Reverie

Reverie is a small city that runs all the time at kademurdock.com/world. You are a person in it. You walk streets, rent a room, work a shift, cook dinner, fish off a pier, bowl a game, fall for somebody, raise a kid, get in a little trouble, and hear about all of it at the barbershop the next day. Your friends and family are in the same city at the same time, and so are two dozen citizens who live there on their own schedules. You will not always be able to tell which is which. That is on purpose.

Where to find it

Reverie is open to everyone in the family now. It sits at the top of the Parlor as the first tile, and it is still at kademurdock.com/world if you would rather go straight there. In the iPhone app the World screen is where it always was. There is no code to enter and nothing to set up: the first time in, the city asks you nine short questions and you are somebody.

How you play it

Everything is a button and a typed command, and both do exactly the same thing. On a phone you tap: a compass that only lights up the directions that actually go somewhere (and says where), a row of things you can do right where you stand, and the people around you — tap a name and you get a menu: talk to, chat, joke, hug, flirt, argue. On a computer you can type the same words: n, go to pats, chat merle, eat. You can also tap the microphone, say it, and it goes.

On the website, World shortcuts jump straight to your command, movement, character status, or the world log. Room descriptions appear in full. If you scroll back to read, new arrivals leave your place alone; Jump to latest brings you back. Buttons keep their place when the room updates. Your needs have written values as well as bars, and the decorative city picture stays out of the screen reader.

In iPhone TestFlight version 2.0.2, use the Move, Things you can do, and Here with you headings to find real buttons. Exits say where they lead. Your character opens your needs and other status. Read latest reply repeats the last answer, and World log opens older text without dragging you to the bottom. Character-creation choices are buttons too. In World settings, choose whether to hear the room live and whether to play background ambience. Live listening pauses when you leave the screen or put the app in the background.

Three words worth knowing: look (the room), what (what you can do right here), and help (fourteen short topics, or help plus any word).

The Band, on the air (September 11, 2026)

Reverie has one radio station, the Band, broadcasting from over Hock’s pawnshop in Tanglefoot, and it is a real station now: short blocks written from what the city was doing the day they were recorded — the weather, who was hosting a cookout, who held the bowling board, what people were saying at Levi’s — and performed as recordings with voices, room tone and sound effects. The schedule follows the city’s clock: The Morning Tide with Harlan Pike (tide and weather, five to eleven), Small Crimes and the Classifieds with Junie Baptiste (the classifieds read deadpan and a true-crime hour about something trivial, eleven to five), The Evening Chart with Harlan again (what is open, the chart argued about, a dedication with no name on it, five to eleven), and The Overnight Block with Lorraine Vance (slow, kind, takes requests, eleven at night to five in the morning). Citizens phone in. Sometimes a person out in the city gets a shout-out by first name.

Say or tap Turn on the radio anywhere a radio is on: the Band’s own studio, Dez’s, Pat’s, the Truck Stop, the Garages, any car, or a home with a radio from Hock’s. On the website the block plays as sound — the ambience drops under it and an On the radio box appears with Play the radio, Turn the radio down and Read the words. If the block does not start on its own, tap Play the radio once; phones want a tap before they will play sound. Read the words (or typing radio words) puts the whole transcript in the world log so a screen reader can read it at your pace, and radio off turns it down. On the iPhone app and through a character in chat, the radio arrives as the words themselves. The Band plays from a shelf of recorded blocks: each part of the day has its own recordings and the station picks a different one each day, so nothing is made on its own and nothing costs money while you listen. New recordings are made only when Kade asks the Band for one. radio bank says what is on the shelf. When a new recording lands, anybody sitting where a radio is on hears it start.

Hearing the room without being interrupted (September 11, 2026)

On the website, everything the city says in one turn now arrives as one piece — the room, the exits, who is here — instead of a run of separate announcements a screen reader could start and drop. Things that happen around you while you are being read to (somebody walking in, the freight, a citizen talking) wait for a quiet moment and then come as one piece of their own. A button you are focused on is never pulled away when the room changes; it stays put until you move on. Sound cues are spaced out, never more than four in a turn, and the background ambience dips under them and under the radio. The city also has a day now: gulls at first light on the water, the Bell ringing the wrong hour at eight, half past twelve and six (close in Bellward, far off everywhere else), the noon whistle on the docks and in the Millrace yards, the ferry horn at half past five, the Band signing on at eight in the evening wherever a radio is on, and the taco window’s three a.m. line in Tanglefoot. Citizens speak up more often, in every ward where someone is.

