Vale & Daughter: Safecracker

Nineteen locked safes and no combinations. Only your hands, your ears and your phone's hinge. Open them by feel, and read the letters she left inside.

Your great-great-aunt Ottilie Vale was a safe-maker. She built three hundred safes, and nineteen of them were never sold. They're in her house, and now they're yours, if you can open them.

There are no numbers on the dial and no hints on the screen. Open your phone slowly and listen: tick… tick… then a different click. That's where you turn back.

OPEN THEM BY FEEL Every safe is felt as much as heard, through precise haptics and sound. On iPhone Duo, the hinge is the dial. On any other iPhone, tilt the phone or turn a dial on the screen.

ONE RULE Don't unfold the phone until you've earned it. When a safe finally opens, unfold it, and what's inside is yours.

A STORY IN NINETEEN LETTERS Inside every safe is something she left behind, and a letter. A workshop that said VALE & SONS on the door. A clockmaker in Geneva. A patent that was stolen. Read them in order and find out why the last safe has her own name on it.

FIVE MAKERS, NINE MECHANISMS Combination wheels. Bank time locks that refuse to be hurried. Relockers that fire if you swing the door. False notches, counting wheels, knock latches, and a safe with no click at all.

KEEP PLAYING • Master mode: every safe again with new numbers, a quieter click and no hints. Beat your time. • The vault: endless safes that learn how good you are, and thirty things to find. • Blind mode: the screen goes dark. Hands and ears only. • Lock a safe for a friend: set the combination with your own hands, leave a note inside, and send it as a link.

The Workshop is free. One payment unlocks the rest of the estate for good. No ads, no subscription.