Inland

Tap to begin

Where will you begin?

Drag to move · pinch to come closer · ◎ where you are · tap a place, or open land, to go there

Listen

Go deeper

How to play

W A S D, or the arrows

Walk; hold Shift to run. In the air they steer; in the water they swim (under it, where you look).

Space

Jump; again in the air to fly; hold to rise, let go to glide. At the water's surface it dives; hold it there to fly out. Under the water it takes you up; on the lake floor it lifts you off.

L

Flying: land. Under the water: down to the floor; on the floor, back up to the surface. C sinks you in the water.

The mouse

Drag to look around. Click the land to walk there. The wheel brings the view nearer or farther.

E · T · H · Enter

E sits and stands. T lays your hands on what is just ahead. H opens a note from your heart. Enter hears the nearest planet or star. R reads the glinting thing beside you.

O · P

O: go on by itself, breathing in a square. P: autofly.

M · G · ? · Esc

The map, the guide, these keys, the menu.

Low on the left

The keys that matter where you are, changing as you go: on the land, in the air, on the water, under it.

The stick, lower left

Put your thumb low on the left, where the stick rests. Push a little to walk, further to run. It stays at the foot of the screen; drag on past its rim and it follows your thumb.

Look

Drag anywhere else to look around. Tap the land and you walk there.

The round button

Tap to jump. Hold to take off and rise; let go to glide. In flight a tap is a wingbeat. In water it dives and rises.

The shallows

Walk into water about waist deep and you lie back on it and drift, the water round you stilling to hold the stars. The stick swims you slowly on; out in the deep you become a small orb of light, and back toward the shore you stand again.

The word beside it

What you can do here: Land, Dive, Floor, Surface.

Hold on something

A tree, a rock, a crystal or the ground: you go and lay your hands on it.

Your heart

A double tap on your own heart (or H) opens a note, kept on this device only. ⋮ → My Heart holds them all. While you sit, a small ♥ waits at the edge of the view. ⋮ → Oracle asks it anywhere, and it is offered at the Choice and at the maze's still centre; your notes go with a question only when you tick "Attach my heart".

Planets, stars, fruit, crystals

Tap one to hear the voice it keeps.

Canoes and carts

Canoes wait by small jetties on the lakes and rivers, and a cart stands on the rails at each gold mine. Tap one: you go to it, get in, and it carries you by itself. In a canoe the stick steers while you hold it; the round button ("Ashore") or E takes you to the nearest shore. A cart rolls into the mine and down the rails to the bottom; the round button ("Stop") or E stops it, and tapping it again rides on (or back up).

Things that glint

A tablet, a scroll or an inscribed stone with a small turning glint: tap it to read (from afar you walk to it first). Turn the pages with ‹ › or a swipe; ✕ or walking away closes it. On a keyboard, R reads the one beside you.

The half-moon, top right

The narration player: play or pause, back 15 seconds, next. Its card (⌄) shows how far it has played and what comes next, "Show me where it lives" to be led to its planet, star, tree or crystal, and "Only nature" to rest every voice.

Where next?

When a tour, a lesson or a telling ends, a card offers where to go next. Tap one and you are taken there; "Stay here" if you'd rather linger.

Tours

⋮ → Map → Tours. A light goes with you and the tour walks (and flies) you from place to place. Its bar: ⟲ back ten seconds, pause, » on, ◉ record mode (everything but the world fades; touch anywhere to bring it back), ✕ end.

↺ Hear again

In the monuments' rooms, starts the room's voice from the beginning.

Contemplation

Be still for about eight seconds and you become your own eyes, turned toward whatever moves nearby (in the mind's maze, the view rises to the whole maze and its horizon). Touch anywhere to return.

Questions to sit with

Now and then, in a quiet moment (contemplating, lying still on the water, in a ring of stillness in the deep, after a meditation), a question rises low in the view. Let it be. "♥ Answer in your heart" opens a note with the question at its head. ⋮ can turn them off.

Quiet screen

When you don't touch the screen the controls fade away. Any touch brings them back.

◌ Square breathing

The small ring above the round button: the wanderer goes on by itself (walking, or flying if you are in the air) and you breathe in a square: breathe in for five seconds, hold for five, release for five, wait for five, and again. The lungs over the view fill and empty with you, the air running down into them and back out, and a word (breathe in, hold, release, wait) says which side of the square you are on. A calming breath, slow and even, used by divers, soldiers and meditators alike. The stick or the button takes you back. O on a keyboard.

The map

⋮ → Map, or M. "Near you" lists what is closest first. Choose how to go, once, and it is kept: Arrive (at once, through the dark), Glide (you fly there yourself behind the guide's light; the stick takes over) or Float (a floating car comes for you and carries you there). Tap a place, its name, or open land.

⋮

The map, the guide ("Walk me there" takes you all the way; the stick takes over), autofly, sound and settings.

Welcome

Inland is not a game to win. It is a place to wander, across still water, through seven gates, toward the light. There is nothing to collect and nowhere to be. Keep it open beside you while you work, or lie down and let it hold you. Move gently. Listen. Breathe.

About

Made for Samuel. Animation: Universal Animation Library by Quaternius (CC0). Animals: models by mirada from ROME, via three.js. Textures and scanned rocks: Poly Haven (CC0). Ambient occlusion: N8AO (MIT). Built with three.js and postprocessing.

Your place is kept.