The short version

Motes has no accounts and no adverts, and we never sell or share your data. The game uses no outside tracking or analytics services, only its own play stats below. The website uses Google Analytics, with cookies only if you agree.

If you say yes when the game asks, it sends us play stats, numbers about how you play that we study to balance it. They're linked by a random tester number, never your name. It's off until you say yes, and you can turn it off any time.

Anything you choose to send through the mailbox or the feedback page reaches us too. Everything else stays on your device.

Who we are

Motes is made and run by Motes, the developer named on its store pages. For anything about your data, email motes.game@gmail.com.

Play stats, only if you agree

The first time you play, the game asks whether you'd like to share your play stats. Nothing is sent unless you say yes. You can change your mind any time in Settings, behind Start.

With sharing on, the game sends a short row of numbers for each island and each voyage. These cover where you were and how deep, the weather and candles, how long it took, how it ended, the hearts you lost, the monsters you beat, the damage each spell dealt, your level, boons and spells. It also sends a row when you open and close the game, and one a minute while it's open, so we can tell how long people play.

Each row carries a random tester number the game makes the first time it runs, a random number for this session, the time, the game's version and the kind of device (Windows, Mac, Linux or Android).

The tester number stays the same each time you play on that device, so your sessions and voyages can be put together and studied over time.

We study these to balance the game and improve it. That means seeing how hard each boss and island is, which spells are used, where people fall and give up, how long they play and whether they come back. Nobody else gets the rows themselves. The Playtests page only shows totals made from them.

It never sends your name, your saves, your device's name, your location or anything else from your device.

The mailbox and the feedback page

After a voyage you can answer a few questions at the mailbox at home, or on the feedback page it opens. When you send them, we get your answers along with your tester and session numbers and a short code describing that voyage. That code holds the game's version, the candles, how far you got and how it ended, and the bosses and islands you met. This is sent whether or not play stats are on, because you chose to send it.

On the feedback page you can tick Leave this out to send your note without that voyage's details. Opened from the website's menu rather than the game, a note isn't tied to any play at all.

Notes are free text, so please don't put anything personal in them.

Playing online and nearby

Playing online with a join code goes through our relay server, which passes the game between the two players and keeps nothing of it.

Hosting a game on your own network shows your computer's name (or your phone's model) to other players on that network, so they can find it.

Through Steam, Steam handles friends and invites, and your Steam name is shown to the other player. Valve's privacy policy covers Steam.

Where it's kept and for how long

Play stats and feedback are kept on our relay server, hosted by Fly.io in Europe. Only we can read them. We keep them while they help us balance the game, and delete them on request.

The relay needs your IP address to answer you, and counts requests by address for a short while to stop abuse. It never writes addresses down. Fly.io may keep its own logs as its privacy policy describes.

The Playtests page on this site shows totals worked out from shared play stats. While few people are testing, some totals may come from only a handful of players, but they never show tester numbers.

The game also keeps its own copy of your play stats in a file beside your save, on your device. It's only sent if sharing is on.

This website

The website is hosted on GitHub Pages, and GitHub may log visits as described in its privacy statement. The Playtests page loads its charts from cdnjs, run by Cloudflare.

The website uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are read. It asks before setting any cookies. Until you press Accept, Google gets only a count of the page being viewed, with no cookies and nothing to tell visits apart. If you accept, Google Analytics sets cookies that recognise your browser between visits, and Google learns roughly where you are, the pages you visit and your browser and device type. Advertising uses are always off. Google's privacy policy covers what it does with this.

Your browser remembers your cookie choice and the last version you've seen, so the site can show what's new.

Android permissions

The Android app asks for internet access, for online play, play stats and feedback. It also asks to look at Wi-Fi and receive its broadcasts, so it can find games on the same network. It also uses vibration.

Children

Motes doesn't ask anyone for personal information, including children. If you think a child has sent us something personal in a note, email us and we'll delete it.

Your choices

Turn play stats off in Settings, behind Start, and nothing more is sent.

To see or delete what we hold, email us your tester number. It's the first word of playtest_id.txt in the game's save folder (on Windows %APPDATA%\consol\consol, on Mac ~/Library/Application Support/consol/consol, on Linux ~/.local/share/consol/consol). If you can't find it, tell us roughly when you played and on what. Deleting that file gives you a new tester number.

Changes

If what the game sends changes, this page changes with it. Last updated 28 October 2026.