diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 0632cf242..494441dee 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -726,6 +726,21 @@ dependencies = [
  "wgpu-types",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "bevy_common_assets"
+version = "0.11.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "6f631ce2863f3b6f1af3fa24143363b9fbd21c44218caad495a17b83e6968256"
+dependencies = [
+ "anyhow",
+ "bevy",
+ "serde",
+ "serde_json",
+ "serde_yaml",
+ "thiserror",
+ "toml 0.8.14",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "bevy_core"
 version = "0.14.0"
@@ -4773,6 +4788,7 @@ version = "0.19.0"
 dependencies = [
  "bevy",
  "bevy-inspector-egui",
+ "bevy_common_assets",
  "bevy_egui",
  "bevy_nannou",
  "find_folder",
@@ -4788,10 +4804,10 @@ dependencies = [
  "pennereq",
  "rusttype",
  "serde",
- "serde_derive",
  "serde_json",
+ "serde_yaml",
  "tokio 1.38.0",
- "toml 0.5.11",
+ "toml 0.8.14",
  "walkdir",
  "web-sys",
 ]
@@ -6962,6 +6978,19 @@ dependencies = [
  "url 1.7.2",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "serde_yaml"
+version = "0.9.34+deprecated"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "6a8b1a1a2ebf674015cc02edccce75287f1a0130d394307b36743c2f5d504b47"
+dependencies = [
+ "indexmap 2.2.6",
+ "itoa 1.0.11",
+ "ryu",
+ "serde",
+ "unsafe-libyaml",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "set_version"
 version = "0.1.0"
@@ -7927,6 +7956,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "void",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "unsafe-libyaml"
+version = "0.2.11"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "673aac59facbab8a9007c7f6108d11f63b603f7cabff99fabf650fea5c32b861"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "url"
 version = "1.7.2"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 7ffd5a00e..466feb01c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,4 +26,9 @@ resolver = "2"
 bevy = "0.14.0"
 bevy_egui = "0.28.0"
 bevy-inspector-egui = "0.25.0"
-rayon = "1.10"
\ No newline at end of file
+rayon = "1.10"
+bevy_common_assets = "0.11.0"
+serde = "1"
+serde_json = "1"
+toml = "0.8"
+serde_yaml = "0.9"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/nannou/Cargo.toml b/nannou/Cargo.toml
index 52cbb31b3..2f2656170 100644
--- a/nannou/Cargo.toml
+++ b/nannou/Cargo.toml
@@ -14,23 +14,23 @@ edition = "2018"
 bevy = { workspace = true }
 bevy-inspector-egui = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 bevy_egui = { workspace = true, optional = true }
-
+bevy_common_assets = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 bevy_nannou = { version = "0.1.0", path = "../bevy_nannou" }
 futures = "0.3"
 find_folder = "0.3"
 getrandom = "0.2.3"
 instant = "0.1.9"
 lyon = "1.0"
-nannou_core = { version ="0.19.0", path = "../nannou_core", features = ["std", "serde"] }
+nannou_core = { version ="0.19.0", path = "../nannou_core", features = ["std"] }
 noise = "0.7"
 notosans = { version = "0.1", optional = true }
 num_cpus = "1"
 pennereq = "0.3"
 rusttype = { version = "0.8", features = ["gpu_cache"] }
-serde = "1"
-serde_derive = "1"
-serde_json = "1"
-toml = "0.5"
+serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"], optional = true}
+serde_json = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+toml = { workspace = true, optional = true }
+serde_yaml = { workspace = true, optional = true }
 walkdir = "2"
 web-sys = { version = "0.3.64", optional = true }
 
@@ -47,4 +47,5 @@ egui = ["bevy_egui", "bevy-inspector-egui"]
 nightly = ["bevy_nannou/nightly"]
 hot_reload = ["bevy/file_watcher"]
 isf = ["bevy_nannou/isf"]
-video = ["bevy_nannou/video"]
\ No newline at end of file
+video = ["bevy_nannou/video"]
+serde = ["dep:serde", "toml", "serde_json", "serde_yaml", "nannou_core/serde", "bevy_common_assets/json", "bevy_common_assets/toml", "bevy_common_assets/yaml"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/nannou/src/app.rs b/nannou/src/app.rs
index c88c1563e..e43370377 100644
--- a/nannou/src/app.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/app.rs
@@ -309,6 +309,19 @@ where
         self
     }
 
