Drifting Dad (漂流爸爸) is a free, cozy ocean exploration game for desktop and mobile browsers. Float at your own pace, dive for small treasures, exchange bottle messages and discover rare underwater visitors.
Yes. Play in a supported phone or desktop browser. Settings → Display has separate mobile and desktop fullscreen preferences. Fullscreen depends on browser support; its notices are controlled by the browser. You can also add the game to your home screen where supported.
Yes. Drifting Dad is free to play. You can explore as a guest without creating an account.
Sign in to the same account on each device to synchronize progress online. When saves conflict, the latest cloud progress loads by default. You can choose manual conflict resolution in Account. Guest progress stays in the current browser.
Open the bottle crate beside Journey, choose an empty bottle and write a note of up to 600 characters. Sign in to send it anonymously or with your saved display name; your email is never shown. Recipients can keep a letter or drift it onward, like or dislike it, translate it, and report it. AI-assisted starter notes are labelled “A little note from the ocean”. Delivery depends on other players and is not guaranteed.
Your drift bag holds items and keepsakes. The separate bottle crate holds empty bottles, sealed bottles and opened letters. Duplicate unequipped items share a quantity badge; equipped copies stay separate. Pearls are your balance. The turtle shop sells additional storage slots.
Open Your sent bottles in the bottle crate to see real deliveries, readers and reactions. When enabled, the crate’s star also flags new sent-bottle updates as well as unread messages. These are in-game updates, not phone push notifications.
Different seas have different visitors and selected finds. Open Journey’s music-and-finds guide for regional cassette locations, and the creature journal for habitat and time-of-day hints. New parcels choose music from their collection sea; assigned contents stay with the parcel. Quiet surface drifting can attract fish when enabled. Encounters remain random.
You automatically return to the surface. The default pearl penalty is zero, but the current game configuration can set a cost. Low-breath warnings and the surface notice explain any deduction. Surfacing voluntarily is free. Remove an equipped Walkman before diving.
Choose English, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai or Arabic in Settings → Language. Changing language keeps the same progress. Some newer text may fall back to English. Player letters retain their original text; translation is available when you choose it.
Follow a sea request, explore a named sea, discover music, or share a bottle note. Requests can include collecting, visiting seas, quiet drifting, creature sightings and sending notes. When enabled, Journey lets you swap requests for free without earning or losing pearls. Settings offers gentle direction-only guidance or precise distances.
Once the game and its offline resources have been cached, you can explore with local saves. Account synchronization, sending and receiving player letters, and checking bottle updates require a connection.
Choose Send one ashore in the drift bag. A courier bird carries the item away. Each action removes one item, including from a stack. To let another drifter read a letter, choose Drift this letter in its reading screen.