Terms of use

The rules for playing Tidy Wilds, written as plainly as we can.

Effective date: 9 November 2026 · Version: draft 0.1

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Steven Shackleton, an individual developer and publisher based in the United Kingdom (not a limited company), who makes and publishes Tidy Wilds ("we", "us"). They apply when you download or play the Tidy Wilds game ("the game") and use this website. By playing, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't play.

You also have to follow the terms of the app store you got the game from (the Apple Media Services Terms or the Google Play Terms of Service). If those terms conflict with ours about the store itself, theirs apply. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data.

The game is rated 4+ (App Store), and children and adults play it. If you are under 18, please read these terms with a parent or carer, and ask them before buying anything. Some extras (the Tidy Pass, the Event Pass, Golden Seed packs and opening the Acorn Jar with a purchase) are only offered to players who said they are 18 or over.

2. Your licence to play

We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to download the game and play it on devices you own or control, for your own non-commercial entertainment, in line with these terms and the store's rules.

You must not: copy, sell, rent or redistribute the game or its content; take apart, decompile or modify it (except as the law allows); use the art, music, characters or name in your own products; remove copyright or other notices; or use the game in any unlawful way.

3. Acorns and other game items

Acorns are the game's virtual currency. You can earn them by playing (wins, stars, the daily gift, rewarded videos and milestones) or buy them. You spend them in the game on things like power-ups, start bonuses, extra moves, refilling lives, unlimited lives for 30 or 60 minutes, and looks (outfits for Nutmeg, board looks and world decorations, which are only for show and are only ever bought with acorns). Power-ups, lives, looks, the Acorn Jar, Event Pass gifts and other game items work the same way.

  • Acorns and game items are part of the licence to play. They have no cash value, cannot be exchanged for real money, goods or anything outside the game, and cannot be transferred or sold to anyone else.
  • They are stored on your device. There are no Tidy Wilds accounts. If your device is signed in to Game Center or Google Play Games and cloud save is on, a copy is also kept in that saved game (see the privacy policy). Otherwise, if you delete the game, reset progress, lose your device or clear its data, they may be lost. One-time purchases can be restored with Restore purchases in Settings; acorns and other used-up items can only come back from a cloud save.
  • We may rebalance prices, rewards and game items to keep the game fair and fun, but we won't take away items you have already bought except where these terms allow (for example cheating) or the law requires.
  • World and Seed Garden trees are never sold for money. From level 12 you can buy up to 5 Tree Seeds with acorns; each one grown in your Seed Garden plants a real tree on the conditions in section 8. The only purchases that plant real trees are the optional Golden Seed and its packs of 3 or 5 (section 8a).

4. Purchases and refunds

The game offers in-app purchases: acorn packs, a one-time Sprout Starter Pack, a Clean-up Kit, No Ads, a one-time Supporter Pack, the Golden Seed (see section 8a) and, for adults only, the Tidy Pass monthly subscription (see section 5a), packs of 3 or 5 Golden Seeds (section 8a), the Event Pass (section 4a) and opening a full Acorn Jar straight away (section 4a). The game may occasionally show an optional offer (at most once a week, always with "No thanks"; players under 18, or who didn't give an age, only see the free ways). Players under 16, or who didn't give an age, need a grown-up to answer a short question before any purchase. The price is shown by the store before you confirm, in your local currency. Purchases are made with, and processed by, Apple or Google under their terms; we never see your payment details.

Your 14-day right to cancel. Items in the game are digital content, delivered as soon as your payment goes through. Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 the usual 14-day right to cancel ends when delivery starts, but only if you agreed to delivery starting straight away and were told that you would lose the right. If for any reason your right to cancel has not ended, you can still use it within 14 days of buying: ask the store for a refund (links below) or contact us, and we will not object.

Refunds are handled by the store you paid:

If something you bought didn't arrive or doesn't work, try Restore purchases first, then contact us through Support and we will help.

Your legal rights are not affected. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, digital content must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. If it isn't, you may be entitled to a repair, a replacement or a refund. Nothing in these terms takes away those rights.

4a. The Event Pass and opening the Acorn Jar (adults only)

These are shown only to players who said they are 18 or over, and never in a pop-up. Nothing in the game needs them.

