Bellare Studios ยท Melbourne
About Dendrite Bloom
A calm mixed reality puzzle game about seeing through folded paper, and watching practice grow.
Where the idea came from
Dendrite Bloom started with a picture: the branching dendrites that connect neurons, growing and strengthening as something is learned and then practised again. The question was whether that process could become something you explore with your hands.
The look of the game, a virtual world of neurons sitting inside your real surroundings, draws on films that put you inside a mind. Its puzzles draw on the idea that spatial thinking can be approached from several angles at once. Folding paper, tracking light through holes and following ink through layers each ask for the same skill in a different way, which is why the game has all three kinds.
What we care about
- Hands only. Folding, punching and marking are done with your fingertips. The interaction has to be clear enough that the only difficulty is the puzzle.
- Reasoning, not fiddling. More folds or more holes do not make a better puzzle. Difficulty should come from picturing the paper, so punch counts stay small.
- Calm. No timer, soft music, a world that stays still. You can play seated or standing.
- One model. The same paper model drives the puzzle logic and what you see when the paper unfolds, so you can see why an answer is right.
- Private. No account, no ads, no in-app purchases. Your progress stays on your headset.
How it is made
Dendrite Bloom is built in Unity, using the Meta XR SDKs and OpenXR for Meta Quest, hand tracking and passthrough. Procedural geometry and custom shaders make the neurons, the branching connections and the paper. Automated tests check every puzzle in the 20 levels against the game’s own folding rules.
Bellare Studios
Bellare Studios is a small independent studio in Melbourne, Australia. We are listening closely while the game is tested: the tutorial, hand interactions, accessibility and the difficulty curve are what we are working on next. The best way to talk to us is our Discord, and members of the press can find what they need in the press kit.