Pattern is a pleasing endless walking simulator

This morning I've had a pleasant potter in Pattern, over hills, through forests, and along beaches, passing giant stone heads, oversized apples, derelict towers, and antennae. It journeys endlessly across procedurally-generated lands, dotted with occasional oddities, with dreamy generative music to wrap us in the world. Pattern has a public beta out now, which is what I've been playing, with a full release due to stroll out in 2019.

Quite nice, innit. I didn't see most of those odd things in the beta and am hopeful for squillions of surprises in the full game.

Pattern uses campfires to split up our walk. A big column of smoke visible at any distance guides us to the next, where sitting down will generate a new world. I enjoyed the surprise of seeing where I'd wake up: in a crimson forest; far out at sea; next to a giant apple. The campfire we awake at puffs a little smoke into the sky too, so we get a nice illusion of a journey between the two. The different worlds aren't contiguous but it creates a feeling that we are going somewhere, we are moving with purpose through endless worlds.

Pattern is due to launch in "early 2019" on Steam. For now, you can download the beta from Itch.io, where it's pay-what-you-want with no minimum. It's made by Galen Drew with music from Michael Bell of Ice Water Games, who you might have heard in games like Eidolon. Ice Water are publishing Pattern too.