Maine-inspired video game is now ready to play

Eric Blumrich and Laura Mackey, the creators of Peace Island, look at a test version of the game at their home in Portland on Oct. 23. The couple created the open-world game in which players are cats in a world without humans. The Island it takes place on is loosely based on Peaks Island, but has elements from other Casco Bay islands. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

While the shape of the map bears a striking resemblance to Peaks Island, Maine-based game developer Eric Blumrich took inspiration from a number of Casco Bay islands when creating the environment for “Peace Island,” an open-world adventure game in which a player is a cat who wakes up on a remote island to discover all the humans are missing.

What began in 2017 as a bedroom project funded mainly through Kickstarter and later Patreon has morphed into an eight-year endeavor that required Blumrich and his partner, Laura Mackey, to create a video game from the ground up.

But “Peace Island” is decidedly more laid-back than the typical open-world game on the market. At a time when first-person shooter games are popular, Blumrich said they wanted to create something different.

Described by Blumrich as a “cozy,” non-violent game akin to a walking simulator, “Peace Island” is all about discovery and exploration. Players search the island’s abandoned buildings for clues or comb through thousands of pages of books, magazines and letters to piece together the island’s history. Along the way, you’ll run into a whole host of other species such as snails, chickens and deer, each of whom give you missions that advance the story.

“Curl up beneath a blanket, read a book, hang out with cats, and notice something and pursue the story at your own pace,” said Blumrich.

The game is currently in early access on Steam for $15.99, which means the game can be purchased and downloaded, but it hasn’t been completed and may be subject to glitches or bugs. While Blumrich said they are still finding new bugs every day, requiring future patches, he said the game’s operating system is mostly complete and running smoothly.

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Currently, 80% of the “Peace Island” game world is available to explore alongside 15 explorable interiors (out of an anticipated 40), a day and night cycle, four playable cats (out of an anticipated nine), 7 non-player character (NPC) species that will give the players missions to complete, and 900 (out of an anticipated 2,000+) pages of books, magazines and letters designed to help the players better understand the game’s story.

Eric Blumrich shows what part of the island in Peace Island looks like at his home in Portland on Friday, October 23, 2026. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

However, most of the game’s three-act story is far from complete. Blumrich anticipates that the first act will be completed in the coming weeks, in time for the game’s eighth anniversary on Nov. 17.

Blumrich said there are between 12 and 15 playable missions right now. The missions center on simple objectives such as opening a chicken coop so the island’s chickens can access food, or gathering trash along the beach so a group of snails can play music with it.

“It’s kind of hard to present a vertical slice of the story without giving the entire story away,” said Blumrich. “But if people look around and read a few books and such, they’ll get an inkling of a few things that might be going on.”

Blumrich was secretive about the direction the story would take, to avoid spoiling the eventual story, although he did point out a couple of details worth taking note of.

For example, Blumrich pointed towards a Geiger counter that can be found inside one of the island’s buildings. While the game won’t tell you specifically what to do with the device, Blumrich said that if players bring it to a specific part of the forest, it will make a noise that he said may foreshadow a future direction the story might take.

Laura Mackey, the creator of Peace Island, and their cat Ronan, at their home in Portland on Friday, October 23, 2026. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

Blumrich said that he wanted to make the game “as Maine as we can make it,” which includes modeling an in-game religious group after the Shakers, whose last three members live in Maine. At one point, Blumrich had even thrown around the idea of asking Moxie to advertise – something that was ruled out once they learned Moxie had been bought by Coca-Cola back in 2018.

Despite the delays and setbacks that have come about while trying to create an open-world game with a team of two and limited funding, Blumrich said that he and Mackey aren’t giving up.

“I think I can live down the humiliation and betrayal of the audience by being late,” Blumrich said, “but I can’t really make up for the betrayal of just giving up.”

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