Set up your house

What is Home Assistant?

Home Assistant is free software that runs on a small computer in your home and controls your smart devices — lights, plugs, locks. We use it as the bridge: when a game reaches a dramatic beat, the TV sends a short message (a "webhook") to Home Assistant on your own network, and Home Assistant runs whatever you told it to — dim the lights, flash red, open a box. Nothing leaves your house, and we never touch your devices directly.

You set the address of your Home Assistant once, in the lobby's House panel on the TV. It is saved on that TV only.

Light cues

The TV posts to http://<your-home-system>:8123/api/webhook/games-<mood> at three moments. Create one automation per mood in Home Assistant (Settings → Automations, "Edit in YAML"). These use the living-room lights; change the entity names to your own.

• night — dusk falls; the room dims to candlelight.
• murder — a quick red pulse, then back to the candle.
• verdict — bright white for the reveal, then back to how it was.

# Home Assistant automations — one per light mood. The webhook_id must match
# the mood the TV posts (games-night, games-murder, games-verdict).

- alias: Games – night
  trigger:
    - platform: webhook
      webhook_id: games-night
      local_only: true            # only devices on your own network
      allowed_methods: [POST, GET]
  action:
    - service: scene.create       # remember the current lights so verdict can restore them
      data:
        scene_id: games_before
        snapshot_entities: [light.living_1, light.living_2, light.living_3, light.h6011]
    - service: light.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: [light.living_1, light.living_2, light.living_3, light.h6011] }
      data: { brightness_pct: 5, color_temp_kelvin: 2200, transition: 3 }

- alias: Games – murder
  trigger:
    - platform: webhook
      webhook_id: games-murder
      local_only: true
      allowed_methods: [POST, GET]
  action:
    - service: light.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: [light.living_1, light.living_2, light.living_3, light.h6011] }
      data: { rgb_color: [255, 0, 0], brightness_pct: 100 }
    - delay: "00:00:02.5"
    - service: light.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: [light.living_1, light.living_2, light.living_3, light.h6011] }
      data: { brightness_pct: 5, color_temp_kelvin: 2200, transition: 1 }

- alias: Games – verdict
  trigger:
    - platform: webhook
      webhook_id: games-verdict
      local_only: true
      allowed_methods: [POST, GET]
  action:
    - service: light.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: [light.living_1, light.living_2, light.living_3, light.h6011] }
      data: { color_temp_kelvin: 4500, brightness_pct: 100 }
    - delay: "00:00:02"
    - service: scene.turn_on
      target: { entity_id: scene.games_before }
      continue_on_error: true     # fine if no snapshot was taken

The House panel has a Test button for each mood, so you can confirm the wiring without starting a game.

Evidence cards

Cheap NFC stickers become clues you tap with a phone. Write each one with a free app like NFC Tools: on the TV's card panel, each card shows the exact URL to write — https://games.apricaut.com/t/<id>. Stick the tag on the object or in the room it represents. During the game, a player taps it with their phone and the clue opens. Tapping a brand-new card in the lobby lets you name it right on the TV.

A code lock box

For Escape Room, the finish is a locked box. The simplest version is a hardware combination box: set its dial to the code the TV shows, and the room has to earn that code to open it. For a hands-free version, wire a smart latch to Home Assistant (it shows up as a switch); the game pulses it open when the room enters the right code.

Which game uses what

Game	Rooms	Lights	Cards	Lock box
Crown & Cloak	—	Yes	—	—
Lights Out	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
Locked In	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes