Barnisan

Mission log · day one

Pale Blue Pebble

You set down on a rock barely wider than your shadow. In the hold: seeds and dirty ice. Walk it, plant it, thaw it, and see if it will hold an atmosphere before your air runs thin.

In development · iPhone and iPad

Left thumb walks · right thumb looks

The mission

One cat. One lander. A pebble that gets bigger every time you tend it.

PLANT

Put a seedling in the ground

The pack has seeds and the ground is waiting. Once a tree takes, it drops pods of its own, and the grove starts spreading without you.

The cat on a ridge beside a fresh beacon and a tent, the first trees taking on the green.
MELT

Dig a hollow, thaw the ice

Roots are thirsty things. Dig a bowl, melt dirty ice into it, and a puddle becomes a pool becomes a lake.

The cat at the edge of a pool beside a lighthouse, the button reading MELT.
ZAP

Guard what you grew

Something is always chewing at the roots. Borers freeze solid when zapped. Critters that raid the pods leave a pelt behind.

borerpiphoarderpelt
BUILD

Raise a camp from the lander

A beacon against the dark. A tent by the grove. A condenser, a habitat, a radio tower. Then send a signal and see what answers.

Placing a tinker shed: the blueprint held in place beside the lander, the button reading PLACE.

Mission log · growth

Small world

The horizon is farther than it was. Your boots are the same size.

WaterOptimal
FloraOptimal
AirThin
CatBright

Water, flora and air belong to the Pebble. The fourth gauge is the cat's own. It drains as she walks about and a nap refills it. A drowsy cat drags her paws, and that is the whole penalty. Nothing out here kills you.

It grows

Every living tree makes the world bigger. Keep the gauges fed and the helmet comes off.

Growth is continuous. Every tree, every melted block, every standing building and every fed crewmate adds to what the Pebble wants to be. Each time it crosses a line, everything stops for a card and the camera climbs from the cat's shoulder out to orbit and back. Then the gauges fall, because a bigger body asks for more.

Minute one: a bare tan rock against a purple nebula, the cat beside the lander, three seeds and two blocks of ice in the pack.
Minute one. A rock you can walk round in under a minute.
The whole Pebble, green and blue under white cloud, hanging small in a violet nebula. The cat is a speck on its lit horizon.
The same rock, pinched all the way out to orbit.
  1. Small worldThe horizon is farther than it was. Your boots are the same size.Meteors begin
  2. Young planetWeather has seasons now. Somewhere it is raining on nobody.Seasons arrive, and so does the decline
  3. HomeYou stopped counting trees. The rock you landed on is a planet with a name, and the name is yours.Lighthouse, radio tower, the rover
  4. Wide worldThe lander is a speck from the far ridge. You could walk for a day and not come back round.Aviary, grooming parlour
  5. Blue PebbleFrom orbit it would be blue now. Nobody is in orbit. That can change.Ice caps, auroras, four polar animals, the parka
  6. WorldIt has a horizon. Things live past it that you have never met.And it keeps going. The ladder never stops

Separately, the air thickens. Five stages gate the early buildings and the suit, and the quietest one is the best: at Living world the helmet comes off. Let the gauges slip and it goes back on.

Barren rockFirst thawGreen shootsLiving worldFlourishing

The seasons

Twenty minutes to a year. What you plant takes the season's shape, and each season breaks something different.

Spring

Blossom, at any height. The ice lets go and the polar animals head home. Paws are quicker in the warm, and once in a while a blossom drops a dye instead of a pod.

blossom

Summer

Birch up high, broadleaf in the middle, palms on the shore. The pools shrink three times as fast. Sunblooms sow themselves beside the grove: nobody planted them, everybody looks at them, and they drink like three trees each.

birchbroadleafpalmsunbloom

Autumn

Maple up high, oak below. One pod in four turns into something else. Half of all autumns bring a storm: ten seconds of rain, then the flood, then a rainbow for exactly as long as it takes to look at it.

mapleoak

Winter

Pine and evergreen. Snow settles from the peaks down until every pool freezes over. Walk on the ice, or skate it. The cold takes the oldest ordinary tree now and then. The polar animals come down off the caps, carrying double.

pineevergreenfrost-fern
A green hillside under falling snow, the cat standing on the ridge, the sky washed pale.
Winter, settling from the peaks down.
The cat facing the camera in her green suit and glass helmet, a rainbow standing over the rock behind her.
After the storm. The rainbow lasts twelve seconds.

