Pathipelago

Pathipelago is a cosy, turn-based life sim on a small isometric island. You build the cottages, fields and workshops; your villagers do the living. Every one of them has a name, a home and a story. They walk to work in the morning, sit together by the fire in the evening, make friends, fall in love, raise children and grow old. And every step they take wears the grass a little more, until a trail becomes a path and a path a cobbled street.

Play free in your browser. This is an in-development build: the first island and the daily island are here, and the rest of the island and the voyage beyond it are being made right now. => follow DISCORD and OneBitKid@Youtube

THE VILLAGERS

• Everyone has a name, a quirk and a life story you can read: the day they came over the sea, their first job, the friends they made, the day they fell in love, their children.
• Friends sit side by side by the fire and greet each other with a heart when their paths cross. Children play tag round the hearth square; the old sit and watch.
• Villagers earn titles (Wilf the Fisher, Old Fern) and have small wishes: a bench on the way home, flowers on the way to work. Grant one and they're cheerful for days.
• A day of rest each week: a swim at the bathing spot, a picnic in the orchard, the view from the lookout.
• And one day, a farewell: a grave in the graveyard, and flowers from the ones who loved them.

THEIR PATHS SHAPE THE VILLAGE

• There are no roads to build. Each morning everyone takes the easiest way to work, and worn ground is easier to walk.
• Markets earn from the feet that pass them. A house on a cobbled street has room for one more. A long walk to work makes a tired worker.
• Streets are named after the villager who walks them most: Fern's Lane, Bram's Row.
• Leave a street unwalked and the grass takes it back.

A DAY ON THE ISLAND

• Build what you can afford, press END DAY, and watch the day play out, as slowly as you like (there's a diorama speed for watching every step).
• The small green and red numbers are tomorrow's exact forecast. No hidden dice.
• A newcomer sails in each night when there's a free bed and food to spare. Milestones bring fishers, bridges, markets, workshops, wells, taverns and a lighthouse, up to a festival at 40 villagers.
• The seasons change the rules: trails form faster in spring, the harvest fills the larder in autumn, the fields rest in winter, and storms flood the shore.

WHAT'S IN THIS BUILD

• The first island: from two villagers to their festival, then on for as long as you like, with the town hall, the trading post, days of rest, graveyards and the ship.
• The daily island: the same island for everyone today, 30 days, one scored try. Download your score as a postcard.
• A chronicle with a heat map of every step, and a book of every rule. The game teaches itself as you play.
• Mouse, keyboard or touch, in desktop and phone browsers. Your island is saved in your browser.

COMING NEXT

• Moments and secrets on your island: a stranger's footprints into the woods, a migrating herd, a pirates' buried treasure, a night merchant who only comes along lamplit streets, secret shapes for those who plan their paths, and a field journal of the wildlife that settles where nobody walks.
• Voyages: build the ship and sail on, island after island: highlands, atolls, marshes, the snowy north, tidal flats, ruins, storm coasts and twin isles, each with its own ground and buildings. Your crew takes their stories with them.
• Boons and heirlooms for the voyage, and veterans who bring their knack to the next island.
• The Great isle, the Grand Festival, and an endless sea after it.
• A monthly challenge with mutators, and a sandbox.
• Desktop versions for Windows, Mac and Linux.

FOLLOW ALONG

If you'd like to know when the ship can sail, follow OneBitKid or add Pathipelago to a collection: every update comes as a devlog post. And please tell us in the comments what you liked, what confused you, and how big your village grew. We read every one.

SMALL PRINT

• Your realms are saved in this browser's storage. Clearing the site's data deletes them; REALMS > BACKUP downloads a copy.
• No ads, no accounts, nothing sent anywhere: the game makes no network requests.
• The building and plant pictures began as renders from a local image model, turned into pixel art by our own tools. The ground, water, paths and villagers are drawn in code, and the sound is made in code. Fonts: Tiny5, Silkscreen and Jersey 10 (SIL Open Font License).