You’re about to read Lotus, a meditative story enriched with sound, color and animations. The first two chapters are free.

“You literally recoil from the screen, that is how much impact the use of text portions has.” – BRIGHT

The young programmer Luc Numan takes a journey through the night, encounters a supporting cast of varying plumage, learns a lesson from it all. But that’s ten years ago. Now, two game makers immerse themselves in his experiences, and you, the reader, go with them.

Lotus was created by writer Niels ’t Hooft, artist Saskia Freeke, game studio Codeglue, and audio studio SonicPicnic. You put on your headphones, shut yourself off from your surroundings, and float away into a new kind of narrative experience.

It’s a pilot of Immer, the new way to read, developed in the Netherlands and based on years of research. In this app you’ll find the text portion and progress ring, two inventions that help you screen-read more pleasantly.

Lotus is a feature-length story, reading time ± 90 minutes. You can choose between the English translation by Jenny Watson and the original Dutch. For those who are left wanting more, the app also contains three short stories.

The petals drift in the current, inexorable, as if they have always been there. Time to surrender to it. You can do this, you can.