The Pebble pushes back. Water evaporates: a full gauge drains in minutes if you melt nothing, faster in summer, not at all under winter ice. Meteors fall with four seconds of warning and take a tree, a pool, or a bite out of the air. Below a third of a gauge the trees wilt one at a time, the helmet goes back on, and the animals lie down and leave what they were carrying. Lose everything and mission control drops a resupply pod beside the lander. Nothing ends.

Against all that you carry a small kit: a rain flute that calls a shower down on a pool, sky balm for a torn atmosphere, storm pegs for a tree you love, flares that turn a meteor away. None of it makes anything safe. It pushes back, and the world carries on.

A look at it

Scroll sideways for more. Shot on an iPhone, work in progress.

Continue screen: the grown Pebble hanging in a purple nebula behind the words Pale Blue Pebble, small world, five minutes on the rock.
Small world, five minutes on the rock.
Barren rock: the cat and the lander on a bare tan rock, the first field notes open.
Barren rock. The lander and the first field notes.
The cat on a ridge beside a beacon and a tent, blue sky and small clouds over the green.
A beacon on the ridge, a tent by the grove.
The cat at the edge of a pool beside a glowing lighthouse, the button reading MELT.
Melt ice into the sky. The pool by the lighthouse.
The cat driving a scrap-built rover across green ground, the world state reading Wide World.
The rover, for a Pebble that has outgrown paws.
Blue Pebble: autumn trees under a green and pink aurora, the cat and the goose on the slope.
Blue Pebble. Auroras, autumn trees, and the goose.
A grey long-haired cat beside a wooden shed under a green aurora.
World II. Mop by the goose shed, under the aurora.
Winter: the cat on white ground under falling snow, a dark blue horizon behind.
World IV. Winter, and the pools frozen over.
The launch pad lit by four lamps, the cat beside it and the goose looking on, the button reading FUEL.
Load fuel: an ice and a fish. The goose supervises.

What's inside

14
plants on the surface, chosen by season and height
19
kinds of living thing, none of them decorative
27
buildings, every one a cat object
  • Built on licensed art we picked by hand, rendered in our own engine.
  • Two thumbs. Left walks, right looks. Everything else is one of four big buttons.
  • Landscape, on iPhone and iPad. Saves where you left it.

Field guide

One cat, the things she plants, and the things that come for them.

The cat facing the camera in her green suit and glass helmet, standing on bare tan rock with the lander behind her.

The cat and the goose are rigged characters. The plants, animals and pickups are licensed models we picked by hand and re-seated to the Pebble's scale, then rendered in our own engine. Everything else out there, the lander, the buildings, the sea, the sky, is ours.

What you plant

Oak, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
oak
Maple, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
maple
Pine, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
pine
Palm, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
palm
Blossom, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
blossom
Birch, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
birch
Evergreen, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
evergreen
Broadleaf, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
broadleaf
Frost fern, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
frost fern
Sunbloom, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
sunbloom
Bush, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
bush
Flowers, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
flowers

What comes for it

Fox, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
fox
Penguin, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
penguin
Seal, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
seal
Hare, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
hare
Borer, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
borer
Pip, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
pip
Petal vole, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
petal vole
Palm crab, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
palm crab
Hoarder, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
hoarder
Rime shrew, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
rime shrew

What you pick up

Fish, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
fish
Pelt, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
pelt
Ice, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
ice
Pearl, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
pearl
Rime, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
rime
Dye, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
dye
Spore, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
spore
Down, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
down
Scrap, a low-poly model on a dark ground.
scrap

The crew

Raise the radio tower and send a signal. Things with opinions answer it.

The goose in its pale green suit
The GooseThird signal

Charges any critter that comes near your pods and runs it off. A mobile tent. Also walks away with the nearest thing on the ground about once a minute. Zap it and it gives the thing back. You silly goose, you!

Pickle, a tabby cat in a spacesuit
PickleSixth signal

A small tabby. Finds a stray seed pod and plants it, one a minute. Needs a fish a day, and she means it. Found one. Planting it. Do not watch me.

