A Myst-Like Tidal-Island Puzzle Adventure

Tidegate is a quiet, hand-painted point-and-click mystery set on Brenn Hollow, a tidal island whose keepers vanished mid-ritual. The moon no longer moves the water — a great brass orrery in the lighthouse does, and it is jammed between phases. Turn it, and the whole island re-floods or drains at once. Low tide and high tide are two different islands sharing one map. No combat, no death, no timers — just observation, memory, and a handful of genuinely clever cross-scene puzzles.

What it is:

One control, one island — a five-stop tide that reshapes every hand-painted scene at the same time
True 2.5D dioramas — painted planes at real depth, with a water plane that slides into each scene as the tide rises
Pressure-free puzzles — a drowned carillon, a message walked into the mud, a barrel-post across four scenes, a cove that runs backwards
The Keeper's Almanac — a journal that collects what you find and writes gentle, escalating hints in the margins
Four reaches and a finale — re-light four harbor beacons to open the Tidegate itself
100% offline & local-first — no account, no cloud, no ads, no tracking

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Tidegate gameplay — the Harrow Strand shore diorama at half tide, the mud flat exposed with lit hotspot chips and the always-visible tide indicator, mid-puzzle

How It Works

🌊 One Tide, One Island

A single broken lunar orrery drives the water across every scene at once through five stops, from dead low to spring high. Dead low bares causeways, cave mouths, and shipwrecks; spring high floats rafts and barrels and drowns the paths you knew. You stop thinking scene-by-scene and start reading Brenn Hollow as one great machine.

🎨 Hand-Painted 2.5D Dioramas

Each scene is a set of painted planes placed at real depth in front of a moving camera, so the world has parallax and weight. The water is a true plane that slides into the scene as the tide rises, swallowing the deeper ground first — the signature mechanic is legible at a glance.

🧭 Clever, Pressure-Free Puzzles

Ring a drowned carillon whose bells only sound when their mouths kiss the waterline. Read a message walked into the tidal flat years ago by setting a lantern at the right tide. Route a key by barrel across four scenes. Prove that one cove runs backwards. In the tradition of classic Myst-like island mysteries.

📖 The Keeper's Almanac

A journal that quietly collects the letters and tide-charts you find, then writes gentle, in-fiction hints in its margins once you've been stuck a while — escalating from atmosphere to a concrete nudge. Never spoilers before you want them.

🔥 Four Reaches & a Finale

Cross the harrow strand, the cannery rows, the drowned chapel, and the lighthouse point, re-lighting one harbor beacon in each. Light all four and the Tidegate itself answers, opening the endgame of Brenn Hollow.

🔒 Offline & Local-First

No account, no login, no cloud, no analytics, no ads. The whole island — your progress, your journal, your pinned clues — lives in a single local save file on your device and never leaves the phone.

A Look Inside

Tidegate gameplay at half tide — the mud flat exposed on Harrow Strand with lit hotspot chips like 'Read the footprints in the mud', the moment one tide reshapes the scene — One tide reshapes every scene

The Orrery — a brass lunar dial with five lit tide-stop notches and a pointer, driving the whole island's tide — The orrery — set the whole island's tide

The drowned carillon at the chapel — three bells standing at the flood waterline with 'Ring the dusk / flood / ebb bell' controls, a puzzle solved by moving the tide — The drowned carillon — ring bells at three tides

The Keeper's Almanac — recovered pages, pinned clues, and gentle escalating marginalia hints — The Keeper's Almanac & hints

Map of Brenn Hollow showing four reaches and the finale, with the free Harrow Reach and the locked districts — Brenn Hollow — four reaches & a finale

Tidegate's unlock screen — a single $9.99 one-time purchase, never a subscription, with the free Harrow Reach staying free — One unlock, $9.99 — honest, optional pricing

Made for Patient Explorers

🗺️ The Myst-Era Adventurer

Slow, atmospheric, environment-told storytelling
Cross-scene puzzles that reward a notebook and a good memory
No combat, no death, no timers — just the island and its logic

🧩 The Lateral Thinker

One tide control that changes everything, everywhere, at once
Puzzles that span four scenes and three tide heights
Optional, escalating hints when — and only when — you want them

🌙 The Offline & Private Player

Plays fully offline — perfect for flights and quiet evenings
No account, no ads, no tracking; a single local save
Try all of District 1 free before you ever pay a cent

Unlock Tidegate

All of District 1 (Harrow Reach) — roughly 45 minutes, including lighting its beacon — is free, with no card needed to start, along with the orrery, the journal, and the almanac's gentle hint tiers. A single one-time unlock opens the rest of Brenn Hollow: Districts 2–4 (the cannery rows, the drowned chapel, and the lighthouse point), the Tidegate finale, and the almanac's plain-spoken explicit-hint tier. The free reach stays free, forever. Buy once, keep forever — never a subscription.

