Privacy Policy

The short version

Killer Cell: Remission is a single-player game developed by Youssef Alioua. We do not require an account. The only personal information we collect is your email address, and only if you request a playtest key on this website (see Section 4). We do not collect your name, Steam ID, or any other identifying information.

The game can send anonymous gameplay and performance data to help us balance and fix the game, but only if you opt in. When you first launch the game you are asked, and nothing is sent unless you choose "Accept." You can turn it off again at any time in the Options menu.

We do not sell your data, show ads, or share data with third-party advertising or analytics companies.

1. Who we are

Killer Cell: Remission is developed and operated by Youssef Alioua, an independent game developer ("we", "us"), based in the United Arab Emirates. For any privacy question or request, contact us at [email protected].

Youssef Alioua is the data controller for the analytics data described below, under both the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021, overseen by the UAE Data Office) and, for players in the EU and UK, the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

2. Your choice (consent)

Analytics are off by default. On first launch the game shows a prompt:

"Help improve the game by sending anonymous performance and gameplay data? No personal information is collected. You can change this anytime in the Options menu.""The full privacy policy is linked there too."

The Options menu carries a clickable link to this policy, next to the toggle that turns collection on or off, so you can re-read what you agreed to and change your mind in one place.

• If you choose "No thanks," the game sends nothing. It remains fully playable.
• If you choose "Accept," the game begins sending the anonymous data described in Section 3.
• You can change your mind at any time using the "Send anonymous gameplay data" toggle in the Options menu. Turning it off immediately stops all collection and uploads and deletes any data still queued on your device that has not yet been sent.

Our legal basis for processing this data is your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)).

3. What we collect (only with your consent)

When analytics are enabled, the game sends event records describing how a play session went. Each record contains:

• An anonymous install identifier: a random code (GUID) generated on your device the first time you play. It is not your name, email, or Steam account, and it is not derived from your hardware. It exists only to group events from the same installation so we can tell, for example, how far a typical run progresses. You can reset it at any time by clearing the game's saved data.
• A session identifier: a fresh random code generated each time you launch the game.
• Technical context: the game version and the operating system platform (e.g. Windows or Linux). We do not collect your specific device model, hardware IDs, or installed software.
• Gameplay events: for example, a run started, ended in victory or death, an enemy was killed, a weapon fired, an upgrade was chosen, a level-up occurred, boss/objective outcomes, and overall progress through the run. We also record how you handled a run's moment-to-moment decisions: when you used the dash and how quickly you reacted to a nearby threat, which enemy types dealt damage to you and how much (including damage avoided by a dodge), how many hits it took to defeat different enemy types, how long you took to decide on a draft card, how often and for how long you paused the game, whether you rerolled, banished or skipped an upgrade offer, and which weapon evolutions you reached. If a run ends in death, we also record what caused it (an enemy type, or a generic tag for other damage sources) together with a summary of your final level, in-run currency collected, and the upgrades you'd taken. These are recorded as numbers and short internal labels (such as an enemy, weapon, or upgrade name).
• Performance samples: frame timing, memory, and similar metrics used to find and fix slowdowns.
• In-game position samples: the coordinates of your character within the game world over time, used to understand movement and difficulty. This is not your real-world location and has nothing to do with GPS or geolocation.
• Mouse cursor activity: how much you move the mouse on screen and whether the game's manual-aim option is on at the time, used to see whether that control scheme is actually used. This is your on-screen cursor position, not your character's position in the world, and is not linked to anything typed or clicked outside the game.
• Menu and settings interactions: whether you opened the Options menu (and whether that was while a run was paused or from the main menu). We also record the value of every setting at the start of each run (for example, screen shake, manual aim, or a volume level), not only the ones you actively change, plus any changes you make during the run. If you turn the anonymous-data toggle back on after switching it off, that is recorded the same way as any other setting change. Switching it off is not separately recorded on our servers: as described above, doing so deletes anything not yet sent, which includes that action itself.
• Input device type: whether you're playing with a keyboard/mouse or a game controller at any given point, and whether the manual-aim option is on at the same time. This is not which brand or model of device you own, and includes no unique hardware identifiers.
• Error and crash information: if the game errors or crashes, we collect the diagnostics needed to fix it, including the error message and stack trace, the game version, and basic device context (operating system and available memory). This is sent only to a crash-reporting server we operate ourselves, and it does not include your IP address.

IP address

When your game connects to our servers, the connection itself carries your device's IP address, as happens with any internet request. Our analytics server is configured to discard the IP at the point of collection: it is not stored against your events, not used to derive your location, and not used to identify you or build a profile. Our crash-reporting server is likewise configured not to store IP addresses. We mention this only for transparency, because an IP address can be considered personal data under some laws.

