Cadence news & patch notes

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 further surprises will be going live at 9am GMT tomorrow instead, when I'm to properly support the launch and fix any issues people might be having. It's frustrating, but as Ren would say, why the rush?

🚨 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 better for it! Refusing to compromise on my vision, whilst living in one of the world's most expensive cities is in large part why this has taken so long - but I really do believe the game is now worthy of your time (and money). Speaking of which, Cadence will be $12.99 (adjusted depending on your territory). There will be a launch discount of 15% for the first 7 days, so make sure to snap it up. Also, if you enjoy it - please do leave a review; it really helps with visibility on Steam. Also, you're welcome to come celebrate with us next week on Discord: https://discord.gg/kp9W9Qr

Hey Folks! We're nearly there! This is the penultimate update before the big "Release" update, coming in the next few days (or weeks). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/1c90c290879279bb514ea1a24de7eacfd1ed636f.gif Apologies for the silence, but tons has been happening behind the scenes.

How much do you love Ren?

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/85da86520d72003ad477065d393e91dd973dbbd9.gif 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 me. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/aee202e71250fbdda5fac5f79612a467a8ace715.png It's taken more than 12 years to get here; making this game and keeping it alive has been the hardest thing I've done in my life. Much of that journey is now reflected in Ren's words. I have no idea if it will resonate with anyone, but such is the way with making personal art.

New Trailer

There's a new cinematic trailer for Cadence - I'm thrilled with how it came together, and I can't wait to show it off. It was finished a couple of months ago, and I was hoping to use it for a big release date announcement. Unfortunately, with other things in life (more on that later), it's been hard to pin down a release date. So instead it will be part of the "Release" announcement - coming soon! (Did anybody say shadow drop?) The astute may have noticed I've updated the gameplay trailer on Steam. It's not much different from before, but besides hating the sound of my own voice, the old one had ancient graphics that needed updating.

Localisation

Cadence will ship in seven languages:

• 中文 (Simplified Chinese)
• English
• Français (French)
• Deutsch (German)
• 日本語 (Japanese)
• Português brasileiro (Brazilian Portuguese)
• Русский (Russian)

New Job

One reason for the radio silence is that I have a new job! While having time off to finish Cadence this year has been amazing, I have to face the reality that paying bills in today's gaming landscape is challenging. And as much as Cadence is dear to my heart, it's ultimately a niche game that's unlikely to be a massive hit. Last month I joined Sing King. They're the largest karaoke channel on Youtube, and they have a singing game on the App/Play store (by the same name). I'll be bringing my music game expertise to help them shape it into a great experience. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and to not worrying about rent. We arranged that I will work part-time until the end of the year while I finish Cadence. This means I have a hard deadline for getting the game shipped before year-end. And while December is a terrible time for shipping small indie games, I'm glad you'll finally have the finished version in your hands!

What does this mean for the future of Cadence?

These days, releasing a game is seldom the end of one's time commitment - there will be support requests, bug fixing, and plenty of ideas I could still work on. However, I wanted to make sure we reach a checkpoint where Cadence exists as a "complete" experience. That way, even if I can't find time for development, it will no longer languish as an unfinished product. Now back to work!

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. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/4acbe6bb76705f89608cccae61b0bb8be7fb67f6.gif 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 from the original 3D abstract art Cadence because it was impossible to gradually ramp up difficulty. A cliff edge existed beyond which level complexity exploded, making levels hard to interpret. Finding solutions felt like getting lucky rather than getting good. This made designing deeper levels difficult after the first few basic ideas were exhausted. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/2764667e14d23dd005c8c12b26f22d2781e706c3.png By contrast, the 2D grid's constraints made the game infinitely more readable. Players could now understand what the game asked of them, and more importantly what actions were available. This allowed levels to get bigger; however, they still tended towards mess. Here was the "hardest" level before: solvable but still messy. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/647bd814c9df6068495016c8065e7406f39291d7.png Way back in 2018/2019 (before I had to put the project on hiatus) - I started working on instant lines and Generator tiles, elements of logic gates and boolean logic to tame the chaos. I sensed this would be a fertile design space. Indeed, some users have built crazy things in the editor, but I never quite knew how to package this into the game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/442436766720a7bcb66d546676aa18e3dddd1506.png But with this latest update I believe I've cracked the chestnut: the logic system really comes to the fore. I've created big levels that players can digest in chunks and solve one unit at a time. If I've got it right, these levels will feel challenging but fair. Cadence finally feels like the game I wanted to make - I'm really excited to find out how you experience it.

