How to play
Somewhere in this house, a machine has been asleep for a hundred years. Explore its rooms, win the parts it is missing, and wake it in the finale. Play alone on any phone or computer, or as a team with one big screen and everyone’s phones.
The house
Five doors lead off the hallway, and you choose the order. Each door shows only a painted symbol and a hint of what lies behind it. Every room is a different way to answer questions, and every room asks for five right answers before three mistakes. Questions get harder the deeper into the house you go.
- The SwitchboardCallers are ringing. Drag the cable from the caller into the socket with the right answer before the line goes dead.
- The GlasshouseFour raindrops fall, each carrying an answer. Slide the pail under the right one and dodge the rest.
- The OrreryFour planets turn around a brass sun. Pull the lever when the right one lines up with the telescope.
- The StrongroomSpell the answer on a row of letter tumblers, then try the door.
- The Dark RoomEverything, even the question, is pinned to the walls in the dark. Find it all with your torch before the battery dies.
Two ways to play every room
Each player chooses. Play the physical way, dragging, catching and spinning, or switch on simple mode at the bottom of the screen and just tap the answer. The room stays as scenery either way.
What you win, and what it does
Every room you win gives you an item, and every item works twice: once in the house, then again as a part of the machine. Because an item only helps rooms you have not played yet, the order you choose doors in matters.
| Item | Won in | In the house | In the finale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wire | The Switchboard | Lights the Dark Room: a wider beam that lasts longer | Each right answer charges more |
| Spring | The Glasshouse | Slows the Orrery right down | Adds time to the clock |
| Lens | The Orrery | Sets one tumbler in the Strongroom for you | Once, crosses out a wrong answer |
| Key | The Strongroom | Opens a shortcut past the back stairs | The machine starts part-charged |
| Fuse | The Dark Room | Takes the blow for your next mistake | Forgives one short circuit |
When a room beats you
You leave without its item and take the long way round: the back stairs, three quick questions. Each slip on the stairs costs three seconds on the finale clock. You are never stuck, and a Key saves you the climb.
The finale
Once every room is explored, the locked door opens and the machine is revealed, wearing the parts you won. Answer quickly to charge it, and fill it before the clock runs out to wake it. A wrong answer is a short circuit and costs three seconds.
Alone, a spark leaps between the machine’s five sockets. Where a part is missing, the spark has to bridge the gap, which costs two seconds, so every room you won helps.
As a team, the team is the circuit. Everyone’s name is wired to the machine, and the spark leaps to a different player each time. Their phone buzzes with the question, and everyone else can see it and shout help. The spark never lands on the same person twice running, and leans towards whoever has had it least, so nobody is left out.
Playing as a team
- Open Host a team game on a TV, projector or laptop that everyone can see.
- Everyone scans the code on the screen with their phone and types a name. Three to eight players.
- Argue about which door to open. The host taps it, then taps who goes in; the screen shows how many rooms each person has played, so it stays fair.
- That player plays the room on their own phone. The big screen follows along a moment behind, so everyone can watch and shout.
- Latecomers can join at any time by scanning the code.
If a phone goes quiet in the middle of a room, the host can tap Phone trouble? to hand the room to someone else or skip it; skipping loses the item but costs no time. The player can also simply reload the page to start the room again.
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