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PlayBurst

Support

Ask a person.

Email is the way to reach us. Say what happened and on what, and you will get a reply from a person.

Something is broken

Bugs, crashes, a game that will not load, a score that did not save.

support@playburstgames.com

Privacy and your data

Deletion requests, copies of what we hold, and anything about a child’s data.

privacy@playburstgames.com

PlayBurst has no social accounts. If one exists using this name, it is not ours.

Everything asked

Frequently asked questions.

Including how ads work and the privacy policy, in full.

What is PlayBurst?

PlayBurst is one free app with 48 games in it: 19 card games, 9 word games, 6 puzzle games, 5 arcade games, 5 board games, 4 classics. One download rather than 48 of them, every game free, and no purchase unlocks one. It is coming first to the Amazon Appstore for Fire tablets, then to Google Play and the App Store.

How many games are in PlayBurst?

48. The full list is on the games page, grouped into 6 categories: 19 card games, 9 word games, 6 puzzle games, 5 arcade games, 5 board games, 4 classics.

Does PlayBurst show ads?

Yes, PlayBurst is free and ad-supported, but an automatic full-screen ad has to clear three limits at once. It can only appear after a game has finished, and only if you have finished at least 3 games in total, at least 3 games have passed since the last full-screen ad, and at least 3 minutes have passed since the last one. No automatic ad interrupts a game. Where available, you can choose an optional video for one extra hint or continue, with a coin option and dismissal alongside.

Does PlayBurst use personalised advertising?

Not unless you have told the app you are 13 or over, which almost nobody will have. PlayBurst is a general audience app rather than a children’s one, and it still instructs Google AdMob to treat you as a child for advertising purposes, which switches off personalised and interest-based ad selection. That is deliberate: personalised advertising would mean knowing you are an adult, knowing that would mean an age gate in front of the games, and we would rather give up the ad revenue than put a question in front of the app. The one age question there is sits on the friends screen, so a player who never opens it stays on the protective setting forever. Ad content is limited to a G rating either way, for everybody, at every age.

Do I need an account to play PlayBurst?

No. PlayBurst signs you in as a guest the first time you open it, and you can play every one of the 48 games without giving an email address or creating a password. There is a Sign in button on the Profile tab, and it is optional: the only way in is Google, and what an account gives you is a friends list, progress that follows you to a second device, and the ability to buy something in the shop, because a purchase belongs to an account rather than to a device. Sign in and Google passes us your name and your email address, and that is all we keep of it. Stay a guest and we never see either.

Is PlayBurst free?

Yes. All 48 games are free and there is nothing to unlock. The shop sells coins and removing the ads, and that is the whole of it: no game sits behind a purchase, and nothing you buy gives you a game somebody else does not have.

Are hints free or do they cost coins?

Your first 3 hints each day are free, shared across games that offer hints. The allowance resets at 00:00 UTC. After that, an extra hint costs 100 coins, or you can choose an optional rewarded video where available. The button and offer show the allowance or cost before use. A connection is needed to check and claim hints. Undo, instructions and Hangman's fixed clue remain free.

How do hints and continues work if I have removed ads?

An active ad-free pass removes automatic ads and optional video offers. Hints and continues keep their regular coin prices. When your balance is below the price, the use is included with your pass and no coins are deducted. The offer says this before you use it, and the benefit lasts while the pass is active.

Can I play PlayBurst offline?

Mostly. The games run on your device rather than on a server, so playing needs no connection at all. The first launch reaches out once to set up the guest account your scores live in; if it cannot, the app opens anyway and picks the account up when you are next online. Hints, coin purchases, leaderboards and daily rewards do need a connection.

Who am I playing against in the card and board games?

15 computer opponents with names, faces and habits, and the game says so on screen. Karen would like to speak to the dealer, Nora waits for your mistake, and Gus has forty years of Tuesday night cards behind him. Two-player board games are played against the computer, or by passing the tablet between two people.

Does PlayBurst have online multiplayer or chat?

No chat, and no live play. Every game can be played on its own, against the device or against whoever is sitting next to you. Checkers, Chess and Reversi can also be played as a turn-based match against somebody already on your friends list: one move at a time, through our servers, with no clock running between moves and no matchmaking, so nothing ever puts you in a game with a stranger. There is a friends screen, which shows the people on your list, the requests waiting on somebody, and the accounts you have blocked, and there is nothing anywhere in PlayBurst that lets one player send another a message. Adding somebody needs an account you can sign back into, so it needs the optional Google sign-in on the Profile tab; a guest can open the screen but not add anyone. Every friend and every incoming request can be blocked or reported from the row it appears on.

