Drag to turn it over · scroll or pinch to lean in

JOB	SITE	THIS WK	NEXT
CARMODY	DRIVEWAY EXT.	GRAVEL ✓	—
HALVERSEN	SEPTIC	DIG WED	INSPECT
A. RENNER	MAPLE HILL RD	DEWATER THURS.	POUR MON.
CO. RD 9	CULVERT	PIPE IN	BACKFILL

— second board, deeper in, half-blocked by the door: times. Hours. Can't read it from here.

An adventure through the novel

Borrowed Sunlight

The Back of the World

If you are reading this, the lights have gone out — and that is the only reason you can see.

Best with sound. Arrows/WASD, E to act, L to look, hold C to crank, B for the book. Touch and gamepads work.
Free, offline, no account, nothing tracked. Saves on this device.

Read the novel · Back to the desk

Walk the hill

Move with the arrows, WASD or the thumb-stick. E (or A) does things — talk, open, pick up. Hold Shift to run.

A twinkle ✦ means there's something you can do there.

Every key is real science

The hill opens as you learn how it works: your own eyes in the dark, a lantern you crank (hold C), a drop of water that turns a dead phone into a microscope (L).

Look closely at everything. Twenty-six small things are hiding on the hill.

You have until Friday

Gran's house is being emptied. Something is living in the cellar, and the concrete comes Monday. Find what she left in the dark — and find a way to save it.

The gold ◆ points to what's next. B opens Gran's book: goals, field notes, the map.

The dark was never empty.

Look long. We're still here.

Borrowed Sunlight — a novel by Karl Meves. The story, its words and its people belong to the book; this is a way to walk around inside it.

Every pixel, sound and note in this game is made by code as it runs: no image files, no recordings. The science is real, and the field notes say where the book tells time faster than life does.

Read the whole book →