Press Kit · Updated November 2, 2026

Cover Tideward.

An Idle Almanac for every Apple device, Android, and Windows PC.

Everything you need to write about, stream, or feature Tideward, a premium idle RPG built natively for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, and Android, with Windows PC on the way. Eight platforms, one developer.

Download all assets (ZIP, 37 MB) Fact sheet, plain text

Quick Facts

Title
Tideward (subtitle: An Idle Almanac)
Developer
Manu Games LLC (solo, one-person studio)
Headquarters
Waynesville, North Carolina, USA
Founded
2026, NC-formed LLC
Genre
Idle RPG / Incremental
Platforms
iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Apple Watch, single Universal app. Android (phones and tablets) in open beta on Google Play. Windows PC (Steam) in development. No web build
Languages at launch
Sixteen, in the box: English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Filipino, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese. Polish arrived with 1.0.3 in September 2026 (changelog); the App Store product page still lists the fifteen from before it
Pricing model
Free download with a single one-time $9.99 unlock, Family Sharing on for that unlock. Beyond it, optional cosmetic purchases (profile icons, a card background) that affect nothing in play. Every purchase is direct and one-time. No ads, no subscription, no loot boxes, no premium currency. Every product is a non-consumable, so nothing can be bought twice
Mod support
None. App Store apps cannot load third-party code, and the game will never imply otherwise
Online / multiplayer
None. No game servers, no accounts, no presence. Game Center provides opt-in achievements, 10 leaderboards, and 5 Challenges
Engine / language
Pure SwiftUI, SwiftData, CloudKit private database, zero third-party dependencies
Status
App Store pre-order open (approved on iOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS; product page) and TestFlight beta open (public invite); 1.0 launch February 11, 2027
Trademark
USPTO Serial 99800434 (TIDEWARD, filed May 2, 2026)
Press contact
press@manugames.com
Review keys / TestFlight
Open public link below; any other press request goes through press@manugames.com. Link remains accessible through launch +30 days.
Website
tideward.app (game) · manugames.com (publisher)
Trailer
Official Trailer, 1:35, live 3D gameplay: youtu.be/sSFaEOR4uUs · a 9:16 vertical cut as a YouTube Short
Downloads
Everything on this page in one ZIP (37 MB) · the fact sheet as plain text · eleven raw screenshots one at a time
Studio press kit
manugames.com/press: the kit for the studio itself, Manu Games LLC (studio facts, founder, logos, its other games). This page is the Tideward kit
Social
@tidewardgame on X, Instagram, Threads and TikTok · YouTube · Discord

About, short

Tideward is a premium idle RPG for every Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, Apple Watch), Android, and Windows PC, where you tend a small coastal world through 28 trades, even while you sleep, with zero ads and complete privacy.

About, 150 words

Tideward is an unhurried idle RPG built by one developer for eight platforms: every Apple device, Android, and Windows PC. Players tend a small coastal world through 28 trades (combat, gathering, artisan, wayfaring) that progress in real time and continue training for up to 24 hours of true offline progression, at full speed and with no penalty. On Apple it is built in pure SwiftUI for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch as a single Universal app, where the Watch is a place to play rather than a place to glance, and CloudKit syncs the save with no account and no server. A native Android app for phones and tablets is in open beta on Google Play, and a Windows PC version for Steam is in development. The Apple binary ships zero third-party SDKs, and nothing is sent in the background. Sixteen languages ship in the box. Free download, one $9.99 unlock, Family Sharing on. Currently in beta on TestFlight and Google Play, with the App Store pre-order open; 1.0 launches on the App Store Thursday, February 11, 2027. Built by a one-person studio in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Key Features

  • True 24-hour offline progression. Close the app, your character keeps training. Full speed for the whole window, no throttle, no ad-watch button, no premium gate, no penalty on return. How it works.
  • The Harbormaster's Forecast. The game answers "can I leave this running" before you walk away: it dry-runs your current fight across the full offline window and reports whether you hold or fall, the haul to expect, and the time to your next combat level. It uses the same code that resolves the real offline fight, so the forecast cannot drift from the game. In most idle RPGs this is a third-party combat simulator; here it is a screen.
  • 28 distinct trades. 8 combat, 7 gathering, 9 artisan, 4 wayfaring. RuneScape-rooted skill design with modern indie sensibility. Full list.
  • Six Apple platforms, and the Watch plays. One Universal app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. The watchOS build runs a real fight, both swing timers, the familiar, and the heal, plus a watch-only hunt that works with the phone in another room. One purchase, one character, CloudKit sync. The Watch build.
  • Android and Windows PC, from the same one developer. A native Android app for phones and tablets is in open beta on Google Play, free to test. A Windows PC version for Steam is in development, with a beta on its way. The Android version · The PC version.
  • Sixteen languages in the box at launch. Not a post-launch patch and not community language packs. Every string reads from a translation catalog, so a language is a pass rather than a rewrite; Polish, the sixteenth, landed in 1.0.3.
  • Accessibility taken seriously in a genre that mostly does not. VoiceOver with a speech budget so a busy fight does not talk over itself, Dynamic Type to the largest sizes, no state signalled by colour alone, Reduce Motion, Increase Contrast, and Smart Invert respected, one-finger play, no timed input.
  • Zero third-party SDKs in the binary. No analytics, no crash reporters, no advertising networks. Nothing is collected in the background; a bug report or suggestion leaves the app only when the player sends one, carrying what they wrote plus the device details and diagnostic log they choose to include (Everything, Device only, or Nothing), and it is posted to the Tideward Discord. Privacy stance.
  • Native on every platform. On Apple, pure SwiftUI: not a Catalyst port, not a web wrapper, not a Unity build, Apple frameworks top to bottom. On Android, a native Android app.
  • Free to try, then one $9.99 unlock, Family Sharing on. No subscription, no premium currency, no FOMO mechanics.
  • Community-driven development. Active Discord with weekly TestFlight builds shaping the game pre-launch.

