IslandLab

IslandLab, V1 through V5 · new: Lumen Reach

Watch one island learn how to become a world.

Each version keeps one good idea and runs into a new problem. Terrain learns to remember. Memory turns into a game. The game opens into an archipelago. Now, in V5, the island hands you the sun and asks what you will do with the light.

Play Island V5 Follow the experiment Read the V5 field guide
Three bronze gimbal rings rise over the summit of Lumen Reach while basalt petals open around the Sun Organ at golden hour.
Island V5: Lumen Reach. Five mirrors charge five crystals, and the summit opens into a crown of turning rings. V4 stays the stable voyage.

The whole experiment in order

Five releases. One preview. One island that keeps learning.

Read straight down from V1 through the V4.1 preview, then arrive at V5. Every stop answers the same three things: what did the build add, where did it struggle, and what survived?

  1. V1Terrain

    Can the browser make a place worth exploring?

    First, make a place.

    V1 starts with an empty browser and grows a coastline, hills, trees, and moving water. You can orbit the island or walk across it. Nothing lives there yet. The first job is making math feel like somewhere.

    Added
    Procedural terrain, a moving ocean, and the camera language used by every later island.
    Struggled
    The island looked alive, but it had no residents, story, or memory.
    Survived
    The terrain, ocean, and idea that the island itself should be the main character.
    Play V1See how the terrain worksRead the build story
    A bright green procedural island surrounded by blue water in Island V1.
    V1 proved that a browser could grow an island from code.
  2. V2Memory

    What changes when the island remembers?

    Then, let people move in.

    Six residents arrive. They travel between twelve named places, follow routines, and leave events behind in browser memory. The island stops being a landscape and starts behaving like a small town.

    Added
    Six residents, fifteen routes, world state, routines, and a history of what happened during a visit.
    Struggled
    The event history kept growing until performance suffered. Free exploration was also weaker than V1.
    Survived
    World state, intent-based movement, and the rule that a place should remember consequences.
    Play V2Read the build storySee what broke
    Island V2 showing a colorful landscape and its living-world interface.
    V2 gave the island residents, routes, and a memory that eventually became too large.
  3. V3Adventure

    What if the living world becomes a game?

    Now, give the island a problem.

    A storm knocks out four systems. The Explorer Robot arrives to repair them while rain moves in, rabbits bolt behind rocks, and squirrels climb trees with suspicious confidence.

    Added
    A repair quest, the robot and drone, weather, wildlife, collectibles, costumes, a ship, and Field League.
    Struggled
    Movable rocks never felt right. The summit also trapped the builder, so recall became a five-second escape hatch.
    Survived
    The robot, drone, ship, wildlife, repair loop, and the idea that play should change the world.
    Play V3Read the build storyBrowse the fixes
    The Explorer Robot crossing the stormy landscape of Island V3.
    V3 turned the simulation into an adventure with repairs, weather, and wildlife.
  4. V4Archipelago

    What makes a place worth returning to?

    Finally, let the world continue.

    V4 opens the single island into an archipelago. The robot and Mote sail between three ecologies, repair three guardians, and make choices that keep changing each island after the visit ends.

    Added
    Three islands, persistent ecology choices, forty-eight daily currents, guardian encounters, ship travel, and Robot Lab.
    Struggled
    The newest coastline is still being tested. This version is the current experiment, not a finished museum piece.
    Survived
    Everything useful from V1 through V3, now joined into a world designed for return visits.
    Play V4Open the player guideVisit Robot Lab
    The Explorer Robot and Mote in the three-island archipelago of Island V4.
    V4 turns one evolving island into three connected places that remember your choices.

    See the current experiment move

    A five-second V4 commercial with audio.
    A thirty-second V4 trailer without audio.
  5. V4.1Preview

    How much can the places change without losing the voyage?

    Make every island speak for itself.

    V4.1 keeps the three-island campaign and rebuilds how it feels to move through it. Canopy gets denser surfaces. Emberglass gains lava, steam, and a volcanic pulse. Tidelight raises a working lighthouse above the coast.

    Added
    WebGPU surfaces and post-processing, island lighting, Tidewatch Lighthouse, volcanic effects, fauna observation, and a unified field console.
    Struggled
    The new renderer still needs a compatibility path. V4.1 stays a preview so the stable V4 route and its save remain untouched.
    Survived
    The complete V4 campaign, three guardians, daily currents, ship travel, and the rule that each visit should leave a mark.
    Launch the previewTour every changePlay stable V4
    The Explorer Robot and Mote beside the Tidewatch Lighthouse in the Island V4.1 preview.
    V4.1 turns Tidelight's old lookout into a working lighthouse above the sea.
    Canopy Crown root-light and wildlife in Island V4.1.Canopy Crown The lava channels of Emberglass in Island V4.1.Emberglass Tidelight wildlife and the distant lighthouse in Island V4.1.Tidelight Atoll
  6. V5Light

    What if the player could hold the sun?

    Hand over the light.

    The Tidewatch beam swept past a dark island, and the island flashed back. On Lumen Reach the clock is stuck at dawn, so you wind the day yourself. Repair five heliostats, find the hour each one can see its light, and bounce that light into crystals that sing. When all five sing, the summit opens. On the east shore, Haven Point waits too: a town a hurricane emptied, wooden billboards, and a beach of washed-up box TVs playing GameLab clips.

    Added
    A sun dial you control, ray-tested mirror puzzles, singing crystals, Blender-built basalt architecture, sky lighting that follows the hour, mud and puddles, the FIELDWORK cast, the Glassmire Kraken, and a transforming finale.
    Struggled
    The sun disc overflowed the reflected sky and turned whole frames black. Bloom also washed out every afternoon until it learned to wait for night.
    Survived
    The repair loop, Mote, the Tidewatch Lighthouse, and the rule that play should change the world, now joined by parts of FIELDWORK, Apostate Engine III, Breathglass, Wild Choir, and Lodestar.
    Play V5Read the field guideRead the V5 build diaryMeet Seven in FIELDWORK
    Seven stands near a glowing crystal pylon while the repaired Shore Mirror bounces morning sun across the beach.
    The first repair. The Shore Mirror catches the morning sun and throws it into a crystal that sings D.
    Late sun pours through a stone arch into the Column Hall on Lumen Reach.Column Hall The rigged Kraken stands in the Glassmire mudflat with Seven in front of it.The Glassmire The Tidewatch Mirror flashes at night on the north cliff of Lumen Reach.Tidewatch at night Gimbal rings rise over the Sun Organ on the summit of Lumen Reach.The Sun Organ

Keep exploring

Choose a trail without losing the story.

The evolution above is the main path. These collections hold the characters, mechanics, mistakes, and dated build notes behind it.