Ministry of Small Print: a free game about reading contracts

What is Ministry of Small Print?

Three contracts, each hiding unfair clauses among the ordinary ones: automatic renewals, impossible cancellations, a claim on your Tuesdays. Flag the traps before you sign, without crying wolf.

Ministry of Small Print is a free satire game. Each contract looks ordinary: start dates, copies, payment terms. Hidden among them are clauses that renew every 11 minutes, claim your Tuesdays or make cancelling impossible.

Tap the clauses you think are traps, then sign. Every trap caught scores; every false alarm costs, so you can't just flag everything.

At a glance

Category

Absurd Bureaucracy

Difficulty

Medium

Play time

6 min

Price

Free, in your browser, sign-up optional

How to play

Flag

Tap a clause to flag it: +100 per trap caught, −40 per false alarm.

Win

Catch three in four traps with no more than two false alarms.

Three levels

Beginner, Intermediate or Expert, picked before you play: the content and the clock change, and each level keeps its own best score.

Satire

Absurd and warm: every country, office, planet and form is made up, and every run ends on a real admin skill.

Scoring

+100 per trap caught, −40 per false alarm and +10 per clause in each contract.

Win by catching three in four traps with no more than two false alarms.

What it trains

Careful reading

Spotting the one clause that matters.

Consumer sense

Checking renewal, cancellation and data terms.

Strategy and tips

Look for “automatically”

Renewals, changes and charges that happen without you are the classic trap.

Check cancellation

A notice period longer than the contract, or a form you can't get, is a trap.

Expert wording

Subtle traps sound reasonable: “then-current rate”, “partners of partners”.

Why play Ministry of Small Print?

Subscriptions, leases and apps hide their real cost in renewal, cancellation and data terms. Reading those three clauses first takes a minute and saves money.

Frequently asked questions