What Tideward does not do

Three limits, stated plainly so no one has to discover them in a review.

  • No mods. App Store apps cannot load third-party code, so there is no mod loader and no plan for one. This is a platform rule, not a feature held back. The things players usually mod an idle RPG to get are built in instead: the Harbormaster's Forecast in place of a combat simulator, visible drop rates and item sources in place of a wiki tab, App Intents and Shortcuts for automation, and a full export of the player's own data.
  • No cross-platform save. The Apple version runs natively on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch and shares one save through iCloud. The Android version, in open beta on Google Play, and the Windows PC version, in development for Steam, each keep their own. A purchase on one store does not unlock another, and there is no web build.
  • No live presence. No game servers, no accounts, no friends list, no player counter, no online status. Nothing of the developer's is online, so nothing can report that a player is. The social layer is Game Center: opt-in achievements, 10 leaderboards, and 5 Challenges, shipped.

The commitment, and it is the one to quote: Tideward is not built to keep taking money from its players. Every purchase is direct and one-time, a plain price on a thing seen whole, a $9.99 unlock or an optional cosmetic, owned permanently. No ads, no subscription, no loot boxes, no premium currency. Every product in the game is a non-consumable, so nothing can be sold to a player twice.

Apple Platform Tech

Built natively in Swift and SwiftUI for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch as a single Universal app. iCloud sync uses CloudKit private database, no account creation, encrypted by Apple in transit and at rest. SwiftData drives all persistence. Live Activities and Smart Stack widgets surface current XP and offline-progression status on the Lock Screen and StandBy. App Intents expose key actions to Shortcuts and Siri, which is also the sanctioned automation path on a platform that cannot load mods. Game Center is shipped: opt-in achievements, 10 leaderboards, and 5 Challenges, with no account of the developer's involved. The watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS builds use the same SwiftUI codebase as iPhone with platform-appropriate idioms (Digital Crown navigation on Watch, Siri Remote navigation on TV, gaze-and-pinch on Vision Pro), and the watchOS build is a full play surface rather than a companion. The app is offline-first; CloudKit sync resumes silently when a network is available. Zero third-party SDKs, zero analytics SDKs, zero advertising libraries.

Accessibility

Tideward's primary tasks are designed to be fully usable with VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Larger Text, Bold Text, and Increase Contrast. Reduce Motion is honored across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac interface, where animation is routed through a house helper rather than left to each view; the Apple Watch build is the gap, and closing it is on the pre-1.0 list. The game is fully playable with one finger and never requires multi-touch, gesture chaining, or time-pressured input. There is no audio-only or motion-only information path. Color contrast meets WCAG AA across UI states. Haptics are tied to a single Settings toggle. Game Center milestones (when active) are announced via VoiceOver. The first launch experience is fully usable with VoiceOver and at the largest Dynamic Type sizes. The full accessibility statement is at tideward.app/accessibility; Apple's Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store product page, once declared, are the listing that binds.

Description, long-form

Tideward is the rare premium idle RPG built without compromise. Most games in the genre are F2P mobile titles built in Unity or a similar cross-platform engine, ad-supported, with offline-progression caps and "watch a video to extend" patterns that train players to never own their experience. Tideward goes the other way: pure SwiftUI for the entire UI, CloudKit private database for all data, zero third-party dependencies in the binary. Nothing leaves the app in the background; a bug report goes out only when the player chooses to send one, carrying what they choose to include.

The game itself is built around three principles: respect for your time (24-hour true offline progression with no throttle), respect for your privacy (no tracking, no analytics, no advertising IDs, ever), and respect for your intelligence (deep RPG systems with real choices, 28 trades, the combat triangle, equipment specialization). Players coming from Melvor Idle, RuneScape Old School, or NGU Idle will find the genre DNA familiar. Players who've never touched an idle RPG before will find the onboarding and pacing designed for them too.

