Stillcraft / Apps / Campfire
One screen, one fire, one phone for everyone around it. Each of you holds your own stone, and once at least two are held the fire lights; tap it, and a spark brings a question. While the fire burns bright, the questions are light and funny; as the logs burn down, they come closer; and the embers ask about the quietest things. Hand over the burning branch, write one word for the day into the ash, and cover the fire with two palms. For a parent and a child, a couple, friends, the whole family: anyone who wants a quarter of an hour of real talk and to keep it.
Android 9.0+ · Free · English & Русский
Everyone by the fire has a stone with a name and a drawn head, up to six of them. The fire lights when two or more people hold their stones at once; one pair of hands is never enough. A guest stone is always there for whoever drops in.
96 questions in three depths. While it flares: “if you had a tail, what would it be like?” Over the logs: “what did you leave unsaid today?” In the embers: “what is your quietest wish right now?” No question repeats until a depth is spent.
Each question costs a log, so the evening lasts as long as the talk does. More people get a little more wood. Go quiet and the fire settles on its own, then goes out; the evening is still kept.
Tap someone's stone and the branch goes to them: now they answer. A talking stick nobody has to explain.
When the logs are spent, write one word for the day into the ash, then cover the fire with two palms. The word stays in the cold ash until next time.
Covering the fire sets one sealed ember aside. It opens only the next day, and only when you light the fire together again: the first spark of that evening.
A paper ticket for every evening: the date, who sat by the fire, the word and the questions. Pick a person to see only your evenings with them and the line of words you wrote together. About a year on, the fire brings an evening's word back.
Lay a cassette by the fire before lighting and the evening is recorded. The reels turn where everyone can see them, and the flames sway with the voices. It is never on by default and never carried over to the next evening.
Low embers as a night-light that fade out on their own. Everything stays on the phone: no account, no ads, no internet.
| The fire | What it asks | |
|---|---|---|
| Lighting | Two stones held together | Yesterday's ember, if one is waiting |
| Full flame | Six logs for two, more for more people | Playful: tails, dragons, a time machine |
| Burning logs | A log per question | Closer: today, this week, each other |
| Embers | Three more breaths | Quiet: dreams, wishes, tomorrow |
| Ash | One word, two palms | Nothing: the evening goes into the box |
JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, DataStore; the clearing, the fire and the people on the stones are drawn in code.
git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/campfire.git cd campfire ./gradlew testDebugUnitTest # the questions, and a whole evening ./gradlew assembleDebug # app.campfire.dev, installs next to a release ./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo # app.campfire.demo, a family and a box of evenings ./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo -Pshots # a still fire for tools/capture.sh
No. It works for anyone sitting together, two or more: a parent and a child, a couple after the kids are asleep, a grown-up daughter and her mother, friends, the whole family. The questions are written for anyone.
On purpose, no: two stones are held on one phone, so it only works when you are in the same room. That is the point of it.
The names on the stones, the tickets and, if you laid the cassette, the recordings, on the phone only: no account, no ads, no analytics, no internet permission at all.
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