- Cadence is out now! - 12 February 2026
Well folks! We finally did it! Cadence is now available for you to download - even after Steam bugs tried their best to derail us yesterday! The original plan was to release on Early Access way back in 2016! I spent a bit of time playing that build a few days ago, and it's crazy to reflect on. It had a lot of charm, but it also had so many glaring issues. The Cadence of today is almost entirely different, and yet still reflects the same spirit as the original version. I also never once imagined it would take another ten years to get here! There have been many moments of doubt where it felt like this was impossible and I wondered if should give up. But now that we're here, the game plays well, and I'm so proud of myself for sticking with it! I've run out of emotions so I'm going to leave it there... can't wait to see your reactions! P.S. A massive favour: Cadence is a niche game, and tha…
- Technical Difficulties - Slight Launch Delay - 11 February 2026
Update: Due to unforeseen circumstances entirely beyond my control Cadence launch is delayed by 24 hours. Apologies! Cadence will release at 9am GMT on the 12 of February, 2026 I woke up this morning excited to finally send Cadence out into the world, only to find out that release button was missing from the Steam backend. For reference I've had every check box and pre flight measure ticked for several weeks now, and everything was ready to go. Or so I thought! Even though Steam is mature software, Valve still sometimes makes changes. And those changes can introduce bugs. And today I was the person lucky enough to find one of those bugs. It's great from Valve point of view, as now no one else will run into that bug. But unfortunately for us it meant that even though everything was ready to go, I was unable to actually press the button. The error is hopefully fixed now, so barring any fu…
- Cadence Release Date - February 11 2026! - 5 February 2026
🚨 It. Is. Finally. Here! 🚨 Cadence drops on the 11th of February 2026! Damn, it feels good to say those words. That's just 6 days away! Please enjoy the brand new Release Trailer: The road has taken 13 years! Sometimes the view has been brilliant, and at other times the climb has been very steep. For long stretches, it felt like we were simply broken down on the side of the road going nowhere. In the darkest moments, I wondered if we'd ever make it here, and you could be forgiven for thinking the same. But if you've kept the faith I want to say thank you so much for believing in the project! The very first release date was way back in 2016, a lifetime ago! But that version of Cadence just wasn't something I felt comfortable charging money for. Even though the DNA is the same, the version you'll get to play next week is an almost entirely different animal - and Cadence is so much bette…
- The Final Countdown - 27 November 2025
Hey Folks! We're nearly there! This is the penultimate update before the big "Release" update, coming in the next few days (or weeks). Apologies for the silence, but tons has been happening behind the scenes. How much do you love Ren? You couldn't pet the cat before - a glaring oversight that absolutely needed fixing! I've been polishing Ren with small touches: cursor reactions and idle animations. Historically, I've felt conflicted about this work. It doesn't strictly improve gameplay and consumes valuable dev resources. But it adds so much charm and character. I'm glad I did it! Ren has dialogue now! I wanted to keep one surprise in store, so everyone who has played Cadence over the years still has something new to look forward to on release! It felt like I was indulging myself with unnecessary features, but by the time I was done, the "Book of Ren" had become genuinely important to m…
- Summer Update - We Have a Video Game! 🎉 - 7 August 2025
Cadence always had a smattering of levels, vaguely gesturing at how the final game might eventually play. But today, for the first time, that is no longer true: Cadence has a complete level campaign! I've been locked away adding late game content, and the now the total count is close to 60 levels. This is a huge milestone! It means the build currently on Steam, give or take some change, represents what people will play when it's released. It's really happening folks! So is the game done? Well, not quite. I still have a long list of polish, bug fixes and tweaks to chew through. Not to mention marketing - which I've largely neglected for the last six months. And well, no one else will do that if I don't, so my time will become increasingly absorbed in figuring out a release plan and creating supporting materials. But the fact that's even on the radar is mega. New Content I pivoted away fr…
- June Dev Update - 23 June 2025
Hey everyone!Last month we participated in the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase on Steam, organised by my friends at Draknek & Friends. I was hopeful this would be a good fit for Cadence—getting in front of players who enjoy thoughtful puzzle games felt like a perfect fit for our niche.The Numbers GameWhat caught me off guard was the sheer scale: over 470 games participated in this festival. For context, that's more than Steam's entire 2013 catalog—the year I started working on Cadence.The indie game landscape has changed dramatically. There are so many quality games competing for attention now. While we didn't see many new players due to the festival, it was a useful reminder of how competitive things have become. Steam RefreshThe festival still was a good forcing function to tackle some overdue housekeeping. I'd forgotten most of Steam's backend systems, so releasing a new demo was a helpful…
- Cadence Returns with a Bang - New Demo Available! - 29 May 2025
To celebrate inclusion in the Cerebral Puzzle Showcasem, I'm dropping a brand new Cadence demo! Development Update Development of Cadence began in 2013. Since then, both the game and my life have evolved significantly, but I've never abandoned this project—Cadence deserves to exist, and the world should get to experience it. As a solo developer without funding, I've often had to prioritise paid work over Cadence development. While I have great respect for developers who can create indie games during moonlight hours, I've found that I need dedicated time blocks to make meaningful progress. My last extended development period was in 2021 during a gap between jobs, when the game made substantial progress. I had hoped to ship Cadence during that productive spell, but an opportunity arose that I couldn't pass up. Now, four years later, my time at Embark Studios has concluded. For the past fe…
- New build for Beta Testers - v0.39 - 3 March 2021
