The Reality Game

Twenty-one days.
One card each day.

Every day at an hour you choose together, a card turns over. You each do what it asks — without discussing it — and when the day closes you score each other, one to three.

Three weeks later you open the envelopes you sealed before any of it began.

Tell me when it opens See how a day works

iPhone and Android · First three days free

What is this? · How to play

Opening day

--Days
--Hours
--Minutes
--Seconds

Why twenty-one days

Most couples do not have a problem
with love. They have one with attention.

Nobody drifts on purpose. It happens across ordinary weeks where both people meant well, were tired, and assumed the other one knew. Three weeks of this is long enough for that to stop being the pattern.

You have to actually do something.

Not answer a question about your relationship — do a thing, that day, for a person who will tell you how it landed. Twenty-one times. It is very hard to coast through that, and most of what people call drifting is coasting.

You find out what lands, not what you meant.

Before you see their score you privately guess it. Day after day, the gap between your guess and their number is the most useful thing in the game: it is the exact distance between what you intended and what they received.

Neither of you can retaliate.

Scores stay sealed until you have both locked, so nobody answers a three with a three. What you write is what you actually thought, because you wrote it not knowing.

And by the third act nobody is allowed to hint any more. Whatever you get right by then, you got right because you were paying attention — which is the whole thing the game is quietly training you to do.

Who plays it

Your relationship does not have to be
in trouble to deserve the attention.

This is not therapy and it is not a repair kit. It is a game, and it is for people who are already fine and would rather not drift.

If you already chose each other, it is for you.

Five suits

Every day is one of these.

You draft the twenty-one days together before the season starts — four of each suit, in whatever order you like. You know what is coming. You do not know what they will make of it.

Stuck for an idea? The app has them. These are real ones.

The Time card TimeHours that belong to nobody else.“Put both phones in a drawer and do not take them out until bed.”
The Touch card TouchThe whole range of it.“Sit close enough that you are touching, for a whole film.”
The Words card WordsSaid out loud, or written down.“Tell them one specific thing they did this week that you are still thinking about.”
The Gifts card GiftsRarely the expensive kind.“Something small that proves you were listening weeks ago.”
The Assistance card AssistanceThe thing they have been dreading.“Do the one chore they have been quietly dreading, before they get to it.”

What actually happens

It is not a quiz, and there is nothing to swipe.

Love & Couples asks you to do one real thing for each other every day for twenty-one days, and then to say honestly how it landed. The app keeps the clock, the score and the secrets. The rest happens away from the phone.

The board on day fourteen of twenty-one, showing each day's marks and the tokens both partners have spent
The board. Every day you have played, what each of you gave, and every token either of you has spent.
The standing screen: both partners' totals against the forty-three and sixty-three marks, and the four bands a season can put you in
The standing. Forty-three clears the season and sixty-three makes you a Master Partner, out of the sixty-eight a season can pay — and both of you see both numbers all the way through.

A guided walkthrough

One day, end to end.

This is the whole loop — about four minutes of your day, most of which happens with the phone face down. Follow along, or tap any step.

Setup, step one of seven: ranking the five suits.
Setup: how bold the ideas may be, chosen privately.
The day's card, with the tokens that can change the day.
The blind guess at your partner's score.
Scoring the day, with a note and an optional voicenote.
The reveal, once both of you have locked.

Real screens, captured from the app on a device. The names and the numbers belong to a test account.

21days in a season, fixed before you start
5suits, plus the finale card on day twenty-one
10tokens in the printed box, and in the app
2people. There is no third seat, ever

Why the score is worth anything

Neither of you can see the other’s
until you have both locked.

So nobody answers a three with a three. You cannot copy it, you cannot retaliate with it, and you cannot quietly adjust yours because you saw theirs first. What you wrote is what you actually thought, because you wrote it not knowing.

And before you see their number you privately guess it. The gap between your guess and their score is the exact distance between what you meant and what they received.

It is a game, not a checklist

Three acts, five tokens,
and a line to clear.

Act I — Discover

Ask for what you want. Nudging your partner toward what you are hoping for is free, and nobody is expected to know anything yet.

Act II — Deepen

Asking still works, but it costs Insight now. The same help, with a price on it.

Act III — Deliver

Nudging is over. What you know by now is what you have paid attention to.

The line, and the mark

A season pays sixty-eight points at most, and where you finish in it has a name. Both marks are visible to both of you all the way through.

  • Up to 42Slipping Partner
  • 43–62Wonderful Partner
  • 63–65Master Partner
  • 66–68Master Partner+

Sixty-five is a whole season played perfectly with the Double Down never spent, so the top band is not simply more points: it is the one you cannot reach without calling that gamble right.

Act I · days 1–7 Act II · days 8–14 Act III · days 15–20 The finale · day 21

Five tokens

Three you are given.
Two you have to earn.

They are pieces on the printed board and they are pieces in the app. Spending one changes what a day is worth — and one of them your partner never even knows you played.

Skip Sit a day out, but you still grade your partner. Three · from day four
Switch Trade a day for another suit. Affects only you, and costs a point — a one becomes nothing. Four · from day four
Double Down A private bet on the day, and your partner is never told you played it. A three pays six. A two pays two. A one pays nothing at all. One · from day eight
Favour Yours to ask something of them, off the board. Earned by seven straight days they graded a three. Earned · two at most
Wild Won, never given: fourteen straight days graded a three. It arrives instead of a second Favour, not as well as one. Earned · once, if ever

Day twenty-one

The envelopes open.

