What you learn

The feel of a careful lift

Slewcraft is a 3D practice simulator with physical load swing. Every lift is planned, briefed, flown and landed the way a careful operator would do it.

In-cab crane operation

Sit in the cab of the LT-45, a fictional trolley-jib tower crane, with a cab view, an external orbit view, a hook camera and a site plan.

Hoist, trolley and slew

Two proportional joysticks: hoist on the right, slew and trolley travel on the left. A creep mode slows everything for the last half metre.

Load swing you can feel

The load is a pendulum. Brake too late and it keeps going. A swing instrument shows direction and angle, and the swing guide explains how to prevent and recover it.

Wind and load charts

Live wind against the lift plan limit, a fictional load chart, radius and capacity readouts, and lessons that ask you to refuse a lift that does not add up.

Signaller instructions

Site radio on channel 12. Your signaller talks you into blind landings, calls stops, and expects you to re-establish contact before carrying on.

Landing precision

Land inside the marked tolerance, at a gentle speed, with the load fully supported before the slinger releases. Your score reflects smoothness, swing and landing error.

Varied cargo

Every load handles differently

A braced equipment crate, a strapped pallet of bricks, bundles of hollow steel pipe, ribbed drainage tanks, long steel sections and a wind-catching panel. Length, mass and surface area all change how the load swings, how far it reaches and how the wind treats it.

CratesBrick palletsPipe bundlesDrainage tanksSteel beamsPanels

Slewcraft on iPad: a bundle of steel pipes suspended from the hook, slewing across the yard — Lesson 3, Around the tower: a 1,250 kg bundle of hollow steel pipes, seen from the external view on iPad.

Swing control

Read the swing, then settle it

The swing instrument in the cab shows the direction and angle of the load in real time. One tap opens the swing guide: establish a transit height, build and reduce speed smoothly, select creep for fine work, and resume the approach only when the load is under control.

Swing angle and direction indicator on every view
Practical in-app guidance on preventing and recovering swing
Scores reward smoothness, not speed. There is no timer bonus.

Slewcraft on iPhone: the cab view with a pipe bundle swinging at 2.1 degrees, shown on the swing instrument — Lesson 3 on iPhone: the swing instrument reads 2.1° and advises "Watch the load".

Free lessons

Twelve lessons. Choose any, in any order.

Nothing is locked behind completion or earnings. Each lesson starts with a pre-lift briefing, a lift plan and one judgement question, then you enter the cab.

01 FOUNDATIONS

Your first lift

Trial lift with a braced equipment crate.

02 FOUNDATIONS

A smooth hand

Trolley a pallet of bricks along the jib; brake before the swing does.

03 FOUNDATIONS

Around the tower

Slew a long bundle of steel pipes across the yard.

04 LOAD HANDLING

Find your line

Combine slew and trolley to carry a drainage tank along a marked line.

05 LOAD HANDLING

The last half metre

Creep a steel section onto a raised landing deck.

06 LIFT PLANNING

Read the radius

A delivery exceeds capacity. Refuse it and take the approved alternative.

07 SITE JUDGEMENT

Trust the signaller

A blind lift into an obscured landing bay, by radio alone.

08 SITE JUDGEMENT

The wind call

A large panel meets a rising wind. Recognise the limit and return to the laydown.

09 SITE JUDGEMENT

Keep the zone clear

Route a larger drainage tank around a protected work area.

10 SITE JUDGEMENT

Stop means stop

An unexpected hazard and an emergency signal mid-lift.

11 ADVANCED

Evening precision

A long steel load under site lighting onto a deck.

12 ADVANCED

Your practical shift

Plan, trial lift, transport, land, release and park the crane.

Plus Free practice: repeat a full lift with your own choice of load, weather and landing height. Lessons pay fictional LiftCoins and build reputation; Free practice is just practice.

Free and paid, clearly separated

Everything you need to learn is free

The optional Career Pack adds a 12-contract career for players who want somewhere to put their skills. It changes nothing about the physics, the controls or the lessons.

