Lou Ferrand@lou.ferrand · Tue 3 Mar · 6:40 am
Herons always leave without a sound.
A playable investigation series · Season 1
FilatureLe Héron
She disappeared on a Tuesday. Follow her trail, one clue at a time.
Lou has stopped answering. Her sister Camille messages you, and you do the searching: you dig through a fake internet, pin what matters and answer the questions. Six episodes of about 25 minutes, beside a river that doesn't exist.
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iPhone and iPad · iOS 17 or later · episodes in French for now, interface in English and French
Bérange. Tuesday 3 March, 6:32 am. Lou Ferrand photographs a heron by the lock. That evening, she doesn't show up at her sister's birthday dinner. Her phone is off.
Episode 0 · First contact
It starts with a message.
No rules screen: the first time you open the app, Camille messages you on Pigeon, the fake internet's messenger. Answer her, and you know how to play.
In an episode
- ReadCamille's file: messages, posts, articles. A written voice-over opens the episode.
- SearchLimier, the fake internet's search engine. A name, a handle, a place: every page opens another.
- PinWhat matters goes in the notebook, and the notebook follows you from one episode to the next.
- AnswerFive questions per episode. The yellow banner always reminds you what you're looking for.
Camille FerrandPigeon · messenger
Thursday 5 March, 9:02 am
Hi. Sorry to message you out of the blue, it's Camille.
Lou didn't come to my birthday on Tuesday evening. Her phone has been off ever since.
Try it, right here
The first question of episode 1.
The real question, the real exhibits, the real hints. Open the photo's metadata.
To find · question 1 of 5
Where did Lou take her last photo, at dawn on Tuesday?
Season 1 · Le Héron
Six locks on the Sorve.
The season reads like a river: one lock per episode, passed in order. The first two episodes play from installation. The other four are already in the app, sealed: one opens each week, on Tuesday, Paris time.
You start here
1. Un mardi
Lou doesn't show up at her sister's birthday dinner. Her phone has been off since dawn.
2. Le héron
An ex who swears he did nothing, and a bird that comes back to the same spot every morning.
3. Pré-Mouillé
A plot of land, a report, a missing signature.
4. Saint-Préval
A little yellow car and a road in the mist.
5. L'estuaire
A town by the sea, and someone protecting their sources.
6. Le retour
One Friday morning, the paper comes out.
Changing your iPhone's clock won't help: an episode's key comes from a server that refuses it before release day. Once obtained, it stays on your device.
Mini-game · Trace the thread
One closed episode, one round: put it all back in order.
Each closed episode leaves you its traces in a heap: posts, messages, photos, articles. Tie them to the thread in the order they were left. A photo counts at the time it was taken, not when it was posted.
Tap a trace to tie it to the thread, earliest at the top. Tap it again to untie it.
The traces of episode 1
The thread
- Trace 1
- Trace 2
- Trace 3
- Trace 4
- Trace 5
And every day, the daily thread.
A round of six traces, drawn each day on Paris time. It only draws from episodes you've already closed, so it can't spoil what comes next. Closing the first episode opens it.
- Plays offline; the streak only counts days checked against a signed time
- Shared as squares, daily-game style: never a trace, never an answer
- The season's great thread, eight traces, opens after two closed episodes
Filature · Daily thread #4 🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Traced in 2 tries · from memory
The people of Bérange
Everyone has left traces.
A town of 20,000, invented from end to end. Here are the profiles you'll meet in the first two episodes. Others are waiting further down the river.
- Lou Ferrand@lou.ferrand27, hydrologist. Rivers, birds, black coffee.
- Camille Ferrand@camille.ferrandHer older sister, a night nurse. She's the one messaging you.
Bastien Roux@bastien.fournilLou's ex. Baker at the Fournil du Quai, up at 4 am.
Yvan Kessler@yvan.eclusierRetired lock keeper. Feeds the ducks at dawn.
Jo Mallet@jo.malletLou's colleague and friend, a cartographer.
Mehdi Saïdi@mehdi.mitronApprentice at the Fournil du Quai.
Fictional characters, portraits created for the game: none depicts a real person.
Real screenshots
The app, screen by screen
The rule of the game
An investigation game. Never a search for real people.
Filature teaches you to cross-check traces in an entirely made-up world. Nothing in the app points to a real person, address or website, and there are no outgoing links.
- Characters
- All declared fictional. Their portraits were created for the game.
- Sites and networks
- Limier, Piaf, Pigeon, Bérange Infos: made up. Their .fict addresses lead nowhere.
- Places
- Bérange and its river, the Sorve, don't exist. Photo coordinates land in the open sea.
- Numbers
- Fictional numbers, reserved and unreachable.
An investigation with no violent scenes, written with care for the worry of loved ones. If someone close to you really goes missing, go to the police, not the internet.
Credits
- The notebook
- pins, red threads and notes, from one episode to the next
- The hints
- three steps: where to look, deduction, answer
- The report
- one box per question, and the “No hints” stamp
- The share card
- your report without a single answer
- The widget
- the current episode, or the days until the next
- The notifications
- new episode or reminder, only if you turn them on
- The achievements
- Game Center, if you like, never required
- Sounds and haptics
- the heron's cry, the tightening thread, all can be turned off
- The shortcuts
- “Resume the episode”, “Next episode”
- Offline play
- an opened episode plays without a network
- The kraft desk and the screening room
- light or dark, Dynamic Type, VoiceOver
To be continued…
Camille is waiting for your answer.
Six episodes, a fake internet, a thread to trace every day. Free, no ads, no account.
Coming soon to the App Store