Is PlayBurst safe for children?

PlayBurst is a general audience app rather than a children’s one, and it is not listed in any children’s store category, but it applies children’s privacy protections to every player by default rather than only to players who identify as children. Those two things sound like they disagree and they do not: treating everybody protectively is what lets us avoid putting an age gate in front of the games at all. In practice it means contextual advertising for everyone who has not told the app they are 13 or over, ad content limited to a G rating for everybody, no account required to play, and no way for one player to send another a message. The only text one player types that another can read is a display name, and our servers decide what one may be before accepting it. There is an optional Google sign-in on the Profile tab, needed for a friends list and for buying anything; a player who never uses it never gives PlayBurst a name or an email address. The app asks for a year of birth in one place, the friends screen, on the press that would put two players in touch. It is answered once, kept on your device and on the account it belongs to, and it cannot be retyped. Answer under 13 and the friends screen turns off, with every game, coin, streak, score and achievement untouched.

Does PlayBurst save my progress?

Yes. 38 of the 48 pick an unfinished game back up where you left it, and your scores, coins, streak and achievements are kept, on the device and backed up to the account they were earned on. As a guest that account lives on the one device. Signing in with Google, which is optional and on the Profile tab, moves it all to an account instead, so a second tablet signed in to the same Google account picks it up.

Where can I download PlayBurst?

Nowhere yet. PlayBurst is not published on any store at the time of writing. The Amazon Appstore is the first destination, because the app is built and profiled for Amazon Fire tablets, and Google Play follows it, because Fire OS is Android and that is the same build. The App Store is after that. This site will carry the links the day they exist, and anything claiming to be PlayBurst before then is not ours.

How do I report a bug?

Email support@playburstgames.com with your device model, your operating system version, the game it happened in, and what you did just before it happened. That last part is the one that gets it fixed.

How do I restore a purchase?

Open the Shop tab and tap Restore purchases. That brings back anything you have already paid for, on any device signed in to the same account. Removing the ads is the thing worth restoring; coins are spent once and are not restored. If you bought something while signed out, sign in with the same account you used and restore again, because a purchase is tied to an account rather than to a device. If a restore does not find a purchase you made, get in touch with the receipt from the store and we will sort it out.

How do I delete my account, or get a copy of my data?

Both are in Settings, under Account. "Download my data" returns everything we hold about you as a JSON file and hands it to your share sheet. "Delete account" removes the account and everything keyed to it, with no grace period and nothing held back. If you have already uninstalled the app, what we can do depends on whether you ever signed in: a Google account carries the email address it was made with, so email privacy@playburstgames.com from that address and we will delete it within 30 days. A guest account carries nothing that identifies you once the device is gone, so deleting from Settings before you uninstall is the reliable way. The full explanation, including what happens to an account nobody ever comes back for, is on the delete my account page.

I moved to a new phone. Where is my progress?

Sign in on both, and it follows you. PlayBurst starts you off as a guest, and a guest account lives on the one device it was made on. Profile has a Sign in button, the only way in is Google, and signing in on the old phone moves your coins, streak, achievements and saved games onto that account; sign in with the same Google account on the new phone and they are there. If the old phone is already gone, so is the guest account on it, because nothing but that device could prove it was yours.

Does the app need a connection the first time I open it?

It wants one, to create your guest account, but it does not wait around for it: if the call does not come back it opens without an account and tries again when you are next online. After that the games themselves run on your device. Leaderboards, daily rewards and score submission need a connection.

What are coins for?

Hints and continues. You earn coins by playing, mostly from the daily reward, and spend them inside a game at the moment you want one: 100 for a hint, 200 to carry on a run that has ended. You can buy coins in the shop as well, if you would rather not wait for them, and you never have to.

Can I turn the sound or the vibration off?

Yes, separately, in Settings. There is no music to turn off, only sound effects.

Is there a high contrast or colour-blind mode?

Yes. Settings has a high contrast mode and three colour-blind palettes, for red, green and blue colour blindness. Two things in that screen do nothing yet, and it is better you hear it here: the light and dark theme switch, and text size, which has no control at all.