The VERA Files
The phone's assistant is lying
Select a screen to view it at full size.
The problem
A found-phone thriller lives or dies on whether the phone feels real and whether its AI feels like a character, not a chatbot skin. Cloning iOS risks App Review and never quite convinces; an assistant that only answers questions has no story to tell.
What we did
We built VERA as its own small operating system: a phone layer that looks like nobody's screenshot, and a VERA layer with one color, one glow, one typing rhythm. Cases are JSON content played by a single data-driven story engine, so a new file is written, not coded. On supported iPhones, Apple Intelligence lets players type anything to VERA and get an in-character, on-device reply; everyone else plays the same story through tap choices.
Outcome
Live on the App Store as The VERA Files, released September 23, 2026. File 01 is free with both endings; Files 02 and 03 unlock with a one-time Case Pass. Support and privacy live at apps.tasarim.io/vera.
A phone that does not copy iOS
- VERA is a fictional phone operating system built from scratch: original app icons, an original status bar and lock screen, SF Pro system type. It borrows iOS’s native feel (spacing rhythm, real scroll physics) without reusing Apple’s UI chrome, both by design and for App Review.
- Two visual registers carry the story: the phone layer (Messages, Notes, Email, Gallery, call log) stays neutral and slightly worn; VERA’s own layer gets the app’s one signature color, a cyan accent reserved for VERA and nowhere else.
- Horror comes from a handful of scripted anomalies, a stalled typing indicator, one typo-and-correction beat, a lowercase mask-slip message, never from ambient glitch effects.
A case is content, not code
- The story engine is data-driven: each case, its dialogue graph, flags, timed triggers and phone-surface content, lives in a JSON bundle, documented in the app’s own case schema. Shipping the next case is a content update, not an engine change.
- File 01, The Bennett Case, is free from the first launch and both endings are reachable without paying. Files 02 and 03 unlock together behind a single one-time Case Pass; nothing mid-case is ever gated.
- On iPhone 15 Pro and later, players can type questions to VERA in free text; Apple Intelligence generates VERA’s replies on the device, and nothing the player types leaves the phone. Everywhere else, and for anyone who prefers it, the same conversation runs on tap-to-choose chips.
From build to the App Store
- Built in SwiftUI on an MVVM-lite architecture; purchases through RevenueCat (one non-consumable Case Pass, entitlement-gated so a future season pass can reuse it) and anonymous analytics through PostHog.
- Dynamic Type, VoiceOver labels and Reduce Motion are honored throughout, including in the typing-cadence animations that carry most of the game’s performance.
- Released September 23, 2026, with one file a month planned: each new case is a content update inside the existing schema, not a new engine build.