Beta testing

Testing early levels is easy - I just put an iPad in front of someone and see what happens. But testing late game levels means I need people who actually know how to play the game, and are excited to spend more time with it. I would really love screen recordings of people playing through the later levels (i.e. worlds 3 to 5) with a stream of commentary explaining what you do or don't understand as you play. It's invaluable data that helps me understand if the level actually communicates the way I intended. I'm not sure how many people with Beta keys are still paying attention here, so if you don't already have a beta key and would like to help out, please pop me a DM on discord.

Changelog

A new build is available (both default and beta branches).

• 24 New levels (and many tweaks to existing levels)
• New Tile: Validator - a gameplay tile that validates sections are played in the right order, or else...
• Generator Tile - improved telegraphing when it's blocked
• UI: Made more screens mobile compatible
• UI: Added credits screen
• Sound: Some tweaks to the list of presets for the Helm synth
• Upgraded from Unity 2019 to Unity 6 - no gameplay changes, but helps keep the project working on modern hardware
• Many smaller fixes and tweaks

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 few months, I've been working full-time on Cadence again and making tremendous progress—which you can experience firsthand in the new demo!

What's New

2015 called, they want their UI back!

The previous interface felt dated and had accumulated various warts as features were added over the years. The UI has been completely modernised to bring it into 2025, resolving many usability problems in the process. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/31c7c99ac364ad11c66c6f2ed377f371d1edb65d.png

New Audio Engine

All in-game sounds now use the excellent Helm Synthesizer by Matt Tytel, significantly enhancing the game's audio quality and polish. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/24cc7b0ac8d25ac1bfa3ae784554f33bbe5ed822.png Note, this is the standalone Helm app, this interface is not available in game - but it is used to produce the in game sounds

Redesigned Overworld

Previously, I focused primarily on the underlying systems (available in Creative mode). This update shifts focus to Play mode, creating a more compelling progression through the game. This includes carefully balanced level difficulty and thoughtful content pacing. I'm delighted with how the early-game levels are feeling, though I'm still refining the late-game content. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/e1999afcfed5a7c1b370a8e8624f0aaef78d8a22.png

Visual Improvements and Polish

Numerous small fixes and visual enhancements have been implemented throughout the game - overall brining the level much closer to release standard. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/7afe875608ed2702596505641c156031af80bf8e.png

Important Changes

Breaking Change: - Due to the new audio engine, all Workshop content will need tracks to be reassigned in order for music to play correctly. (This only affects those who were part of the previous beta program in 2021)

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/93ecfccddc7a6da43a2095385fc17affb3cf7278.jpg 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 lines

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 following along you'll leave with a bit of insight into how computers work - as well as the potential of the sandbox editor in Cadence! Here Alan's excellent video about Turing Completeness in Conway's Game of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk2MH9O4pXY

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

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/11730967/370db51b18a705593d4cf13ee40bdea03eb8d852.gif 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 issues throughout development that make them feel buggy and broken. Then, as these issues get fixed in the final stretch, it starts to feel like a "real" game. Especially true on Cadence, where part-time development has meant living with these snags for years. v0.37 and v0.38 banish several of these issues, and it feels terrific. Both of these are now up on Steam if you're part of beta testing. It's not clear yet what shape the rest of the year will take, but you can look forward to v0.39 at the end of January, and I've got some exciting news to share at the start of February. Until then I'm putting a hold on new beta keys. To stay tuned head over to the official Discord! Hope everyone has an excellent 2021!