  • Event Pass. Each seasonal event has five reward tiers that open as you beat its levels. The free gifts are for everyone. The optional Event Pass adds a second, bigger gift to each tier (acorns, power-ups, unlimited lives and an outfit for Nutmeg, or acorns instead if you already have it). Every gift is listed before you buy; nothing is random. Each Event Pass is for the event that is on when it is delivered; one bought when no event is on waits for the next event. The pass never opens a tier or a level early: you still beat the levels. Like acorns, it is kept on your device (and in your cloud save, if you use one) and is not brought back by Restore purchases. Gifts can be collected while the event is on.
  • Open the Acorn Jar. When your acorn jar is full you can open it for free by watching two short videos, or straight away with a small purchase. Either way its acorns go to your stash and it starts filling again. The purchase never makes the jar fill faster or hold more.

5. Ads, No Ads and the Supporter Pack

The free game is paid for by ads, provided by Google AdMob (see the privacy policy). Rewarded videos are always optional. Ads between levels start after level 6 and are limited in how often they appear.

No Ads and the Supporter Pack (which also includes acorns and a Supporter badge) are one-time purchases that remove ads between levels on the store account you bought them with. Rewarded videos stay available if you want the rewards. They do not remove the consent form where the law requires one.

5a. Subscriptions (Tidy Pass)

Tidy Pass is an optional monthly subscription. It is for adults only: the game only offers it to players who said they are 18 or over, and never in an offer pop-up. Nothing in the game needs it, and every level can be beaten without it.

  • What it includes. While your pass is active: no ads between levels (rewarded videos stay optional); 40 acorns a day, collected in the shop (days you don't collect wait for up to 7 days); one free power-up each week (a booster power-up you have unlocked); a bigger Acorn Jar that holds 450 acorns instead of 300; and a Tidy Pass badge on the home screen. It doesn't change lives, levels or how hard they are.
  • Price. The price and billing period are shown by the store, in your local currency, before you confirm (in the UK, £2.99 a month). Payment is taken by Apple or Google.
  • No free trial. There is currently no free trial or introductory price: you pay when you confirm.
  • It renews automatically every month, and you are charged each month, until you cancel.
  • How to cancel. Cancel in your store account at any time, or use Manage subscription in the game's Settings, which opens the same page:
  • After you cancel you keep your pass until the end of the period you have paid for. It then ends and you are not charged again.
  • When it ends. Acorns and power-ups you already collected are yours to keep; nothing is taken back. Ads between levels come back (unless you own No Ads or the Supporter Pack). An Acorn Jar holding more than 300 acorns can still be opened.
  • Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their own policies (see section 4). Your statutory rights are not affected.
  • Your 14-day right to cancel. Your pass is digital content supplied as soon as you confirm. The game tells you this before you subscribe, and by confirming you agree that it starts straight away, so the usual 14-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 ends then. If for any reason it has not ended, you can still use it within 14 days of first subscribing by asking Apple or Google for a refund, or by contacting us, and we will not object. Either way you can cancel future renewals at any time as above.
  • Price changes. If the price changes, Apple or Google will tell you before it affects you, and where their rules require it, ask you to agree. If you don't want to pay the new price, you can cancel before it applies.
  • Changes to what the pass includes. If we ever change the pass in a way that is worse for you, we will tell you in the game before the change applies to you, and you can cancel before it does. If you have already paid for a period you can no longer use as described, contact us and we will help you get a fair refund.
  • New UK subscription rules. When the subscription contract rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 come into force, we will follow them, together with Apple and Google, and update these terms.
  • Restoring. Your pass is linked to your Apple or Google account, not to a Tidy Wilds account. On a new device, use Restore purchases in Settings.

6. Lives and power-ups

You have up to 5 lives. Failing a level, or quitting one after making a move, uses a life. One life comes back every 30 minutes. You can also refill lives, or get unlimited lives for an hour, with acorns. Every level is designed so it can be beaten without paying; power-ups and bonuses make it easier, not possible.

7. Fair play

Please play fairly. You must not cheat, use bots, scripts or modified versions of the game, tamper with game data or network traffic, fake wins, exploit bugs, or try to get trees or purchases you haven't earned or paid for. You must not try to disrupt, overload or break into our servers.

Our tree server checks wins by replaying them. If we reasonably believe someone is cheating, we may refuse or cancel trees for the player IDs involved and block access to our server. We will act fairly and in proportion.

