Scroll Seeker

Inspiration

打醬油 · A Life Along the River — Game Design Sep 26, 2026 · @Jack Zhao What this is We are building a story-driven adventure game for iPhone Duo. It takes place inside the real 900-year-old painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河圖, Zhang Zeduan, Northern Song).

This is a game, not a hidden-object app. Players do not tap around to find buildings. The painting is the game world and map. The player controls a character who walks through it, meets people, triggers story events, plays mini-games and makes life choices.

Division of work • Teammate: the background canvas, meaning the scroll world itself (rendering, scrolling, visual effects). • Us: characters, plot, missions and the Home hub, built on top of the canvas.

Core rules Direction: right to left A Chinese handscroll is read right to left, so the game scrolls that way. • The game starts at the right side of the painting. • The hero walks left, and the camera follows him from right to left. • The journey runs from quiet countryside to the river, the Rainbow Bridge, the city gate and finally the capital. • The current build scrolls left to right. That is wrong and must be flipped.

The hero 小安 Xiao An is a young boy who lives with his mother in a thatched farmhouse. • Home location: not at the very right edge (that is the donkey caravan) but slightly left of it, at a farmhouse in the misty countryside (x ≈ 0.90 on the full scroll). • He has three looks as he grows up: child, then young scholar or gentleman thief, depending on the player's choice. • He should look like he belongs in the painting (Song dynasty style, similar size to the painted people) but have a soft glow or outline so players can spot him. Duo mechanic: fold = home, unfold = adventure Folded (small screen) is HOME. Whenever the phone is folded, Xiao An returns to his house. This is the hub where the player can: • see Mother (娘) and the current objective ("Mother's instructions") • manage the inventory • upgrade gear with coins earned from missions • change outfits (child, scholar, thief) • read the story journal • use other home features we add later Unfolding opens the scroll with an unrolling animation, and the adventure resumes exactly where Xiao An left off. Map: 7 segments, right to left The scroll is very long, so we split it into 7 segments that work like levels. x = 1 is the right edge (start of the scroll) and x = 0 is the left edge (end).

Segment Scroll range (x) Act 1 村口 Home Village 0.84 – 1.00 Act 1 2 柳林小道 Willow Path 0.72 – 0.84 Act 1 3 汴河碼頭 River Docks 0.56 – 0.72 Act 1 4 虹橋 Rainbow Bridge 0.42 – 0.56 Act 1 5 城外街市 Outer Market 0.26 – 0.42 Act 2 6 城門 City Gate 0.14 – 0.26 Act 2 7 京城 The Capital 0.00 – 0.14 Act 2 Exact mission coordinates are in story.json. Story Act 1: 打醬油 "The Soy Sauce Errand" (free) Mother says: "安兒，去虹橋那邊給娘打一瓶醬油回來。" ("Go buy Mother a bottle of soy sauce near the Rainbow Bridge.") She gives him 10 copper coins and an empty bottle. It sounds like a simple errand. "打醬油" is also a Chinese meme for "I'm just passing by." But on the way, Xiao An keeps meeting people who need help, and each one becomes a mission.

Mission What happens Mini-game Reward 1 驢隊迷路 The Lost Donkey A charcoal seller's donkeys have scattered Drag the donkeys back into line Coins + straw sandals 2 問路 Ask for Directions Meet travelers on the willow path Dialogue choices Coins 3 拉縴 Help the Boatmen Boatmen struggle to move their boat Rhythm-tap to pull the rope Coins + rope 4 虹橋驚魂 Chaos at the Bridge The painting's famous moment: a big boat is about to hit the Rainbow Bridge Quick-time event: tap SHOUT at the right moment Coins + lantern 5 打醬油 Buy the Soy Sauce Market stalls at the foot of the bridge Haggle the price, then carry the bottle without spilling (balance meter) Soy sauce 6 回家 Go Home Bring the soy sauce back to Mother Fold the phone to deliver it Act 1 ending Outro: "Years pass… Xiao An grows up. At the Rainbow Bridge, life forks in two." The life fork at the Rainbow Bridge The grown-up Xiao An chooses his path. Each path has its own missions and ending. Act 2A: 考狀元 "The Scholar's Path" (Pro) Xiao An chooses the brush and travels to the capital to sit the imperial examination.

