Iara: River of Lanterns

Guide a lantern up the rivers of the Amazon and bring it home to Iara, keeper of the waters. Now with her story. The first 25 rivers are free. No ads, no subscription.

A lantern, a river, and a long way home.

Light a lantern and let the river carry it. Tap the water to steer it past lily pads, round the caimans and through the one gap in a waterfall, and bring it home to Iara, the keeper of the waters in Brazilian folklore.

THE RIVERS OF THE AMAZON The journey begins in the Amazon, where each river has its own colour, its own banks and its own animals: • the Várzea, the forest the river floods every year • the Rio Negro, the river the colour of tea • the Tapajós, clear water and white sand • the Igapó, where the trees stand in the river • the Encontro das Águas, two rivers that won't mix

Every animal is on the river where it lives. The map names its rivers, and each river has a card: who lives there, what the river does, and the curiosities you have read so far.

PLAY WITH ONE THUMB One tap pushes the lantern. Frogs, water snakes, caimans and the jaguar turn to the lantern when they strike, and the boto's shadow follows it. Lose a lantern and it comes back at the last light post.

OR JUST DRIFT Zen has no traps and no score, and music of its own. The river is dark, and your lanterns' light wakes what lives there.

LEARN AS YOU GO More than a hundred short curiosities about the Amazon, its animals and Iara herself, all fact-checked before they went in.

FREE TO START, WITH MORE RIVERS IN THE GAME The first 25 rivers are free. More rivers are bought once inside the game: • six expansions of 25 rivers each: Amazônia II, Pantanal, Waters of Brazil, The Orinoco and the Guianas, The Andes, The South • or All rivers: all 150 rivers at once The first river of each can be tried free, and you can see pictures of the rivers before you buy. No ads. No subscription. No account.

This game offers in-app purchases.

In English, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. The paintings are AI-assisted, and so is the music in Zen. The jaguar's call: a recording by About Zoos (CC BY 3.0). The forest: recordings by Felix Blume (CC0).