How to play

Your first day

Choose a name (3 to 16 letters, numbers or underscores) and a password, and confirm you're 13 or older. Then Kassi, the city's Ambassador, takes you on a tour:

1. The closet. Every citizen starts in the closet at the back of Vanilla Threads, where you choose your body, face and hair.
2. Vanilla Threads. Meet Sxniyah and buy your first clothes and a bag with your 300 starting coins.
3. City Hall. Meet Mayor Ty and Assistant Mayor Lucian, read the city rules and sign them.
4. The Post Office. Mabel gives you your P.O. box, and there's a gift waiting in it. Send Kassi a thank-you postcard.
5. The police and the fire department. Officer Haith and Captain Hayes, and a look round the cells.
6. Your apartment. Dottie at The Garden Apartments has a room with your name on it. Make your first chair from Kassi's toolbox.
7. Ken, Donna, the Job Board, the bank and the Chamber. Where furniture, pets, jobs, savings and businesses come from.

After the tour you can go wherever you like.

Getting about

• Tap or click the ground to walk there. Tap a door to go in.
• Tap a bench or a chair to sit on it; the Sit button stands you up again.
• Zoom with + and −, the mouse wheel, or two fingers.
• Type in the chat bar at the bottom to say something out loud. What's been said in the room lately shows above it.
• Tap someone to wave, send them a postcard or a gift, add them as a friend, visit their apartment, trade with them, or report them.
• Tap the clock for the forecast: VanillaCity keeps real time and real weather.

Money

There are two kinds. Coins buy nearly everything, and VanillaBucks buy a few special things. You earn coins from odd jobs, fishing, 8-ball and your business, and your business also drops a VanillaBuck in the till now and then. The Bank of Vanilla holds both and sends them to friends for a fee (5% of coins, 10% of VanillaBucks). VanillaBucks can only change hands at the bank. Job pay, prices and everything else about money are on Coins and VanillaBucks.

Your apartment

Your apartment is up the stairs at The Garden Apartments. Tap Decorate to place and rearrange furniture. There are 562 pieces, which you either build at Ken's workbench from materials he sells or buy ready-made from his showroom. You can also change the wallpaper (48 choices) and floor (38). Tap a radio, jukebox or TV to play something for everyone in the room.

Jobs

The Community Job Board is by City Hall's door. Take a job and you're paid in coins each time you do it, up to a daily limit. The jobs are emptying the park's bins, clearing cups from Peach Tree Cafe's tables, reading to the children at the library and walking dogs, plus raking leaves in autumn and shovelling snow in winter.

A business of your own

1. Apply for a business voucher on the Job Board, under Start a business: say why you want one.
2. City Hall reads it and writes back. If it's approved, take the voucher to Mr. Whitaker at the Chamber of Commerce and send your business request: the kind of business, its name and your plan.
3. Once it's open, your shop is one of the storefronts in City Central, with its name over the door. Stock the shelves, set your prices, keep the place tidy and open up. Shoppers come in while it's open, and you empty the till at the counter.

A shop only earns while you keep it going. It closes itself when it runs out of stock or gets too messy.

Pets

Donna's Pet Pause on Ogeechee Street sells 16 kinds of pet. Tap Pets to take yours along or send it home, and tap anyone's pet to pet it, play with it or give it a treat. You can keep up to 6.

Things to do

• Fishing: buy a rod from Ken or make one at his workbench, then fish from the riverbank or the pier. Tap Cast, and Reel in! when the bobber dips. Marisol buys your catch at the Town Market.
• Basketball: at Ogeechee Park, stand on a court, hold Shoot (or the space bar) and let go in the green.
• The arcade: 7 games and the pool tables at Vanilla Arcade & Billiards. Winning a game of 8-ball against another citizen pays coins; arcade tickets buy prizes at Benny's counter.
• The cinema: put a YouTube video up in one of Vanilla Cinema's screening rooms, and everyone in there watches it together.
• The train: buy a ticket from Johnny at the station and ride the Midland Pacific Downtown and back.
• Winter: sled or tube down Ogeechee Park's sledding hill, and skate on the frozen lake.

Friends and the post

Tap someone and Add friend, or tap Friends and type their name. Your list shows who's online and which part of VanillaCity they're in (never the building), or that they're aboard the Midland Pacific. There are no private messages: send postcards from the Post Office or any blue mailbox, and wrap gifts at the Post Office. Trading is face to face: tap someone and Trade, put in what you're giving and tick when you're happy. Nothing changes hands until you've both ticked.

Staying safe

Never share your address, phone number, school or passwords, and never ask anyone for theirs. If someone bothers you, tap them and Report: staff read every report. The city rules are here.