Terms of Service

Effective October 9, 2026 · Version 2026-10-08

1. Who we are and what this is

Escape the GrindLife ("GrindLife", "the game") is an online life game set in New York City. It is run by Nick Githinji, doing business as SetForMoney, based in New York ("we", "us", "our"). These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a contract between you and us. They cover the game on the web and in any app, our websites, and any related services (together, "the Service").

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Who can play

The Service is for adults only. To use it, you must:

• be at least 18 years old;
• be able to enter into a binding contract where you live;
• not have been banned from the Service before; and
• not be barred from using the Service under the laws that apply to you.

We ask for your date of birth when you sign up, and you confirm that you are 18 or older. That confirmation is a promise you make to us, and we rely on it. Giving a false date of birth breaks these Terms. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we will close it and delete its data.

If something suggests an account belongs to someone under 18 (for example, they say so in a message, or another player reports it), we ask them to confirm their age again. Until a person on our team or an age-verification provider clears the account, it cannot message people it does not mutually follow and cannot use dating.

If you give a false age, you are responsible for that, and to the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any loss or harm that results from it. You agree to cover any claims, costs or losses we face because you gave a false age (see section 16).

3. Your account

• One person, one account. Your account is for you alone. Do not share it, sell it, buy someone else's, or let anyone else use it.
• Your email is your key. You sign in with a link or code sent to your email address, so anyone who can read your email can sign in as you. Keep your email account secure, and tell us at once through our contact form if you think someone else has used your account.
• You are responsible for your account. You are responsible for what happens on it, unless it happened because of our own failure to protect it.
• Handles and names. Your @handle is unique to you. Handles and display names must follow the conduct rules in section 6. We may remove or change a handle or name that breaks those rules, that imitates someone else, or that infringes someone's rights. After an account is deleted, its handle stays unavailable for 30 days, then anyone can choose it.
• Accurate details. Keep your email address current so we can reach you about your account.

4. The game is a simulation

GrindLife uses real public sources for things like pay, rent, prices and taxes, so that what you learn in the game resembles the real world. But it is a game, and it simplifies.

• Nothing in the Service is financial, investment, tax, legal, medical, nursing or career advice. Do not rely on it to make real decisions. Talk to a qualified professional.
• Clinical situations in the game are simplified for play. They are not clinical guidance and must never be used to care for a real patient.
• The game shows real streets and places in New York City. That does not mean any hospital, school, business, agency or person depicted is connected with us or endorses the game. Characters other than real players are fictional.

5. Game money and virtual items

The game has its own money (for example, dollars in your character's bank account), and things you can get with it, such as homes, cars, clothes, furniture, pets and businesses (together, "virtual items").

• Game money is not real money. It has no value outside the game. It is not your property, it is not a deposit, and it does not earn real interest.
• It is never redeemable. Game money and virtual items can never be exchanged, redeemed, cashed out or refunded for real money, goods or services, by us or by anyone else.
• No real-money trading. You may not buy, sell, trade, rent or give away game money, virtual items, handles or accounts for real money or anything else of real value, inside or outside the Service. We may remove anything obtained this way and close the accounts involved.
• Games of chance and skill use game money only. Any wager in the game (for example, on a game of chess or pool) uses game money only. The Service is not gambling and offers no way to win anything of real value.
• A licence, not ownership. We give you a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable licence to use game money and virtual items in the game, under these Terms. You do not own them.
• We may change the game. To keep the game fair and working, we may change, rebalance, reset or remove game money and virtual items, for example to fix a bug or undo an exploit. We will not owe you anything for doing so.

If we ever sell anything for real money, we will show you the price and what you get before you pay. Unless the law where you live says otherwise, a purchase gives you a licence to use what you bought in the game, and is final once delivered.

6. How to behave

GrindLife is a shared world for adults. Other players are real people. You can flirt, swear, and talk about sex, drugs and anything legal, the way you would on any social app, as long as the people you talk to are adults who want to be in that conversation. When you use the Service, you agree not to:

