Hidden Springs: the free downtown Hot Springs mystery game

A free mystery under Central Avenue

Hot Springs, the 1930s. A courier vanishes on Central Avenue carrying a ledger half the town would rather see buried. Legend says gangster-era tunnels run beneath the street. The town sealed them long ago, and nobody goes down there.

In Hidden Springs, the only way through is a door at a real downtown shop. Open it on your phone, and the next piece of the story is waiting on the other side. What's in the ledger, who wants it and why stay sealed until you get there.

Free to play. No app, no account. Kids, grown-ups, anyone with a phone.

Open the game The whole story & how to play

Play it downtown

Get a clue on your phone. It points to a real shop on Central Avenue.
Walk in and tap the small brass card by the register with your own phone. Your door opens.
Solve a short puzzle built from that shop's own products, and pick up a piece of evidence.
Claim the shop's surprise reward on your phone and show the counter. Then the next clue sends you on.

Or play it from home

Out of town, can't walk far, or just curious? Every door opens from home on the Tunnel Map. The story, the puzzles and the evidence all work the same. Your reward waits at the shop's counter for whenever you visit.

Sepia engraving of a row of downtown storefronts above a stone creek arch, with lantern-lit tunnel rooms and dotted routes below. — Legend says the tunnels connect every shop. In the game, they do.

The Case Board

Every door you open pins a piece of evidence to your Case Board under four questions: who, when, which way and why. Fill one pin per question and you have a working theory. Fill them all and you have the full account.

A newspaper every week

Each chapter runs eight weekly editions of a 1930s newspaper, The Extra. A new one comes out every week, and each edition only opens once your case has reached that point, so nobody gets spoiled.

12 endings per chapter

At the end of a chapter you decide what happens to what you found, who you trust and who gets the credit. Those choices lead to one of 12 endings, and your choices follow you into the next chapter. Play again and compare notes.

Families share one board

A family or team shares one Case Board on up to 5 phones with a 6-letter code. When it's time to choose an ending, everyone votes. No timers, ever.

Five chapters, one mystery

Ch. 1The Courier's Ledger. A soggy ledger, a missing courier and a man in an overcoat.
Ch. 2The Ninth Page. Eight letters in green ink, and a rival sure they spell CAPONE.
Ch. 3Curtain at Eight. An honest magician, a con man and a show that has to go on.
Ch. 4Dead Air. Nine seconds of silence on the radio, and lights flashing between two mountains.
Ch. 5The Fellow at the Depot. Eight brass buttons and the day the whole thing began.

Each chapter has its own doors, its own evidence and its own 12 endings, and the five together tell one story. More chapters are coming after that.

Chapter 1 is playable now as an early version. The story is made up; the history in it is real and tagged (see the History tab).

How to start

Open the game on your phone. It runs in your browser, so there's nothing to install and no account to make.
Read the opening, then walk to the first shop, or tap Play from home on the Tunnel Map.
Open doors in any order you like. Your evidence lands on your Case Board as you go.

Get the first clue on opening day

Hidden Springs opens around the St. Patrick's parade, March 2027. Leave your email and I'll send you the first clue that day. That's the only time you'll hear from me about it.

Send me the first clue

Playing from home

The whole story works from your couch. Open any door from the Tunnel Map, solve it and keep the evidence. The shop's reward waits at its counter, marked “Claim at the counter,” for your next trip downtown. You can even buy from the shops on the Shop From Home shelf.

Made to be easy to play

Big buttons and large text, made for phones first.
No timers anywhere. Stop and pick up later.
Reduce Motion on your phone is respected: animations go still.
Every sound has words on screen, and there's always a mute.
Hands-on puzzles use simple taps. No precise twisting, no two-finger tricks.
A wrong answer gets a helpful hint, never a penalty.

Safe by design

The real tunnels stay sealed. The game never sends anyone to a real door, grate, basement, manhole or the creek arch.
Every door opens at a shop counter, on your own phone. Nobody else touches your phone.
Nothing is placed on National Park land. The bathhouses are free story stops only, with no cards, codes or stickers.
Players under 21 never see 21+ businesses.

Your privacy

Your progress stays on your phone.
No accounts, no logins, no profile.
A family board keeps only the family name and which doors are open.
Shops see counts only, never who you are.

Rewards are fair

Everyone who opens a door gets the same reward from that shop. No luck, no random prizes and nothing to buy. While the game is still being built, the shops haven't signed on yet, so rewards start when they do.

Your shop as a door in the game

A door is your shop's place in the story. A small brass card sits by your register. A player walks in, taps it with their own phone, and your door opens: the next piece of the mystery, a short puzzle about your products and the reward you picked. They show you a CLAIMED screen, you look, and the next clue sends them on down the street.

One shop can't make downtown a destination. Twenty shops linked by one story can, and every shop that joins makes the game bigger for every other one.

A door for your shop Walk the sample shop

A walk-through of your store

I film your storefront and the inside of your store and turn it into a walk-through players explore on their phones, downtown or from home. Up to 6 of your products get a shopping spot. Prefer to film it yourself? There's a phone shot list, and it takes $75 off the build.

