BABA & KOKUM: Porch Print Shop

Two grandmothers. One scarf. Your turn to print.

The Porch Print Shop is a cozy puzzle about the printed floral scarf. Night on the prairie, a lamp on the porch. A guest arrives and asks for a scarf. You lay woodblock tiles on the cloth: every tile is a flower printed in one of five inks. Once the cloth is full, the finished scarf hangs on the line.

HOW TO PLAY • Two tiles in your hand, three in the basket. Place one, take one, until the cloth is full. • An ink patch: three or more squares of one ink side by side. • A flower bunch: two or more of the same flower together. • Mirroring: a printed kerchief is symmetric, so left-right and top-bottom pairs score. • The border ring, the heart in the centre, a golden thread you choose the ink for, and “Pattern!” for a move that joins a patch and a bunch. • Every guest has wishes of their own. The third star needs all of them granted. • Tools: the iron swaps two tiles, the hand mirror prints a mirrored copy, a fresh bundle refills the basket, and Murchyk the cat lends a paw with a hint. The last move can be undone.

A YEAR ON THE PORCH Nine invented guests across four seasons on a drawn map. The cloth grows from 3×3 to 5×5, with darned squares and pre-printed tiles along the way. Your first scarf for each guest opens a new flower in the herbarium.

EVERY DAY, AND ENDLESS • Scarf of the Day: the same tiles for everyone, your best score and a day streak. • The Fair: endless rounds, open once the last guest has her scarf. • Free printing: no wishes, every flower you have opened. • The Chest: every scarf you printed, each one saved as a keepsake picture on request. • Fourteen badges.

A HERBARIUM WITH SOURCES Sixteen motifs: sunflower, kalyna, wild rose, poppy, saskatoon blossom, chamomile, apple blossom, squash blossom, St John’s wort, flax, wheat, dill, bilberry, birch, linden and the moon. Each card says what is known for sure and names its source. Where we found no source, we cut the sentence.

ABOUT THE SCARF A kokum scarf is a thin printed cloth, florals on a bright ground. In Plains Cree, kôhkom is “your grandmother”. In Ukraine the factory-printed kerchief appeared in the 1870s.

ABOUT THE PROJECT This is a UAFest project, made by Ukrainian-Canadians. We have asked for community review; it has not begun. No Indigenous community or organization is our partner, and nobody has endorsed it. The print shop’s guests are invented people.

OFFLINE The whole game sits on your device and plays with no connection. There are no ads, no purchases, no accounts and no analytics. Your progress stays on your device. A result leaves it only when you tap Share yourself.

In Ukrainian and English.

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