Skip to main content
Vibe Lab·FIREFLY SYNC

60 fireflies find the beat

Sixty fireflies blink on their own clocks. Each one nudges its timing toward its neighbors. Watch them slowly drift into sync — then scatter, then sync again. No leader. No signal. Just nudges.

What it does

Each firefly is a Kuramoto oscillator — when two nearby fireflies are out of phase, each one nudges its phase toward the other's.

In the real world

The same math explains synchronized fireflies in Southeast Asia, neuron firing patterns, and pacemaker cells in the human heart.

Painted with these colors

Every VibeBoy lab paints with these 16 colors — the same palette PICO-8 made famous. Constraints are what make pixel art feel like pixel art.

1 of 15