Mouse & keyboard
- WASD or arrow keys to walk, Shift to run, Space to jump
- Drag with the mouse to look around
- Click the ground to walk there
- Hover a statue to read about its game, click it to play
- [ ] turn the hologram at the hub
- M map · L library · F starred · T time · N sound
- At the end of the fishing pier: C to cast, click or Space to strike, hold to reel, Esc to put the rod away
- In the Lighthouse Arcade: click a cabinet for its game card, click a lane to bowl (A/D slide, Space to lock the aim and then the power, Esc to step off), click the jukebox to put a record on, click Madame Meridian for your fortune, and click Plush Pier to play the claw (WASD to move it, Space to drop, Esc to step back)
- Aboard the Black Nocturne at the Delvers’ Wharf: stand behind her wheel to cast off, then A/D steer, W/S sails, drag to look or swing the camera round her, C to switch between the wheel's own view and the view from behind her, and Esc (or back away with S) to bring her home
- In the fountain's submarine: W/S speed, A/D steer, Space/C rise and dive, B lamp, Esc to surface
Touch
- Hold the lower-left of the screen and slide to walk; push further to run
- Drag anywhere else to look around
- Tap the ground to walk there
- Tap a statue to read about its game, then Play
- Tap the brass arrows at the hub to turn the hologram
- Tap ☆ on a game to star it; ⭐ lists your starred games
Each path from the hub leads to one kind of game and ends at a pavilion. Newest games stand nearest the hub. The vines wake up as you come near, and the garden keeps its own time: wait for dusk to see the lamps, fireflies and aurora, and stay up until midnight for fireworks. The door of the Observatory opens on a tower rather larger on the inside, five floors of strange rooms joined by a lift of light, with a great telescope under the dome at the top. A stone bridge crosses to the clock tower on its islet, and the door at its foot leads down into the Works, the machine hall that keeps the island running. A lift at the far end of the Works rides down to the Robot Foundry, an immense hall where three assembly lines build robots head first: follow the main line from the head shop to the end, where the finished units of all three lines file on to one walkway for the way out, are handed a laser rifle each by the quartermaster, and never know that the walkway to the exit broke away years ago. Listen to the loudspeakers: the voice has been on repeat for a very long time. And the exit does work, for you: click it to step out into the Springwood. The lighthouse has a door too: it opens on the Lighthouse Arcade, a neon hall with a cabinet for every game in the garden running its attract mode, a bowling alley whose every lane works, and a disco floor that dances to the jukebox. By the way in, Madame Meridian reads your fortune and prints it on a ticket, and Plush Pier is a claw machine with a plush toy for every game in the garden. In the Hut by the dock, the old television picks up the island’s secret places live: click it to turn the dial. The papers on the Hut’s desk are an old maintenance log, and worth reading: they tell of a trap door behind the Great Gear, a long hall under the ground, and a vault door that opens on Gearfall, a dead city that goes on for ever around a glowing crater. Every building there can be walked into, and there is something very large at the bottom of the crater. A tiny submarine circles in the pool of the Moon Fountain: click it to climb aboard and steer through an endless sea of coral, kelp and stone arches, with fish, jellyfish, turtles and manta rays to find for your sea log (and, if you are lucky, a whale), and rare finds on the sea floor: a sunken galleon, treasure, a goddess, a broken robot, a magic sword and more. Between two of the paths turns the Starlight Carousel: click any of its eight creatures (a dragon, a pegasus, a unicorn with the night sky for a hide and more) to climb on and ride to the band organ, and click again or press Esc to get off. After dark its bulbs run in colours, and at midnight it plays along with the fireworks. On the far side of the island from the dock, a trail drops from the pavilion to a fishing pier: click the rod on its rail (or press C) to cast, strike when the float dips, then hold to keep the fish in the green band as you reel it in. Below the Delvers’ Descent, a gothic wharf on pilings holds the Black Nocturne, a pirate galleon with a tier of cannons, tattered black sails and a stern like a cathedral front: walk up the gangplank and stand behind her wheel to take her out on the open sea, and she lights her lanterns at dusk. Beside the Hearthgarden stands a stone well with a rope hanging down it: walk up to the curb, or click it, to slide down into a cave garden where everything glows. Click the pool to fill your can, click a bed to water it (plants only grow while they have water) and click what is ready to pick it. What you gather is kept, and the beds carry on growing while you are away. Past the grove between the Puzzle and Dungeon paths, a rocket ship has crashed and is still smoking: walk up the ramp of its open hatch to go aboard, find the transporter (the one room with the power on) and pull its lever to be thrown at a world nobody has seen before, with its own sky, land and animals. Walk about until your suit's air runs low and the recall pulls you home, or click the beacon to go sooner. On one world in five, until somebody finds them, the ship's pilot is out there: listen for the ping on your suit radio.