Capsule · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything Capsule does.

Fill the machine

A small joy, a thing to buy, an outing, a rare golden one you save up for, or just a note. Tag when it would rather fall: morning, evening, Friday, the weekend, sun, rain, grey sky, snow.

Then forget

For a day you can still read and take back what you put in; then the words are sealed. Only the colour of the shell tells the kind, and that's what makes the surprise real.

One coin a day

Tap the slot and turn the crank a full round clockwise: the ratchet clicks, the capsules jump, one drops into the tray. The purse keeps up to three coins for the days you miss.

It reads the day

Look out of the window and mark the weather: capsules tagged for today fall more often, yours more often than the factory's, gold rarely. Things to buy keep to a monthly limit you set.

Hiding places

Buy a little something, hide it at home, leave a riddle and a photo of the place taken with the phone's own camera. Weeks later the riddle falls out; the photo opens only if you haven't found it in three days.

Hard day

Capsules tagged “hard day” are kept back from the crank. The dark button under the machine gives one of them, once a day, without a coin.

It falls by itself

Now and then a capsule drops on its own at a random moment of the day, with one quiet notification. Not today? Two swaps a week put a capsule back into the dome.

Figures and the album

Each capsule holds a little figure. Do the present, close it with one word, and it stands on the shelf: 32 figures in four series (kitchen garden, forest, sea, sky), gold ones from golden capsules. The papers go into an album by month.

Screens

Captured in Capsule.

Capsule: The machine — **The machine**One coin, one turn, one capsule.

Capsule: Twist it open — **Twist it open**Drag the lid sideways.

Capsule: The paper — **The paper**Put in 22 days ago, under a grey sky.

Capsule: Fill it — **Fill it**Sealed a day later.

Capsule: The shelf — **The shelf**Figures and an album of papers.

Capsule: Welcome — **Welcome**Presents from your past self.

Capsule: Settings — **Settings**Monthly limit and the factory batch.

What's in the capsules

Shell	Kind	For example
Teal	Small joy	Five free minutes: a song from childhood, a walk without the phone
Orange	Thing	A pastry from that bakery; keeps to your monthly limit
Blue	Outing	The cinema alone, a market without a list
Gold	Golden	Something you save up for; falls rarely
Lilac	Note	“You're doing fine”
Pink	Hard day	Kept back for the dark button, once a day, no coin

Get it

Get Capsule.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: Capsule.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
Permissions: Notifications, for the capsule that falls by itself, and vibration. No camera permission (the phone's own camera takes hiding-place photos), no internet, no account, no ads, no analytics.
License: MIT · fonts Rubik and Caveat (SIL OFL)

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Put in a few presents for yourself, or just turn the crank: the factory batch has a surprise ready.

165 ready-made factory capsules in English and Russian top the dome up when it runs low, so there's a surprise before you fill it. Switch them off in settings to keep only your own.

Download APK All releases

Build from source

JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, DataStore, WorkManager; the machine, its physics and the 32 figures are drawn in code, and the sounds are synthesised.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/capsule.git
cd capsule
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.capsule.demo: six weeks of capsules opened
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderArt*'   # the machine, the figures and every screen to PNG

Good to know

Questions people ask.

How can it surprise me if I wrote it?

By forgetting. A day after you put a present in, the words are sealed and the capsule is lost in the dome; weeks later you no longer remember which one is which. The factory batch mixes in surprises you didn't write at all.

What if I miss a day?

The purse keeps up to three coins, so you can turn the crank for the days you missed.

Won't it make me spend a lot?

Things to buy keep to a monthly limit you set; the rest wait for next month. Most capsules are small joys, outings and notes that cost nothing.

Does anything leave the phone?

No. The app has no internet permission at all; your presents, papers and hiding-place photos stay on the phone.