Support

Questions about Pleat & Steam? The answers are below. If you're still stuck, email us. We read every message.

Getting started

What do I need?: An iPhone with iOS 27 or later. Pleat & Steam is designed for iPhone Duo, and it plays on every other iPhone with the on-screen fold tab. It never needs an internet connection.
Does it cost anything?: No. Pleat & Steam is free, with no in-app purchases, ads or subscriptions, and no account to make.
Where's the menu?: Tap the apron button in a corner of the bench or the counter. The menu holds the Recipe Book, Baskets, Mishaps and Settings.

How to play

You run a small dumpling shop. Each customer brings a ticket that shows, in pictures, the recipe, how much filling they'd like, how many pleats it needs, and whether it needs a twist.

Open the phone to reach the bench. A round of dough lies across the screen.
Fill. Press and hold on the filling area to pile on filling where your finger is. A dashed ring shows the size to aim for, and a hum rises as the mound grows. Too much? Drag from the mound toward the bowl to scrape some off.
Pleat. Bend the phone a little and open it again. That's one pleat. Do it as many times as the ticket shows.
Close the phone to seal. On the outer display your dumpling hops into the bamboo steamer. It steams for four seconds, then a bell dings.
Open the phone to serve and see your stamps. Then the next ticket arrives.

Is anything timed?: No. Nothing overcooks, and it doesn't matter whether you open the steamer early or late. Fast or slow pleating scores the same; what counts is keeping a steady rhythm.
Can I fail an order?: No. A dumpling that bursts, leaks or tears still gets served, the customer laughs, and you collect a mishap card (see Stamps and mishaps).

Folding on iPhone Duo

You never need to fold fast, hard or far. A shallow bend and a moment's pause is enough.

Pose	What it does in Pleat & Steam
Open flat, held wide or tall (inner display)	The bench, where you fill and pleat. The dough lies across the fold. Turning the open phone just turns the bench, and your pleats stay put.
Partly open, then open again (book, or laptop on a table)	Pinches one pleat. A soft click and a tap of haptics tell you that you've bent far enough, so there's no need to bend further. Then open the phone again.
Closed (outer display)	The counter, with the customer and the bamboo steamer. Closing from the bench seals the dumpling.
Closed, turned a quarter turn	Twists a purse-style dumpling's top shut, when one is waiting for its twist. At other times turning the closed phone just turns the counter.
Tent	Not used.

I bent the phone but no pleat appeared.: Hold the bend until you hear the click, then open the phone fully again. A very quick flutter near flat is ignored on purpose, so holding the phone open in your hand never adds pleats. A pleat that doesn't count yet, for example before there's any filling, gives a little bonk instead.
Rotation Lock is on and the twist won't work.: Circle the knot with your finger instead, at least three-quarters of the way round. That works open or closed, on any iPhone.
Does it work in Split View?: Yes. On the inner display you can play next to another app, and folding still pinches pleats and seals dumplings.
I left the game in the middle of an order.: The game saves when you leave and picks up the same order when you come back, steam included. A dumpling seals only when you close the phone with the game on screen, so closing the phone while you're in another app never seals one by accident.

Playing on other iPhones

My iPhone doesn't fold. Can I still play?

Yes. The bench shows a wooden fold tab in a bottom corner, and it does what the hinge does:

Pinch a pleat: drag the tab to the first notch, hold until the click, then let go. It springs back and the pleat appears.
Seal: drag the tab all the way. The dough folds over and the counter appears.
Open: on the counter, drag the handle at the bottom of the screen up.
Twist: circle the knot with your finger.

Every recipe, stamp, basket and card is the same as on iPhone Duo.

Can I use the fold tab on iPhone Duo?

Yes. In Settings, set On-screen fold tab to Always. Auto, the default, shows it only on iPhones without a hinge. The tab is handy for one-handed play or if folding is uncomfortable.

Can I move the tab to the other side?

Yes. The tab follows the Handedness setting.

Recipes and folding styles

For the first nine days, the shop learns one new dumpling a day. Every recipe is a steamed dumpling, because the closed phone is the steamer.

