ManHunt

Hide from your friends. Real-world hide-and-seek, played on your street. Two teams, one street, one clock the players can’t bend. Prey hide; Hunters track the latest reports on a live map and tag them in person.

Install the free APK | Watch the 60-second film | Latest release

_{Free APK · Android 8.0+ · not on Play Store · status and limits}

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The map is the field

_{Live hunt in the app, “Riverside Run” · real OpenStreetMap tiles · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors}

Hunters see the latest report from each phone, not a perfect live feed. Prey see the field, the zone and their own position — never other players’ positions. The zone and the trails are the host’s call; the server keeps the clock.

• Zone — the area the host sets for the round.
• Latest report — where a phone last checked in, not where it is now.
• Trail — movement history, off unless the host turns it on.
• The clock — server-timed; it pauses for everyone or for nobody.

Two sides

Hide. Stay free. Your phone reports your position to the Hunters at the room’s interval. Stay out until the clock stops — if one Prey is still free, Prey win.	Track. Tag. Follow the latest reports and trails. Find a Prey in the real world and tag them in person — they confirm or dispute, and the server decides what counts.

Four beats, one organiser

01 · ROOM The host creates the hunt and shares a six-character code with the group.	02 · SIDES Everyone picks a side, Prey or Hunters, then readies up in the same room.	03 · HUNT The server runs the rules: clock, zone, trails and report interval.	04 · RESULT Full time. Prey win if anyone is still out; otherwise Hunters win.

In the app

Real captures from the app, seeded with a believable “Riverside Run” game on a test server — same phone, same room, one honest run from the host plate to the final score.

Home — host or join	Lobby — code, teams, ready	Live hunt — reports, trails, zone	Result — Hunters win, full time

More screens

Tag claim — confirm in person	Who did you tag? — pick the target	Chat — the room log	Light theme — same board

Watch the film

One minute, the whole loop. The hook, the two sides, how phones report position, how Hunters track reports, how tagging works, and the server clock. Fully animated — no real people or stock footage. 60-second explainer | 30-second cut | 15-second hook | six-second GIF

The rules the server keeps

Rule	What the server keeps
The clock	Server-timed start, head start, pause/resume and full time. A pause shifts the clock for everyone, so nobody loses time.
The sides	Prey and Hunters are set per room. Prey positions are visible only to the Hunters in that room, only during the hunt.
Tags	A tag claim is stored, then confirmed or disputed by the Prey. A Huntmaster resolves disputes; duplicate claims cannot double-apply.
The zone	Open play or a circular zone with a step-down shrink and countdown. Boundaries are informational — the app does not stop you crossing them.
Reconnects	A dropped phone can rejoin. Room state lives on the server, not the phone, so losing signal does not bend the rules.
The map	Real OpenStreetMap tiles. Prey positions are the latest reports, not a perfect live feed. Trails are the host’s call.

_{Why this exists: in most real-world games the rules are social. Here they are kept by the server, so an argument about the clock or a tag has an answer.}

Get on the field

Free, signed APK. No account email. Not on Google Play. Android 8.0+ · about 2.3 MB · the current version, size and SHA-256 are always on the install page.

Download the free APK

1. Download the APK on the Android phone you will play on.
2. Allow installs from this source when Android asks. If it does not ask: Settings → Apps → Special app access → Install unknown apps.
3. Open ManHunt and create a local account — no email required. Host a hunt or join one with a code.

Play Protect may warn about a sideloaded app; that is normal for a signed APK installed outside a store. Install anyway only if you trust this repository. In-app updates verify the SHA-256 before installing.

Status and limits

ManHunt is an active hobby project, not a polished consumer product. Honest list:

1. The hosted deployment is plain HTTP at a bare IP — session tokens and GPS data are not encrypted in transit. Use test data only, or self-host behind HTTPS.
2. The hosted server is a test server. One VM, SQLite, no availability guarantee; data may be wiped. No email is collected, so there is no password recovery.
3. Play with people you trust. GPS is shared with the Hunters in your room during a match. ManHunt is a game, not a safety or tracking service.
4. Zones are informational. Players can physically leave the zone; the shrink countdown is not enforced server-side.
5. Verified in CI on an Android emulator, not re-verified on physical phones. Real GPS battery behaviour depends on the device.
6. Not on Google Play. Sideloading means “unknown sources”, possible Play Protect warnings, and no store-managed updates.

Security | Architecture | Deployment | Runbook | All documentation

Build it, or host it yourself

The backend is one Node.js process with the built-in SQLite driver — no database server, no Docker, no external services. A small game can run on one machine.

git clone https://github.com/MostafaAshry513/ManHunt.git
cd ManHunt/server
npm ci
npm start          # http://127.0.0.1:8080

To let phones on your network connect, bind all interfaces with HOST=0.0.0.0 npm start, then set the server address on the app’s sign-in screen. Changing the server signs you out.

Quality gates run in CI on every push: server typecheck and node --test, a live HTTP/WebSocket smoke test, a scripted match simulation, the Android debug/release builds, JVM tests, lint and an in-app test on a real Android emulator.

Testing | API reference | Decisions | Contributing | Changelog

_{MIT licensed · Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · free sideloaded APK, not on Google Play · ManHunt is a game, not a safety service.}