Have people over

Open Hangout to host a cookout, record night, or story circle. A friend in the same room can join immediately. Put out snacks, pull up a chair, change the topic, or add your own words. There is no timer and no cover charge. Food and supplies are provided.

On the website, Add your own line prepares the command box for typing or dictation. In any client, say or type hangout add followed by your words. A story circle might start with a wedding cake in a stolen shopping cart; where it goes next is up to whoever is there. You can also just listen.

The host can finish the gathering and keep its shared moments. Choose Read shared memories, even during a running hangout, or type hangout memories. A dated list shows the last five gatherings saved in this room. Choose one to read eight contributions at a time, then use Next page, Previous page, or Back to the hangout. Newly finished gatherings preserve up to 48 contributions; older memories keep the lines originally saved. Dates use UTC. Reading does not join, finish, or interrupt a gathering.

Only residents can host in someone’s home; public places are open to anyone. If the host leaves the gathering, another guest takes over. When the last guest leaves, the gathering is saved too. The room retains its five most recent gatherings; it is not a permanent archive.

The river walk, pictures, and your look

Find a place opens neighborhood buttons, then destinations. River walk leads to Ropewalk, the Net Loft, and the Reed Pavilion: a connected route from the Hook ferry landing to Sweetwater Park. Each place has its own sounds and things to do together. The loft and pavilion offer shelter.

On the website and Android World, tap a person in the picture to open their interaction menu, or a direction sign to travel. Tap your own figure to dress up. Ordinary labeled buttons offer the same actions with the picture off. Dragging across the picture scrolls the page. Choose Describe the picture to hear what it shows. Motion can be stopped.

Dress up or wardrobe offers hair and clothes. Tap a choice, type hair pink curls or wear a blue dress and headphones, or use Talk to dictate it. pink hair works too. Changes are free and keep your possessions. Common hair and outfit colors appear on your figure; custom descriptions remain readable even where their details are simplified in the picture.

Forecast or forecast describes the sky now and in three, six, and twelve hours. Weather fronts develop gradually, with seasonal temperatures. Rain ambience follows wet weather and becomes quieter indoors. Sound starts after an interaction; Sound & settings controls volume and silence. These commands and destination choices also work in the iPhone app; the new interactive pictures and layered rain currently use the web World, including Safari.

Finding your way and meeting people

On the website, Android World and iPhone Safari, Explore from here lists the places connected to your current room. Choose a named exit to travel; the picture, people and ambience follow the server-confirmed location. Direction signs in the 3D view show those same exits. The signs are compass markers, not measured distances. Travel is between rooms; free walking within a continuous 3D landscape is still being developed.

Get oriented, or type orient, reads your place, everyone here, exits and your last room when it has a direct way back. This command also works in the native iPhone app. The way back can become locked, and returning checks the current access rules. Locked exits stay named so you can investigate them. Nobody in an adjacent room is listed here.

Say something to the room prepares say in the command box. Your words reach everyone present. Select a person, then Whisper to, for private words; use whisper "Full Name" your words when typing. A first name works only when it identifies one person here. A draft already in the box is kept. Arrivals and departures update the people list and picture, and reconnecting refreshes who is present. Replies and live messages share the World log. If your location changed before an action arrived, the page shows your current room and asks you to choose again.

A world you can see, hear, and read

The website, Android’s World page, iPhone Safari and the native iPhone app in TestFlight 282 now have a three-dimensional miniature view. Walk from a cutaway diner to wooded paths, a creek, camp, or the waterfront. Trees sway, water ripples, lamps light the night, and rain or snow follows the weather. Home furniture and people come from your actual room. Saved build, hair, and clothing choices now shape your figure and other created residents: locs, braids, curls, buns, hats, coats, dresses, and headphones appear in the miniature. Custom clothing is simplified. Colors and unchosen details remain artistic. Describe the picture also reads the chosen appearance. Residents without saved choices retain stylized stand-ins. People ease into their places when they arrive, and gathering guests face the shared table. World motion stops these movements.

Dez’s, the Millrace Lanes and the Records Office now have their own miniature interiors. Residents can hold books, cups, cooking tools and other small objects based on their visible activities. Gathering gestures take precedence while someone joins the group. These gestures illustrate the room; use the text for what actually happens. The Ferry Dock has a quiet engine bed, and courthouse sweeping has broom strokes. Scene audio follows your existing sound controls.

