Auvae — growing close

Becoming authentically close — that is what this is about.

Auvae is a game with no points, no winners and no hurry. It asks a question — and then it is your turn.

You begin by choosing your language and how many people are playing. From there the app moves around the circle: each person gets their own colour filling the whole screen, and a question drawn from a pool of 257. Whoever sees the colour is up. A tap passes it on. There are no other rules.

The questions range from light to deep. "What is your favourite food?" sits beside "What is the hardest thing you have ever said to someone you love?" Some invite a story, others ask you to finish a sentence. They come from a collection gathered over years for evenings of real conversation.

Closeness does not come from time spent together, but from what is allowed to be said. Auvae makes the saying easier — because the question does not have to come from you.

LOOKING BACK

An answer sometimes travels further than the question reached. A thin chevron at the edge of the screen quietly leafs back through every question of the round — each in the colour of the person who had it. One tap and you are back in the game.

THREE LANGUAGES

German, English and Spanish — all 257 questions and the entire interface. You can switch at any time, even mid-game: the same question simply appears in the new language. Useful at tables where not everyone shares a mother tongue.

FOR CHILDREN

There is a switch on the very first screen: "For children". It doesn't change the tone of the app, only the questions — in three age levels. From 3 years, very short questions meant to be read aloud. From 4 to 9, wishes, imagination and telling, where an answer may hide behind an animal. From 10 to 14, questions and, between them, small stories that stop at one point and invite you to carry on — with no correct continuation; what matters is what goes on inside somebody.

Every level keeps its own progress; the adult catalogue stays untouched. In the children's mode the thinking time switches off, and for the younger levels the text grows larger. Each name can carry a symbol — a fox, a star, a strawberry: children who cannot read yet recognise themselves by it. A star next to a name keeps it, so it comes back to the front of every game.

TO YOUR OWN TASTE

• Four palettes — Midnight, Jewels, Earth and the pale Morning Light
• Light and dark appearance, or automatic
• Three text sizes
• Names for everyone playing, instead of "Person 1"
• Time to think, from one to five minutes, or none at all
• Random order, so the same person need not always begin
• No repeats: each question appears once until all 257 have been asked
• Pass on by tapping, or with the button
• A gentle vibration when the turn changes
• The screen stays awake while you play

Settings are reachable from every screen, including the very first.

NOTHING ASKED IN RETURN

Auvae collects nothing. There is no account, no sign-up, no advertising, no purchases, no analytics. Your settings and names stay on your device and never leave it.

Auvae needs no internet — not on first launch, and never after. Every question is contained in the app. It does not even ask for permission to go online; the only permission it requests is the one for the gentle vibration when the turn is passed on.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

Auvae is the successor to "Quality Communication", a small project that has carried these same questions for years. The questions remain; everything else was built anew.