Trailmarks iOS

Creator Guide

It's already the right shape. Trailmarks is portrait-only, built for one-handed play. Captured straight off an iPhone, it fills a Short, Reel or TikTok edge to edge. No cropping, no letterboxing, no pillarboxed gameplay.

Your audience plays along in real time. Every question is a single true-or-false statement about the city you're standing in, answered with one tap. No four options to read out, no pausing. Chat answers in the same second you do. It polls well, it chants well, and being wrong is funnier than being right.

The soundtrack is a non-issue, because there isn't one. Every sound is synthesised at runtime from simple tones, and the one recording, the terminal's own room tone, was made for the game and is owned by us. No licensed music anywhere, nothing to trip Content ID, every video monetisable. Trailmarks also uses the ambient audio session, so it won't stop your playlist, your stream bed or a podcast, and it honours the ring/silent switch. Run your own music under a full session without muting the game or fighting it in post.

Runs are 2 to 15 minutes. It's a roguelike, so playing well keeps a run alive longer, but a good run can still collapse in three cards. That volatility is the content: the moment it goes wrong is the clip.

Learning it takes about ten seconds. A card arrives, you tap True or False, or swipe to pass. That's the whole control scheme, and there's nothing to explain to a viewer joining mid-run.

Nothing spoils. No story, no ending, no cutscenes. 1,134 cities and 99,088 questions, dealt fresh each run. Two creators covering it don't produce the same video, and a viewer who buys it doesn't replay yours.

What looks best on camera: the split-flap departures board that serves as the menu; the journey map, which draws your whole route across the world; and the end-of-run distance, the natural payoff shot for any edit, one number and the line you drew getting there.

Campaign Information

Keys are available now. Trailmarks releases on the App Store on September 4, and codes redeem ahead of that date, so you can play, capture and cut before launch.

No embargo. Coverage can go up the moment you have something, before, on or after launch day.

Codes are limited. Solo studio, small pool, so we're prioritising audience fit over raw reach.

What we'd love coverage to focus on: a run. What you know pays for where you go. You answer questions to earn your fare, pick the next flight, train, bus or boat out of the city, and try to keep going. The score is how far you got. "How far can I get" is the format that suits it, at any length from a 40-second clip to a full session.

The press kit, with screenshots, video, key art and fact sheet, is at trailmarkshq.com/press

Game Information

Trailmarks is a card-based travel roguelike. You start in one city with no money and a half-full mood meter, and every card that arrives is a decision.

The loop. Local handlers deal you true-or-false statements about the city you're in. A correct answer pays, a wrong one costs. Travel cards offer real routes out, flight, train, bus or boat, priced against a real cost-of-living model weighted to where you're departing from, which is why a bus out of a cheap city is a lifeline and a charter flight out of an expensive one is a fantasy. You spend what you've earned to move, and kilometres travelled are the score.

The pressure. Money is stock, not score; it exists to be spent. Mood is a 0–10 clock with no safe state, and it only goes one way unless you feed it. You can pass on any card, but passing costs mood too, so waiting for a better draw is itself a decision with a price. Burnout is the only way a run ends: broke and grounded is recoverable, out of mood is not. Answer streaks compound, raising payouts and discounting fares, so a good streak turns into a long-haul flight and a bad one strands you taking buses across a continent you didn't mean to cross.

The world is real. 1,134 real cities, real routes, real geography, no procedural filler. The journey map draws your actual line across the globe as you go, sea legs routed around the actual coastlines. New departure regions unlock as your best distance grows, so the game opens up geographically rather than by difficulty.

Framing. The whole interface is airport signage. A split-flap departures board for a menu, boarding passes, a terminal that hums. Nothing explains itself in a tutorial; the airport just behaves like an airport.

Relationship to the PC game. Trailmarks on Steam, the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store is a different game sharing the same world, characters and art, built around a 3D globe you spin and route across. The iPhone game is a swipe-based card game with no globe, made for one-handed play. Neither is a port of the other, and playing one doesn't spoil the other.

Worth knowing up front: iPhone only, iOS 18 or later. Portrait only. No controller support, no PC or console build. Capture is iPhone screen recording, or AirPlay into a capture card. Runs offline, no account, no sign-in.

Price: US $4.99. The launch version is the complete game. Nothing is locked and there's no DLC. Additional city and topic packs are planned for later. No ads, no subscriptions.