These terms are the agreement between you and us for playing Maatjie Arena: in the Android app, in a web browser, and on its Save to Google page. When a child plays, their parent or guardian agrees to them on the child's behalf: the game asks a grown-up to agree, behind a grown-up step, before the child picks a nickname. Grown-ups, please read them with your child. Last updated: 13 October 2026.
The short version, for kids
- Play with a grown-up's OK.
- Pick a nickname that is not your real name and is kind. Rude nicknames get taken away.
- If a nickname or a pet's name is unkind, report it. You can hide a player too.
- Never tell other players where you live, your school, your phone number or your real name.
- Be a good sport: no cheating, and no tricking anyone into a swap.
- Buying things is a job for a grown-up. Everything you get in the game is for fun, not for money.
- If anything worries you, stop and tell a grown-up you trust.
1. Who we are
Maatjie Arena is made and published by Tiny Twigs Studio, in South Africa ("we" and "us"). You can reach us at the address under contact. How we look after information about players is explained in our privacy policy, which is part of these terms.
2. Playing the game
- Maatjie Arena is free to play, and made for children. Anyone under 18 needs a parent's or guardian's permission to play, and grown-ups are responsible for how their children use it, including anything bought.
- The game needs an internet connection, because our server looks after every pet and works out every result.
- Please use the game only as it is meant to be played: no cheating, no changed or automated apps, no using bugs to get ahead, and no attempts to get into, overload or copy our server or other players' accounts. If you find a bug, please tell us.
- We may undo progress or items gained by cheating or by a bug.
3. Your account
- Pressing Play makes an account that lives on the device, with no password and no email address. Anyone who plays on that device, in that app or browser, plays the same pet.
- A grown-up can save the pet to a Google account on our Save to Google page, so it can come back on a new or reset device. If the game is removed from a device and the pet was not saved to Google, we cannot bring that account back.
- Please do not sell or trade accounts, or play on someone else's account without their permission.
4. Nicknames and being kind
- Every player picks a nickname: one word of 3 to 12 letters, A to Z only. It must not be a real name, and must not be rude, unkind, scary or a way to get in touch (such as a username on another app). Our server checks every nickname against a list of words that are not allowed, and the game can suggest one.
- Pet names follow the same spirit. A pet's name is shown only to friends, and only when it passes our filter. A friend can report a pet's name with the "Report pet name" button on a friend's card. When three different players report the same pet name (counted the same way as nickname reports, below), friends see the kind of pet instead until the player gives it a new name, and that name stays hidden from friends for that pet.
- A nickname can be reported with the "Report nickname" button on a friend's card, on a friend request and on each row of the season's top 100. When three different players report the same nickname, it is hidden at once, swapped for one of our suggestions, and that player cannot pick it again; a report counts once the reporting account is two days old and has hatched a pet. A word hidden on two different players is blocked for everyone. We also look into reports ourselves, every week.
- Any player on the season's top 100, and anyone who sends a friend request, can be hidden with "Hide player". After that the game shows them as "Hidden player", and their friend requests never arrive. They are not told. A grown-up can show them again in Settings, under Grown-ups.
- We may change any nickname we think breaks these rules, and block a word for everyone. An account that keeps choosing nicknames that break the rules may be paused or closed (see ending an account).
5. Looks, crates and the Supporter Pack
- Just for looks. Outfits, colours, patterns, rooms, badges, frames and the Supporter Pack change only how things look. Nothing that can be earned or bought makes a pet stronger, faster or luckier.
- Nothing random is sold. Crates and their keys are only ever earned by playing, and the chance of every item in them is shown in the game and on our website. The shop shows everything exactly as you will get it, and nothing in it has a countdown or runs out.
- A licence to use them. Everything in the game, bought or earned, is licensed to the account for use in the game. It stays ours and is not the player's property. It has no cash value, cannot be exchanged for money, and must not be sold or traded for money or anything else, inside or outside the game.
- Buying. Purchases can be made only in the Android app, through Google Play, and only after a grown-up check. Google Play's terms apply to the payment, and Google shows the price, in your own currency, before you decide. A purchase belongs to the account that made it. What you buy is given to the account at once, when you ask for it, so the cooling-off period of South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (section 44) does not apply to it once it has been given; Google Play's receipt is the record of the purchase.
- Refunds. Ask Google Play first, under Google Play's refund rules. If Google Play sends you to us, or something you bought does not work as described, write to us and we will put it right or refund it. If a purchase is refunded, what it gave is taken back. Deleting an account gives up what was bought for it, and it cannot be moved to another account.
- None of this takes away any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act or any other law that protects you.
6. Friends, friendly battles and swaps
- Friends are added only with a private friend code, and only when both players say yes. Only give your code to people you know in real life. You can say no thanks, remove or block anyone, and make a new code at any time.
- Friends and the leaderboards are a grown-up's choice. The game asks on the page where a grown-up agrees to these terms, and a grown-up can change it at any time in Settings, under Grown-ups. While it is off, the child cannot add friends, have friendly battles or swap, and no other player sees them in a friends list or on a leaderboard; their friends and rating are kept for when it is switched on again. Arena matches carry on, since they never show names.
- Friendly battles are just for fun: they never change a rating, and either player can say no.
- Friends can swap items, one for one, only after a grown-up has set up a safety code on both accounts. Swaps never involve money and carry no messages. A swap is final, so think before you say yes. We keep a record of every swap for 6 years, so if an item is taken unfairly or by cheating we can trace it, and we may undo the swap.
7. Changes to the game, and when it is not available
- We keep improving the game, so we may add, change or remove features, rooms, moves and looks, and change how battles are balanced. Things that were bought stay with the account while the game runs and the account exists.
- We try hard to keep the game running, but it may sometimes be unavailable, for example while we fix or update the server.
- If we ever decide to close the game for good, we will tell players in the game or on our website at least 30 days before.
8. Ending an account
- A grown-up can delete the account at any time, in the game (Me, then Settings, then Delete my account) or by following our account deletion steps.
- An account nobody has played for 24 months is deleted in the same way, with everything that was bought for it, even if it was saved to Google or holiday mode is on. Our privacy policy says how long anything else is kept.
- We may pause or close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, for example by cheating, attacking the server or choosing unkind nicknames again and again. Where we can, we will say why first.
9. Our responsibility to you: please read this part
We make Maatjie Arena with care, and we are responsible for doing what these terms promise. Because the game is free and runs over the internet, it comes as it is and as it is available, and we cannot promise that it will always work without a fault or a break.
As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for loss or damage that we could not reasonably have foreseen, that was caused by something outside our reasonable control (such as a fault with a device, an internet connection, Google Play or another service), or that comes from a use of the game these terms do not allow. Where we are responsible, and the law allows a limit, our responsibility is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our responsibility where the law does not allow that, including under South Africa's Consumer Protection Act: for example, for loss caused by our gross negligence, or caused on purpose. Nothing here takes away any right you have as a consumer.
10. The law that applies
These terms are governed by the law of South Africa, and its courts can decide any dispute about them. If you live in another country, you also keep any protection that the law where you live gives you, and you can go to your own courts.
If you are unhappy about anything, please write to us first: most things can be put right quickly.
11. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms, for example when the game changes or the law does. We will change the date at the top, and when a change matters to players we will tell them in the game or on our website before it applies. If you do not agree with a change, you can stop playing and delete the account. If any part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.
12. Contact
Questions about these terms, a worry about another player's nickname, or anything else: write to us.
Tiny Twigs Studio
South Africa
Email: info@tinytwigsstudio.com
Website: maatjiearena.com