Mop, a grey cat in a spacesuit
MopTenth signal

A grey long-hair. Carries ice to the nearest pool and pours it in. Hates the goose, and hisses at it from a safe distance. Needs a parka in the den or she sits the winter out.

Birch, a white cat in a spacesuit
BirchFifteenth signal

A lanky white. Mends the nearest chewed tree and deals with any borer that gets close. Will not walk on ice. Needs a tent nearby or he wanders off. This tree has been chewed. I have opinions about borers.

The cat in green beside the lander with a grey cat standing nearby and a tabby further off on the grass.
Mop and Pickle, on the ground at Home.
Field notes reading: get back what the goose took.
Something answered the signal. It appears to think it lives here now.

They are peers, not pets. Once they arrive, part of the job is keeping a crew fed, and each fed crewmate counts toward the world's growth the same way a building does. Everything on the Pebble has a voice, too: the critters squeak, the borers burble, the penguins peep, the seals arf. One call each, so a crowd never becomes a chorus.

Building

Twenty-seven buildings, and every one of them is a cat object.

Blueprints are taken at the lander and carried to where they will stand. Nothing on the Pebble is a generic sci-fi prop. The beacon is a collar bell on a post. The tent is a wicker cat bed with an eared hood. The condenser is a drinking fountain, the habitat a cat carrier with a barred door, the fish trap a goldfish bowl on stones. The greenhouse grows cat grass. The lighthouse is a scratching post swinging a laser pointer. The aviary is Cat TV. The parlour is a giant brush with a mirror, the observatory a cat's-eye dome, the polar station an igloo cat house with ears. The launch pad wears a painted paw, the orchard keeps a scare-cat, and the windmill spins four striped tails.

BeaconA lamp for the night side. Borers keep off, meteors turn away.
Hide tentCritters leave the pods alone nearby.
CondenserA block of ice out of the air, every minute.
GreenhouseA seed at a time, in any weather.
HabitatTrees nearby drop pods twice as often.
Fish trapGoes in the water. Fish come out.
LighthouseKeeps the nippers off the shore.
Radio towerCall into the dark. It is counted.
AviaryBirds settle, and each one counts as growth.
Grooming parlourThe salon. The cat's own colours.
ObservatoryA sky forecast: next aurora, next meteor.
Polar stationThe animals gather round it. Rest there.
OrchardSeeds by the handful, and it counts as a grove.
WindmillEverything nearby runs twice as fast.
Launch padTen loads of fuel. Then a button that says LAUNCH.

Every building has a Mk II, and most have a Mk III. Two of them are shops: the sewing den for soft goods, the tinker shed for hardware. Hold a finger on anything for half a second and a card tells you what it is, what it drops, and how it is doing right now.

The wardrobe

Twenty-two things to wear or carry, and a salon that repaints the cat, the goose, and everything with wheels.

BootsParkaMittensIce skatesSun hatGoosedown scarfPearl bell collarCollar lampSurf raftWater ballPaw-finsZap coilRain fluteSky balmStorm pegsFlaresThermosRoverScrap magnetRocket antenna

A board on your back. Cats do not swim. Cats surf.

Most of it shows on the cat. The parka is a real puffer with a cream collar. The skates turn a hop into a spin. The rover is a scrap-built buggy for a Pebble that has outgrown paws. And at the parlour, colours come as whole schemes, one pick for fur, suit, helmet and all: tabby for free, then tuxedo, snowcat, marmalade, ash, orchid, fern and ember, bought with dye and kept forever.

The grooming parlour panel: a preview of the cat and a grid of colour schemes.
The grooming parlour.
The Cat-o-log panel with tabs for the Pebble, resources, buildings, wardrobe and tools.
The Cat-o-log: the manual inside the game. It never spoils. It remembers.

Privacy

Built the same way as our other games. Nothing goes anywhere.

No accounts No internet No ads No tracking No data collected

Pale Blue Pebble is a single-player game that lives entirely on your device. No analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising, no third-party code. Your saved pebble stays on your phone. Read the studio privacy policy.

Until it lands

Two Barnisan games are out now. This one is on the bench, and chapter five is still being written.

The launch pad takes ten loads of fuel and then offers one button. Where the rocket goes is the part we are not telling you.

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Real-time naval strategy. A charter, one frigate, and a sea full of pirates.

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YapOff

A pass-the-phone party word game. Twenty words, thirty seconds, one judge.

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