The platform reach is what most differentiates Tideward from the rest of the category, and it is rare for a one-person studio: eight platforms. On Apple, the same Universal app, and the same one-time purchase, covers iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. Train Forging on iPhone at the bus stop, switch to it on Vision Pro at your desk, check progress on Apple Watch on a walk, end the day with Hearth on Apple TV. Same character, same save, same purchase. Android has its own native app, in open beta on Google Play, and the Windows PC version for Steam is in development; those are separate stores, each with its own save.

Brand Assets

Logos, app icons, screenshots, and key art for editorial use. Please don't modify the logos or use them in misleading contexts. Tideward is a USPTO-filed word mark (Serial 99800434).

Tideward app icon (dark variant)

App Icon (Dark), Full Res PNG

Tideward app icon (light variant)

App Icon (Light), Full Res PNG

Screenshots

Eleven raw in-app captures, no marketing text overlay, from all six Apple platforms: six on iPhone (1320 × 2868, Apple's 6.9″ App Store size), then iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Vision Pro, and Apple Watch. Use as-is or compose into story context. Click a capture for the full-resolution PNG; the ZIP carries them all. Need a size or scene not shown here? Write to press@manugames.com.

Tideward on iPhone: the Completion Log at 33%, a grid of trade tiles over a coastal lighthouse illustration.
The Completion Log: every trade, pet, and upgrade in the almanac, tracked over a hand-drawn coastal world. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
Tideward offline progression sheet titled "The almanac kept watch", listing mining XP, ore, and gems gained while away.
The almanac kept watch: a true 24 hours of offline progression, tallied and paid out when you return. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
Tideward combat on iPhone: health bars, attack intervals, a food selector, and a flowering plant monster in The Hedgerows.
Combat in The Hedgerows: the combat triangle, food at your thumb, and monster drops worth inspecting. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
Tideward Mining at level 99 on iPhone, mining Rune Essence beside a mine cart on a sunny coastal track.
Mining at 99: each trade carries per-item mastery, checkpoints, and a pool of mastery XP to spend. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
Tideward Cooking on iPhone: a seaside kitchen with active cook, passive cook, and stockpile controls.
Cooking by the sea: an active loop while you watch, a passive loop while you are away. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
The Tideward bank on iPhone: gem stacks in tabs, a search field, and a sell slider set to 52 topaz.
The bank: tabbed storage, search, and a sell slider for the hoard you will inevitably build. PNG · 1320 × 2868 · iPhone
Tideward on a 13-inch iPad: the Completion Log with capes, monsters, and dungeons tabs over a coastal engraving.
The full almanac on 13-inch iPad: capes, monsters, and dungeons join the log, iCloud sync reading "just now." PNG · 2064 × 2752 · iPad 13″
Tideward on Mac: the Stargazing trade with constellation cards named Lyra, Corvus, and Vela beside a sidebar of trades.
Stargazing on Mac: study constellations for slow, account-wide bonuses, native in a resizable window. PNG · 2560 × 1600 · Mac
Tideward on Apple TV: the Kindling trade, a log pile and bonfire on a beach, with the trade sidebar open.
Kindling on Apple TV: a bonfire tended from the couch with the Siri Remote. PNG · 3840 × 2160 · Apple TV
Tideward on Apple Vision Pro: the Forging trade floating as a native window in a bright living room.
The forge on Apple Vision Pro: the full game in a native visionOS window, floating in the room. PNG · 3840 × 2160 · Vision Pro
An Apple Watch face with three Tideward complications for XP, bank, and trade, above a Smart Stack card reading Stargazing level 70.
Apple Watch complications and the Smart Stack: XP, bank, and the active trade at a glance. PNG · 416 × 496 · Apple Watch

Downloads

  • The whole kit: tideward-press-kit-v10.zip (37 MB): all eleven screenshots at full resolution, both app icons, the studio seal and illuminated plates, and the fact sheet as plain text. The filename version goes up whenever the contents change.
  • The fact sheet: tideward_fact_sheet.txt, the short facts in one copy-paste text file.
  • Not in the kit yet: key art, a Tideward wordmark, a silent gameplay loop, a downloadable trailer MP4, and a founder headshot. Write to press@manugames.com for anything you need in the meantime.

Trailer

The official trailer (1:35), 16:9. Embed below; the YouTube link is available for editorial use.

YouTube: youtu.be/sSFaEOR4uUs · 9:16 vertical cut: youtube.com/shorts/EGRnAtnamWI · poster: JPG

Quotes

[Reserved for review snippets at launch +14 days. Pre-launch coverage and TestFlight feedback may be shared by request.]

Studio Bio (~80 words)

Manu Games LLC is a one-person studio based in Waynesville, North Carolina. Manu Games builds quiet single-purchase software, small games and small tools made to last, and ships them as wide as one person can: every Apple device, Android, and Windows PC. Tideward is the studio's first published game, open for pre-order on the App Store and launching February 11, 2027. The studio has no investors and no publisher. Press, reviews, and TestFlight requests: press@manugames.com. The studio's own press kit is at manugames.com/press.

Contact

Databases & Profiles

Tideward and its studio, Manu Games LLC, across the major game databases, business directories, and the open knowledge graph. Verified entries for fact-checking and linking.