In development · Playable in your browser

Glowing Life

You are not just exploring this world. You are waking it.

A cozy fantasy adventure about a small light being bringing a forgotten world back to life. Wherever you go, life comes back: grass turns green, dead trees blossom, fireflies gather and creatures come out to meet you. No timers, no enemies, nothing to fail.

Play the demo What you are building

Runs in your browser, no download. Free.

The same riverbank awake: pink willows, green grass with white flowers, an orange tree, a bridge of living roots over a blue river and birds landing beside the light being A riverbank at night, dark and asleep: grey willows, a black river and the small glowing light being in the grass

Move your light

Move your cursor or finger across the picture. The forest comes back wherever your light falls and fades again once the light moves on.

How it plays

Hold to move. That is the whole control scheme.

Hold the mouse or your finger and the little light being follows. WASD works too. There is nothing else to learn and nothing you can get wrong. The world is what responds, not a score.

The grove at dusk under a pink willow: the light being sits on a rock by the stream, and around it a bear, two red pandas, two foxes, a rabbit and a deer with glowing patterns on its coat, with lupines in front
Everyone you woke comes home with you: the bear, the red pandas, the foxes, the rabbit and the deer.

The grove

You are not picking levels. You are building a home.

The grove starts almost empty. Dark grass, still water, a book and not much else. Then you finish a place and something comes home with you: a tree, a landmark, a creature you woke. Each one brings a piece of its own habitat home with it. The ground changes around it and the grove closes in a little.

Some creatures settle in on their own. Other pieces are yours to discover and place. Every time you come back, there is more waiting for you than when you left.

Make it yours

Dress the animals you brought home. Then keep the moment.

Not in the demo yet

Every animal that moves into your grove can look the way you like. Choose its coat, how sturdy it is, the size of its eyes and ears, and a soft glow that runs in patterns along its fur. One tap puts it back the way you found it.

And when the light falls just right, stop and take a picture. Pick a filter, from warm light to a moonlit night, set a frame around it and the moment is kept.

Birds landing on a riverbank that has just woken: a green, a yellow and a red bird on the rocks by the water, a magenta one on a stone in front, more circling in the sky above pink weeping willows, a bridge of living roots behind and the light being glowing in the middle
Fourteen different plumages and every bird a slightly different size.

What comes back

Finish a place and the birds arrive.

They fly in, pick a spot and land on it: a rock, a branch, the grass beside you. Then they stay. They shake themselves out, scratch, peck at the ground and look over at you.

Walk into them and they do not scatter. They make room. A hop to the side, a few quick steps, or a short low arc to a spot two meters over and then they settle again. And if you stand still long enough, one of them will land on your head.

You do not pick a level from a menu. You turn the pages of a book and each one holds a place.

The first five places

Somewhere, something is waiting to live again.

Each one asks for a different thing:

  1. Wake the ancestral treeIt has stood in the swamp so long that the water forgot it
  2. Mend the broken crossingTwo shores and nothing between them
  3. Earn a deer's trustIt keeps its distance and watches what you do
  4. Bring the fox cubs homeTheir mother is searching for them, but she cannot find them alone
  5. Wake the waterfallThe rock face is dry and the pool below it is still Not in the demo yet

Beyond the forest

Three more worlds are waiting to wake.

Not in the demo yet

An enchanted wood where crystals keep the moonlight, a desert where the oases have run dry and mountains under the northern lights. Each of them sleeps in its own way, and each wakes in its own way.

Collect and decorate

The animals have wishes too.

As the world comes back to life, the animals of the grove begin to settle in. But sometimes they need a little help finding a place that feels like home.

Explore the places you have woken, discover hidden treasures and bring the animals what they need. Then choose where to place each piece in your grove and watch the little world grow around you.

  1. A thought bubble with a hollow log floats above a fox and her cub by the grove pond, the light being standing beside them. Below it the words: The fox cubs are looking for a hideout. One is waiting in a chest by the Sleeping Giant.
    A wishA small bubble shows what an animal is wishing for, with a few words pointing you towards it.
  2. An old wooden chest at the foot of a purple cliff, warm light spilling from under its lid and small sparks rising
    A chestReturn to a place you already woke. Come close and a soft light spills out from under the lid.
  3. The glowing light being in the grass. At the bottom of the screen a row of round slots: a bird feeder, clover and a fish rack already found, a log and a bench still dark
    Your groveEverything you find waits in a little bar. Drag it out and set it down wherever it feels right.

What people say

Who makes this

Built by one person, with music by Kæreste.

I build Glowing Life on my own in Unity: the forest, the creatures, the glow, the small light being in the middle of it.

The music is by Kæreste and it is the part I am least able to be modest about. The grove has its own piece now and it changes what the place feels like far more than anything I added to it.

Four places and the grove are playable today. Five more are already taking shape, with around twenty planned in total. It will take as long as it takes.

Where to find it

Come play, or follow along.

The demo lives on itch and runs in your browser. Everything else is where I post the small steps: the things that finally worked and the ones that broke first.

Play the demo
  • Threads Where I post the most, and where you can talk back
  • Instagram Screenshots and the odd small win
  • TikTok Single moments, a few seconds each
  • YouTube Longer looks at how it is coming together

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