Soft brush
Size, opacity and softness. A tapering mode thins the line where the hand runs dry, like a real loaded brush.
A fading-canvas game
Everything you draw disappears.
A calm drawing game after the water-painting tablets — you make a mark, and it slowly returns to nothing. Nothing to keep. Nothing to lose.
Draw here — it won't last.
~14s
The idea
A Buddha Board lets you paint with plain water on a slate. The strokes darken, hold for a moment, and dry back to blank — so the only thing to do is make the next mark.
BuddhaBoredom is that feeling as a game. A GPU feedback loop decays the canvas a little every frame and snaps the faintest pixels to zero, so a drawing genuinely reaches nothing — not a saved file, not an undo stack you hoard. The canvas is painted onto a real lit surface in a small 3D scene: an upright stone tablet, a sheet of rice paper, a circular sand tray on a wooden desk.
There's no score in Zen Mode. The point isn't to finish. It's the one thing a screen almost never lets you do: make something, and let it go.
Five surfaces
Each one fades in its own way.
A surface is more than a colour — it's a material, a set of tools, and a temperament. Switch them on the canvas above.
Water on Stone
The classic. Water darkens the stone, then dries out. A soft round brush and the calmest fade of the set.
brush · dries out
Slow Ink
Crisp near-black ink on rice paper. Fine, brush and bold tips, and a tapering stroke that thins where your hand moves fast.
taper · lingers
Zen Sand
A bird's-eye sand tray. Rake tines carve parallel furrows; marble stamps lay ripples and blooms. Near-permanent — you rake it, you don't wait it out.
rake · marbles
Glow Trails
Multi-colour neon on a dark field. Bright strokes bloom, then dim out. The signature party look.
neon · blooms
Chalk on Slate
Dry, grainy chalk on a dark board. A schoolroom hush — soft edges, a gentle fade.
chalk · grainy
Brushwork
One stroke, many hands.
The whole engine is a single feedback shader, so every tool is a way of laying down — or lifting off — coverage.
Rake & tines
Parallel furrows offset perpendicular to your stroke — the sand tray's Rake and Wide-Rake.
Marble stamps
Lay a repeating motif along the path — concentric ripples or a filled bloom, stamped as you draw.
Symmetry → mandala
Mirror one stroke across N axes and it blooms into a mandala. Radial, with an optional reflect.
Guides & patterns
Faint templates to trace or reproduce — Enso, Lotus, Seigaiha, Kolam and more, with a ghost toggle.
Procedural sound
A soft breathing wash, plus a brush whisper that follows how fast you draw. All generated — nothing sampled.
Two wings
Draw alone, or draw together.
Zen Mode
Just you and the fade.
Free draw on any surface, set the fade to taste, and follow the patterns if you want a shape to chase.
- Free draw — every surface, every tool, fullscreen.
- Patterns & mandalas — Mandala/Lotus, Seigaiha, Kolam, Enso practice.
- Reference ghost — a fading template to trace.
Party Mode
The fade as a game.
The disappearing canvas turns into the rule of play — local hotseat or online with friends.
- Memory Reproduction — a pattern shows, fades, everyone redraws it from memory, then you vote. live
- Telephone / Drift — copy the fading ghost before it's gone; reveal the drift chain. in progress
- Co-op Zen — one shared canvas, everyone drawing, no score. in progress
Where it's at
Built in the open, one phase at a time.
01
● Done
The fading sandbox
The fade engine, free draw, the fade dial, five surfaces and procedural audio — the whole calm core.
02
● Done
Patterns & mandalas
Radial-symmetry brush, a guide system with a ghost toggle, and four pattern packs to trace or practise.
03
◐ In progress
Party Mode
Memory Reproduction is playable; Telephone/Drift and Co-op Zen are landing, local and online.
04
○ Next
Release
Desktop builds on itch.io first, then Steam — where the online lobbies and friend invites really shine.