Shut the Fold

Shut the Box, the old pub dice game, made for iPhone Duo. The phone is the box: shut it to pick up the dice, shake it to rattle them, and open it to see what you rolled.

Try it before launch. The public beta is open on TestFlight: testflight.apple.com/join/x9yjbEv9. It runs on any iPhone or iPad with iOS 27, and the unlock is free in the beta. Shut the Fold comes to the App Store soon.

The lid of the box on the phone's cover screen, with the word Shake burned into the wood. The open box: nine wooden tiles on a brass rod above green felt, with two dice showing five and four. Two players across the open iPhone Duo, a row of tiles at each end of the felt.

The wood, the felt and the dice are drawn on the phone, each throw is worked out by a small physics simulation, and every sound is synthesized. Nothing is a photo or a recording. There are no ads and no accounts.

How to play

Shut the phone, give it a shake, and open it to roll. There is always a Roll button too, and the game plays on any iPhone.
Tap open tiles that add up to your roll. Once 7, 8 and 9 are shut you roll one die.
Your turn ends when no open tiles can make the roll. What you leave standing is your score, and lower is better.

The box stood up on a half-open iPhone Duo: tiles on the upright half, dice on the flat half. A finished daily box, with what was left standing, the day's streak and a Share button. Two other boxes: walnut with burgundy felt and black dice, and cherry with blue felt and red dice.

Also in the box

The daily box gives everyone in the world the same dice each day, and one go at them. It changes at midnight UTC.
Two players lay the phone between them and take turns with the dice. The lowest total after three rounds wins.
Half open an iPhone Duo and stand it like a laptop: the tiles hang on the upright half and the dice land on the flat one. If the wrong half is standing, tap the arrows button to turn the box round. The Stand-up box switch in the menu turns this off.
Hint points at the best tiles to shut.
The Daily box widget shows your streak on your home screen, and Daily reminder in the menu gives a nudge at nine each morning.

Free, with one purchase

One player, the daily box and your first two-player match are free. A one-time $3.99 purchase unlocks every two-player match after that, along with blue, burgundy and charcoal felt, walnut and cherry boxes, red and black dice, and an app icon to match. It is not a subscription.

Shut the Fold works with VoiceOver, large text and Reduce Motion, and speaks English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.

Questions

I bought the unlock and it's locked again.: Open the menu, choose 2 players, and tap Restore Purchase.
There's no sound.: The game follows the silent switch, and has its own Sound switch in the menu.
I missed a day and my daily box is gone.: Each box belongs to its day, which changes at midnight UTC. A box left unfinished can't be picked up the next day.
The phone doesn't roll when I shut it.: Shutting to roll needs iPhone Duo on iOS 27.1 or later. On other iPhones, tap Roll.

Anything else: aaron@aaronpeabody.dev

Press kit

Download the press kit (zip, 58 MB): the icon, sixteen screenshots, two pictures, both preview videos at full quality and a fact sheet.

Launch: October 2026. iPhone Duo goes on sale October 23.
Price: free to play. One $3.99 purchase unlocks two-player matches after the first, and the other woods, felts, dice and icons. No subscription, no ads, no accounts, no data collected.
Platform: iPhone and iPad, iOS 27 or later. Made for iPhone Duo. On other iPhones and on iPad you tap Roll.
Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese.
Developer: Aaron Peabody, an independent developer.

A close view of Shut the Fold: nine numbered wooden tiles on a brass rod, two of them shut, above green felt with two dice.

Shut the Fold on an open iPhone Duo lying on dark wood: the tiles along the top of the felt, and two dice.

Two players on the iPhone Duo's inner display, a row of tiles at each end of the felt.

The stood-up box on the inner display: tiles on the upright half, dice on the flat half.

The lid of the box on the iPhone Duo's cover display, with the word Shake burned into the wood.

The preview on an iPhone, where you tap Roll:

The screenshots and videos were captured in Apple's iPhone and iPhone Duo simulators. On an iPhone Duo the lid is the phone itself; in the videos the simulator shuts it. You are welcome to use anything here in coverage of Shut the Fold.

Also made for iPhone Duo: DuoBox, an accordion you play by folding the phone, and Knotty Navy, a wooden sea battle you pass by shutting it.