AN ORIGINAL PLAYABLE UNIVERSE

Six worlds.
One last star.

Six small worlds circle the last star.
Each keeps a climate the universe forgot.
Fly down into any of them.

Or keep the light:

ALL WORLDS GENERATED IN YOUR BROWSERHEADPHONES ENCOURAGED
✳ASSEMBLING SIX SMALL IMPOSSIBILITIES
FROM THE OBSERVATORY

What a little
imagination can do.

AFTERLIGHT is an original miniature universe and a playable time machine. Six bottled worlds circle a captive star, each in its own atmosphere: rolling hills at golden hour, a harbor in the morning, a rainforest at noon, a desert city at sunset, a megacity in the rain and a tundra under the aurora.

Every hill, house, tree, boat, person, cloud and ray of light is generated in your browser from code. There are no downloaded models or textures, and no AI service running behind the scenes. Their energy, damage, shields and alternate futures are computed by a deterministic simulation.

The inspirations

Worlds you can see whole and then step into draw on Outer Wilds and the miniature towns of Townscaper and Tiny Glade. A website as somewhere to play draws on Bruno Simon. The cultures are fictional composites of vernacular building traditions, not replicas of real places.

Read the research & build notes ↗

Original geometry, shaders and procedural audio. Three.js (MIT). Fonts from Fontsource under their open font licenses. A fictional world and game rules, not an astrophysics model.
A TRAVELLER'S FIELD GUIDE

Six worlds.
All of them yours.

Explore: click a world, or a card at the bottom, to fly down through its atmosphere.

Moving the camera: drag to rotate. Right-drag, Shift-drag or two-finger drag to pan. Scroll or pinch to zoom toward the cursor. Double-click (or double-tap) anything to fly there. W A S D or the arrow keys glide, Q and E (or Shift with ← →) turn, Shift with ↑ ↓ rises and sinks, and + and − zoom. The pad at the bottom right does the same, and ⌖ resets the view.

Click a landmark to visit it, and choose Walk here to explore at eye level. Ride the Line takes the train through all six worlds.

The Keeper's game: keep all six worlds at or above 35% life and the star at 60% light when the clock reaches 03:00.

  1. Prepare for the waves. Choose a world, then Shelter. Shields take time to grow, so start before its wave.
  2. Feed the star. Resonate turns stored energy into starlight. Gather refills energy.
  3. Nothing is final. Pause, drag the timeline back, and change a choice. Your old future is kept for comparison.
A gentle hint

Try sheltering all six worlds for the first 40 seconds, then letting them resonate. Watch the shields absorb each wave.

Space PauseR Rewind 15s1–6 WorldQWE Route energyV Visit worldL Ride the LineH Whole systemC PhotoF Fullscreen

Your latest future saves on this device. Film and tour modes are scripted; take the controls at any time.
A MESSAGE FROM THIS FUTURE

Pass on the light.

This link includes your seed, decisions, and place in time.