In-game footage · work in progress
Into Shanhai — This time, you paint them.
The Shan Hai Jing, made playable: walk in, paint its creatures, ride them.
又东三百里，曰青丘之山。
有兽焉，其状如狐而九尾，
其音如婴儿。
《山海经 · 南山经》
What is this game
People have read the Shan Hai Jing for two thousand years. Now you can walk into it.
The book reads like a travel log: mountain after mountain, the ore in the rock, the plants on the slopes, the creatures living there. Legend ties it to the Great Flood, when Yu the Great walked the land and his companion Bo Yi named every creature they met. Ancient readers knew it with pictures. Those pictures are gone.
You play a young Bo Yi, with a brush and an empty scroll, painting the lost atlas back.
Don't just read it. Walk into it.
The whole world is one long scroll. Untie it and the mountains stand up from the paper.
Don't hunt them. Paint them.
Every creature begins as a shadow. Whatever you paint comes alive.
Don't just watch. Ride them.
A painted creature shares its gift, and carries you where you could not go alone.
How it plays
Every creature begins as a shadow.
- 寻影
Find the shadow
Follow the clues in the old text to the place where it hides.
- 采色
Gather its colors
The book lists what each mountain holds: red gold, white jade, cinnabar, azurite. The same minerals ancient painters ground into pigment.
- 落墨
Paint it in
Lay down the ink. The shadow takes on color, turns its head to look at you, and walks.
- 骑乘
Ride
A painted creature knows you. When the road is too long, the water too deep or the cliff too high, one of them will carry you.
Paint it. Ride it.
Tap a shadow to paint it in
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Not yet painted
鹿蜀Lushu
Like a horse with a white head, striped like a tiger, red in the tail. Its voice sounds like someone singing.
LandOnce paintedRide it over the mountains.
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Not yet painted
旋龟Xuangui
Like a turtle, with a bird's head and a viper's tail. Its call is the sound of wood being split.
WaterOnce paintedStand on its shell and cross deep water.
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Not yet painted
鹓雏Yuanchu
A bird of the phoenix kind. An old line says it will rest on no tree but the parasol tree.
SkyOnce paintedLet it lift you to the floating peaks.
Want to ride one yourself?
Join the waitlistWaitlist · Early playtest
Want to step into the scroll early?
The game is still being painted. Leave your email and I'll write to you when the first playtest opens.
You're on the list. I'll write when the scroll is ready to walk into.
One email when the playtest opens. Nothing else.
I'm building Into Shanhai in the open, one creature at a time. Come watch them wake up.
They are all waiting for a brush.