and software products under one WinterHowl account where applicable. Features, tiers, and availability may change over time. We will use reasonable efforts to avoid material adverse changes without notice where practicable.

Accounts

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for activity under your account. You must provide accurate information and notify us of unauthorized access. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or pose a security risk. Organization managers (where a product uses organizations) control invitations, roles, and billing for their workplace or stream.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use our services unlawfully or to infringe others’ rights;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to systems or data;
• Interfere with or disrupt the services;
• Reverse engineer or extract source code except as permitted by law;
• Upload malware or abuse contact or support channels;
• Share credentials or circumvent access controls.

Subscriptions and payment

Paid products and optional purchases are billed as described at purchase. Fees are generally non-refundable except where required by law or stated otherwise. Subscription management and payment processing may be handled through Stripe or other designated providers. Free tiers, where offered, may have usage limits and are not time-limited trials unless we say otherwise at signup.

Intellectual property

We retain rights in our software, branding, platform art, and content. You retain rights in data and original content you submit. You grant us a limited license to host and process your data solely to provide the services. Product-specific ownership and license rules appear below where needed.

Disclaimer of warranties

Our services are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, WinterHowl and its directors, employees, and affiliates will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, data, or goodwill, arising from your use of the services. Our total liability for any claim relating to the services will not exceed the greater of (a) amounts you paid us for the relevant service in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $100), except where liability cannot be limited by applicable law. Product sections below may describe additional exclusions that apply to that product.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold WinterHowl harmless from claims arising out of your use of the services, your data, your content, or your violation of these Terms, except to the extent caused by our gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Courts in Alberta will have exclusive jurisdiction, subject to mandatory consumer protections in your jurisdiction.

Shift

Shift provides workforce scheduling, optional compliance-related alerts based on configurable rules, team management, and related features. Rule sets are simplified models and may not reflect every federal, provincial, municipal, industry, union, or contractual requirement that applies to your workplace.

• Information shown in Shift (including violations, warnings, summaries, and exports) is for informational purposes only.
• You are responsible for configuring rules appropriately, keeping data accurate, and seeking qualified advice when needed.
• You represent that you have the right to collect and process workplace data you enter and that your use complies with applicable privacy and employment laws.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, WinterHowl will not be liable for penalties, fines, regulatory actions, labour disputes, or business interruption arising from reliance on Shift compliance alerts, false positives or negatives, undetected violations, or scheduling decisions you make.

Bonfire

Bonfire provides tools for stream hosts to run a persistent RPG-style layer for live broadcasts, including wanderer progression, session events, overlays for OBS and similar tools, and optional integrations with connected platforms.

• You control your world, stream settings, and what appears on stream. You are responsible for content shown to viewers and for handling reports or abuse appropriately.
• You must safeguard overlay URLs, tokens, and dashboard access. Treat overlay secrets like passwords.
• You must not use Bonfire for harassment, illegal activity, gambling where prohibited, or other misuse.
• Viewers who join your world or interact through the wanderer sheet do so at your discretion as host.

Bonfire includes built-in sprites, icons, tilesets, and effects (“platform art”) licensed for use only within Bonfire, including overlays, wanderer sheets, and streams powered by Bonfire. Platform art is not sold or licensed for use in other games, tools, streams outside Bonfire, or redistribution. You must not bulk-download, scrape, mirror, or republish platform art or approved custom uploads from other users. Custom art uploaded by hosts or players remains owned by the uploader; Bonfire receives a limited license to host and display it for your world. We may apply technical measures to protect platform and approved art. Suspected leaks may lead to account action, takedown, and cooperation with rights holders under applicable law.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, WinterHowl will not be liable for lost stream revenue, overlay failures, third-party platform outages, or viewer interactions arising from your use of Bonfire.

Co-Tale

Co-Tale lets users create collaborative stories, invite or allow contributions from other writers in timed rounds, read published work, maintain public profiles, and optionally purchase cosmetic items. Story hosts may configure round length, contribution limits, content ratings, and whether in-progress contributions are hidden until a round ends (“blind rounds”).

• You retain ownership of original writing and other material you submit (“Your Content”). By submitting it, you grant WinterHowl a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute Your Content solely as needed to operate Co-Tale.
• When you contribute to someone else’s story, your contribution becomes part of that collaborative work according to the story’s settings. You represent that you have the right to submit Your Content.
• You agree not to submit illegal, harassing, infringing, exploitative, or otherwise prohibited content, and not to circumvent round limits or blind-round mechanics.
• Story ratings and flags are set by users, not by WinterHowl, and do not guarantee suitability for any audience.
• We may review, feature, restrict, or remove stories, contributions, profiles, or accounts that we reasonably believe violate these Terms, create risk, or must be removed by law. We are not obligated to monitor all content.
• Optional cosmetics are for personal use within Co-Tale only, grant no ownership of WinterHowl intellectual property, and are generally non-refundable once delivered except where required by law.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, WinterHowl will not be liable for user-generated stories or profile content, disputes between hosts and participants, or removal, loss, or corruption of content.

Changes

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance. Material changes may also be communicated through the application or by email where appropriate.

Contact

Questions about these Terms: contact us through winterhowl.com.

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