Harbor desk

Keep your watch moving.

This guide covers Ferry Busy 1.0 for iPhone and iPad. The app is being prepared for App Store review; public downloads are not available yet. If you use an older TestFlight build, check its release notes for differences.

Start with a little room

Your first launch starts a brief playable ferry introduction. Draw to the matching berth, wait for service, then draw to the exit. You can skip the introduction to reach the menu. The main menu has Campaign, Around the Bay, Daily & endless, Multiplayer, Records and Settings. Learn to play starts six hands-on steps in a quiet harbor. You can revisit them through How to play & fleet guide → Practice harbor basics; your active watch stays saved during practice.

The included campaign has 47 watches across six chapters: Embarcadero, Sausalito and Richardson Bay, Angel Island, Oakland and Alameda, Richmond, and Golden Gate. Bronze is enough to progress. Complete all Standard watches to unlock Harbor Master, then complete Harbor Master to unlock Bay Legend. The extra tiers add faster vessels, more arrivals and tighter clocks, with separate medals and records. All three tiers are included.

Results show services, on-time jobs, departures and late jobs. Expand Score and personal bests for the points breakdown. Replay the same watch to try a better crossing, a longer clear route or a more deliberate wait. Around the Bay offers standalone harbor watches without requiring campaign completion.

Draw a course

Draw from a vessel to its matching destination, or tap a boat and add waypoints. Once a draft is open, waypoint taps keep editing that boat even if another hull is nearby. Cancel or commit before tapping to select another boat; deliberately dragging from a different vessel starts its replacement course. The preview names the boat being edited. Invalid routes keep the previous course.

After a berth finishes its service, route the vessel to EXIT. A marked passage destination completes a transit without a separate berth departure. Keep arrivals and departures out of each other’s way.

Incoming boats are already moving

New watches introduce boats underway on visible approaches. Direction arrows announce arrivals before they enter. Replace an entry course early, or use Hold or Slow to make room. An approach is not an automatic route to a berth; a boat can slow or stop when its safe approach runs out. Older saved watches keep their original arrival rules.

WAIT / MAKE ROOM means nearby traffic is holding an arrival outside that entrance. Other clear entrances keep operating. A job’s deadline begins when its boat actually enters. The entry buffer gives reaction room but does not prevent a later collision caused by your routes.

Read the wind, then leave tacking room

Open How to play & fleet guide → Practice wind & tacking. One yacht and no deadlines let you read the wind arrow, preview a course and watch a real arrival. The lesson pauses while explaining; it is also offered before your first sailing watch.

The wind arrow shows where the wind travels. A yacht cannot sail directly into the opposite direction: the no-go sector shows this limit. An upwind destination needs a series of sustained tacks, so leave open water on both sides of the intended course. The preview shows the planned turns. Yachts lose speed while changing tack, and wind shifts can change the best route.

Heave to reduces drive but still permits drift. Ease reduces power; Trim restores it. If a yacht cannot make progress, inspect the wind, shoreline clearance and preview, then give it more room. Report dense tiny zigzags or a yacht that cannot complete a reasonable course.

Know the rest of your fleet

Catamaran ferries are fast and have short passenger deadlines. Fishing boats turn more easily but take longer to unload. Container ships need turning and stopping room within their marked ship corridors. The in-game fleet guide uses the same illustrations as the boats on the water.

Watch the Bay change

Dredging notices announce a work zone before it becomes active. At Golden Gate, the tide display gives twenty seconds of notice before flood or ebb builds. Cross behind long ships and stage departures before the current turns. The bridge deck is overhead scenery; its marked pier and the shores are solid.

At Richmond, leave room for long ships turning through the Inner Harbor channel. A longer outer ferry approach can keep that turn clear. A cargo destination action can follow the marked channel for you, but you still choose when to send the ship and manage crossings.

Change the pace, pause and save

The solo clock control cycles between half, normal and double speed for the whole harbor. It is separate from an individual boat’s Hold, Slow or Go. Training and multiplayer use normal speed. Pause, backgrounding, help and a new watch restore normal speed.

Pause from the top bar. Progress and the active watch save on your device. Returning after the app backgrounds leaves the watch paused. On an iPad with multiple windows, merely moving the game aside to peek at Home can leave it active; pause first. Native simulator checks cover app switching and explicit Minimize, while physical-device acceptance is still in progress.

Settings contains sound and haptic controls. iPad supports portrait and landscape; an unfinished course stays with its boat during rotation. Removing the app can remove local progress.

Accessible route planning

Tap waypoints offer an alternative to drawing. Accessibility controls expose boat selection, job status, berth occupancy, wind and arrival direction, and route actions. Plan waypoints moves a preview up, down, left or right in large or small steps. Add preview waypoint, then finish at the berth or exit, or use Set course for an intermediate route. Undo last waypoint removes one point; Cancel keeps the live course.

Planning does not pause the watch or avoid other boats for you. Covered boats are excluded from the reading order behind briefings, pause cards and solo results. Spoken VoiceOver and timed accessibility usability still need human testing; the existing native checks do not establish that experience.

Daily and endless watches

Daily rotates nine authored schedules across the six included harbors using a UTC date. Attempts for a given date keep the same schedule, even when a save resumes after midnight. Scores and medals are personal records on your device. Endless introduces different constraints across successive watches; clear every departure to advance, with twenty seconds to prepare between watches.

Bring another harbor company

Install the same build on both devices. Open Multiplayer and choose Host a friend, Join invitation or Quick Match. Game Center sign-in is optional. The host shares a ten-minute invitation link or code. Once both companies are present, choose Choose harbor together, select a harbor, and each press Ready. Changing the harbor clears earlier readiness.

Each company has separate water with identical planned traffic. A short interruption pauses both clocks while the connection recovers. An unrecovered match has no winner. Concede leaves voluntarily; mutual rematch repeats the harbor and schedule. Back to harbor room lets the same people choose another watch. Back preserves the room; Leave room ends membership. Your solo watch stays saved.

If an invitation expires, ask its host for a new link. If Quick Match is empty, cancel and invite a friend. The game never substitutes a computer for a person. Repeated guest connections can trigger a temporary abuse-prevention limit; try again later instead of reinstalling.

To remove your current online identity’s room records, leave the room and choose Delete online room data. This keeps your local campaign and purchases. See the privacy policy for the data and retention details.

Northern Reaches expansion

Northern Reaches adds 24 watches across Mare Island, Carquinez and Benicia. The one-time US price is $1.99; no purchase improves vessel performance. Purchases become available when the app and expansion are released on the App Store.

Open Campaign → Northern Reaches and select Unlock for the displayed local price. If the store cannot load, check your connection and try again. In TestFlight, purchases use Apple’s sandbox and do not transfer to the public App Store release.

Use Restore purchases with the Apple Account that made the purchase. Apple verification is required to unlock the pack. A cancelled or unverified purchase does not unlock it; a pending purchase waits for Apple’s approval. Your recorded progress stays saved if access ends. An owner can host an expansion match for a guest; that match access does not unlock the guest’s solo campaign.

Tell us what happened

Use Send Beta Feedback in TestFlight if you have an invitation. Include your build number, device/iOS version, map/watch and difficulty tier, what you expected, and what happened. A screenshot or recording helps, especially for a confusing loss, an unreadable preview or a boat that cannot make progress.

Email rxv2dev@gmail.com for support or privacy requests. Do not send passwords, payment details or active invitation codes in a public report.

This is a game with adapted geography, not a navigation product.