Tidepool Tanuki
2020 · Puzzle
Tidepool Tanuki
Rearrange a rocky shore so a tanuki can reach the sea. Sixty tide pools, one sliding rule, no undo button needed.
- Reviews
- Very positive
- Price
- $7.99
Kyoto · indie since 2019
Small games for the hour after midnight.
Four people and a cat in an old rice shop by the Kamo River. Our next game, Kuu's Night Post, comes out in spring 2027.
Stage 01The new game
Kuu's Night Post
A cozy delivery game about the letters nobody answered.
Trailer 01 · in-engine
Every night at two, the valley's last post office opens for one courier. Kuu has until first light to deliver forty letters to people who stopped writing back years ago.
There's no map and no quest log. You learn the valley by its lights: which windows stay lit, which shortcut floods when it rains, which dog follows you to the bridge. Deliver a letter and, some nights, a reply is waiting at the counter the next evening.
"We wanted a game you can play at 2 a.m. without waking anybody up. Including yourself."
Kaede Tachibana, director
Stage 02How it plays
Five rules for a gentle night.
01
Forty letters, no map.
The valley has no map screen. You learn it the way a real courier does: the bakery that lights its ovens at four, the lane that floods, the house with the blue noren. By night ten you'll stop getting lost. By night twenty you'll have favorite shortcuts.
02
Every letter can be answered.
Forty people, one hundred and twelve replies, and a few that never come. Read them at the post office counter, write back in your own words, and watch the valley change as people start talking again.
03
One night is forty minutes.
Each night runs from two in the morning to first light. Miss a delivery and it waits until tomorrow. Nothing is lost; the bag just gets a little heavier, and Kuu walks a little slower.
04
Nobody fights. Nothing fails.
No combat, no game over, no timer you can lose to. The hardest thing in the valley is a shiba named Bun who insists on walking you to every door, and a cat who sleeps on the parcels.
05
Four channels of music.
Rin wrote 23 tracks using only four sound channels: two square waves, one triangle, one noise. It plays quietly on purpose. The soundtrack comes free with the game, and on cassette for the stubborn.
Stage 03The back catalog
Four cartridges, one shelf.
Every game we've made, from a nine-week game jam to the one that took four years. All on Steam, and DRM-free on our own little store.
Tidepool Tanuki
Lamplighter Loop
Snowglobe Sumo
Kuu's Night Post
Stage 04Devlog
Notes from the studio floor.
Every other Friday, one of us writes down how something actually got made: the numbers, the files, the mistakes. 42 posts and counting.
Six frames and a heavy bag: how Kuu learned to walk
Preview speed
Kuu walks in six frames at ten frames a second, on a 16 by 24 pixel grid with eight colors. Our first version had eight frames and looked like ice skating. Cutting two frames made the steps feel deliberate.
The trick is the bag. It lands one frame after the feet, so the whole body reads as carrying something heavy. Try the onion skin: you can see the bag lag behind the bob.
- #41Dithering a night sky that doesn't bandOct 10Art · 6 min
- #40Our demo week in numbers: 9,140 wishlists in seven daysSep 26Business · 11 min
- #39Forty letters that don't sound like one writerSep 12Writing · 7 min
- #38Composing inside four channelsAug 29Audio · 9 min
- #37The tiny level editor we built in a weekendAug 15Tools · 5 min
Stage 05Select your player
Four people and a cat.
- P1
Kaede Tachibana
Director · art & animation
Animated TV for nine years, then started the studio in her flat. Drew Kuu 212 times before this one.
- P2
Kenta Moriyama
Programming · tools
Wrote our lighting in a week and the save system in a year. Keeps a bug diary in pencil.
- P3
Rin Hoshino
Music · sound
Composes on a 1989 handheld and a borrowed koto. Records footsteps on real gravel at 3 a.m.
- P4
Nils Arvidsson
Writing · localization
Came from Malmö for a year in 2016 and never left. Writes every letter in English and Japanese.
- P5
Daifuku
Studio cat · QA
Finds bugs by sleeping on keyboards. Eleven years old, 5.2 kg, and the model for the cat in every game we've made.
Playtest SaturdaysFirst Saturday of every month, 1 to 5 pm, the studio door is open. Play whatever we're making, tell us what's broken, eat a mitarashi dango. Kids and grandparents welcome.
Stage 06Press kit
For press, streamers and curators.
Everything you need to write about or play Kuu's Night Post, in one place. No forms, no sign-ups, no waiting for a reply.
Fact sheet
- Developer
- Pocket Moon Games, Kyoto, Japan
- Founded
- 2019, four people and a cat
- Release
- Spring 2027, PC, Mac and Steam Deck
- Price
- $14.99 · ¥1,800 · €14.99
- Engine
- Our own, built on a 320 × 180 pixel canvas
- Website
- pocketmoon.games
- Press
- [email protected]
(555) 019-2604, Nils (English, Swedish, Japanese)
Downloads
- The whole press kitEverything below, one folder312 MB
- Trailer 011:12 · 1080p and 4K, no burned-in captions210 MB
- 16 screenshotsPixel-perfect at 1920 × 1080, no UI versions too48 MB
- 8 looping GIFsScaled 4× with no blur, under 8 MB each22 MB
- Logos, key art and capsulesStore capsules in every size, transparent logos96 MB
- Soundtrack sampler6 tracks by Rin Hoshino, cleared for videos41 MB
Stream it, cut it, monetize it.
You never need to ask. Every game we've made is cleared for streams and videos, music included. A link in your description makes our week.
Need a key for the full game before launch? Tell us where you post and we'll send one within two working days, Kyoto time.
Stage 07Insert coin
Press the big pink button.
Wishlists are how a four-person studio gets noticed: every one nudges Kuu up the store's charts on launch week. It's free, takes one click, and we will genuinely cheer.
Wishlists18,204Goal 25,000
Pocket Moon · Player 1Insert coin
One press, no coins needed. Opens the store page.
Moon Mail, once a month.
The devlog, behind-the-scenes builds and early demo keys, in one letter. 7,300 readers, zero spam, unsubscribe in a click.