Helios Drift privacy — Slate Oak Games

Slate Oak LLC, doing business as Slate Oak Games ("we" or "the studio"), provides HELIOS DRIFT. This policy describes how the current iOS build, its website and optional player support handle information. HELIOS DRIFT is in development; this policy does not announce App Store availability.

Playing and saving on your device

The native iPhone game loads its game code and assets from the app bundle. It stores progress and preferences in persistent local storage inside its web view. Saved information includes earned Cores and Shards, lifetime earnings, owned and equipped craft, upgrades, sector progress and bests, cosmetics, honours, career and mastery progress, recent daily-reward dates and your best ghost code. A browser preview stores its own saves separately for that website origin.

There is no studio-operated gameplay server, HELIOS DRIFT login or game-managed cloud-save service. Device and Apple backup settings may affect whether app data is backed up or restored. We do not promise cross-device save transfer or recovery of deleted progress. The current game has no in-game save-erasure or save-export control; your device's app-storage and backup controls govern local data.

The inspected current game contains no advertising, third-party gameplay analytics, advertising-attribution or crash-upload SDK. It has no identified permission path for location, contacts, camera, microphone or advertising tracking. Shake controls and haptic feedback use device functions; the game does not save a raw motion history. These statements describe the current implementation and are not a certification that Apple, hosting or support services collect no information.

Optional Apple Game Center rankings

The Ranks action initiates Apple's Game Center authentication. If you are already authenticated, an eligible completed run can submit its score automatically. The intended ranking boards cover Daily Eclipse and all-time Overdrive. Apple receives the score and encoded in-game distance and craft information through GameKit. Returned rankings can show players' Apple display names, rank, score and available distance or craft details. Apple handles Game Center under its Game Center privacy policy.

To check whether a run is eligible locally, the game processes its seed, loadout, elapsed ticks, bounded event totals and up to 12,000 timestamped control actions. The full control history and ghost recording are not submitted to Game Center by the current score-submission path. These local checks do not establish server-authoritative or unforgeable scores.

The app can retain up to eight pending score records on your device for retry. Each record contains a rules version, target board, local session identifier, score, encoded distance and craft information, a Daily date where applicable, and a Game Center player identifier when associated with an account. A record started without an account is associated with the account used for its first upload attempt. Account-associated records are kept for that account rather than sent under a different signed-in account.

Pending Daily scores expire at the end of their applicable UTC day, at 00:00 UTC; that is not necessarily your local midnight. Pending all-time Overdrive scores do not have the same daily expiration. Uploaded records are removed from the pending queue. The app also retains up to 2,048 local submission identifiers to limit duplicate reports. Opening Game Center can retry pending uploads; connection failures or service configuration can prevent submission. Genuine sign-in, submission and retry behavior still require release verification, so we do not promise that rankings or delivery will be available or reliable.

Optional ghost sharing and clipboard use

When you choose to share a run, the game prepares a PNG image and an HD3 ghost code containing the run’s rules version. A code includes the rules version, course seed, mode, starting sector, craft, applicable daily date, score and a bounded sequence of in-game position samples, recorded every 15 metres up to 4,096 samples. Those coordinates describe the game world, not your real-world location or GPS position.

Your device can offer a system sharing sheet; you choose the destination. Image download or clipboard fallback may be used where sharing is unavailable. The game does not operate a ghost-upload service or friend directory. A person or service receiving your shared code can inspect or replay its included gameplay information. Imported challenges are practice runs. Your chosen destination handles shared material under its own privacy practices.

Local diagnostics and Apple services

The app keeps bounded current and previous startup logs on your device, up to 64 KiB each, containing lifecycle, error and runtime or renderer-health information. An explicitly requested diagnostic launch can also save a local image up to 4 MB; ordinary launch does not request that diagnostic image. No studio-operated automatic diagnostic-upload path was identified in the current game. You may choose to send relevant diagnostics when asking for support.

