Games aboard

CruiseChattr passes messages from phone to phone when there is no WiFi. These games are built on that: every time you play, the ship’s network gets a little stronger, and everyone’s messages move a little faster.

◌ Coming to the app. Games are switched on cruise by cruise.

Fox Hunt

Hide and seek across the whole ship.

How to play

  1. 1One passenger volunteers to be the fox. Nobody is a fox without saying yes.
  2. 2Everyone hunting sees warmer or colder as they move, from the strength of the fox’s signal.
  3. 3Get close enough that the signal burns for three seconds and you have found the fox.
  4. 4A hunt ends after three finds, and somebody new can be the fox.

Why it helps: Hunters walk every deck, and every pair of phones that meets is one more road for messages.

Badges

FoxYou were the fox for a Fox Hunt. Found the FoxYou found the fox. BloodhoundThree foxes found on one cruise.

Night Courier

Your phone works the night shift while you sleep.

How to play

  1. 1At bedtime, plug your phone in and leave CruiseChattr running.
  2. 2Through the night it quietly carries other people’s messages between decks.
  3. 3A night counts once your phone has carried for at least four hours.
  4. 4In the morning you see how many messages you carried, and for how many people.

Why it helps: Night is when the fewest phones are awake, so it is when messages wait longest. A few couriers fix that.

Badges

Night CourierYour phone carried other people’s messages through the night while you slept. LamplighterThree nights carrying messages for other people. Lighthouse KeeperFive nights carrying on one cruise.

Message in a Bottle

Write a note and let the ship carry it.

How to play

  1. 1Write a short note with no name on it and throw it overboard.
  2. 2It drifts from phone to phone, and anyone who carries it can read it.
  3. 3You can have three bottles adrift at once. Phones swap only a couple at a time, so bottles never crowd out real messages.
  4. 4You see how many phones your bottle has passed through, and you get a ping when it reaches land.

Why it helps: Bottles travel the same roads as everyone’s messages, so you can see the network working.

Badges

CastawayYou set a bottle adrift. Ocean CurrentOne of your bottles passed through twenty-five phones. LandfallOne of your bottles reached land. BeachcomberYou carried ten bottles for other people.

Gangway Greeter

Boarding day: how many phones can yours meet?

How to play

  1. 1On boarding day, open the app and go explore the ship.
  2. 2Your phone counts every phone running CruiseChattr that it meets.
  3. 3Meet fifteen and you have the badge.

Why it helps: The first day decides how well messages move for the whole cruise. The more phones that meet early, the better it works.

Badges

Gangway GreeterYour phone met fifteen others on boarding day.

Chatty the Ship’s Cat

The ship’s cat grows as the ship talks.

How to play

  1. 1Every sailing has its own Chatty. She grows up as the ship’s phones pass more messages, so the whole ship raises her together.
  2. 2Some days she goes into hiding on one passenger’s phone, and slips to another phone whenever two phones meet.
  3. 3Find her by meeting the phone she is on. Find her three times on one cruise for the badge.

Why it helps: Like the Fox Hunt, but nobody has to volunteer, so people keep meeting all cruise long.

Badges

Cat WhispererYou found Chatty three times on one cruise.

Deck Climber

Take the stairs.

How to play

  1. 1Your phone notices when you change decks, from the air pressure.
  2. 2Count the decks you climb over the cruise: bronze at 50, silver at 150, gold at 400.
  3. 3Bonus badges for ten deck changes in one day, and for covering eight decks in one day.

Why it helps: People who move between decks carry messages between them. A deck that never mixes with the others is where messages get stuck.

Badges

Deck HopperTen deck changes in one day. StairmasterDecks climbed on this cruise. Keel to Crow’s NestEight decks between your lowest and highest point in one day.

Link in the Chain

One message, end to end, without WiFi.

How to play

  1. 1An event announced in the cruise chat, at a set time.
  2. 2Passengers spread out from one end of the ship to the other.
  3. 3A message is passed phone to phone, at least eight phones long, from bow to stern.
  4. 4If it makes it, every link in the chain earns the badge.

Why it helps: It shows, in a way everyone can see, that messages can cross the whole ship without WiFi.

Badges

Link in the ChainYour phone was a link in a chain of messages that crossed the whole ship.

Your cruise, wrapped

On the last day you get a card with your cruise in numbers: messages home, people met, decks climbed, bottles set adrift, nights on duty. Keep it, or share it.

Fair to everyone

Nobody is ranked in public, and nobody plays a part (like the fox) without saying yes.

Your messages first

Game traffic takes a small, fixed share of what phones swap, so real messages always go first.

Holidays stay holidays

Streaks end when the ship docks. Nothing nags you after your cruise.

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