SCRAM: Hide and Seek

SCRAM turns hide and seek into a real-world game for your street, park, campus, or campsite. Players split into hunters and runners, start the clock, and let the app keep score. Runners get a head start to hide, while hunters receive periodic pings that show each runner's location and how long ago it was recorded. Between pings, hunters must guess where runners are. Players who stray outside the play zone become visible to hunters after 30 seconds, and tags are confirmed in person when a player taps "I got tagged."

The host controls the round length, head start, ping frequency (or no pings at all), and play zone, including its size, location, and shrink rate. The zone can also be turned off for play anywhere. Games are private, joined with a six-character code, and deleted after seven days. Location is shared only during a round and only with players in the same game. Alerts reach phones while locked and vibrate instead of ringing so they don't reveal hiding spots. Downloading and joining is free, and hosting requires a one-time purchase with no subscription or ads.