Case FileHidden Springs

Seal 1 · The envelope

Welcome to the force, detective.

Yes, you. The one holding this file. You’re the newest detective on Central Avenue, and you’ve drawn the wettest case in the building.

Courier Dewey Pruitt was crossing Central in the rain when his feet went out from under him. His leather ledger popped open. The pages went swimming down the gutter and under the shop doors, eight of them, gone into the sealed rooms behind the shops.

One page didn’t make it that far. It’s right here, stuck to the wet pavement.

Seal 2 · The town under the town

There’s a town under the town.

Every kid in Hot Springs hears it sooner or later. Under the shops on Central Avenue, there’s another street nobody walks.

So here’s how Hidden Springs works. The real tunnels stay sealed. Nobody goes down there. Everything underground happens on your phone: the tunnel rooms, the secret passages, the ladders that only open from below.

Players never go near a real tunnel, grate, basement or manhole. Every door opens at a shop counter, in daylight, with the shopkeeper right there.

Every piece of history in the game wears a tag: Fact Claim Legend Fiction. A legend is never passed off as history.

Seal 3 · How a player moves

A clue, a walk, a tap, and a door swings open.

1. 1
   A clue. Every door hands you a riddle that points to the next shop on the street.
2. 2
   A walk. Down Central, shop to shop, to the door the riddle names.
3. 3
   A tap. A white card sits on the counter. Tap it with your phone and the hidden door in that shop swings open, on your screen.
4. 4
   A puzzle made from that shop. The lock is built from what’s on its shelves: the soaps, the rocks, the hats. You learn the shop while you crack it.
5. 5
   A reward. Every player who opens a door gets the same reward, the one that shop picked. No luck involved. You earn it.
6. 6
   The Case Board. Each piece of evidence files under one of four questions: Who carried it? When was it moved? Which route? Why was it hidden? Answer all four and the chapter cracks open.
7. 7
   Together. A family plays as one team, up to 5 phones on one board. Grandpa on the bench, the kids running ahead, every clue landing in the same place.

Seal 4 · Your door

Take off the detective’s hat. This one’s for you, the owner.

In the story, your shop is one of the sealed doors. Here’s what’s behind it.

Your shop, filmed. Open to anyone, anywhere.

I come to your shop and film it, then build it into a walk-through anyone can explore from anywhere: off the sidewalk, through your front door, down your aisles, up to your counter. Someone planning a trip from Dallas walks your shop before they ever leave home.

Walk into the sample shop

Behind your door, too

A puzzle made from your products

You show me three favorites. I turn them into the lock on your door. Players learn your shelves while they solve it.

Your shop page

Your own page in the game: your favorites, your story, your hours, how to find you. See a sample page

Shop From Home

Up to 6 of your products, each one linking straight to your own checkout. People at home buy from you. I never touch the money.

Doors openedCounter tapsShelf clicks

A monthly report

How many players opened your door, tapped your card and clicked your shelf. Real counts. Clicks, not proof of sales, and I’ll never pretend otherwise.

Seal 5 · Why people keep coming back

Close one case, and another one opens.

Finish every chapter, and the game lays all your choices on the table and asks you one question:

“Is this who you’ve become, or where you change?”

324 ways your whole case can close.

Still sealed

• ComingBlack BroadwayA part of downtown’s story the old guidebooks skipped.
• ComingBaseballThe spring-training years, when the big leagues came to town.
• ComingThe 1884 archThe street that turned out to be a lid.

Seal 6 · What it does for Hot Springs

A reason to walk the whole street.

• Every block, not only the famous ones. The case runs door to door down Central, so players walk past every shop on the way to the next clue.
• Real history, told honestly. Fact the 1884 creek arch. Claim the Arlington’s “Capone room.” Legend the gangster tunnels. Players learn which is which.
• Downtown for people who can’t walk downtown. Every door can be played from home. A wheelchair, a long drive or a rainy week doesn’t shut anyone out.
• Every new shop makes it bigger for every other shop. Each door adds a room, a clue and a piece of the story, and one more reason to come downtown.
• The park stays the park. The bathhouses are free story stops. No ads, cards or codes on park land, ever.

Seal 7 · Help write it

This story isn’t finished. I want your fingerprints on it.

Got an idea for the game? A story about your building? Something you’d love players to see in your walk-through? Send it. And tell me your three favorite things in your shop: that’s where your puzzle starts.

Seal 8 · The other half

They solved your door. They loved your soap. Now where do they buy it?

Maybe they’re back in a hotel room in Dallas. Maybe they played from a couch in Little Rock. Either way, the game just gave them a reason to buy from you. Your website is where they do it.

• A real website with online ordering. One of a kind, built for phones first, with your own online store on your own checkout. Customers pay you directly.
• Your walk-through lives on your own site. Each shopping spot in it opens that product’s page, so looking turns into buying.
• Every listing done for you. Your name, hours and address, the same everywhere search engines look: GoogleBingYelpBBBNextdoorFoursquare
• Set up for AI search. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google “where can I buy handmade soap in Hot Springs,” your site is written so the answer can be you.
• The site is yours. Your name, your store, your customers. If you ever stop the game, you keep the website.