How to play
How a door works: no app, your own phone
People ask me what they need to download. Nothing. Hidden Springs runs in the web browser your phone already has.
The short version
- Get a clue. Every chapter starts with a riddle, and it points to a real shop on Central Avenue.
- Walk there. The Tunnel Map tells you about how many minutes it is on foot.
- Touch your phone to the white card on the counter. Your door opens.
- Play the door. A piece of a 1936 mystery, a quick hands-on puzzle, then a lock to solve.
- Claim the reward the shop picked. Everyone who opens that door gets the same thing.
What the white card actually is
It's a small NFC tag, the same kind of chip that lets you pay by tapping. When you hold the top of your phone to it, your phone opens a web link that belongs to that shop's door. Most iPhones from the last several years read these tags without opening anything first, and most Android phones do too, as long as NFC is turned on in settings.
That's it. There's no account and no password. Your stamps, your items and your rewards are kept on your own phone.
Nobody else touches your phone
I built the claim screen so the clerk never has to hold it. When you tap Claim my reward, your phone shows a CLAIMED screen with a live clock, today's date and a turning seal. You turn the phone toward the counter, the clerk looks, and you're done. A screenshot won't pass, because the clock wouldn't be moving. Each door can be claimed once per phone.
Not downtown right now?
You can play a door from your couch. On the Tunnel Map, the button says Open Door 4 from here (or whichever door is next). The story, the puzzle, the lock and the stamp all work at home. The reward is the only part that waits: it stays on your phone until you come in and tap that shop's card in person.
Where things stand today
The game is in preview. Ten chapters are written, Case One and Case Two both whole, and the story walks past 55 downtown shops. No shop has signed up yet, so the cards aren't on counters, and a door shows "reward coming soon" until its shop joins. You can play every chapter from home right now, and I'd love to hear what you think.