One-time purchase · no subscription

Unlock Tidegate

$9.99 once

Districts 2–4, the Tidegate finale, and the Keeper's Almanac explicit-hint tier. Yours forever, on every device signed in to your store account.

Prices may vary by region and are shown in the app at the time of purchase. Tidegate is sold as a single non-consumable one-time purchase (tidegate_all_access) — there is no subscription, no auto-renewal, and no free trial, because the free district is the trial. Purchases restore on a new device with Restore Purchases. See our Terms and EULA for full purchase details.

What is Tidegate?

Tidegate is a hand-painted, Myst-like point-and-click puzzle adventure for iOS and Android, set on Brenn Hollow, a tidal island whose keepers vanished mid-ritual. A single brass lunar orrery moves the water across five tide stops, reshaping every scene at once, so low tide and high tide are two different islands sharing one map.

There is no combat, no death, and no time pressure — the challenge is reading the island as one hydraulic machine. Tidegate plays fully offline with no account, and District 1 (Harrow Reach) is free.

Frequently asked questions

How does the tide work in Tidegate?

A single broken lunar orrery in the lighthouse sets the tide for the whole island across five stops, from dead low to spring high. Every hand-painted scene re-floods or drains at the same time: dead low bares causeways, cave mouths, and shipwrecks, while spring high floats rafts and barrels and drowns the paths you knew.

Is Tidegate available on iPhone and Android?

Yes. Tidegate is available on the Apple App Store for iOS and on Google Play for Android.

How much does Tidegate cost?

All of District 1 (Harrow Reach) — roughly 45 minutes, including lighting its beacon — is free, with no card needed to start. A single one-time unlock, Unlock Tidegate ($9.99), opens the rest of Brenn Hollow: Districts 2–4 and the almanac's plain-spoken explicit-hint tier. Prices may vary by region and are shown in the app at the time of purchase.

Is Tidegate a subscription?

No. Tidegate is sold as a single non-consumable one-time purchase, with no subscription, no auto-renewal, and no free trial, because the free district is the trial. The unlock is tied to your store account and can be recovered on a new device with Restore Purchases.

Can you play Tidegate offline?

Yes. Tidegate is 100% offline and local-first, and gameplay requires no network connection and no account. The only feature that involves the internet is the optional one-time purchase, which is handled by your app store.

Does Tidegate collect any personal data?

No. There is no account, no login, no cloud, and no server, and Tidegate uses no ads, no advertising identifiers, and no third-party analytics. Your progress, journal, and pinned clues live only in a single local save file on your device. The one exception is purchase data, which Apple, Google, and RevenueCat handle to validate and restore the optional unlock.

Is there combat, death, or a time limit in Tidegate?

No. Tidegate is a calm, non-violent, single-player puzzle adventure with no combat, no death, and no timers. It is intended for a general audience, and its story, characters, places, and events are fictional.

What happens if I get stuck in Tidegate?

The Keeper's Almanac collects the letters and tide-charts you find and writes gentle, in-fiction hints in its margins once you have been stuck a while, escalating from atmosphere to a concrete nudge. The atmospheric and concrete hint tiers are free; the almanac's explicit-hint tier comes with the one-time unlock.

Privacy First — the Whole Island Stays on Your Phone

Tidegate is built local-first. Here's exactly how it works:

No account, no cloud, no server. You don't sign up or log in. There is no backend that receives anything — nothing to leak and nothing to fail on an update or a new phone.
Your game stays on the device. Your progress, tide state, inventory, journal, and pinned clues are stored only in a single local save file on your phone.
No ads, no tracking, no analytics. Tidegate does not use advertising identifiers, cross-app tracking, or third-party analytics SDKs.
Everything runs on-device. The puzzles and the Keeper's Almanac hint engine are deterministic, rule-based logic. There is no LLM, no AI model, no model download, and no network or key — nothing about your play is sent anywhere.
One billing helper. The only data that ever leaves your phone is purchase data, handled by Apple, Google, and RevenueCat to validate and restore the optional one-time unlock.

For complete details, see our Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and EULA.