Under Sound & settings, Describe the picture adds a spoken-readable description to the world log. It describes the artwork, including its colors and composition. Room picture turns graphics off; World motion stops animation. Your device’s Reduce Motion setting also stops animation. Pictures do not change sound or the available actions. An illustrated fallback is available when 3D cannot run. Picture controls turns or zooms the camera; use the room’s exits to travel.

All game details remain in text and buttons. Graphics are hidden from screen readers, and animation pauses when the picture is offscreen or the page is hidden. Roomy text gives larger, more widely spaced reading. The native iPhone picture is prepared for a future app update; these web changes do not install it into an older native build.

The Gully Washhouse

Go northeast from Gully Road, or type go to Gully Washhouse. Nell Calder keeps the folding table moving, trades mysteries with Ines, and looks after Pat’s towels. Choose Wash clothes to improve comfort or Fold laundry to settle in. There is no coin charge. Wait fifteen seconds between loads.

Sort buttons lets you work with Nell’s blue button tin. It shares the fifteen-second pause with laundry. Open Window bench to help with three shared repairs: tighten its leg, sand its edge, and fit felt pads. Each finished repair is saved for everyone. Supplies are provided; there is no money charge.

Book exchange offers three short mysteries, each in three parts. Choose when to read the next part. Your place in each story is saved for your character, so leaving and returning does not lose it. The books stay at the Washhouse. If a reply was missed, choose Reopen part to hear it again; Previous part lets you go back without changing your bookmark. After an ending, choose Read again to start over. These actions arrive through the shared game service on web and phones. The updated linoleum, blue tin, bench and book shelf are visible in the web picture and Android World; the bundled iPhone picture needs a later app update.

Founder control @resident pilot status reports the existing trial’s request reservations and latest saved plans with emitted activity steps. Those snapshots are not a lifetime count or a billing receipt. Starting the trial again cannot refill or extend its allowance.

The washhouse has a quiet recording of real washing machines. Bowling strikes have a recorded ball-and-pins impact. These follow your existing ambience and sound controls.

Levi’s Chairs and the Garages now have their own miniature interiors. Figures blink independently, look around, raise their brows, and turn as they walk into position. They can wear the glasses, aprons and watches described in their clothing. These small figures illustrate the written activities; the world log carries the actual events.

Invite someone into the gathering

Start or join a cookout, record night, or story circle. Open a nearby person’s choices and select Invite to hangout, or type hangout invite Pat. A nearby authored resident can join and contribute. Their contribution has an activity sound and goes into the same shared memory as everyone else’s. Inviting a human player leaves the choice to join with them. Invitations do not move people from other rooms.

If the host leaves and only authored residents remain, the gathering closes and saves its memories. Otherwise hosting passes to another player. Repeating a resident invitation does not add another copy of them or their contribution.

Becoming somebody

The first time in, the city asks you a short series of questions — your name in two parts (a hundred Rubies, one Ruby Boggs), your pronouns, roughly how old you are, how you look, how you came to be here, two traits, and what you want out of life. Answer with a number, a word, or the whole thing. Where you came from decides your first street, what is in your pockets, and one citizen who already knows your name.

If you already have a character, say remake me to update your character choices while keeping your name, possessions, money, and earned skills. cancel leaves the remake and keeps that same character. back and start over stay within the remake questions.

Living

You have five meters — fed, rested, clean, fun, company — and they only move while you are actually playing. Leave for a week and you come back exactly as you left. Nothing here can hurt you; a low meter just means uncomfortable, and the city says so and tells you where to fix it. Your mood is the average, and good moods learn faster.

A place of your own. Nine places are for rent, from a room over Pat’s diner to a house behind the Fairlawn gates. Rent comes out weekly on its own; being behind is a nag and a rumor, never an eviction. Buy furniture at Hock’s Pawn (or dented at the Salvage Yard), carry it home, and what you put in the room changes what you can do there — a bed sleeps you properly, a stove cooks, a shower cleans, a radio plays the Band. Set your door to open, friends-only, or locked; hand out keys; have people over.

Money. Prices and your wallet use dollars. Old commands using “coins” still work, and existing balances keep their value. Work a shift wherever there is work — shifts add up to promotions and raises. Fish and sell the catch. Busk with a guitar. Grow and sell. Pawn things. Lose it at cards or on scratch tickets, if you like.

