Designing a light meter you cannot ignore
Our first lantern was a number in the corner of the screen. Nobody looked at it. Here is how it became the heart of the game.
By Tomas Reyhan
Carry the last light across a broken sky.
- Genre
- Exploration adventure
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Steam Deck
- Release
- 2027
- Price
- To be announced
The game
The sun has sunk beneath the clouds. The last light in the world fits in one lantern, and it is yours to carry.
Aurvane is a slow, hand-painted journey across hundreds of drifting islands. Read the wind, climb ruined towers and decide where to spend a light that never quite lasts.
- 01
Climb a drifting world
Hundreds of floating islands shift with the wind. Every crossing is a route you read, plan and risk.
- 02
Your lantern is your life
Light opens paths, wakes old machines and keeps the hollow things away. Spend it, and the dark comes closer.
- 03
Hand-painted dusk
Every island is painted by hand and lit in real time, so no two sunsets on the archipelago look the same.
- 04
A story without words
No cutscenes and no walls of text. The past is told through ruins, music and the strangers you meet.
Characters
01 / The lantern-bearer
Wren
A courier from the lowest island, sent up with the last working lantern because nobody else would go. Wren travels light: a patched coat, a coil of rope and a pole long enough to reach the next ledge.
- Carries
- The last lantern
- From
- Lowmoor, the bottom island
02 / The cartographer
Bram Orle
Bram has mapped the archipelago for forty years and trusts none of the maps. His mechanical bird, Pip, flies ahead to find the wind before you need it.
- Companion
- Pip, a clockwork wren
- Knows
- Every island that moved
03 / The creature
The Hollow Tide
Water that remembers being a sea, held together by shards of the broken sky. It does not hunt. It follows light, and it is always thirsty.
- Drawn to
- Any open flame
- Seen
- Below the cloud line
Media
01 A rope bridge between floating islands 
02 The ember caves under Mount Ires 
03 The sunken town below the Glass Coast 
04 A lantern puzzle at the stone shrine 
05 Gliding over the islands at dawn
All screenshots (12)
06 A broken stair around a floating tower 
07 A night camp on a small island 
08 Crossing between islands in a storm 
09 Inside the cartographer's workshop 
10 The Hollow Tide rising from a flooded ravine 
11 Ringing a fallen bell at morning 
12 A chain of old bridges into the fog
Fact sheet
- Developer
- Kilnwhistle
- Based in
- Porto, Portugal
- Release
- 2027
- Platforms
- Windows, macOS, Steam Deck
- Genre
- Exploration adventure
- Players
- Single-player
- Length
- About 12 hours
- Game languages
- EN DE FR ES PT-BR JA ZH
- Price
- To be announced
- Stores
- Steam · Epic Games Store · itch.io · GOG
Devlog
How we paint a sunset that never repeats
Every island in Aurvane is painted by hand, but the light that falls on it is not. Here is how the two meet.
By Mira Okonedo
Aurvane is real, and it has a trailer
After three years in an attic, we are finally ready to show the world the game we have been quietly building.
By Ilse Varga
Roadmap
| When | Milestone | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2026 | Vertical sliceOne island, one storm, one lantern. The core loop finally clicked. | Done |
| Autumn 2026 | AnnouncementTrailer, store page and the first public devlog. | Done |
| Winter 2026 | Closed playtestTwo hundred players from the Discord explore the first chapter. | In progress |
| Spring 2027 | Free demoThe first chapter as a free demo, ready for the spring festival season. | Planned |
| Autumn 2027 | LaunchFull release on PC and Mac, with consoles to follow. | Planned |
Questions
When does Aurvane come out?
We are aiming for autumn 2027 on PC and Mac. Wishlist the game and you will hear the moment we set a date.
Which platforms will it support?
Windows, macOS and Steam Deck at launch. Console versions are planned after release.
Will there be a demo?
Yes. A free demo with the whole first chapter is planned for spring 2027.
How long is the game?
Around twelve hours for the story, closer to twenty if you want to find every lost bell.
Is it hard?
There is danger and you can fall, but Aurvane is about exploring, not punishing. An assist mode lets you tune the challenge.
Can I stream it or make videos?
Absolutely. You may stream and monetise videos of Aurvane without asking first.
Follow the journey
Wishlisting is the single biggest thing you can do for a small studio. It tells the store we exist.
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