Free

Slewcraft

Free download. No subscription, no advertising, no account.

All 12 lessons, freely selectable in any order
Free practice with adjustable load, conditions and landing height
Swing guidance, field guide, load chart and site radio
Cab, external, hook-camera and site views
Fictional LiftCoins earned from lessons, spent on company rewards: crane liveries, cab trims and yard additions
Logbook of your attempts and user-initiated save export and import

Optional Career Pack

The 12-contract career

Optional Career Pack: one-time in-app purchase. The price is shown in the app, set by the App Store for your country.

Twelve client contracts across four fictional companies, from a morning delivery to a complete handover
Three contracts open at the starting rank; reputation earned through gameplay unlocks the harder ones. Buying does not skip ranks.
Contract fees and quality bonuses paid in LiftCoins, plus company milestones
Permanent, non-consumable purchase tied to your Apple Account. Restore it on any of your devices.

Buying and restoring require an internet connection. Once verified, the pack works offline. No subscription, and nothing else in the game is paid.

About LiftCoins. LiftCoins are fictional rewards earned by playing. They have no cash value, cannot be purchased, withdrawn or exchanged for money, and cannot be used to buy the Career Pack. Company rewards can be earned entirely through the free lessons.

Career and company

Build a company people trust

Every lesson and contract pays into your ledger. Reputation comes from successful work, complexity and quality, and rises through five ranks from Yard newcomer to Riverside veteran. Spend what you earn on a forest or harbour livery, copper or ivory cab trim, a service van, an operations office, or a founder's monument in your yard.

Company rewards: free Contract board: Career Pack required

Slewcraft on iPad: the career contract board with the Career Pack purchase panel, reputation rank and client contracts — **Career Pack required: in-app purchase.** The contract board, shown before purchase.

iPhone and iPad. Landscape recommended.

Slewcraft runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 15 or later. Turn the device sideways before you enter the cab so both joysticks, the instruments and the site radio fit on screen together.

iPhone and iPad, iOS and iPadOS 15.0 or later
Touch joysticks, compatible gamepad or connected keyboard
Plays offline: all scenes and lessons are bundled
Progress saved on your device; export a backup any time
No account, no advertising, no analytics
Internet needed only to buy or restore Career Pack

Slewcraft on iPhone in landscape: the lesson picker showing all 12 lessons

Screens

Straight from the yard

Genuine captures from version 0.5.4 running on iPhone 17 Pro and iPad Pro 13-inch simulators, with sample progress.

The Riverside training yard home screen on iPad with a forest-green livery crane — The yard, with an earned forest livery.

In-cab lift on iPhone with the load, landing area and instruments — Lesson 1 from the cab on iPhone.

A ribbed drainage tank suspended from the hook on iPad — Lesson 4: the drainage tank.

Company and rewards screen on iPad showing liveries, cab trims and yard additions — Company rewards, earned with free lesson coins.

Career contract board on iPhone with the Career Pack purchase panel — **Career Pack required: in-app purchase.**

The 12-lesson picker on iPad — All 12 lessons, all unlocked.

A practice aid, not a qualification

Slewcraft is an educational game built around a fictional crane and a simplified simulation. It teaches the principles of a careful lift and the habits of good site judgement, and it is good at that.

It is not accredited training, an assessment or a qualification, and it is not endorsed by any training body. Completing lessons or contracts does not make anyone competent to operate real lifting equipment. Real crane operation requires supervised training, a competent appointed person, a lift plan and the manufacturer's instructions for the actual machine. The in-app field guide links to independent industry references; those organisations are not connected with Slewcraft.

Support and privacy

Help with Slewcraft

Questions about lessons, controls, a Career Pack purchase or restoring it on a new device? We answer directly.

Email chris@patientthread.com. We never ask for Apple passwords or card details.

Support page Privacy policy

Slewcraft: Crane Simulator is published by Patient Thread Ltd, registered in England and Wales (17167409). Apple, iPhone, iPad and App Store are trademarks of Apple Inc.