• Harass or threaten anyone. No threats of violence, stalking, sustained bullying, telling someone to hurt themselves, hate speech, or attacks on people for their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or any similar trait.
• Post sexual content involving minors. Any sexual content involving anyone under 18, real or fictional, and any sexual talk with someone who says they are under 18, is banned. We remove it, lock the accounts involved, and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and to law enforcement.
• Pressure anyone sexually. No sex without consent, no threatening to share someone's pictures (sextortion), no coercion, and no sharing intimate images of anyone without their consent.
• Support terrorism or violent extremism. No praising, recruiting for or planning attacks, or cheering on terrorist or violent extremist groups. Talking about the news is fine.
• Post sexually explicit content in any public part of the game, or send it to anyone who has not asked for it.
• Pretend to be someone else. No impersonating another player, a real person, a celebrity, a business, a hospital, a government body, or us or our staff.
• Offer or arrange anything illegal. Talking about drugs is fine; selling, buying or arranging them is not. The same goes for guns and other weapons, stolen goods, fake documents or any other illegal service. No encouraging self-harm or violence.
• Buy or sell sex for real money, advertise escort services, or take part in trafficking anyone.
• Share other people's private information, such as their real name, address, phone number, workplace, school or photos, without their permission.
• Trade for real money, as described in section 5.
• Spam, scam or advertise. No phishing, pyramid schemes, fake investments, or links that try to get players' details or money. Don't ask people you don't know for real money, gift cards, crypto or payment apps (Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, PayPal). Game money between players is fine.
• Cheat or break the Service. No bots, scripts, or modified clients; no exploiting bugs instead of reporting them; no scraping; no getting around rate limits, bans or blocks; no attacks on our servers; and no attempts to reach accounts or data that are not yours.
• Break the law or infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy or other rights.

7. What you post

Some parts of the game let you share things with other players, such as posts, replies, your handle, your display name and your character ("your content"). Today most of what you can post is chosen from lists we write. We may add free text, pictures or other ways to share later, and these Terms will apply to them.

• You keep any rights you have in your content.
• You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, show, adapt (for example, to fit a screen) and share your content, only as needed to run, show and improve the Service. This licence ends when your content is deleted, except for copies we must keep by law or in backups for a short time, as our Privacy Policy explains.
• You are responsible for your content, and you promise you have the right to share it.
• We do not check everything before it appears, but we may review, hide or remove any content at any time, for any reason that is consistent with these Terms.

7A. Books you write

You can write books in the game's Library app, share a draft with friends by link, and publish a book so other players can find, buy and read it.

• It stays yours. You keep the copyright in your book. Publishing does not transfer it to us.
• What you let us do. When you publish, you give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, copy, show and distribute your book in the game and on grindlife.app, including its own page with the opening pages, its cover and share picture, and posts about it in the game. This lets us run the Library and point people to your book. It ends when you delete the book or your account. If you only take it off the shelf, players who already have a copy can keep reading it. We may keep copies the law or our records require. A draft you share by link is shown only to people with the link.
• Your promise. You promise you wrote the book or have every right to publish it, that it does not copy anyone else's work without permission, and that it follows section 6. Books may not contain sexual content involving anyone under 18, hate or harassment, other people's private details, spam or ads, or real instructions for causing serious harm.
• We read it first. We review every book, and every change to a published book, before it goes on the shelf. Paying does not skip the review or guarantee that a book is published. We may decline a book, or take one down later, if it breaks these Terms or the law. We tell you what to change.
• Fees. Publishing costs $4.99 once per book. A week on the front shelf costs $9.99. Payments are handled by Stripe. If we do not publish your book, we refund the publishing fee and any front-shelf weeks in full, automatically. If we take a published book down before a front-shelf week starts, we refund that week. Otherwise fees are not refundable, except where the law says they must be.
• Selling for game money. You set a price in game money, from free to $25. Readers pay from their wallet; the Library keeps 30% and you get the rest in your wallet. Game money has no real-world value and cannot be cashed out (section 5).
• If someone copied your work. Tell us through our contact form with the subject "Copyright": which book, what it copies, how we can reach you, and a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not allowed and that what you say is accurate. We will take the book down while we look and let its author respond.

7B. Messages and invites

• Messages are between adults. You can message other players one to one or in groups. Section 6 applies to every message. Someone who does not follow you gets your first message as a request, and can decline it.
• Some messages are not sent. Before a message goes out, it is checked automatically against section 6. Threats, slurs, sales of drugs or weapons, payment asks to strangers, phone numbers, emails, home addresses and ID numbers are not sent. Sexual content involving anyone under 18 is not sent, the account is locked and it is reported to us at once.
• A second look. Messages the first check is unsure about, every report, and a small random share of messages between people who do not both follow each other are reviewed automatically, with a few messages around them. Nobody at GrindLife reads a randomly checked message unless that review finds a problem.
• Reports. If you report a message, it is reviewed with the messages around it, by our automatic review and, where needed, by a person on our team.
• Invites. If a friend signs up through your link and plays a little, you may both get a game-money bonus. It is game money only (section 5). One bonus per new player, with daily limits. Bonuses from fake or duplicate accounts are refused, and we may take back bonuses that broke these rules.

