An Abandoned Island

The story begins when the player washes ashore on a quiet, overgrown island—no memory of how they arrived, just the sense that something is off-kilter. Early on, a magical cat companion appears, drawn to them. Much of the island is calm, even beautiful. But the deep forest holds something darker.

The player’s role is to restore the island—not to conquer it, but to mend it. They’ll start by gathering food and shelter, clearing invasive thorns, and rebuilding old structures. Over time, they can craft their own home, plant crops, and gently reshape the landscape.

The island has scars: haunted forest paths, restless spirits, and a few wild boar that don’t take kindly to intruders. Some cursed forms of the island’s past will rise again—but the goal isn’t to destroy them. It’s to release them.

Gatherlight is quiet, cozy, and atmospheric at its core. Farming, crafting, soft magic, weather, and healing are central themes. Conflict isn’t central and can be tuned or turned off entirely. It’s a game about caretaking, not conquest.

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An Indie Voxel Game

I’m Tucker—a product designer, visual designer, writer, and longtime lover of cozy, thoughtful games. After creating a tabletop RPG about healing and resistance, I wanted to bring that energy into a digital world.

Gatherlight is being built as a voxel (think Minecraft) game in Unity. Right now I'm assembling a small team of creators who care about atmosphere, softness, and meaning. We’re building a handcrafted island—no procedural generation for now—with farming, crafting, and restoration with a hint of mystery. The early version will launch on Steam in early 2026, with the goal of something playable, beautiful, and meaningful from the start. The idea is to then build the game out more at that point.

The team is working a bit on faith—some volunteer, some paid a bit—collaborating toward something that feels personal and alive. If we can sell some copies, then we'll spread some of that money around retroactively.

We Need a Unity Developer :)

Our project's main need right now is a Unity developer who can work with Voxel Play, the core tool we're going to build with. The role will be a combination of pay up front and revenue sharing.

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Decolonizing, Nurturing, Tending

Most of our favorite games, from Settlers of Catan, to Minecraft, are re-enacting colonizing fantasies. Minecraft, in particular, is encumbered with images of slavery in the most efficient ways of relating to the villagers.

One of the central hopes of Gatherlight is to move away from extractive, conquering models towards healing, collaborative, restorative models.

Is This Just Minecraft?

This project is born out of my disappointments with Minecraft. But it won't be viable if that's all that it is.

Legally it needs to be distinct enough to survive scrutiny from Mojang.

Experientially it needs to be different enough to pass inspection from the gamer community.

Different Goal

The goal is to learn, grow, craft, and heal the land. Exorcising ghosts, clearing invasive thorns, restoring forests, and purifying water sources advance the game.

Better Crafting

By increasing the crafting experience to accommodate the most popular Minecraft mods—think chairs, jars, cupboards, cute windows—Gatherlight will offer some of the cottage crafting experience that can only be achieved with finicky mods in Minecraft

Better Looking

Again, by adopting some of the upgrades that people seek out in mods, better shaders, better water, Gatherlight will look better out of the box.

Better Ambience

Fireflies. Moths. Crickets. Frogs croaking. Distant thunderstorms rolling in. Crackling fireplaces. Tea. Beautiful music. Rustling grass.

Better Progression

Minecraft suffers from a cobbled together progression and its awkwardness is well documented. Gatherlight will have a thought out, consistent progression better in line with modern games.

Less Bloat

Minecraft suffers from lots of unused, uneeded elements. Gatherlight will be trim, only including elements if they add to the gameplay or the ambiance.

Less Weird

Minecraft is an awkward blend of tabula rasa, arbitrary meaninglessness, and odd imagery and lore. Gatherlight will have a clear central myth that still allows for creative play that branches out in many directions.

Less Exploitative

Minecraft benefits massively from the uncompensated work of thousands and thousands of fans, modders, and casual programmers. In the long run, Gatherlight would build towards being easily contributed to by players, with robust, sincere compensation for their time and energy.