Hack the Past: Time Travel

You fell into a history chart printed in 1871, the one on your bedroom wall. Your phone's at 23%. No signal.

Hack the Past is a puzzle adventure through 25 real places, from the first cities to 1871. Each one is a small scene with a problem to solve: get a drink of safe water in a Roman port, get a frozen clock running in China, print something a pilgrim will pay for in Gutenberg's shop. The phone tells you what you need. It doesn't tell you how.

HOW IT PLAYS
• Pick up what's lying around and carry it to where it's used.
• People and animals show what they want. Give it to them and they'll help you, or get out of your way.
• Every app on the phone costs battery. Search gives you a hint. The camera tells you what something is.
• Use the phone where people can see it and they start to stare. Too much and somebody comes after you.
• The sun goes down on every place. If it sets, you start that place again. Nothing's lost.

TWO WAYS OUT
Every place has two. Filter harbor water through sand and boil it, or swap a soldier your olive oil for his posca. The end card shows you the one you missed.

REAL HISTORY
Nearly every way out uses something people in that place really had, and we had every one checked. Pumice at the top of the Pantheon's dome. Paper made from rags in Baghdad. Faraday's spinning copper disc in London.

THE DETAILS
• 25 places, 5 chases and an ending
• Play as him or her
• Plays offline. No account.
• Breaks between places, never during one. One purchase turns them off.
• Ages 14 and up

Made by Pettigrew Lab, a small family studio.