People. Friendship and romance grow from what you do together. Flirt, go on a proper date at the Pier or Dez’s, propose with a ring, get married at the Courthouse, move in. Or fall out, argue, feud, and apologize later. Players always get to say yes first: a kiss, a proposal, a fight, a move-in are offers you accept or decline. Say no flirting and nobody can.

Family. Miss Reed at the Children’s Office keeps a short list that changes daily; with a home and a crib or bunk you can adopt, or have a baby with your partner. Children grow on the real calendar — a baby for a day, a toddler for three, a kid for six, a teen for eight — go to school on Treehouse Row, and need feeding, playing, reading to. When one is grown you can claim them and play them yourself. Earn a stray’s trust and it comes home with you.

Things to do. Ten frames at the Millrace Lanes, darts at Dez’s, twenty-one in the Game Parlor, singing, dancing, reading at the Archive, running the Stairs, swimming off the Pier, cooking real recipes from real groceries, the Band on the radio, flattening a penny at the Grade Crossing when the freight comes through at 11:40.

Getting around. Walk, or go to anywhere by name. The tram and the ferry cost $1. Buy a bike or a car off Royce’s lot and go to uses it. Call Medallion 88 and a cab is there before you finish saying it.

Trouble

Not candy land, not the end of the world. Each ward has its own law: nothing rough in Sweetwater or near kids, the Fairlawn homeowners’ association fines you, and the Hook, the Patch and Tanglefoot mostly shrug. You can pick a pocket where the law shrugs; Sgt. Vann catches you sometimes and Honorable Pham’s night court fines you and puts you on record for two weeks. Words go to shoves go to hands, and hands stop at bruised — and players can only fight players who agreed to it. Little Ray sells a little something on Gully Road after dark; it is fun for a minute and costs you everything else, and a habit is a real thing that fades if you let it. Whatever you do becomes what the city says about you — hear it at Levi’s Chairs, the Salon, Pat’s counter, or on the radio.

Sound

Sounds help tell you what is happening while the reader carries the words. Hangouts have new cues for a chair being pulled up, paper rustling, snacks opening, and a record starting. Each ward has its own bed of sound and rooms their own tone. Leave the page open and the room reaches you live — a friend talking, a citizen wandering in, the freight horn — without typing a thing. Sounds and ambience have their own switches and volume in the settings panel, and the page remembers them.

Walking now follows the ground: boards, hard floors, carpet, grass, earth, metal, and wet ground have different cues. Rain turns soft paths muddy. The web world adds woodland, creek, campfire, home, and library backgrounds, with quieter outdoor sound indoors. The ten ward backgrounds now have corrected recording levels. Reopen the World to pick them up; your sound switches still apply. On the website, rooms without a separate room tone keep more of their neighborhood sound, and your next tap can restart a paused background. Background sound pauses when the web page is hidden. Choose Notice surroundings for the sounds, smells, and feel of the place in words. Pictures can be hidden in settings.

Outdoors at your pace

Choose Explore outdoors to visit Alder Trail, Reedbank Creek, Alder Camp, or Alder Hide. The paths connect beyond Tandy Orchard. Track wildlife or take a field photograph; field journal keeps your last twenty discoveries as written entries. Rest by the fire, or start a shared gathering at camp.

Easy fishing lends you a pole and offers Keep or Release buttons. There is no reaction deadline. You can sell a kept catch at the Shack or use it in a fish fry. Wait a minute between catches. The original cast, listen, and strike fishing game is still available. At Alder Hide, hunt offers optional wild-rabbit hunting for cooking meat, tracking, or photography. It never targets residents or pets.

Talking with residents

Tap a resident and choose Say hello or Ask about here. To say your own words, use converse Pat: How was your morning?, then reply followed by your answer. The web Reply button fills that prefix for you. Recent exchanges stay with your character and that resident. end conversation finishes. Residents can discuss plans; purchases, gifts, travel, and relationship changes still use their normal actions. If free conversation is unavailable, Talk to continues to work.

The small print

Ordinary city routines run without a model. A small Founder-funded trial lets residents choose a few quiet activities while someone is nearby. It stops after its fixed allowance or trial window; ordinary routines continue. It cannot make purchases, move people, or change relationships. Optional resident conversations have their own fixed AI allowance. Neither allowance renews automatically. The dollars in your wallet are game money. No payment is taken from players for these activities.