Tripwire Recon · Game design · August 2026
Tripwire Recon is a mixed-reality recon game for iPhone. The map is the real world. You walk a real block, develop it, and hold it for your faction before the other side does. Built by Edge Orbital. Free on the App Store.
The fantasy
LiDAR iPhones image a twin of the place. Camera-only iPhones claim it by capturing the flag. Either way the win is being there. The live App Store loop is develop, claim, and faction. Squad mesh and festival-scale ops are on the path and described on the play page.
Core loop
Orbit a real place until the coverage ring fills. That is the verb the first session teaches.
Take the flag for your faction. Paint copy claims the building. Joining a faction actually joins a clan.
Come back, fill what you missed, share the op. Share is available after a sweep even if the flag did not flip.
First session
Welcome: allegiance, develop places, hold them. Camera and LiDAR are labeled Needed to Develop places and stay off until the player allows them. Tutorial is DEVELOP / CLAIM / FACTION. Skip is Skip briefing. A first-op card stays up until the first capture or a finished sweep.
One of three factions. Pick on first run. The pledge actually joins the clan.
Same loop. Territory is real buildings and blocks, not a cartoon map.
Daily op copy is Develop a place. Come back and finish the ring.
Changelog
Twins can spawn inside the place you just developed. iPhone, free. Android is later.
First session teaches one verb: Develop a place. First-op card. Faction join sticks. Share after a sweep even if the flag did not flip. Daily op copy is Develop a place.
Leftover-arc persistence so you can come back and finish the ring. Share-the-place reveal. Mesh quality.
Tripwire Recon is free on the App Store. This page is the game design document. The play page is the pitch.