7C. Dating

• Off until you turn it on. Dating other players is opt-in, and turning it on asks you to confirm your age again. Only the people your settings allow can ask you out. If an account may belong to someone under 18, its dating is paused until we check.
• Both say yes, every step. An ask, going exclusive, a date and every hug, dance or kiss in the game needs the other person's yes at that moment. Either of you can end it at any time, without the other's say. Nothing sexual is ever shown in the game.
• No means no. A no locks that ask for 30 days and a second no is final. Asking again and again, pressure, and moving someone off the game against their wishes break section 6. You can report or block from every card, chat and profile. A block is final: they can never contact you again.
• Never real money. Do not ask anyone for real money, gift cards or crypto. Until two people have dated for three days, dating chats do not send phone numbers, links or payment apps. A confirmed money ask is a ban.
• Game money only. Dates are paid in game money from your wallet (section 5). A dating relationship in the game has no legal effect and nothing here is advice about real relationships.

8. Reporting, blocking and enforcement

• Report and block. You can report a player, a post or a message, and block a player so you no longer see them. You can also write to us through our contact form.
• What we do. We review reports and may remove content, give warnings, limit features, suspend an account or close it. Serious cases, including any sexual content involving minors and credible threats of violence, may be reported to law enforcement.
• Automatic moderation. We use automated checks to enforce these Terms. On their own they can take a message down, send you a warning (in the game and by email), pause your messaging for a few hours, suspend your account for up to 24 hours, or ask you to confirm your age. Repeat breaks lead to stronger steps. For sexual content involving minors, credible threats of violence and terrorism, an account is locked at once until a person on our team reviews it. Every automatic action is logged and can be reversed.
• People decide the big things. Only a person at GrindLife can close an account for good or ban it.
• If you are struggling. Talking about self-harm never gets you in trouble. We may show you support resources, like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
• Appeals. If you think we got it wrong, write to us through our contact form from the email on your account within 30 days. A person will look again and tell you what we decided.

9. Our content and your licence to play

The Service, including the game, its code, art, text, music, characters, data compilations and our names and logos, belongs to us or to the people who licensed it to us. Some parts are used under open licences, which are credited in the game.

We give you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to use the Service for your own non-commercial entertainment, under these Terms. You may not copy, sell, rent, sublicense or make derivative works of the Service, or reverse engineer it except where the law allows that despite this restriction. Streaming and sharing videos or screenshots of your play is welcome, as long as you follow section 6.

10. Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely without paying you or crediting you.

11. Changes to the Service

The game is being built and will change. We may add, change or remove features, careers, places and content, and we may stop offering the Service. If we plan to shut down the Service, we will try to give at least 30 days' notice in the game or by email.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. If a change matters, we will tell you in the game or by email, and ask you to accept the new Terms before you keep playing. The date and version at the top show when they last changed. If you do not agree to new Terms, stop using the Service and delete your account.

13. Ending your account

• You can delete your account at any time from the game (Account, then Delete my account). This deletes your account and your saved game straight away, as our Privacy Policy explains, and cannot be undone.
• We may suspend or close your account if you break these Terms, if the law requires it, if your account puts other players or the Service at risk, or if we stop offering the Service. Where it is reasonable and safe, we will tell you why.
• When an account is closed, its licence to use the Service, game money and virtual items ends. Sections 5, 7 (for content already shared), 9, 10, and 14 to 18 continue to apply.

14. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no promises or warranties of any kind, express or implied, including that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or free of errors, that saves will never be lost, or that any information in the game is accurate or complete, and we disclaim the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We are not responsible for what other players do or say, inside or outside the Service.

15. Limits on our liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data, goodwill, game money or virtual items, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms. Our total liability for all claims relating to the Service or these Terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, or one hundred US dollars ($100).

Some places do not allow some of these limits. Where that is the case, they apply only as far as the law allows. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

16. Your responsibility to us

If someone brings a claim against us because of your content, because you gave a false age, or because you broke these Terms or the law, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of dealing with it, including reasonable legal fees, to the extent the law allows.

17. Disputes and governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Any dispute about the Service or these Terms will be heard only in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, and you and we both agree to those courts. Either of us may instead bring a claim in small claims court if it qualifies. If you live in a country whose laws give you the right to bring a claim in your own courts, nothing here takes that right away.

Before going to court, please write to us through our contact form so we can try to sort it out. Most problems can be fixed that way.

18. The rest

• These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any rules we show you in the game, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• If any part of these Terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a part of these Terms right away, we can still enforce it later.
• You may not transfer your rights under these Terms. We may transfer ours, for example if the game is sold, and we will tell you if that happens.
• We are not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.
• We may send you notices by email or in the game. You may send notices to the address below.

19. Contact us

Connect on X: @delicto_nick
Contact: grindlife.app/contact