Terms of service

Last updated: 2026-10-14

These terms are an agreement between you and NN STUDIO (“we”, “us”), an independent game studio in Japan, about The Lords Next Door (“the game”), its online service and this website. By playing the game you accept them. Our privacy policy explains what information we use and how.

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under laws that cannot be set aside by agreement, such as the consumer protection laws of Japan or of the country where you live.

1. Your account

• You sign in with your account on a gaming platform. For now that is Steam; we may add other ways to sign in. Your game account and your town are linked to that platform account.
• Keep your platform account safe. We never ask for your password. What is done with your account is your responsibility, unless it happened without any fault of yours.
• Your game account is for you alone. Do not sell, lend, give away or share it, and do not use someone else’s.
• If you are not yet an adult where you live, get the consent of your parent or guardian before you agree to these terms and before you buy anything.

2. Gems, items and purchases

• Gems and the other things you get in the game are digital content for use in the game. You have the right to use them in the game under these terms; you do not own them. They have no value in money and cannot be exchanged for money, or moved out of the game or to another account, except where the law requires it.
• Purchases are made through the store of the platform you play on (for now, Steam), under that platform’s terms. The price, including any tax, is shown before you buy.
• Refunds follow the refund rules of the platform you bought through (for Steam, Steam’s refund policy) and the law. If something you bought did not arrive or did not work, write to us and we will deliver it, fix it or refund it.
• Some purchases are paid random draws, such as the tavern’s premium refresh. Their full odds, and how the pity works, are shown in the game before you draw.
• If the game ends, we will deal with unused paid gems as the law requires, including Japan’s Payment Services Act.

3. Fair play

Your neighbours are real players, so please play fair. You may not:

• use cheats, bots, macros or any tool that plays for you or gives you an unfair advantage;
• modify the game or its data, or read, change or fake what the game sends to our server;
• take advantage of bugs (please tell us about them instead);
• try to get into other players’ accounts, or into our servers or systems, or overload or disrupt them;
• buy, sell or trade accounts, gems or items for money or anything else outside the game;
• pretend to be us or another player, or use the game for anything unlawful or to harm others.

4. If the rules are broken

Depending on how serious it is, we may warn you, take away what was gained unfairly, suspend your account for a while, or close it for good. We act in proportion to what happened and, where we can, tell you why. If you think we got it wrong, write to us and we will look at it again. If we close an account for a serious breach of section 3, what was bought with it is not refunded, except where the law requires it.

5. Changes to the game

The game is a live service: we keep improving it, and we may add, change, rebalance or remove content and features. We sometimes need to stop the service for maintenance, or at once in an emergency. We try to keep interruptions short and to announce planned ones in advance, but we cannot promise that the game is always available or free of errors.

6. If the game ends

We may end the game. If we do, we will announce it in the game and on this website at least 30 days in advance.

7. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms when the change is in players’ general interest, or when it is reasonable given the purpose of these terms, the need for the change and how fair its content is. We will publish the new terms, and the date they take effect, in the game or on this website in good time before that date. If you keep playing after that date, the new terms apply.

8. The game belongs to us

The game, its art, music, text and code belong to NN STUDIO or to those who license them to us. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to play the game for your own, non-commercial enjoyment under these terms.

9. Responsibility for damage

• We provide the game with reasonable care.
• If we cause you damage intentionally or through gross negligence, we are responsible for it in full, and none of the limits below apply.
• In other cases where we are responsible for damage, through our ordinary negligence, our responsibility is limited to ordinary, direct damage, and to no more than the total you paid us in the game in the 12 months before the damage occurred. This limit does not apply to damage caused by our intentional misconduct or gross negligence, nor where the law does not allow such a limit.
• We are not responsible for problems caused by things outside our control, such as outages of your platform or internet connection, or problems with your own device, unless they result from our intentional misconduct or gross negligence.

10. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Japan. If we cannot settle a disagreement by talking it through, it may be brought before the court in Japan that has jurisdiction over our place of business. If you are a consumer living outside Japan, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you may also bring a claim before the courts there where those laws allow it.

11. Other

If a part of these terms is found invalid, the rest stays in force, and the invalid part applies to the extent the law allows. If we do not enforce a right at once, we have not given it up. These terms may be translated into other languages; if the versions differ, the English version applies, unless the law says otherwise.

12. Contact

NN STUDIO · [email protected]