借書 Borrow Books: at the restaurant with the tall festive gate where scholars gather. Reward: brush.
入京 Enter the Capital: reach the great city gate tower.
胡商 The Silk Road Merchant: a camel caravan merchant sells rare ink. Reward: rare ink.
詩會 Poetry Contest: at the licensed tavern 正店. Mini-game: 對對子 (couplet matching).
高中狀元 Top Scholar: an official in a sedan chair brings the results. Mini-game: a 3-question imperial exam quiz. Ending: Xiao An becomes the 狀元 (Top Scholar) and sends Mother the finest soy sauce in the capital. Act 2B: 神偷 "The Gentleman Thief" (Pro) Xiao An chooses the shadows: a Robin Hood thief who steals from the greedy rich to feed the poor.
糧船 The Hoarded Grain: a greedy merchant hoards grain on a barge. Reward: grappling hook.
水路 The Escape Boat: find a boat for a quiet getaway.
牛車 The Ox Cart: hide among the goods on an ox cart to slip into the city. Reward: night cloak.
轎中錢袋 The Purse in the Sedan: a corrupt official rides in a sedan chair. Mini-game: stealth (move only when the guard looks away), then a timing grab.
夜出城門 Out Through the Gate: an escape run through the city gate, then give the silver to the poor. Ending: The poor of Bianjing eat well tonight. No one ever learns the thief's name, except Mother. Fold-posture gameplay The hinge is part of the game. Folding is a real action inside mini-games, and half-open book posture shows another perspective on the story. The simulator switches postures in discrete steps (folded, half-open book, fully open, tent, laptop), so every mechanic triggers on a posture change, not a continuous angle. Each mechanic also has an on-screen fallback button in case posture detection isn't available. A. Fold actions inside mini-games Moment Where Posture action What happens 虹橋驚魂 Chaos at the Bridge Act 1 Switch to book posture in time ("半摺放桅！") The bridge arch sits on the hinge. The boatmen lower the mast and the boat slides under the crease. Too late: it bumps the bridge (funny, retry). 神偷躲藏 Hide from the Guard Thief path Fold into tent posture ("立起屏風！") Xiao An ducks behind a folding screen while the guard's lantern sweeps past. Unfold to move on. Caught in the light: back to the last checkpoint. 糊名考卷 Sealed Exam Scholar path Fold fully to seal the paper, then unfold Song exams sealed candidates' names to prevent cheating. Folding seals the paper with a red seal while the outer screen shows "閱卷中… Grading…". Unfolding reveals the results (放榜). 家書 Letters Home Anytime Fold mid-journey Xiao An seals a letter to Mother before going Home. At Home, Mother's reply reacts to what he just did ("聽說你幫了船夫？娘很驕傲。"). B. Half-open book posture: another perspective • 人生兩條路 The life fork: at the Rainbow Bridge, half-open the phone like a book. The left page shows the Scholar's future (exam hall, 金榜) and the right page shows the Thief's future (moonlit rooftops, night cloak). Tap a page to choose. Without Pro, the RevenueCat paywall opens. With Pro, the chosen page expands and the other fades as the phone opens fully. • 回憶 Memory view: in book posture anywhere on the scroll, the left half shows child Xiao An at that exact spot and the right half shows him grown up in the same place. Before he grows up, the right half shows a faded silhouette of his future self. When a posture action is available, a small hint chip appears at the top (a half-folded phone icon) with a gentle haptic. C. Laptop and tent postures Laptop posture = handheld game console. The bottom half lies flat and the top half stands up, like a Game Boy. • Top half: the scroll, with Xiao An walking. • Bottom half: a Song-style control deck with a D-pad (walk left/right), action buttons (Talk / Use / Jump), a mini-map of the whole scroll showing his position, and quick inventory slots. • Tap-based mini-games (rope-pulling rhythm, donkey herding) move their controls to the bottom half in this posture, so fingers never cover the painting. Tent posture = two people face to face. The phone stands on the table like an inverted V, with one screen facing each side. • 皮影戲 Shadow-puppet theater (default): story cutscenes play as shadow-puppet silhouettes on glowing paper, mirrored so both sides can watch. Examples: the Act 1 ending ("十年過去") and both Act 2 endings. • 鬥蟋蟀 Cricket Fight (two-player side quest in the Capital): cricket fighting was a popular Song dynasty pastime. Each side shows one cricket, and each player taps their own side as fast as possible to cheer it on. A tug-of-war bar in the middle decides the winner, who earns coins. • 對對子 Couplet duel (optional): a two-player version of the scholar's poetry contest. One player picks the first line and the other picks the matching line. • When a guard is nearby on the thief path, tent posture still means "hide behind the folding screen" (that context takes priority). Systems Gear (upgraded at Home) Gear Effect Access 草鞋 Straw Sandals Walk faster Free (Act 1 reward) 布靴 Cloth Boots Walk even faster Buy with coins 燈籠 Lantern Bigger hint glow Free (Act 1 reward) 放大鏡 Magnifier Zoom up to 6× Buy with coins 毛筆 Brush, 松煙墨 Rare Ink Scholar path items Pro 飛爪 Grappling Hook, 夜行衣 Night Cloak Thief path items Pro The painting comes alive The scroll starts as aged ink on silk. When a mission is completed, that area blooms into color in Song dynasty mineral pigments (azurite blue, malachite green, cinnabar red), like the world waking up as Xiao An helps people. Monetization (RevenueCat, already integrated) • Free: Act 1 (the soy sauce errand) and the Home hub. • Pro: both life paths (Scholar and Thief), Pro gear and extra outfits. • Choosing a path at the fork without Pro opens the RevenueCat paywall. • Restore purchases and Customer Center live in Home settings. Data files • story.json: hero, home, segments, acts, missions (with x/y positions on the full scroll), rewards and gear. • qingming_1.jpg to qingming_8.jpg: the painting in 8 tiles, stitched left to right into one 25609 × 1200 image. • targets.json and clues/: landmark positions and close-up crops. • Everything is in ~/Desktop/qingming/ and in the Bitrig project under App/Resources/Qingming/.