How BandLatch is designed

Design goals

• Teach the entire interaction model in under a minute.
• Make every clue useful instead of noisy.
• Keep runs short enough for immediate restart pressure.
• Work cleanly on mobile and desktop without audio dependencies.

Transmission structure

Each transmission includes:

• a fixed hidden target for frequency, focus, and gain
• a visible starting rig
• a limited stability budget that creates real friction
• one notable pressure point, such as a channel that starts far from the others or a very tight final solve window

Feedback model

The signal board reduces every dial to a directional clue that stays readable:

• Locked for an exact match
• Near for one-step misses
• Too low / Too high for larger misses

This creates a puzzle that is transparent enough to feel fair, but still tense because stability is limited.

Growth room

• Daily generated transmissions
• Hard mode with noisy or delayed signal reads
• Theme packs with different pirate-station story fragments
• Score sharing and seeded challenge links

What this release does not do

• No accounts or leaderboards
• No audio recording or microphone input
• No claim of radio realism; the pirate-broadcast framing exists to support a clean puzzle loop