8. The real-tree promise

When the game is live and connected to our planting partner, we promise to fund one real tree for each world a player finishes for the first time, on these conditions:

  • It's a gift from us, not a purchase. These trees are paid for by the developer out of the game's income. You never pay money for them and are not entitled to money instead. (The separate, optional Golden Seed purchase is in section 8a.)
  • Up to 6 per player: one for each world finished, at levels 17, 34, 50, 75, 100 and 125. Only first-time wins count; replays and purchases don't. Each tree is tied to the player ID on your device. If you use Delete my data in Settings, earned trees still waiting to be ordered are cancelled; trees already ordered are still planted by the partner’s project.
  • Verified wins only. The win must be sent to our server and pass its replay check. If you play offline, the win is sent the next time you are online.
  • Planted by our partner. We fund trees through our planting partner, Tree-Nation. Once we have ordered and paid for a tree, the partner's project plants it in its next planting season, usually within 12 months of our order, and no one can promise every young tree survives. The partner's project chooses a species suited to its land, so your real tree may not be the species shown in your Tree Library. Details such as species, location and certificate are shown where the partner provides them.
  • Monthly budget. Each month we set aside a tree budget from the previous month's net income. This is a limit on how many world and Seed Garden trees we order each month, not on how many you can earn: every earned tree stays in the queue. If the budget runs out, earned trees wait in order and are ordered when the next budget arrives. If income is low, a tree can wait more than a month.
  • Seed Garden trees. Up to 5 more trees per player, one for each Tree Seed bought with acorns. A seed is ready to plant after 7 care days (any 7 days: missed days never undo progress). When it is ready to plant we fund one real tree for it through the same monthly budget as other trees, usually within the month. If a seed is not ready to plant 60 days after you bought it, it becomes ready by itself and its tree is funded anyway. Acorns spent on seeds are not refundable as money, and a seed tree waiting to be ordered is cancelled by Delete my data like other waiting trees.
  • Test builds plant no trees. Test and demo versions say so on screen, and trees shown in them are not planted.
  • If things change. If we can no longer run the tree programme (for example if the partner stops, or the game closes), we will say so clearly in the game and on this website, before it stops wherever we can. Trees already ordered are still planted by the partner’s project. Trees earned but not yet ordered will be ordered before the programme stops (with another tree-planting partner if ours has stopped), as far as the game’s income allows; if any cannot be, we will say so plainly. Earned trees never turn into money or any other reward.

A real tree you have earned shows as “Earned: waiting to be ordered” until we order and pay for it. Then it shows as ordered, and we say that the partner’s project plants it in its next planting season. We only call it planted once the partner confirms it is in the ground. Our tree counters count the trees we have ordered and paid for. Read more about how the real trees work.

8a. The Golden Seed

The Golden Seed is an optional in-app purchase of a game item: a seed for your Seed Garden that you care for like the other seeds and that grows into a golden-leafed tree. With every Golden Seed, we plant one real tree with our planting partner. Nothing in the game needs it. It is not a donation and not charitable fundraising: you are buying a game item, and the real tree is our own business purchase from the partner, paid for out of the price.

  • What you get. The Golden Seed in your Seed Garden, straight away. When Apple or Google confirm your payment, we also order one real tree from our planting partner, Tree-Nation, paid for by us out of your purchase (not the monthly budget in section 8). Of the price you pay, about 35p pays for the tree; the rest pays for the game, the store's fee and tax. It appears in My Trees as Earned, then Ordered, then Planted, with the partner's certificate or tree page when the partner provides one. You don't own the real tree or the land it grows on.
  • When it is planted. We show it as ordered once we have ordered and paid for it from the partner. The partner's project plants it in its next planting season, usually within 12 months of your purchase, and we show it as planted once the partner confirms it is in the ground. The project chooses the species, so the golden tree in the game is not the real species. The project looks after its trees, but no one can promise that every young tree survives.
  • Packs (adults only). Packs of 3 or 5 Golden Seeds work exactly like 3 or 5 single Golden Seeds: one real tree for each seed, on everything in this section. A pack can be bought on a day when no Golden Seed has been bought yet.
  • Limits. Up to 3 a day per player. Extra ones (for example the last two trees of a pack of 5) are sent the next day.
  • Refunds. Refunds are handled by the store (section 4). If a purchase is refunded before the tree is ordered, the tree is cancelled. A tree already ordered can't be cancelled and is still planted by the partner’s project.
  • Test builds. In test and demo versions nothing is charged and no real tree is planted, and the game says so.
  • Delete my data. A tree you paid for still gets planted; its order record is kept without your player ID, like other trees already ordered.