A brass 1930s radio microphone on a wooden desk beside a hand mirror and headphones, in warm lamplight.

Your own radio ad

When players walk through your shop, they hear you.

Old-time music plays all through the game. But while a player walks through your store's walk-through, the music steps aside for your shop's own radio ad, voiced for you by a warm radio voice.

Say what you like: how to find you, this month's special, what you're proud of. I write it with you, and it's voiced by a warm radio voice. You can change it once a month.

Included with every door. Not a banner. Your shop, out loud.

A puzzle from your three favorites

You show me three favorite things in your shop and one true fact about each. I turn them into your door's puzzle, so players spend their time looking closely at what you sell. You approve every word before it goes live. If an item moves or sells out, the puzzle still works.

Your Shop From Home shelf

Up to 6 of your products, each one linking to your own checkout (Square, Shopify or a payment link). “Sold and fulfilled by” your shop. Customers pay your business directly; I never touch the money. You choose pickup, shipping or both.

A report every month

How many players opened your door, claimed your reward and tapped your links. Counts only, no personal data. I can't promise a number of customers before launch, and I won't make one up. You'll see the real numbers.

Send me your ideas

It's your door. Text me ideas for the game, for your walk-through, your reward or your ad, and I'll work them in. A story about your building? Even better.

My prices

Three choices, one payment plan.

Recommended

Complete Storefront

Your website with its own online store, your door in the game and your walk-through, together.

from$1,495+ $79/mo

Or $200 down, then $259 a month for 5 months. The monthly starts when your website goes live.

A one-of-a-kind website, built for phones first
Your online store on your own checkout (Square or Shopify): customers pay you directly
Your first 10 products, one pickup spot and simple shipping
Everything in the Hidden Springs Door
Players hear YOUR ad while they walk through your shop. Music plays everywhere else.
Your walk-through on your own website: its shopping spots open your real product pages
One monthly for all of it

Film your own door: $75 off the build.

Hidden Springs Door

Your shop as a sealed door in the downtown game.

$495+ $49/mo

Or $200 down, then $59 a month for 5 months. The monthly starts when the game goes live.

Your store filmed as a walk-through, with up to 6 shopping spots
Players hear YOUR ad while they walk through your shop. Music plays everywhere else.
A puzzle built from your own products
Your shop page in the game
Your Shop From Home shelf: up to 6 links to your own checkout
A monthly report: opens, taps and clicks
Your name in the story, and one reward, the same for everyone

Film your own door: $75 off the build.

Website Only

For a business that isn’t in the game: a real website, no online store.

from$850+ $39/mo

Or $200 down, then $130 a month for 5 months. The monthly starts when your website goes live.

One of a kind, designed with me
Built for phones first
Hosting, care and link checks in the monthly
Built connected to the game, no connect fee, if you add a door later

Payment plan: $200 down, then the rest over 5 months.

A door's game monthly starts when the game goes live, never before. Film your own door and storefront on your phone and take $75 off the door build. If the footage doesn't work out, I film it at the normal price. No penalty.

The monthly is cancel anytime. A door's monthly starts the day the game goes live, not before; a website's starts when the site goes live.

The fine print

Walk-through: One filming session, one narration, up to 6 shopping spots and one round of changes.

Online store: Up to 10 starting products, one checkout provider, one pickup spot and simple shipping.

Monthly: Hosting and care, link checks, your report and one small batch of edits a month (about 20 minutes). Reshoots and managing your catalog aren't included.

Your own costs stay yours: your domain, your checkout subscription (Square or Shopify) and its card fees.

Cancel the monthly anytime. If you chose the payment plan, those five payments finish paying for what I already built for you; only the monthly stops. You keep any website, photos, video and product catalog I built for you. Only the game door and the walk-through hosting stop.

Hotels and big attractions, like the Arlington, the Aristocrat, the Downtowner, The Waters, the Malco and the museums, get a Landmark Door: $1,495 + $129 a month, with up to three doors on the property. Landmark Complete, a website with a booking link plus the doors, is quoted, from $2,500 + $149 a month. Shops inside a landmark building stay Inside Doors, $295 + $29 a month each. National Park property is never a paid door; the park's lessees get a partnership pitch from me, not a price.

If I already quoted you a price, that price stands.

Pay by card link, PayPal or cash, with a receipt every time.

See the full door page Text me about a door

Book a Private Case

Your group gets its own run of a Hidden Springs chapter on Central Avenue, with its own private board showing each team's finish time and hints used. It's for bragging only: no prizes and no luck. Every team gets the same story and the same locks.

$25 a person

$250 minimum, which covers 10 people.

Teams of up to 5 share one phone. About 90 minutes on foot, shop to shop.

Good for work teams, family reunions, church youth groups, birthday crowds and conventions.

Book a Private Case

A Case Made for Someone

A Hidden Springs mystery for a birthday, an anniversary, a proposal or a reunion. You tell me a few true things about them, I write them into the clues, and the last door is a real downtown shop where your gift is waiting behind the counter.

$149

Their name in the case, and a last clue that leads to your gift.

$299

Everything in the $149, plus a custom clue about them and a printed keepsake case file.

