Firefly

Firefly v0.1 is a small, deliberately enigmatic Mac toy released by Aaron Golden on February 24, 2002. The author offers almost no explanation of what it is or what its buttons do, asking only that the user play with it and let the experience speak for itself: it is meant to soothe and relax as the player learns to simply accept.

Design philosophy

Rather than ship documentation, the author writes that there is really nothing more to describe. The buttons are visible, their effects are visible, and the intended response is exploration rather than instruction. Firefly sits closer to a generative screen toy than to a conventional game.

Open source

The Firefly download is a Mac OS X application bundle that includes its own source code. Control-clicking the Firefly icon and choosing Show Package Contents opens the application as a folder, where a Source folder exposes the code behind the toy for anyone curious enough to look inside.

Release

The version preserved here is 0.1, the initial public release dated February 24, 2002. Questions and comments were directed to the author at aegolden@mac.com.