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 thought about if I should hang up my hat and call it a day - but every single time I can’t shake the belief that there is something special here, something the world deserves to see. Even if it only reaches a few people, the off chance I might forever change someone’s creative trajectory is the thing that keeps me going. I think back to my time working on the block building game Terratech as an example of community engagement done well. A new update every six weeks, weekly twitch streams, an engaged core of long term early access players, new players constantly trickling in. Despite the speed bumps, open development cycles where players and developers contribute together can be a beautiful thing. This is always where I wanted to Cadence to land. However as I sit here, in my literal bedroom, I have to admit I was overly optimistic about being able to reach this sustained pace of development. Even with a team of more than 20 people Terratech received accusations of being dead during the quieter periods. This is the world we live in now, triple-A companies run brutal update schedules to keep gamers engaged amongst a sea of choice. And so I started to shy away from Early Access: there's no point gathering feedback if you don't have the capacity to respond, because that's kind of the same thing as not listening. It really pains me to think I'd take people's money without giving them their money's worth. Stalling on release was safe way to ensure I wasn't ripping anyone off. Unfortunately the collateral damage meant I sailed past all my release dates (the first one was as far back as 2015). Even though no one's money was on the line, each time eroded trust and dampened peoples’ faith. In fairness, not even I could have ever imagined it would take this long. With the benefit of hindsight though I have confidence in my choices. Working a day job protected me from financial ruin, especially if the game flops. It also gave me room to be more creative and solve very difficult design problems. The Cadence of 2019 is barely recognisable as the same Cadence of 2016. In July the game was one of ten finalists in the indie showcase at Develop Brighton. Despite getting annihilated by bedbugs in my dodgy hotel room (never say the indie lifestyle is glamorous), it was incredibly exciting to show the game for the first time in three years. I’m really happy with the result, the game played well. But there is still much to do! After the back-to-the-drawing board reset in 2017, it was clear my placeholder programmer graphics had reached the end of their usefulness. Over the last few months I’ve been working on a visual refresh and getting the art closer to its final form. I’ve also been modernising from my ancient Unity 32 bit project to the latest 64bit Unity version. This process was quite painful, but means I’m once again able to release on all my intended platforms. Also I’ve officially ended my working relationship with Rodain, one of my original collaborators. Rodain’s life has been on a journey of many parts and has moved well past Cadence. Pragmatically this had been the status quo for a few years, and it was past time for us to formalise this fact. The whole process was very amicable, and I wish Rodain nothing but the best. It’s no threat to development either because, as explained, this is already how things have been for a while now. Going forward I would like to a bit more transparent about the work I’m doing on Cadence. Starting today you can join The Official Cadence Discord Server . I don't know how much I'll be able to hang out, but I realised a killer feature is the ability to add automation and bots. Even if you don’t hear from me very often, at least the bots can show you what I'm up to. One example is the git bot. Git, a version control software, has a record of every single change since the first line of code. This means each time I submit a new change a discord channel gets notified and you know I’m still working on the game. There will be quiet periods when life gets in the way, and that’s okay. Life is important too. Secondly, I've said before that I wanted people to start beta testing. Discord is the perfect place to coordinate this effort. Starting on the 11th November 2019 I'm going to start distributing some test keys. It will be very small scale for now, but I've run out of excuses, it’s time to let people play! So does this mean the game is done or coming soon? Well not quite. The essence of the game is absolutely there, as has been for a while. However there's still a long laundry list of polish and bug fixes needed for a commercial release. Take for example saving user progress: without it you can still understand the game and play levels, but it’s something every released game in the last 20 years should have. In a world where I had more time I could imagine these features going quickly, however I’ve learnt not to trust such assumptions. Perhaps the only honest thing I can say is it's closer than it's ever been before, and it will be done when it's done. And to those of you've been following the project for a long time kept the faith, all I can say is thank you! Hope to see you over in the Discord

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 I go back to working on TerraTech I'm going to have to listen and take my foot off the accelerator pedal for a bit. One final question, do any folks around here use Discord? I've been hearing the virtues from other developers, would you guys like an official discord when we start alpha testing? Peter

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 I go back to working on TerraTech I'm going to have to listen and take my foot off the accelerator pedal for a bit. One final question, do any folks around here use Discord? I've been hearing the virtues from other developers, would you guys like an official discord when we start alpha testing? Peter

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 :)

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 :)