I write every one by hand, so ask early. The last door is always a family shop, and I check with the shop before you pay.

Start a case for someone

Both run on Chapter 1 today, while the rest of the game is being built. Pay by card link, PayPal or cash.

The real Hot Springs, told straight

The story in Hidden Springs is made up. The history around it isn't, and every history line in the game wears a tag so you always know which is which:

FACTDocumented, with a source.
CLAIMSomeone says so, like a hotel's own history page, but it isn't proven.
LEGENDFolklore. Good stories, doubted by historians.
FICTIONMy story. Made up on purpose.

The creek under the street

FACTHot Springs Creek runs under Central Avenue in a stone arch. The first section was finished in 1884, so bathers no longer had to cross an open, dirty creek on narrow bridges. NPS
FACTThe arch is still there. It is sealed, and going inside is illegal. The game never sends anyone to it.
LEGENDGangsters used it to slip unseen from the Arlington to the gambling clubs. Local historians doubt it: the tunnel is damp, dark and dangerous, and the gangsters walked around in the open anyway. Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Radio from a hotel ballroom

FACTKTHS went on the air from the Arlington Hotel's ballroom on 20 December 1924, with live big-band music and two steel towers on the hotel roof. It moved to 135 Benton Street in 1928. Encyclopedia of Arkansas
CLAIMThe call letters stood for “Kome To Hot Springs.” Some sources spell it “Kum.”

Babe Ruth, 1918

FACTOn 17 March 1918, at Whittington Park, Babe Ruth played first base for the first time and hit a ball over the right-center fence into the Arkansas Alligator Farm. SABR
CLAIMIt went 573 feet. That's the Baseball Trail's number, and one researcher thinks his grand slam a week later went even farther.

Malvern Avenue, Black Broadway

FACTMalvern Avenue was the center of Black business and community life in Hot Springs, with its own bathhouses, hotel, hospital and bank.
FACTThe Crystal Bathhouse (1904) was the first bathhouse in Arkansas built for Black patrons. After it burned in the 1913 fire, the Knights of Pythias built the Pythian Bathhouse on the site in 1914, designed by W. T. Bailey of Tuskegee. Encyclopedia of Arkansas
FACTThe Woodmen of Union building, dedicated in January 1924, held a bathhouse, a 75-room hotel, a 100-bed hospital with a nurses' school, a bank, a print shop and a 2,500-seat auditorium. It's a home for seniors today, so please look from the sidewalk. Encyclopedia of Arkansas
FACTBooker T. Washington visited Hot Springs in 1905 and again in 1911. Encyclopedia of Arkansas

1946

FACTIn 1946, veterans home from World War II stood up to the political machine that ran Hot Springs. It is real history, and the game honors it. How it meets the story stays sealed until you get there. Encyclopedia of Arkansas
FICTIONThe courier, the ledger, Old Amos and everyone you meet in the tunnels are made up.

What's true and what's legend, in the game

Questions people ask me

Is it really free to play?

Yes. Shops pay for their doors so players never have to. No account, no sign-up and no card needed to play.

Do I need to download an app?

No. It runs in your phone's web browser. Open the link and play.

When does it open?

Chapter 1 is playable now, as an early version. Opening day is planned around the St. Patrick's parade in March 2027, once enough downtown shops have joined. Sign up and I'll send you the first clue that day.

Can I play from home?

Yes. Every chapter plays from home: the story, the puzzles, the Case Board and the newspaper. Rewards wait for you at the shop's counter for whenever you visit.

How long does it take?

About 30 minutes to an hour for a walk downtown. There are no timers, so take as long as you like and stop whenever you want. Your progress stays on your phone.

Is it good for kids?

Yes. It's family friendly: no gore, no violence shown and no drinking in the story. Players under 21 never see 21+ businesses.

Are the tunnels real? Can I go in?

The 1884 stone arch that covers Hot Springs Creek under Central Avenue is real. It is sealed, and going in is illegal. The gangster tunnels are a legend. In the game every door opens at a shop counter, on your phone, and nothing ever sends you to a real door, grate, basement or manhole.

Is there any luck or gambling in it?

No. Everyone who opens a door gets the same reward. No random prizes, no loot boxes and no betting. It's clues and walking.

What happens to my information?

Your progress stays on your own phone. There are no accounts. Shops only ever see counts, like how many doors were opened, never who opened them.

Can my family play together?

Yes. A family shares one Case Board on up to 5 phones with a 6-letter code, and you choose your ending together.

I own a downtown shop. How do I get a door?

Text me at 501-575-8017. I'll show you the sample shop, answer your questions and film your store when you're ready. The game monthly doesn't start until the game goes live.

Who makes Hidden Springs?

I do. I'm Topher Cook, MixedMakerShop, one person in Hot Springs. I write the story, build the game, film the shops and write each shop's radio ad with them.

Text me

I'm one person, I live here, and I answer every text myself. Questions about the game, a door for your shop, a private case or a gift: text me and I'll get back to you.

Text 501-575-8017 topher@mixedmakershop.com

Topher Cook · MixedMakerShop · Hot Springs, Arkansas