Today I’m releasing a demo of my new game: Serenity.
It’s available for both Mac and Windows, and the final game will also support Linux.
Download: store.steampowered.com/app/4309910/Serenity_Demo/
The Universe Provides
The story of this game is a strange one, so perhaps worth telling. I was about to add online play to a different game project and wanted a smaller game to test PlayroomKit, the solution I had chosen. As Thanksgiving 2025 approached I wondered what personal project I could do over the break that might be a quick way to prove the online concept. I’d been working in 3D using Three.js for a while, so my mind wandered to all of my favourite 3D game experiences. I wondered how difficult it would be to create something along the lines of an old favourite of mine: Tranquility.
Later that day I was emailing the musicians I was working with, Nova Sphere, and when I returned to my inbox—filtered with the search term “sphere”—there was an email I had been waiting on for something like 20 years: it was from Bill Romanowski, the creator of Tranquility. This was a sign that the Universe really does provide, so I set to work.
The Demo
From that point on I put all my spare time into the game and by Boxing Day I had finished what I would consider the MVP, vertical slice, or whatever you want to call it. That’s essentially what this demo is. You can read a sort of director’s commentary of the game development and my philosophy in a thread on Bluesky. I signed up to Steam, paid my fee, and submitted to Steam Next Fest: February 2026 Edition. I thought it would be fun to release the demo ahead of that event because I’m travelling to Japan for the Tokyo Design Forum between now and then.
This demo is a snapshot from early January and the game has been refined and improved in countless ways since. So, please go easy on the demo and look forward to the final version. Visually, it’s obviously inspired by Tranquility but given that I was creating it with little more than a memory of how that game felt to play back in the day, it contains a lot more. Depending on your point of view, it might strike you as a 3D Electroplankton, Jumping Flash! crossed with Zarch, Tiny Wings in space, Proteus without the trees, or Journey set in the Matrix. My list of influences is wide and varied—not just for the game but also for the procedurally generated levels and music. And of course there is a lot of what I like to think only I can bring to the table. I hope you enjoy it.
The Inspirations
- Alpha Waves (1990)
- Electroplankton (2005)
- Flower (2009)
- Journey (2012)
- Jumping Flash! (1995)
- Panekit (1999)
- Proteus (2013)
- Tiny Wings (2011)
- Tranquility (1992)
- Zarch (1987)
The Future
I’m still working hard on the final game, which will release later in 2026. I’m currently courting publishers, so if you like what you see please get in touch. I’d love to get this onto consoles.
I’ll be sure to write more about the game as it gets closer to the finish line, but the current development version has better onboarding, improved music, even higher performance (the demo is 60fps, but the final version is more adaptive). There’s a lot to talk about, but if you’re hungry for more, check out my director’s commentary thread.
In the short term I’ll be showing Serenity at Tokyo Indies on 18th February. I’d love to see you there.
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