4. Website: Playtest Key Request

If you request a playtest key on this website, we collect your email address solely to deliver your Steam key. We collect nothing else: no name, no phone number, nothing optional.

• By submitting the form you consent to us storing your email and sending you the key. That is the only email you will receive unless you separately sign up for updates.
• We do not use your email for advertising and do not share it with any third party for marketing purposes.
• Your email and the associated key record are stored in a Supabase database (Supabase Inc., US). See Supabase's Privacy Policy.
• The key delivery email is sent via Resend (Resend Inc., US), acting as a data processor. See Resend's Privacy Policy.
• You may request deletion of your email at any time by contacting [email protected].

5. What we do NOT collect

To be explicit, we do not collect:

• Your name, postal address, or phone number. (Email is collected only via the playtest key form; see Section 4.)
• Your Steam account name or ID, friends list, or any login credentials.
• Payment or billing information (all purchases are handled by Steam; see Section 8).
• Any hardware fingerprint or unique device identifier.
• Your real-world or GPS location.
• Microphone, camera, contacts, files, or any other content from your device.
• Any free-text you type; the game does not transmit anything you write.

6. Why we collect it

We use this data for one purpose: to make the game better. That means balancing difficulty, understanding which content players reach, measuring performance, and diagnosing crashes and bugs. We do not use it for advertising, profiling, or any automated decision-making that affects you.

7. Where your data goes, and who can see it

• We self-host everything. Data you consent to send goes only to servers we operate ourselves: gameplay analytics to a self-hosted PostHog instance, and crash/error reports to a self-hosted Sentry instance. Neither PostHog nor Sentry (the companies) receives your data, and we do not use any third-party analytics or advertising provider.
• Encrypted backups off-site. To protect against data loss, we maintain encrypted off-site backups of our server data on Backblaze B2, a cloud backup service operated by Backblaze Inc (a US company). These backups contain copies of your anonymous analytics and crash reports. Backblaze is a storage-only provider and does not have access to decrypt or use the data; it serves solely as a backup location.
• Where it is stored, and international transfers. Our primary servers are self-hosted in the United Arab Emirates. Off-site backups are stored on Backblaze B2 servers, which may reside in the United States. If you play from the EU or UK, choosing to send data means copies of that data will eventually be backed up to the US. Two safeguards cover that transfer: the backup data is encrypted before it leaves our servers, so Backblaze only ever holds ciphertext it cannot read, and the transfer is further governed by Backblaze's Data Processing Addendum incorporating the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. As an additional basis (and for the initial transfer to our own servers in the UAE), we also rely on your explicit, informed consent (GDPR Article 49): you are told here that the data goes to the UAE (and later, as encrypted backups, to the US), the data is anonymous, it is never shared with a third party, and you can decline or withdraw at any time.
• No third-party data sharing. No outside company receives your data. The game contains no third-party advertising or marketing trackers.
• Local files stay local. The game also writes diagnostic logs to a folder on your own computer. These remain on your device and are not uploaded.
• Steam is separate. The game is distributed through Steam. Steam (Valve Corporation) independently collects data about your account, purchase, and playtime under its own privacy policy, which we do not control. See Valve's privacy policy at https://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your data to anyone.

8. How long we keep it

We keep consented analytics data for up to 24 months, and crash/error reports for up to 90 days, after which they are deleted or aggregated into anonymous statistics that can no longer be linked to an install. Local diagnostic files on your own device remain until you delete them or uninstall the game. Off-site backups follow the same retention schedule.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example, under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law, the EU/UK GDPR, or the California Consumer Privacy Act), you may have the right to:

• Withdraw consent at any time by using the Options menu toggle, which stops all future collection.
• Access the data associated with your install identifier.
• Receive a copy of that data in a portable, machine-readable format (data portability).
• Correct inaccurate data we hold about your install.
• Request deletion of that data.
• Object to or restrict processing.
• Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the UAE, the UAE Data Office; in the EU/UK, your national authority).

Because the data is keyed only to an anonymous install identifier, to action an access or deletion request we may ask you to provide that identifier so we can locate the right records. To make any request, email [email protected]. We do not sell personal information, and we do not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

10. Children

The game is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 where applicable), and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided data, contact us at [email protected] and we will delete it.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect, we will update this policy and, where the change is significant, re-ask for your consent inside the game before collecting anything new. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the current version.

12. Contact

Questions or requests: [email protected]