Hey everyone, I wanted to share the first proper development update for Oceanborne and show some of the world I have been building.

At its core, Oceanborne is a JRPG about exploring a vast ocean and repairing a world that has slowly fallen into ruin. It is a colourful adventure filled with mystery, discovery, and quiet moments out at sea.

As you travel between islands you will discover broken structures, struggling communities, forgotten machinery, and hidden places waiting to be restored. Gathering resources from the world around you allows you to repair these places piece by piece, bringing life back to islands that have long been abandoned or isolated.

Every island has its own personality, history, creatures, and secrets to uncover. Some are peaceful and overgrown, others are strange and industrial, while some hide dangers deep beneath the surface.

You play as Kaiyo, a robot who awakens inside a mysterious lighthouse guided by an ancient machine known as Solaris. A thick cloud now covers the ocean, cutting the islands off from one another and making travel across the sea impossible.

Your journey is to venture into the unknown, help the people and creatures scattered throughout the world, and slowly clear the clouds that shroud the ocean.

You might arrive at a crumbling old farm with collapsed buildings and withered crops. By exploring the island and gathering materials, you can begin restoring the farm one repair at a time. Every restoration rewards you with something meaningful, whether that is new crafting recipes, upgrades, fresh areas to explore, or new ways to gather resources.

Mining rare materials, chopping trees, fishing, gathering supplies, and fighting monsters all play an important role in your adventure. The materials you collect are useful far beyond a single island, and every task helps you grow stronger and uncover more of the world’s mysteries.

Farmstead Isle - Broken

Farmstead Isle - Repaired!

Solaris and the lighthouse once protected the ocean through the power of the Island Heart Gems, ancient relics now scattered across the world. Recovering them restores power to your lighthouse home and slowly pushes back the endless clouds surrounding the sea, allowing you to sail further into the unknown.

Without the lighthouse, the world slowly slips deeper into ruin.

Development Insights

Oceanborne is inspired by many games and stories that I love and has become the game I have always wanted to create. I wanted to capture the feeling of setting out on a grand adventure across a mysterious world where every island feels memorable and every journey leads to something new.

Games such as Dragon Quest Builders 2, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Fantasy Life, Etrian Odyssey III, and the incredible worlds of Studio Ghibli have all helped shape Oceanborne and my love for JRPGs and adventure games.

I am developing Oceanborne entirely on my own, which makes it a huge undertaking, but progress has been going really well and I have genuinely loved every moment spent building this world. I hope that passion comes through in the game itself and I hope players will enjoy exploring Oceanborne as much as I enjoy creating it.

Right now I am working on the “Mon Mon Ranch” island, a special location where you unlock the ability to collect monster eggs from defeated enemies in the wild. The eggs can be brought back to the ranch and hatched. It has been a really fun system to work on and I will be sharing much more about it in future updates.

I have also been working on “Meva Harbour”, an industrial port town filled with creatures from all over the world. Unlike many of the other islands, Meva Harbour focuses more on characters, shops, storylines, and exploration rather than resource gathering and combat.

One part of Meva Harbour that I am especially excited about is “The Stackways”, a hidden cave network built inside a towering maze of old cargo containers.

There is still so much I want to show from Oceanborne, but for this first update I mostly wanted to say hello, share some of the world with you, and give a small glimpse of what is to come.

Oh, and just for fun. Here is one of the oldest surviving gifs from Oceanborne’s early development. A lot has changed since this was first put together!

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out Oceanborne and read this update. If the game looks interesting to you, please consider adding it to your wishlist. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I am always happy to chat.

Thanks,

Anthony
Windybeard