Apple may collect device or app diagnostics and make reports available to developers according to the distribution channel and your settings. We may use reports made available to us to investigate faults and improve the game. If you test through TestFlight, Apple's separate TestFlight privacy information applies. Apple automatically collects crash and usage information and shares it with the developer; you cannot opt out while using TestFlight. Feedback may include comments, screenshots, device/build details and, depending on how you joined or sent feedback, your name or email address.

Optional App Store purchases in development builds

Current development builds implement optional one-time App Store purchases: Full Horizon Pass, Founder's Overcharge Bundle and Founder's Cosmetic Pack. Product availability and purchasing are subject to Apple's setup and distribution channel; this policy does not announce that purchases are available. Apple handles payment and purchase records under its own privacy practices. The studio does not receive payment-card details through the game's purchase flow.

The native purchase flow uses StoreKit 2 on your device to verify transactions and determine available content. It keeps a local Keychain cache containing product identifiers, original transaction identifiers, the purchase environment and a locally derived account fingerprint. The fingerprint is derived from a verified Apple app-transaction identifier, not your email address or an Apple Account password. New cache entries use device-only Keychain protection. This cache helps maintain verified access and detect account changes; it is separate from local game progress.

The inspected native purchase flow does not send these cache records to a studio purchase-history server or purchase-analytics service. Purchasing and restoring connect to Apple's services. Restoring purchased access does not restore deleted local progress. Keychain records have a separate lifecycle from the game's local save: removing app data should not be assumed to erase that cache. This policy makes no fixed cache-retention or iCloud-sync promise. Live purchase, restore and Family Sharing behavior remain subject to release verification.

Optional email support

You can play without emailing us. For support, email support@slateoakgames.com. Include HELIOS DRIFT in the subject. We receive your email address, subject, message, delivery metadata and anything you choose to attach. Device, operating-system and game-version details help us investigate an issue; send only what is needed. Do not send passwords, verification codes, payment-card details or unnecessary sensitive information.

Cloudflare routes support mail to Gmail and our studio M4 computer. Eligible raw subjects and message bodies are processed by Claude, an AI service from Anthropic, for classification and support summaries. This processing is not limited to redacted summaries. We use support information to handle requests, investigate issues, organize feedback and prevent duplicate replies.

Routine messages may receive an automated acknowledgment or fixed guidance. Messages matching the processor's sensitive-phrase filter, attachment-bearing messages and cases requiring judgment are held for review. Filters may miss sensitive information. Attachments are not automatically opened by the support processor, but email providers receive them and they may be reviewed when needed. We do not guarantee that a person reads every message, a particular outcome or a fixed response time.

The website and external services

The HELIOS DRIFT pages at slateoakgames.com are hosted using OpenAI's ChatGPT Sites infrastructure, with Cloudflare used for domain and delivery services. The studio's website code has no user accounts, advertising trackers, embedded analytics or contact forms, and does not set cookies. Hosting and delivery providers may process technical request information, including IP addresses and logs, to deliver and protect the site. Their own services and privacy policies apply to that processing.

Following an external link, choosing a sharing destination or contacting a provider opens a service with its own practices. The studio does not control those services. Provider privacy information: Apple, Cloudflare, Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.

Retention, requests and choices

Local gameplay data remains under your device's storage and backup controls. Removing local app data can erase progress, pending scores and local diagnostics; it does not delete support emails or Apple-controlled records. Pending-score retention and Daily expiration are described above. We retain support correspondence, summaries and delivery/security records as needed for support, issue investigation, duplicate prevention and business or legal requirements. There is no fixed automatic deletion schedule for studio support records. Providers also retain information under their own policies.

For access, correction or deletion requests concerning information the studio holds, email support@slateoakgames.com and identify HELIOS DRIFT. We may need to verify your request and retain information where applicable requirements or exceptions permit it. Available privacy rights depend on where you live. For Apple-controlled information, use Apple's privacy tools as well. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact the same address so we can review it.

Changes and contact

We will update this page and its effective date when this policy changes. Contact Slate Oak LLC / Slate Oak Games at support@slateoakgames.com, with HELIOS DRIFT in the subject. Mailing address: 5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 28268, Austin, TX 78731, United States.