GameStart

Terms of Use

Effective date: 12 October 2026

These terms apply to your use of gamestart.com (“the site”), operated by HGC Ventures, Inc, a California corporation, 21781 Ventura Blvd #122, Los Angeles, CA 91364 (“GameStart”, “we”, “us”). By using the site or sending us a form, you agree to them. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the site.

1. What GameStart is today

GameStart is a free directory of game projects. Each listing describes a game, links to the creator’s own pages on other platforms (such as Steam, itch.io, Kickstarter or Patreon) and shows the checks we have completed about it, with their dates. The site also offers forms to apply for a listing and to be emailed about GameStart, guides and free tools. Nothing on the site is an offer to sell anything.

GameStart does not collect, hold or transfer money for anyone, and it is not a crowdfunding platform, marketplace, payment service, investment service or charity.

2. Who may use the forms

You must be at least 16 years old (or older if your local law requires it to agree to these terms) to use our forms. If you apply on behalf of a studio, publisher or client, you confirm that you are an adult and are authorised to act for them.

You may not use the site if you are located in, or ordinarily resident in, a country or region subject to comprehensive US sanctions, or if you are named on a US, UN, EU or UK sanctions list.

3. Applying to list a project

  • Applying is free and does not create any obligation on you or on us. We may accept or decline any application, for any lawful reason, and we may decide not to launch listings at all.
  • The information you send must be accurate, and you must have the right to share it.
  • Free listings: listing is free, and so are the checks we run. If we later offer optional paid plans with extra page features, we will publish what they include and cost before charging anyone, and our checks will never be part of one. Page features you set up before paid plans start stay free on your listing for 12 months after they start. Section 14 sets out the terms for listings.
  • We will not publish anything about your project without your explicit approval.

4. Your content

Anything you send us in a form (text, links, ideas) stays yours. You give us permission to store and use it to review your application, contact you and improve GameStart. If you send us suggestions or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything.

5. Acceptable use

Do not:

  • send false, misleading or unlawful information, or apply for a project you don’t represent;
  • impersonate anyone or misrepresent your connection to a project;
  • send spam, malware, or automated submissions;
  • try to break, overload, scrape at scale, or gain unauthorised access to the site;
  • use the site in breach of sanctions, export control or anti-fraud laws.

6. Our content and trademarks

The site’s text, design and logo belong to HGC Ventures, Inc or its licensors. You may link to the site and quote it fairly. “GameStart” and the GameStart logo are our trademarks; don’t use them in a way that suggests we endorse you. Names of other games, platforms and companies belong to their owners, and mentioning them does not mean they are affiliated with us.

The site may link to other websites, such as stores and funding platforms. We don’t control them and are not responsible for their content, terms or practices.

8. No guarantees

The site is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including about accuracy, availability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Nothing on the site is financial, legal or investment advice.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, GameStart and HGC Ventures, Inc are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data, arising from your use of the site. Our total liability for any claim relating to the site is limited to US $100.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, such as liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for gross negligence or wilful misconduct where your law does not allow those to be limited.

10. Indemnity

If you are using the site for business purposes (for example, applying on behalf of a studio or client), you agree to compensate us for claims and costs arising from information you sent us that you had no right to send, or from your breach of these terms.

11. Changes, suspension and ending

We may change the site or these terms. If a change materially affects you, we will update the effective date and, where we have your email for a pending application, tell you. We may suspend or stop the site, or refuse service to anyone who breaches these terms.

12. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Disputes will be resolved in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles, California, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction.

If you are a consumer living outside the United States, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your country of residence, and you may also bring proceedings in the courts of your country. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.

Before starting any formal dispute, please email us so we can try to resolve it informally within 30 days.

13. General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Not enforcing a term is not a waiver. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours as part of a reorganisation or sale of the business. These terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about the site. The English version prevails over any translation.

14. Listings

For creators. When you approve a listing, you agree to this section as well as the rest of these terms.

  • Your approval. We publish a listing only after you approve it, and we ask again before any change you haven’t asked for. You may ask us to change or remove your listing at any time, and we will do it within 7 days.
  • Permission to show your material. You keep all rights in the text, images, video links and other material you give us or approve. You give us a free, worldwide, non-exclusive permission to show it on GameStart, in its press kit pages and feeds, and to make reasonable copies, resizes and excerpts for that purpose (for example in search results or social posts that link to your listing), while your listing is published and for a reasonable time after you remove it for copies already shared. You confirm that you have the right to give that permission.
  • Accuracy. You confirm that what you give us is true and that you are authorised to act for the project. Tell us when something changes, such as a release date, a link or your press contact.
  • Links. Listings link only to your own pages on established platforms and your own website. We do not show crypto wallet addresses.

For everyone who reads a listing.

  • What our checks mean. Each listing shows the checks we have completed and the date of each, such as that the game’s store page exists or that a code we gave the creator appeared on their page. A check means only what it says, on the date shown. It is not an endorsement, a recommendation or a promise that a game will be finished, released or delivered, and GameStart has not verified any project unless a listing clearly says so. A project without a check is not a finding against it.
  • Support goes straight to the creator. If you buy, back or support a game, you do it on the creator’s own page on another platform, under that platform’s terms. GameStart is not a party to that payment, never receives the money, and cannot give refunds. Ask the creator or the platform.
  • Creators’ words are their own. Descriptions, the “From the developer” part and other material a creator supplies are the creator’s statements, not ours.

Reports, removal and appeals. Anyone can report a listing with the “Report this listing” link on it, for example for fraud, impersonation, a sanctions concern or an intellectual property claim. We may restrict or remove a listing that breaks these terms or the law, that the creator no longer represents, or that misleads people. When we do, we tell the creator what we did and why, and how to appeal. The creator may appeal by replying within 6 months; where possible someone other than the person who decided reviews it, and we answer within 14 days. Creators in the EU may also use a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body, and anyone may go to court. For copyright claims we follow the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including counter-notices. Projects we do not list include token, NFT or similar funding, charity campaigns, and mods or maps of other people’s games.

15. Contact

HGC Ventures, Inc (GameStart) 21781 Ventura Blvd #122, Los Angeles, CA 91364 hello@gamestart.com