What is Curio?
Curio is a cabinet of puzzle boxes. I slide a panel, and if it is free it slides out and drops away with a soft wood knock. If something holds it, it bumps back and the panel in the way glows, so I always know why.
Layer by layer the box opens, and the last panel lets the curio rise out: a shell, a compass, a pressed flower or a clockwork bird. It goes on a shelf in my cabinet.
How do the boxes work?
Every box is built from a seed on the phone, so they never run out. Each is built backwards from an open box, so every box can be opened. If I get stuck there is always a free way to loosen one panel.
Difficulty rises gently: color keys arrive early, a dock for holding panels comes a little later, and deeper boxes are mixed with easy ones.
What can I collect in Curio?
The cabinet holds 120 curios on 12 shelves, such as shells, instruments, pressed flowers, clockwork birds, keys, feathers, marbles, seed pods, glass bottles, coins, moths and knots. A full shelf lights up and opens a new box style: wood, lacquer, brass, paper or glass.
Does Curio have timers and ads?
Mostly no timers. From the twentieth box each one shows a bonus clock that only pays a little more for being quick. A few boxes marked Rush or Sprint have a real clock, and they say so before I start.
There are a few ads, never in the first fifty minutes and never mid-box. Buying anything switches the in-between ads off, and the No ads purchase can be restored on a new phone.
Does Curio work offline?
Yes. Everything, including new boxes, works with no connection. There is no account or sign-in, and a box in progress resumes exactly where it was left, even after the phone restarts.
