What it is
Orisuji is a turn-based paper maze puzzle for iPhone and iPad. You solve each maze by folding and unfolding the phone, which moves a page across the board to create bridges and lift characters. It contains 69 levels across six themed worlds, with no timers, ads, or in-app purchases.
From the developer
In the developer’s own words, from apps.apple.com.
When Apple announced the iPhone Duo I felt the same excitement that I had felt when I got my first iPhone, way back when. I remember playing Tap Tap Revenge, Fruit Ninja and all those other games that really took advantage of the new hardware to create new experiences. I also loved playing cute puzzles like Cut the Rope and Where’s my water. A month ago, I got the itch to build something for the duo, in the lineage of those apps. Something that would be a fun puzzle with a unique game mechanic. I started with a simple premise: what if the cover screen was partly transparent? That could make a fun maze that you have to fold and unfold as you solve it. Orisuji is a turn based paper maze, when the phone is open you have your base maze on the right part of the screen, but the only way to solve it is to figure out when to fold/unfold it to create bridges and new routes. Along the way you’ll encounter increasing complex levels: cats and foxes patrolling, doors you need to unlock, platforms you can toggle, and floors that crumble under you. Some fun things I built/had to do that aren’t obvious: - I built a web based level editor that runs the game’s rules engine compiled from Swift to wasm. - Every level is validated by a solver that identifies shortest solutions, lints the board and identifies which “tricks” are required to solve it. This helped me a few times when designing levels where I would make a change but accidentally would introduce a shortcut. - Figuring out how to translate the fold mechanic to non iPhone Duos was a cool challenge, I ended up adding a “virtual” on screen fold, which still doesn’t justice to the game. - As much as I would love to have some data on how people play the game, it was super important to me that the game worked totally offline, not collecting any data. It was so incredibly fun to build this, as you can expect I leaned heavily into agentic tools, which enabled me to move pretty fast. Every puzzled was however designed by hand, AIs are not good at “fun”, and from a game design perspective this was the most interesting part to me. The whole game costs $4.99, all 69 levels (and already working on new worlds), no IAP ever. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w98lwzHgGWA If you’ve got a duo (or not) I’d love to hear your feedback. And more than happy to answer anything about building/designing it!
Editor takes
“A one-trick folding mechanic stretched across 69 handcrafted levels, with paper textures and par stamps, shows how far a small idea goes with real polish.”
“Pick-up-and-play with no timers and no ads, but the folding gimmick is tap/pinch on regular iPhones, and 214MB is a lot for a quick break.”
How to play
Open the phone to see the base maze on the right side of the screen, then fold it so the left page lands on the maze, bridging holes and pinning characters underneath. Unfold to lift the page and carry anything standing on it, moving characters by walking, folding, walking onward, then unfolding again.
Tips
- Use folds to create bridges over holes, then unfold once characters have crossed to move them onward.
- If a character is standing on the left page when you unfold, it will be carried along with the page.
- On non-Duo iPhones and iPad, you can fold with a tap or a pinch instead of physically folding the device.
- There are no timers, so take as long as you need to plan each turn.
- Try to finish a level within par to earn its stamp.
Questions
How much does Orisuji cost?
It costs $4.99 and has no ads, no in-app purchases, no accounts, and no data collection.
What devices does it run on?
It is designed for iPhone Duo, and also works on every other iPhone and on iPad.
Does it require physically folding the phone?
On iPhone Duo, folding the phone is the move. On other iPhones and on iPad, you fold with a tap or a pinch.
How many levels are there?
There are 69 levels in six worlds, each with its own paper and music.
Is there a time limit?
No. The game is turn-based with no timers, so you can take as long as you like.
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