Folding style	How you finish it	Recipes
Half-moon	Fill, then close to seal. No pleats.	House Half-Moon (the shop's own)
Crescent	Pleat along one edge, then close.	Jiaozi (Northern China), Gyoza (Japan), Har gow (Guangdong, China)
Purse	Gather all the way round, close, then twist the top.	Momo (Nepal and Tibet), Ukadiche modak (Maharashtra, India), Xiaolongbao (Jiangnan, China)
Double fold	Close for the first fold, open, then close again for the second.	Mandu (Korea), Manti (Central Asia)

Where do the recipes come from?: Each regional recipe has its real name and the place it comes from. Cooks in each region fold these dumplings in many ways, and the game turns each one into a simple pleat count for play, so it isn't a cooking guide. The Recipe Book shows each recipe's best stamps, and About the recipes in Settings says more. If we've got a name or a place wrong, please tell us.
What happens if I open a purse dumpling before twisting it?: It opens up like a flower in the steamer. That's the Blossom mishap card.

Stamps and mishaps

Each order can earn up to three stamps, so a five-order day can earn up to 15.

Stamp	How to earn it
Fill	The mound matches the dashed ring: not too much, not too little.
Count	Exactly the number of pleats on the ticket, and the finish done (the twist, or both folds).
Neat	Evenly spaced pleats. Keep a steady rhythm; fast or slow doesn't matter. For recipes without pleats, keep the filling in the middle.

Stamps differ in shape as well as colour.

Mishap cards (six to collect)
Card	What causes it
Burst	More filling than the dumpling can hold when you seal.
Leaky	Fewer pleats than the ticket asks for.
Ragged	One pleat too many tears the dough. It still cooks.
Flat	Less than half the filling the ticket asks for.
Blossom	A purse dumpling opened before its twist.
Air	Sealed with no filling at all. It doesn't use up the order: just open and try again.

What do the spoon and wave icons on a ticket mean?: Some regulars have a preference. A heaped spoon means they'd like more filling than usual, and a small spoon means less. A wave means they love neat pleats, and their Neat stamp counts double in the day's tally.

Days, Daily Tickets and baskets

How long is the game?: The season is ten days: three orders on Day 1, then five a day. Days 1 to 9 each introduce a new recipe, and Day 10 is a festival that mixes them all. Finishing a day unlocks the next recipe, whatever your stamps.
What can I play after that?: Open Shop (from Day 3) serves endless five-order days from the recipes you've unlocked. Daily Tickets are five new orders each day, the same for every player, worked out on your iPhone from the date. They keep your best stamps and your streak.
What are the baskets?: Twelve steamer baskets to collect by playing, for stamps, milestones and even mishaps. They change how your steamer looks. Nothing is for sale.

Accessibility and settings

Can I play without folding?: Yes. Turn on the fold tab (Settings › On-screen fold tab › Always), or use VoiceOver's actions below. Every recipe can be finished either way.
VoiceOver: The ticket is read aloud, for example “Momo, medium filling, 4 gathers, twist”. The filling area is adjustable: swipe up or down to add or remove filling, and it tells you how full it is against the target. Each pleat is announced, and so are your stamps. Use the actions rotor for Pinch a pleat, Fold shut, Open and Twist, so you never have to fold the phone. The fill chime turns on automatically while VoiceOver is running.
Reduce Motion: With Reduce Motion on in your iPhone's accessibility settings, the game drops the shakes, push-ins and bursts of particles. Steam and stamps fade in instead.
One hand: On the counter, everything works with one thumb, including the twist (circle the knot). On the bench, set the fold tab to Always and its side with Handedness.
Text size, colour and sound: Menus follow your text size, up to the largest accessibility sizes, and scroll. The gameplay screens use pictures and numbers. Every sound cue has something you can see, and every visual cue has a sound. When your iPhone is in silent mode, the game is silent, and its sounds mix with your own music.
What's in Settings?: Music and effects volume, Haptics, On-screen fold tab (Auto or Always), Handedness, the fill chime (a chime when your filling reaches the target), Reset, the privacy policy, and About the recipes.

Progress, backups and starting over

Where is my progress saved?: On your iPhone, inside Pleat & Steam. It's part of your own iPhone backup (iCloud Backup or a computer), so restoring a backup to a new iPhone brings it back. It doesn't sync between devices, and we never receive it.
How do I start over?: Open Settings from the apron button and tap Reset. It asks you to confirm, then erases your progress on this iPhone. It can't be undone. Deleting the app also removes everything it stores, including your settings.
Do I need Game Center?: No. Pleat & Steam doesn't use Game Center, accounts or sign-in.

Privacy

Pleat & Steam collects no data: no account, analytics, ads or tracking, and it never goes online. Read the privacy policy.

Contact

Email s.java.junk@gmail.com. To help us answer quickly, please include:

your iPhone model and iOS version
the Pleat & Steam version (your iPhone's Settings › General › iPhone Storage › Pleat shows it)
how you were folding (the pose, or the fold tab), and the recipe and day
what you did and what happened, with a screenshot if you can