Rising Keep - Samurai Castles

Rising Keep is a samurai castle builder puzzle set in feudal Japan. Stone, timber, plaster and roof tiles fall from the quarry, and you stack them course by course into famous Japanese castles. Fill a course from wall to wall and it seals into your castle for good, while a painting of that castle comes to life, band by band.

The commissions have come in, and you are the master mason. Begin at Kumamoto, whose stone walls curve outward as they climb so that no ladder reaches the top. Then raise the black keep of Matsumoto, the White Heron of Himeji and the golden fish of Nagoya. Each one you finish hangs in your gallery, painted from the ground to the sky.

Build a castle, stone by stone
• A sealed course joins your castle for good. Nothing you build is ever torn down.
• Twenty pieces in four materials: a stone base, a timber frame, white plaster walls and a tiled roof.
• The material changes every four courses, and the delivery note names the next two pieces.
• Sixteen courses crown a storey with a roof and a golden shachihoko.
• The pace quickens as your castle rises.

Twelve famous castles in three books
• Book I, The Castles of the Provinces: Kumamoto, Matsumoto, Himeji and Nagoya.
• Book II, Castles Beyond the Sea: Carcassonne, the Alhambra, Mehrangarh and Jiayuguan on the Great Wall.
• Book III, The Warlords' Castles: Inuyama, Hikone, Matsue and Osaka in the summer of 1615.
• Four sites raise each castle, and every site has its own commission.
• The Legends rise as you crown storeys anywhere, free building included: Azuchi, Edo's great keep, Takeda, the castle in the sky, and the Dragon Palace beneath the waves.

History in every painting
• Each castle is a painting in four bands, and every band you lay tells a true story or an old legend.
• In 1872 Matsumoto's keep was sold for its timber, and the townspeople bought it back.
• Legend says the firebomb that struck Himeji in 1945 never went off.
• Raised castles hang in My Castles, and you can save any of them as a wallpaper.

Stars, gold leaf and ranks
• Three stars on every site: meet the commission, build it with no more pieces than the cart holds, then pass the master's test.
• Three stars on all four sites gild that castle's frame in gold leaf.
• Earn koban for every course you seal, every storey you crown, every star and the day's first commission.
• Rise through eight samurai ranks, from Ashigaru past Daimyo to Kanrei, with a free look at every new rank.

Build at your own pace
• Drag to slide, tap either side of a piece to turn it, swipe down to set it.
• Steady Hands slows the pace for a calmer build. The master's test waits for the normal pace.
• Meet the commission, then sign off or keep building for more koban.
• Fall short and your sealed courses still pay. Try again with the same cart or a new one.

The Mason's Yard
• Quarries remake every stone, beam and tile you lay, from Red Sandstone to the coral and pearl of the Dragon Palace.
• Site dressings frame the board in sakura, fireflies, red maples, snow or fire arrows.
• Seal effects play as each course seals: gold mortar, cherry petals, foxfire, Raijin's lightning.
• Four master masons stamp their mark and have their say when a build ends.
• Every look can be taken with koban you earn, or bought once if you would rather not wait.
• Book III, the Master Mason's Path and the Patron of the Keep (a thirteenth painting and desktop wallpapers) are optional purchases. Book III's first site is free once Kumamoto is raised.

Painted for grown-ups
The castles are painted dark and atmospheric, with sieges and fires in their stories. A few looks in the Yard are grim: ink that runs blood-red, and a quarry of bone.

The quarry is loaded. Lay the first stone.