8b. Litter Picker of the Week (the weekly tournament)

Litter Picker of the Week is a free weekly competition, won by skill, that may be offered in the game in future. It is not running yet: until we announce it in the game, there is no weekly competition and no prizes. Prizes may be offered once it runs. When it does, these are its rules.

  • Who can win prizes. Players who said they are 18 or over when the game asked their year of birth. Younger players and players who did not give an age are never entered or ranked. Players aged 13 to 17 may see the Game Center and Google Play Games leaderboards, which are just for fun and decide no prizes.
  • Free to enter. There is nothing to buy or sign up for. Every adult playing a version of the game with real trees on takes part automatically. You can stop at any time by not playing. Buying anything never changes your chances beyond what a game item does in play.
  • The week. Each week runs from Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59:59 UTC (UK time in winter). A win counts in the week our server receives it.
  • How winners are decided. Each campaign level you win is checked by our server, which replays your moves; only checked wins count. Your score is the litter cleared in those wins. You need at least 10 counted wins in the week to take part. A level counts at most 3 times a week, the same game only once, and at most 150 wins a week. The player with the most litter wins; if two players have the same total, the one who reached it first wins.
  • Prizes. The winner gets 150 acorns, and we plant one extra real tree with our planting partner, Tree-Nation, to thank them for their clean-up. The tree is not given to the winner and they do not own it; it shows in their trees with its certificate once ordered, and it is funded from the monthly tree budget in section 8 (there is never more than one tournament tree a week). The top 10 players (or the top 1% if that is fewer) get 75 acorns, the top 10% get 30, and everyone else who took part gets 10. We may change these amounts within 50% before a week begins. Acorns are game items with no cash value (section 3) and can’t be exchanged for money or other prizes.
  • Collecting prizes. Results are fixed after the week ends. Prizes are collected in the game, on the Events screen, during the following weeks; a prize not collected within 8 weeks lapses.
  • Fair play. Section 7 applies. We may withhold a prize, or cancel a tournament tree before it is ordered, if we reasonably believe someone has cheated, used bots or modified the game. Our decision on the results is final, but you can contact us (section 14) if you think we have made a mistake.
  • Who runs it. The tournament is run by Tidy Wilds (see section 1). Apple and Google are not sponsors of it and are not involved in it in any way.
  • Changes. We may pause, change or end the tournament (for example if it is being abused), and will say so in the game. Prizes already won are still given.
  • Privacy. Our server keeps your random player ID, your weekly total and the levels counted for 8 weeks; no name, email or contact details. See the privacy policy.

9. Availability and changes

We work hard to keep the game running, but we can't promise it will always be available, error-free or compatible with every device. The game works offline, but the real-tree feature needs an internet connection. We may update the game to fix bugs, improve it, add content or meet legal and store rules; some updates may be needed to keep playing. We may change these terms to reflect changes in the game, the law, the app stores' rules or how we run the real-tree programme. If a change matters, we'll tell you in the game or on this website before it takes effect, and if you don't accept it you can stop playing (and cancel a Tidy Pass) before it applies. If we ever stop offering the game, we will give reasonable notice where we can.

10. Who owns the game

Tidy Wilds, including its code, art, characters (such as Nutmeg the squirrel), music, sound effects, text and levels, is owned by Steven Shackleton or used under licence. The Anton and Barlow fonts are used under the SIL Open Font License. See our copyright notice. Apart from the licence in section 2, these terms don't give you any rights in the game.

11. Our responsibility to you

If we break these terms or fail to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of that. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, for business losses (the game is for personal use), or for problems caused by your device, your connection or the app stores, unless we caused them.

If digital content we supply damages a device or other digital content of yours because we didn't use reasonable care and skill, we will either repair the damage or pay you fair compensation.

Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited under the law of England and Wales, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

12. Ending these terms

You can stop at any time by deleting the game. We may suspend or end your access to our servers if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms (for example by cheating). If we end these terms for a reason that isn't your fault, and you lose something you paid for, we will refund you in line with your legal rights.

13. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts, and if you live elsewhere you keep any protection given by the laws of your country. Please contact us first; most problems can be sorted out quickly.

14. Contact

Steven Shackleton, trading as Tidy Wilds
Email: support@tidywilds.com
Post: Tidy Wilds, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA