DW Innovation Play

Mill Street

by Darren Wilden

If you had to explain how your own mind works, how would you even do that? For me, the answer became Mill Street. A 1920s town you can walk around in your browser.

Play Mill Street Watch the film

Free. Nothing to install, no account. Works on your computer, tablet and phone. Your first visit takes a minute or two to load the town. Later visits are much quicker. How to play

The town

A walk through town, morning to lamplight

Every one of these is a real view from the game, just as you will see it. Walk in through the doors, sit in the pews and listen, because many of the rooms talk back.

  1. The Crown A sunny street with The Crown pub on the right, a clock tower ahead and gold arrows on the pavement
    Morning

    Ask for a place and gold arrows lead you there along the pavement. The council denies painting them.

  2. Free Library The stone portico of the Free Library on North Street, with a red door and a vintage lorry in the road
    34 North Street

    Seven shelves, from science and mathematics to philosophy, history and fiction, with eight short recordings to find among them.

  3. Mill Street Station A black steam engine and red carriages passing the level crossing, with Wilden's Circus wagons to the left
    The level crossing

    The steam train runs to the exact second, every single day. Rail engineers are reportedly furious.

  4. River Row School A tall schoolroom with rows of wooden desks, Pythagoras chalked on the board and the planets hanging from the beams
    The schoolroom

    Pythagoras on the blackboard and the eight known planets hanging from the beams, each one a subject the room's narration talks about.

  5. St Mary's Inside St Mary's church, with stained glass windows, wooden pews, a red carpet and a stone font
    Inside the church

    Stained glass, a stone font, and a pew to sit in and listen.

  6. The Regal The Regal cinema auditorium, rows of red seats facing a screen showing a film about a Danish train journey
    The pictures

    Take a seat. On the screen is The Danish Train Adventure, Part 1, an earlier film, playing in the town's own cinema.

  7. E. Marsh, Clockmaker At dusk, the lit windows of E. Marsh, Clockmaker and Quill and Lantern Books, with the circus gate glowing beyond
    Dusk

    "This whole shop is full of clocks. But really, it's full of time. And time, more than anything else, is patience."

    Heard inside E. Marsh, Clockmaker's shop
  8. Riverside Wharf A brick street at night, street lamps lit and every window glowing
    Lamplight

    When night comes the street lamps light themselves, and the windows glow one by one down the street.

The paper

The town has its own newspaper

Pick up the Gazette from the stand outside Main Street News and read the day's stories. Here is a copy, straight off the press.

The Mill Street Gazette

Late edition Mill Street, 1928 Free of charge, as ever
The Regal's auditorium, printed in newspaper ink
The Regal, where the same film has been playing for some time.

The cinema may start showing good movies

There is a local initiative to convince The Regal to replace the movie that has been playing on repeat for the last 13 years, with something actually worth looking at. However, the owner of The Regal emphasizes that if it was not for that movie, The Regal would never have made it to the town map. "We would never have gotten 7 visitors over 13 years if it wasn't for that movie," the owner of The Regal said.

You can still experience the movie at The Regal, and here are some of the reviews.

  • ★★★★★ "I've never slept better" - John
  • ★ "I hate trains! but it was the only movie available." - Karen
  • ★ "Not the action movie I was hoping for" - Ben
  • ★ "Not my cup of tea! I want a refund!" - Alice
  • ★ "It was actually okay... when the ending credits started rolling" - Nick

Mill Street rail cracks punctuality problem railways have chased for a century

The steam train at the level crossing, printed in newspaper ink

As a resident of Mill Street, you may have noticed that all trains depart and arrive on the exact same second every day. Rail engineers from around the world are baffled how a schedule can actually work, but also very alarmed. "Delays and cancellations are all part of a train journey, and Mill Street is destroying what we have spent ages to build, with their 'look at how perfect we are' attitude," a visiting rail engineering expert said. "They are making the rest of us look stupid, and this needs to be stopped," he continued.

Tourism seen declining in Mill Street

Every month Mill Street has experienced a steady number of three players who entered the town, this has now dropped to two, and this raises concerns with the Mayor. "This is a big drop in our numbers, and something needs to be done!" the Mayor said, while pointing his finger at Darren and calling him 'lazy and irresponsible.' "Everything is free in this town, which impacts our town economy, and I still can't get a budget," the Mayor continued.

Asked for a comment, Darren said the game has been free since the day he built it, and it was just a fun spare time project. The Mayor immediately replied, "So, am I a joke to you? Don't treat me like a figure you've just made up." Darren ignored the remarks, saying it's pure imagination.

Gold arrows appear on streets, council denies painting them

Residents have noticed gold arrows appearing on the ground, pointing wherever a visitor says they want to go. "We didn't paint them, we don't own any gold paint, and we can't explain them," a councillor said. "But they've never once been wrong." He tried one this week and ended up outside his own house. "Good arrow," he said.

Situations vacant

Mill Street requires a developer

Are you a good developer, and do you take our citizens seriously? (The current one apparently does not.)

Oh boy, do we have a job for you.

Apply now at the Mayor's Office

The wireless

2MS, The Mill Street Wireless

In 1928 a town worth its name had a voice on the air. London had 2LO. Mill Street has 2MS.

Whistle for a taxi in town and the driver has it on. The station's call, a song, a word from the sponsors and a little chatter from around town. Get out, and he switches it off until your next ride.

Turn the knob to listen to a minute of it here.

Off the air

The circus

Seven keepsakes. One circus.

Seven keepsakes are hidden around town, each with a short reflection of its own. Find all seven and two circus tickets are yours. The big top finally opens, for an ending I made for the people who get that far.

Your satchel remembers what you have found, so you can come back another day and carry on.

Two Mill Street Circus tickets, Admit One, numbers 3471 and 3472, for the Big Top on Mill Street Grounds Play Mill Street Opens right here in your browser
The mind

A mind, laid out as a town

Eight ways of thinking, and the places in Mill Street where each one can be heard.

  • Curiosity

    "That curiosity never let go of me. It kept pulling me forward, until I understood how it all worked, one piece at a time."

    The welcome, as you arrive

  • Creative

    "Oh, I love the arts, creativity on every level, it's always had a real pull on me."

    The Pavilion, in the park

  • Science

    "Every atom in your body, and mine, was forged inside a star that doesn't exist anymore."

    Free Library, the science shelf

  • Mathematics

    "Mathematics was never really about numbers for me. It's logic, laid out so plainly it's hard to argue with."

    Free Library, the mathematics shelf

  • Philosophy

    "Philosophy is what makes you actually think, rather than just accept."

    Free Library, the philosophy shelf

  • History

    "I never read history for the dates. I read it for what it felt like to be inside those centuries."

    Free Library, the history shelf

  • Spiritual

    "I couldn't call myself a religious man. But I've never been able to walk past a belief system without wanting to understand what's underneath it."

    Free Library, the religion shelf

  • Patience

    "You have to accept time as your companion. Not your enemy."

    E. Marsh, Clockmaker

The film

The film about the town

What Mill Street is, why it became a town, and what it took to build it alone. If you would rather see the place before you set foot in it, start here.

The film plays from YouTube once you press play. Nothing is loaded from YouTube before that. Watch it on YouTube

Darren Wilden
The maker

One person built all of it

I'm Darren Wilden. DW Innovation is my own small studio, and Mill Street is its flagship. Around thirty years of drawing, composing music, writing, 3D, animation and code went into one town.

I wrote it, sketched it, modelled and painted it, animated it, composed its music, recorded its voice and sounds, and programmed it to run in an ordinary browser. Then I tested it on my phone, again and again.

Play Mill Street See how it's made Write to me