Idyll
A downloadable world for Windows
Somewhere out on the oceans of the internet, an island resides.
Best enjoyed after a long day away, Idyll is a small social world designed around kinder forms of online conversation and connection. Wander around a gentle pastoral island, strike up small conversations with other passing players, and even toss out small letters into the wide open blue oceans of the internet.
hold small conversations with your friends and other internet strangers
record small poems, notes, and stories for others to read
and even discover what others have written
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some kind words
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"I think Idyll is a beautiful little thing to examine"
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Indie Games and the promise of better spaces
Nathalie Lawhead
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"There is a sense of grass, so thick it might feel like fur, and sand beneath it, and the island itself is made of hills as rounded as the watercolour Downs in a Ravilious painting"
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Idyll is a gentle social world from the creator of Library of Babble
Christian Donlan
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controls
This game requires a keyboard and mouse to play.
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some small reminders
- This game requires an internet connection to play.
- This is first and foremost a social space for small acts of social conversation and connection. Write with kindness and understanding, as instances of abusive or otherwise cruel language (misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic or otherwise) won't be tolerated and offenders may get permanently banned.
Download
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Comments
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I have been looking into non violent co-op games. seems like this one is disapointment just like all the rest...
The files will open but it wont lountch any game... it is just folders and files on my pc... nothing more...
oh no, I'm so sorry ♡
as long as all the files are in the same place, tapping on the Idyll.exe file (the one that has a small green bottle as an icon) should open the game
otherwise, I can happily recommend downloading the itchio app, which makes playing these kinds of games so much easier!
Bright but silent, colourful but empty. Nice little world to build upon.
While the experience looks nice, I can't confirm whether it is or not. The lack of a tutorial or pause menu causes me to just fiddle around with my buttons, 90% of which open the chatbox. Lots of bottles came into my island, but I had no idea how to send one back. I still don't! The game also causes my PC to sound like a helicopter, and a graphical menu would do wonders for allowing me to limit FPS/resolution. Ultimately, a great idea, but a lack of basic features leaves a terrible taste in my mouth after it.
oh no, I'm so sorry to hear you had a bad experience
Idyll was independently designed, so sadly many of the features you may expect from more commercial games simply weren't feasible
I really adore designing games that feel a little bit delphic and mysterious, but I promise if you keep playing around with it you'll figure things out pretty swiftly ♡
Thank you! I did manage to figure out some things (like how you can only respond to orange bottles).
This looks lovely!
However, my GFX card isn't beefy enough to well at full resolution (4k) - is there a way to step down the res, or switch to windowed mode?
I totally get why you'd want the full-screen immersion (+simple execution) tho. Thx!
oh, thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback ♡
Idyll is definitely intended as more of a proof-of-concept, so I haven't necessarily taken much time to optimize it.
(Sometimes it's lovely just making something pretty, without necessarily needing to worry about optimization)
I may look into adding a windowed mode this week though, which thankfully shouldn't take too long to implement — thank you so much for the suggestion!
the game is silent and the world is empty for me. anyone else has that problem?
It's a silent game, only because I wasn't able to afford a sound designer or composer at the time
But I usually listen to some music while I play, and can so recommend doing the same ♡
other players may not always be online at the same time as you, but you never know who may show up if you stay a little while!
oh god i love it, i mean the graphics are insane, the drawing and the colors, also good to play it while listening to a lo-fi beat song, i'll review it on my instagram, can i get you'rs to tag you in it as the creator?
aww thank you, that's so sweet of you to say, I really adore playing it while listening to soft music too!
Of course you may, my handle is @cuddlepunks ♡
This is amazing and I love what you make. I talked about your Library of Babble in a presentation about libraries and community building recently and this is so great for that too.
thank you so kindly much for the warm support
I would simply adore watching your presentation if it's available for viewing online ♡
would love to check it out if it was playable in the browser
sadly I don't think that will be possible, sorry
I had a wonderful idyll! Thank you for this lovely place.
thank you so much for drifting through idyll, I'm so glad you had a lovely time ♡
Thank you for making this; it is phenomenal. Its a space to have unexpected encounters with others that are surprisingly impactful and can make your evening better. I thought the message bottles were a great touch to be able make your impact on the game even after you log off. Also wow super polished, the piece looks amazing!
thank you so kindly much!
although it's pretty small and humble, it took a lot of love and to time to design the interface, and I'm secretly really proud it ♡
can’t wait to try it out!! Love your games and projects in general, will play later today💛
aww thank you, I hope you have a really lovely time with it ♡
This is really nice! Though no one else was on at the same time as me, it was very pleasant to wander through the grassy fields and read messages
thank you so kindly much, that means simply the world to read ♡
this is so cute!! i love meeting random people and experiencing a bit of their lives, even just for a moment, and this is a great little facilitator of that
aww thank you so kindly much, that's so the experience I was hoping to capture!