+    #[cfg(feature = "serde")]
+    pub fn init_config<T>(mut self) -> Self
+    where
+        for<'de> T: serde::Deserialize<'de> + Asset,
+    {
+        self.app.add_plugins((
+            bevy_common_assets::json::JsonAssetPlugin::<T>::new(&[".json"]),
+            bevy_common_assets::toml::TomlAssetPlugin::<T>::new(&[".toml"]),
+            bevy_common_assets::yaml::YamlAssetPlugin::<T>::new(&[".yaml", ".yml"]),
+        ));
+        self
+    }
+
     pub fn add_plugin<P>(mut self, plugin: P) -> Self
     where
         P: Plugin,
@@ -571,7 +584,7 @@ impl<'w> App<'w> {
     #[cfg(feature = "egui")]
     /// Get the egui context for the provided window.
     pub fn egui_for_window(&self, window: Entity) -> RefMut<EguiContext> {
-        let world = self.resource_world_mut();
+        let world = self.component_world_mut();
         RefMut::map(world, |world| {
             world
                 .get_mut::<EguiContext>(window)
@@ -614,12 +627,18 @@ impl<'w> App<'w> {
         keyboard_input.clone()
     }
 
-    /// Get the [`Time`] resource.
+    /// Get the elapsed seconds since startup.
     pub fn time(&self) -> f32 {
         let time = self.resource::<Time>();
         time.elapsed_seconds()
     }
 
+    /// Get the elapsed seconds since the last frame.
+    pub fn time_delta(&self) -> f32 {
+        let time = self.resource::<Time>();
+        time.delta_seconds()
+    }
+
     // Create a new `App`.
     fn new(world: &'w mut World) -> Self {
         let world = world.as_unsafe_world_cell();
@@ -923,7 +942,11 @@ where
     let mut app = App::new(world);
 
     // Create our default window if necessary
-    if app.resource_world().get_resource::<CreateDefaultWindow>().is_some() {
+    if app
+        .resource_world()
+        .get_resource::<CreateDefaultWindow>()
+        .is_some()
+    {
         let mut window: window::Builder<'_, '_, M> = app.new_window();
         match default_window_size {
             None => {}
diff --git a/nannou/src/camera.rs b/nannou/src/camera.rs
index bf18b31d3..3b6e758e5 100644
--- a/nannou/src/camera.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/camera.rs
@@ -190,9 +190,16 @@ impl<'a, 'w> Builder<'a, 'w> {
     }
 
     pub fn build(self) -> Entity {
-        let entity = self.app.component_world_mut().spawn((self.camera, NannouCamera)).id();
+        let entity = self
+            .app
+            .component_world_mut()
+            .spawn((self.camera, NannouCamera))
+            .id();
         if let Some(layer) = self.layer {
-            self.app.component_world_mut().entity_mut(entity).insert(layer);
+            self.app
+                .component_world_mut()
+                .entity_mut(entity)
+                .insert(layer);
         } else {
             self.app
                 .component_world_mut()
diff --git a/nannou/src/lib.rs b/nannou/src/lib.rs
index c8efcdab9..d3e463d15 100644
--- a/nannou/src/lib.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/lib.rs
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ pub mod app;
 mod camera;
 pub mod geom;
 pub mod image;
+#[cfg(feature = "serde")]
 pub mod io;
 mod light;
 pub mod noise;
diff --git a/nannou/src/light.rs b/nannou/src/light.rs
index ea4fa4ded..946b29c4f 100644
--- a/nannou/src/light.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/light.rs
@@ -99,7 +99,10 @@ impl<'a, 'w> Builder<'a, 'w> {
     pub fn build(self) -> Entity {
         let entity = self.app.component_world_mut().spawn(self.light).id();
         if let Some(layer) = self.layer {
-            self.app.component_world_mut().entity_mut(entity).insert(layer);
+            self.app
+                .component_world_mut()
+                .entity_mut(entity)
+                .insert(layer);
         } else {
             self.app
                 .component_world_mut()
diff --git a/nannou/src/prelude.rs b/nannou/src/prelude.rs
index 23d6105ae..dced60aa3 100644
--- a/nannou/src/prelude.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/prelude.rs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ pub use nannou_core::prelude::*;
 
 pub use crate::app::{self, App, RunMode, UpdateModeExt};
 pub use crate::camera::SetCamera;
+#[cfg(feature = "serde")]
 pub use crate::io::{load_from_json, load_from_toml, safe_file_save, save_to_json, save_to_toml};
 pub use crate::light::SetLight;
 pub use crate::time::DurationF64;
diff --git a/nannou/src/window.rs b/nannou/src/window.rs
index 13cc8e63e..761de6d85 100644
--- a/nannou/src/window.rs
+++ b/nannou/src/window.rs
@@ -436,7 +436,8 @@ where
                 .app
                 .component_world_mut()
                 .query::<(&mut Camera, Option<&mut RenderLayers>)>();
-            if let Ok((mut camera, layers)) = q.get_mut(&mut self.app.component_world_mut(), camera) {
+            if let Ok((mut camera, layers)) = q.get_mut(&mut self.app.component_world_mut(), camera)
+            {
                 camera.target = RenderTarget::Window(WindowRef::Entity(entity));
                 if let None = layers {
                     self.app
@@ -468,7 +469,10 @@ where
         }
 
         if let Some(light) = self.light {
-            self.app.component_world_mut().entity_mut(light).insert(layer.clone());
+            self.app
+                .component_world_mut()
+                .entity_mut(light)
+                .insert(layer.clone());
         }
 
         entity