About HeistMaster

HeistMaster is a puzzle game for your iPhone*, iPod Touch* and iPad*. You become a heist master planner, and you steal millions by creating foolproof plans for your crew of four thieves. There are hazards - guards patrolling the halls, laser nets, security cameras, doors that can only be opened from one side, and of course safes. But your crew has skills - an electronics expert, an acrobat, an expert at explosives, and a safecracker. You can count on them to do their jobs. All you have to do is tell them where to go and when, and you can pull off any job.

How To Play

Each level has one or more diamonds that you must steal to finish the level. All thieves that you use in your plan (up to four) must exit before the level is complete. There are optional items that you can steal that show up as dollar signs that will increase your score.

The Control Panel

The control panel is at the bottom of the main game screen. It consists of a clock set icon, a restart button, a time slider, a play button, and an insert display button. When the clock icon is highlighted, you are in time set mode. The play button allows you to run your current plan. The restart button restarts your plan from time zero. The time slider allows you to see the plan at any time from zero to the longest play time. The insert button brings up the insert display.

Paths and Waypoints

There are four thieves. Each thief has a path. Each path has up to eight waypoints. You solve each heist by placing the game pieces that represent waypoints in the squares on the game board and setting the "wait until" times for these waypoints. The game board represents a floor plan of a building. You can place a waypoint on any square that is not darkened. The waypoints are numbered one to eight. A thief always travels from a lower number waypoint to the next higher number waypoint on the board independent of the order in which you placed the way points. You add waypoints to the game board by bringing up the insert display by touching the plus sign ("+") in the lower right corner of the game board. Touching a waypoint in the insert display causes it to move to the game board. You can drag waypoints around the board to place them where you want.

The path for each thief is auto routed for you around the walls. Sometimes the path will not go where you want it to because it is just the shortest path. In this case just add waypoints to direct the path where you want it to go.

The path for a thief must start on an entrance, which is a green box outline. Since all thieves must exit before the puzzle is solved, the last waypoint of each path should be on an exit, which is a red outline box. You do not need to use all four thieves for each heist. Just use the number you need.

Waypoints are removed from the game board by dragging them to the bottom of the screen.

Setting Waypoint Times

You can set a "wait until" time for each waypoint on the board. When a thief reaches a waypoint, he waits at the waypoint until the wall clock displayed on the game board matches the "wait until" time. To set a "wait until" time, touch the clock icon in the lower left hand corner of the game board. Waypoints that your thieves have not reached yet will get a tiny clock icon of their own. Touch the waypoint you want to change and you get the time set display. Use the up and down arrows on the display to change the time. Touch outside the box of the time set display to return to the game board.

Stealing Things

To steal something just make sure that one of your thieves passes close to the object you wish to steal. They will grab it with no needed instructions from you. They are thieves after all. There are two kinds of objects to steal - diamonds and dollar signs. All diamonds must be stolen to complete a level. Dollar signs are optional to steal but will increase your score.

Executing Your Plan

Press the play icon to try out your plan. When the thieves steal all the diamonds in the level, and all the thieves exit, the puzzle is solved and that level is complete. If your plan doesn't work the first time. You can use the restart icon or the slider to go back in time and make changes, and try again by pressing play. It doesn't matter how many times you try, as long as your final plan solves the puzzle, you have won.

Important time saver: You can make time move faster by swiping your finger back and forth across the screen when trying a plan.

The Time Slider

The time slider is a powerful tool in helping you plan your heist. You can use it to review exactly when things happen - when a thief reaches a certain waypoint or when a guard enters a room or a camera turns off. If you want to change the time for a waypoint, but your thief has already visited the waypoint, move the time slider to the left and the thief will move backwards along his path until the waypoint has not been visited. Likewise if you want to move a waypoint and your thief has already traveled on a segment of his path that includes the waypoint (the waypoint will be locked and can't be moved), move the time slider to the left until the waypoint becomes unlocked.

Waypoints on the insert screen also become locked if using them would cause a path segment that has already been travelled to change. The time slider can be used to unlock them as well. The trick to solving a puzzle quickly is to move the time slider only back far enough so you can make your change.

The Thieves

Thief	Identifying Color	Skill
Electronics Expert	Blue	Disable cameras
Explosives Expert	Green	Blow up some walls
Acrobat	Red	Navigate lasernets
Safe Cracker	Orange	Open safes

The Hazards

	Guards - Guards move along paths that you can see. The part of the floor plan that the guard can see is lit up yellow. If any thief is on the yellow part of the floor, the thief is caught and the plan has failed.
	Cameras - You must take care that none of your thieves are seen by a camera. Cameras show up on the floor plan as circles with a light that blinks as time changes. Each camera has a control box which is square with a light. You can tell which box controls which camera because their lights blink in synch. The parts of the floor plan that can be seen by a camera is lit up yellow.
	A camera can be disabled by the electronics expert thief. When the thief is close to the control box he will automatically disable it. But it takes a few seconds to disable. A green status bar shows that the camera is operative and when the thief is near the box the green bar shrinks as the thief makes progress disabling the camera. When the green is gone the camera is off and it no longer causes part of the floor to be yellow. When the thief moves away from the control box the camera control box resets itself and reboots. A red bar appears and gets longer over time. When it reaches it's full length the camera will switch back on. If the thief gets close to the camera control box as it is rebooting, it will start it reboot cycle over. This a great way to make sure a camera stays disabled.
	Walls - Walls impede the thieves progress, but reddish walls can be blown up by the explosives expert. When the explosives expert comes close to a an explodable wall a green status bar grows where the black bar beside the wall is. When the bar is completely green, the explosives are set. The explosion will not trigger, however, until the thief moves away from the wall. The green bar turns red, and then the red bar shrinks. When the red bar is gone, the wall is exploded, and the shockwave can be seen. If the shockwave reaches a guard, it means that he has heard the explosion and the plan has failed. Make sure the guards are far enough away before triggering explosions.
	Laser Nets - Only the acrobat can make it through a laser net, which are shown as crisscrossed red beams. The acrobat moves much slower through a laser net than she normally moves because she is avoiding the beams. If any other thief comes in contact with the net, the plan has failed.
	Electric Doors - The only doors shown on the floor plans are green electric doors. Electric doors have a sensor pad that when stepped on by a thief cause the door to open. The pad is only on one side of the door so a single thief can only go through the door one way. But a thief stepping on the pad can open the door for other thieves to pass through in either direction. If any thief runs into an unopened electric door, the plan has failed.
	Safes - Sometimes the goods you wish to steal are locked in a safe. Only the safecracker can open a safe. He must be in front of the safe and close to it. The green status bar will shrink and the safe will open in a few seconds. The safecracker will immediately steal the contents of the safe as soon as it is opened.

*iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.