v0.39 is now up and live on Steam. The main attraction here is the new overworld and levels. However, this is an incremental release - still a work in progress. Better to get something out rather than wait until it was perfect New Levels Gameplay: Next iteration of the overworld. Settings: Added audio volume sliders Settings: Ability to reset progress Visuals: Iterating Switch Graphic UI: Tooltips now added for all tiles in play mode UI: Seen tooltips are remembered between play sessions UI: Interface sounds are much less obnoxious UI: Usability tweak - help button now shows OR hides tooltips Bugfix: preview mode in editor weirdness Known issue: Some of the new levels can be cheesed, because trigger tiles don't yet support new uses cases Known issue: The music slider needs to close to minimum to actually affect synth levels. Known issue: switch graphic doesn't work with instant output l…
- Turing Completeness & Cadence: Learn how computers work - 26 January 2021
At first blush, Cadence just looks like a simple puzzle game mixed with a dash of zen music. But don't be deceived, the systems that make the game tick are anything but minimal. Join us to find out about the depth and power of the sandbox. After covering the basics of making your own levels and musical compositions - we'll be exploring the concept of Turing Completeness, and how in theory, Cadence could run any known computer program (albeit slowly). This was the foundation of modern computing as pioneered by the incomparable Alan Turing. I'm joined by Alan Zucconi, another Alan and educator extraordinaire. Known for creating excellent game development resources, being a dedicated university lecturer and youtube documentarian. Together we'll be attempting to prove some of these concepts by building the first few building blocks of a working calculator in the game sandbox. Hopefully, by…
- Cadence: The Zen of Making Music - 26 January 2021
Cadence is something different: a hybrid of game and music sandbox. Understanding how to bring these two worlds together has been a quest 8 years in the making. Join the developer as he answers: "What is Cadence?". Taking a deep dive look at: How solving puzzles creates the game's unique zen music A behind-the-scenes look at the history of the game, and why it's taken so long How the powerful sandbox lets you create your own music and much more
- Cadence 2021 Update - 2 January 2021
Everyone's least favourite year is now in the bin! Huzzah! Since April Cadence has been on an unintentional hiatus. I'm lucky no one close to me suffered from Covid - but it's still been one tumultuous year! In August, I quit my job, and then September saw the bittersweet end of a three-year relationship. In time these will be good things, but talk about spicy changes! Life stuff doesn't leave room for Cadence, but finally, a month ago, I'd sorted out enough to return to the project. And what a productive month it's been! (Confirmed by looking at #git-stream). A consistent trend: sizeable chunks of the todo list go down when I've got the time to apply myself. Over the last couple of years, probably 50% of my background effort has been the search for more time. Whilst I don't have THE solution yet, I'll keep going for as long as the current gap in commitments exists! Many games will have…
- Cadence 2019 Update - 5 November 2019
This is probably the 3rd time I've attempted to write this post. So, lest we hit number 4, I’ll get to the point: Cadence isn't dead, nor is it coming at any great speed. Previously I've struggled with this contradiction, because long stretches without anything to show is a terrible way to build an audience, especially in 2019 with so many outstanding games to choose from. And let's be honest, I've been bad at posting updates. Like laughably, hilariously bad. Apologies! At times it’s been hard to find the right words, because no matter how I dressed them it felt like making excuses. But of course it’s better to own the situation! So here we are: I’m solo indie dev working a day job. Staying sane, healthy and fulfilled are important values to me. After six years I understand my own limits well, and working long weekends is often a daring dance right on the edge of burnout. I have often t…
- GDC Update - 2 April 2018
Hello Everyone, The last while has been a crazy whirlwind, time for an update: A week ago I was at GDC, the Game Developers Conference, showing a brand new build of Cadence. The exciting news is it's the first time we play tested the new level content and the game has definitely taken a leap forward. The countless conversations with other developers was great inspiration and generated a ton of feedback. We have a lot to think about! One of things I wanted to get out of GDC was to figure out how we can accelerate development on Cadence, so you can get your hands on it sooner! I can't report on any breakthroughs, but there a few irons in the fire that might lead to something. Unfortunately the price of all this progress it the toll taken on my body - which is starting to complain much louder about how hard I've been pushing. So even though I've spent most of the Easter weekend working, as…
- GDC Update - 2 April 2018
Hello Everyone, The last while has been a crazy whirlwind, time for an update: A week ago I was at GDC, the Game Developers Conference, showing a brand new build of Cadence. The exciting news is it's the first time we play tested the new level content and the game has definitely taken a leap forward. The countless conversations with other developers was great inspiration and generated a ton of feedback. We have a lot to think about! One of things I wanted to get out of GDC was to figure out how we can accelerate development on Cadence, so you can get your hands on it sooner! I can't report on any breakthroughs, but there a few irons in the fire that might lead to something. Unfortunately the price of all this progress it the toll taken on my body - which is starting to complain much louder about how hard I've been pushing. So even though I've spent most of the Easter weekend working, as…
- It lives! - 23 January 2018
Get hype! There's a completely new Cadence about to pop out the oven - a new interface, a new art style, and a whole host of elements to blow sandbox play wide open. Check out the video to see it in action: https://youtu.be/QXPuy4cTVLA This means that finally we're getting in shape for a alpha test (thank you everyone that said they were keen). This took way longer than I wanted, but as mentioned in other posts we're going at the pace that is sustainable for us. I will strive to be better about communication in future though. There's still a bit more work that needs to be done before we can release a playable build, but that day is a lot closer than ever before :)
- It lives! - 23 January 2018
Get hype! There's a completely new Cadence about to pop out the oven - a new interface, a new art style, and a whole host of elements to blow sandbox play wide open. Check out the video to see it in action: https://youtu.be/QXPuy4cTVLA This means that finally we're getting in shape for a alpha test (thank you everyone that said they were keen). This took way longer than I wanted, but as mentioned in other posts we're going at the pace that is sustainable for us. I will strive to be better about communication in future though. There's still a bit more work that needs to be done before we can release a playable build, but that day is a lot closer than ever before :)
