Cadlets

A SMALL ARTIFICIAL LIFE

Hatch an egg and look after the little creatures that come out of it. They work out for themselves what to eat, when to rest and whether to trust you. All of them share one unified mind, and it runs right here in your browser.

Free · no account needed · about 8 MB to load the first time

LEAVE AN OFFERING

FEED THE KEEPER

Enjoying the Cadlets? Toss an apple into the tip jar.

TIPS · SOLANA ADDRESS
Hbqqme4jEPTNoVWJ886ubYwh2h7sQ3eE5D82wR9ytQtj

FUEL THE CADENCE

Want to support the Cadence research? Pick up some $CADENCE.

$CADENCE · SOLANA TOKEN ADDRESS
46doJPsSjEVMsNZm4b32UbbvbUXjFTM3TDPBWMM3pump

Entirely optional, and it changes nothing in the game. Crypto is risky; this is not financial advice.

The Cadlets on this page are just decoration. The ones in the game decide for themselves.

WHAT ARE CADLETS?

Cadlets is a small artificial life game. You start with a single egg. The Cadlet that hatches gets hungry, dirty and bored, and it has to figure out what to do about it. Nobody wrote its behaviour. It learns from whatever happens to it.

When a Cadlet is doing well, it splits in two, and slowly a colony grows. They have separate bodies but share one unified mind, built with the Cadence library, so something one of them learns is known to all of them. In the game that shared mind is called the Cadence.

You can help them or you can hurt them, and they learn from that too.

WHAT THEY DO

ONE UNIFIED MIND

Up to 48 Cadlets share a single mind. Whatever one of them figures out, the rest know too, though each one still has its own thoughts in the moment.

THEY LEARN ON THEIR OWN

At first they just wander about. Then they work out that apples fix hunger, baths fix dirt and the night is for sleeping. You get a little message each time they learn something new.

YOUR HAND MATTERS

Pet them and feed them, and they start coming to your hand. Hurt them, and they learn to keep their distance. Keep it up and they panic.

THE COLONY GROWS

Each time the clearing fills up, the forest opens a little wider and there is room for more of them, up to 48 in the end.

THEY MIGHT FIND WORDS

They chirp with three little symbols. Watch for a while and one of them may start to mean something, like food or company. Some colonies never get there.

A LOOK INSIDE

The MIND panel shows what they would do in different situations, what they remember, what a single Cadlet is thinking, and what they make of you.

HOW TO PLAY

  1. 1 HATCH THE EGG

    Click the egg, or just wait. Your first Cadlet comes out knowing nothing at all.

  2. 2 LOOK AFTER THEM

    Drop apples, a ball or some soap, and give them a pet. As the colony grows you get bathtubs and trees to place. They also manage fine without you.

  3. MIND

    3 WATCH THEM LEARN

    The first thing they usually learn is that apples end hunger. What comes after that depends a lot on you.

THEY LEARN WHO YOU ARE

We tried the game with a simulated player who started out kind, turned cruel, and then tried to make up for it. This is how the Cadlets near the hand reacted along the way.

  1. WHEN YOU'RE KIND

    6 in 10 come over to your hand.

  2. WHEN YOU'RE CRUEL

    Only 2 in 10 still come close.

  3. WHEN YOU'RE KIND AGAIN

    They forgive you. Just as many come back.

GOOD TO KNOW

Where does it run?
Completely in your browser. Nothing about your colony is sent anywhere. The first visit downloads about 8 MB, and after that it loads from your browser's cache.
Where is my colony saved?
In this browser, every 20 seconds and whenever you leave. Another browser or device starts its own colony, and clearing this site's data deletes it.
Does it end?
Sort of. After the last evolution, keep at least 40 of them alive for three days and you reach the end of this chapter. More is on the way.
Can I start over?
Yes. Menu → LAY A NEW EGG gives you a fresh colony that knows nothing. If every Cadlet dies, a new egg appears, but the mind remembers.
Does it work on phones?
On recent phones, yes. It is nicer on a computer with a mouse.
Is it violent?
Only if you make it so. Your hand can throw and crush them, with pixel blood. You don't have to.

Your egg is waiting.

PLAY