Before the first card ever turned over, you each sealed three things: a prize, a penalty, and a blind ranking of the five suits in the order you believed your partner wanted them.

None of it is readable until the final day — not by them, not by us. Then it opens, all at once, and you find out how well you actually know the person you have been playing with for three weeks.

The winner names their prize. The loser delivers it. Both were sealed before the first card turned over, and neither of you has seen the other’s.

One condition, and it is the point: a winner who did not clear the line collects nothing. You have to win it, not just win it by more.

The part that matters most

This only works if it is private.

A game that asks two people to be honest about their days has no business doing anything else with what they write.

Sealed means sealed

Your prize, penalty and ranking are locked until day twenty-one. Your partner cannot see them early, and neither can any screen in this app.

Nobody scores blind

Scores stay hidden until you have both locked. It is not possible to see what they gave you and then decide what to give them.

Only the two of you

Notes go to your partner, not to us. Your photo is seen by them and nobody else, and its location and camera details are stripped before it is saved.

No ads, ever

There is nothing in this app to sell, and nothing about your relationship is for sale either.

Leave whenever

Either of you can end a couple, and every season you played together stays in both your records. Deleting your account is one tap in Settings, not an email to support.

Stopping is not failing

You can pause a season, or end one together, and the app will never make either of you feel bad about it. That is a rule it is built on.

Where it came from

It was a board game first.

Love & Couples was printed, boxed and played on a table long before it was an app — the same twenty-one days, the same five suits, the same tokens you can hold.

The app does the parts a board cannot: it keeps the hour, it keeps the scores apart until you have both committed, and it keeps the envelopes shut. Everything else still happens between the two of you.

The printed Love and Couples board

Everything that is in it

The whole of it, and nothing that is not built.

Twenty-one days is the shape. This is what the app does with them.

Read the whole of it

The days

Twenty-one cards across five suits and three acts, drafted before you start. In an open season you draft them together and both know the calendar; in a blind season you each draft your own and learn the other’s suit only when the day resolves. Day twenty-one is the finale, and it is the one day scored one to five.

The scoring

One, two or three, with a private guess at what they will give you — call it exactly and you earn a point of Insight. Neither score appears until you have both locked. Every score carries a note of at least three words, or fifteen seconds of your voice, sent with the day.

The tokens

Ten in the box: four Switches, three Skips, two Favours and a Double Down. Skip and Switch unlock on day four, Double Down on day eight. A Switch costs you a point after your partner has judged. The Wild is not given — it is won by fourteen straight days graded a three, and it arrives instead of a second Favour.

What is owed

A Favour or a Wild becomes a deed: words, a date, and both your names. It stays on the board until it is signed or done, it survives the season that won it, and the app reminds whoever owes it on the day before it falls due.

Letters

A private thread under one of the five suits, for saying the thing itself rather than talking about the game. Letters are kept for three weeks, and each of you may keep one out of that, forever.

The standing

Forty-three points clears the season and sixty-three makes you a Master Partner, out of a possible sixty-eight. Both marks are visible to both of you all the way through, alongside your Insight, your streak and every day you have played. A Read on what they most want costs three Insight.

When life happens

A day stays open for two hours after it closes, and a Skip covers a missed one automatically. Either of you can ask for a pause; it takes effect when you both have. Stopping is not a failure state and the app never says it is.

On the phone

Reminders when a day opens, when it is closing, and when the reveal is ready — and none of them ever carries a score. It captures offline and sends the lock when you are back. It runs on phones and on tablets, at any text size the system offers.

Leaving

Delete your account from inside the app. It stops working immediately, you are told by email what happens next and how long you have to change your mind, and then it is gone. No export, no retention, nothing kept back.

What it costs

Three days free.

After the free days

$21.99 for one season

One payment. It does not renew, and there is nothing to cancel.

  • Twenty-one days, and the break if you take it — there is no clock running out
  • One of you pays and you both play — it is a game for two
  • A season you have started always finishes, whatever happens after
  • Every season you have ever played stays readable, free, forever

Not a subscription. Twenty-one days for the price of one dinner out.

Twenty-one days start whenever you both say so.

Download it, pair with your partner, draft your season together, and pick the hour your card turns over.

App Store · soon Google Play · soon
Tell me when it opens

Free for the first three days. Nothing to pay to look around.

Before you ask

Questions people actually have.

Do we both need the app?

Yes. It is a game for two, and both of you score, seal envelopes and draft the season. One of you creates the couple and shares a code; the other joins with it.

What if we miss a day?

A day stays open for two hours after it closes. Miss it entirely and a Skip covers it automatically — you have three. Run out and the season ends early, which the app tells you both plainly and without blaming anybody.

Can we pause?

Yes, for up to three days, once per season, and it takes both of you agreeing. Ending a season early takes both of you too. Neither is treated as a failure.

Is it explicit?

No. Touch is one of five suits and covers its whole range, but the cards ask for effort and attention rather than anything graphic. It is a game about paying attention to someone, not a novelty deck.

What happens after twenty-one days?

The envelopes open, you find out where you both finished, and the whole season stays in your records — every score, every note, every card. When you want another one, you draft it fresh: new calendar, new envelopes, and you can switch between the open and blind versions of the game.

What is the blind version?

In an open season you draft the twenty-one days together and both know the calendar. In a blind season you each draft your own, and you do not learn which suit your partner was playing until the day resolves.

Can we play again with someone else?

Yes. You can leave a couple between seasons and pair with somebody new, and every season you played before stays in your record — with the name of who you played it with.

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