THE LONG WAY HOME

The LongWay Home

A SURVIVAL ROAD TRIP

Play with your friends from your phone, a few minutes a day. Somebody might not make it. That's not the end of them.

How it plays Build log

Trailer

37 seconds on the road.

Recorded from the game itself on a phone screen: pick a ride, stock up at Last Gas, drive to Miller's Bridge, make the call at a flooded diner, roll for your moment, and prep the car with the horde coming over the hill.

No sound. Every frame is the real game, played on a test trip.

The setup

Never stay anywhere long.

You're on vacation with your crew when it happens. Three days ago the radio started playing a tone instead of music. The people who listened too long stopped being people. They walk now, they follow the sound, and every day there are more of them behind you. At every stop, the clock is the horde catching up. When it runs out, the ride leaves.

The opening story

Yesterday the power went out in the whole city, and it did not come back.

Home is 900 miles away. You have one wagon, one plan, and each other.

Nobody has said the number 900 out loud. Nobody is going to.

How it plays

Everyone plays on their own time.

There is no turn to wait for. Each stop on the road stays open for a few hours, and you drop in whenever you have a minute.

Your choice

Every stop is a shared moment. Each friend locks in one move before the clock runs out, then the stop resolves and the ride pulls away. A slow friend only delays the stop, never your game.

Job & moment

While the stop is open you keep playing: a job at each stop (a supply run, fixing the car, siphoning gas, haggling in town) and one moment with a dice roll that really matters.

Only you notice

Each player gets private clues the others never see. A note taped in a register drawer. A bite you might decide to hide.

You are dead

Players can die. Apparently that is not the same thing as being out of the game: a dead player keeps playing as a Ghost, and the living never learn about it.

On the phone

Real screens from the game.

The Pass: a police cruiser parked at a mountain cabin, the HUD with fuel, food and ammo, a flat-tire warning and three choices to get over the pass
YOUR CHOICEDay 8, a flat tire, 3% fuel, and a mountain pass under snow clouds.
Last Gas: a moment card, Awareness skill plus a dice roll of 2 makes 5, need 4, SUCCESS, +2 ammo and road flares found
YOUR MOMENTSkill plus one die. Four road flares and a box of shells nobody remembered.
The horde mini-game: the wagon seen from above on a highway, a zombie ahead, the horde filling the bottom of the screen
THE HORDEOne escape run per trip. Drag to steer, reach the top before the horde catches up.
The title screen: The Long Way Home, A survival road trip, with Start a journey and Join with a code buttons and the wagon driving under the moon
TITLE SCREENThe ride drives forever through day and night behind the menu.
Pick Your Ride: the pickup truck with its stats for toughness, fuel, food, ammo and cash
PICK YOUR RIDEThe ride you pick sets your starting supplies.
The Horde stop: the wagon on a corn-country road at sunset, an Outrun the Horde card with a prep choice and a Start the escape button
OUTRUN THE HORDEStart the run and the crew gets 30 seconds to jump in. More drivers, better odds.

The route

Ten stops on Route 9.

Every trip drives the same road home. Trips with a difficulty add roadside stops between them, the Oregon Trail way: fixed landmarks, rolled trouble.

  1. A gas station with one pump and a hand-painted sign
    Last Gas
    Pump & Pray · mile 0
  2. An old bridge over a river
    Miller's Bridge
    mile 70
  3. The shoulder of an empty highway
    The Shoulder
    mile 140
  4. A road through corn fields at sunset, the dead walking on it
    The Horde
    the corn country · mile 180
  5. A diner with water up to the windows
    Flooded Diner
    Dot's Diner · mile 212
  6. A roadside motel at night
    The Motel
    exit 40 · mile 330
  7. A cabin in the pines on a mountain pass
    The Pass
    Hollow Ridge · mile 470
  8. Where the road splits in two
    The Fork
    mile 610
  9. A county line sign by the road
    County Line
    mile 760
  10. A house at the end of the road with the porch light on
    Home
    The porch light is on · mile 900

Pick your ride

Six rides, one road.

Station wagon

Station Wagon

Wood panels, a roof rack and a seat for everybody. It has never let anyone down, mostly because nobody ever asked much of it.

Pickup truck

Pickup Truck

Rusty, loud and very hard to kill. Two jerry cans ride in the back. Not much room for food.

Minivan

Minivan

A cracked back window and a roof box full of snacks and a first-aid kit. Built for soccer practice, not for this.

Muscle car

Muscle Car

Fast, thirsty and one door is the wrong colour. Someone left a lockbox of cash under the seat.

Camper van

Camper Van

Curtains, a pop-up roof and a tiny stove. The pantry is full. It goes uphill at walking pace.

Old police cruiser

Old Police Cruiser

A push bar on the front and a gun rack with a box of shells. Some people still pull over when they see it.

Where it stands

A working proof of concept.

The whole road is playable end to end: ten stops, jobs, moments, the horde, bites and fevers, ghosts, three written endings, and a rematch when you get home. Friends are playing it now. The current goal is that they play a trip start to end on their own and say what they think.

PLAYABLE
10 STOPS
plus roadside stops on harder trips
THEMES
2 PACKS
the road, and a second setting on the same engine
PER STOP
1–12 H
the host picks; 3 hours by default
ACCESS
INVITE
friends only, for now
GOALM1 · Friends try it, then M2 · It lands
See the milestones Read the build log

How to play

There is no public server yet.

The game runs on a private server for one group of friends. If you're in the group, this is all there is to it:

  1. Open the invite link from the host on your phone. No app store, no account.
  2. Pick a name and a face, then join the crew in the ride.
  3. Your play link is your key, so keep it. Add the page to your home screen and it opens like an app.
  4. Check in a few times a day: lock in your choice, do your job, roll your moment. The phone pings you when the next stop opens.