Explore it
Wander through roughly four square kilometers of authored wilderness, with new regions opening as restoration and traversal tools expand.
IN DEVELOPMENT · STEAM
Depth of Field
A first-person wilderness restoration adventure about spending time alone in a neglected wildlife park, doing useful work, exploring a large natural environment, and documenting the life found there with an increasingly capable camera.
THE EXPERIENCE
Contented solitude, with something to do.
Depth of Field is built around the dream of living out in the woods, in a cabin you build yourself, while exploring and improving your own little patch of paradise. You arrive at a long-abandoned wildlife park with nothing but a camera, a dream of rebuilding, and the backing of a mysterious patron. Explore, clean up, repair the park, photograph what you discover, and gradually make the ranger cabin your own.
The park is designed as a contiguous wilderness of meadows, wetlands, forests, lakes, rivers, and snowy high ground. Progress comes from paying attention to the landscape and deciding what is worth carrying, photographing, repairing, or bringing home.
FOUR PILLARS
Explore. Record. Solve. Own it.
Record it
Use a gradually improving camera to document flora, fauna, landscapes, and specific photographic discoveries. Prints become part of your journal and home.
Solve it
A mysterious benefactor sends riddles that turn exploration into photographic scavenger hunts rewarding you with new camera capabilities.
Own it
Restore the ranger cabin, print photographs, arrange collectibles, build furniture, and choose which images become part of your record of the park.
RESTORATION + PHOTOGRAPHY
Your progress changes how the park feels.
Cleanup is permanent. Collect trash and useful materials, dismantle derelict structures, reclaim what you can, and rebuild infrastructure that opens the next part of the park. Bridges, stairs, waders, snow shoes, and other traversal gates make the landscape itself part of progression.
Photography runs alongside restoration. The camera starts simple and gains lenses and capacity through benefactor riddles. Back at the cabin, photographs are processed and printed for the flora and fauna journal, park information, riddle displays, decoration, and planned postcard features.
20–40 hoursTarget playtime
4 km²Approx. contiguous park
DozensFlora & Fauna subjects to discover
THE PARK
Different places, one connected expedition.
Meadow
Starting region for onboarding, early restoration, first photography, and the ranger cabin.
Wetlands
Water, wildlife, scenic views, and traversal challenges. Pack some good boots!
Pine Forest
Alpine terrain requiring snow shoes to explore and offering commanding vistas and elusive creatures.
DEVELOPMENT NOTE
From game jam to full game
The original Depth of Field was made for the 2023 Cozy Autumn Game Jam. The current project keeps the central idea of photography as a reason to slow down and look closely while expanding the surrounding game into a longer restoration and exploration experience.
Read about the original game-jam version →EARLY DEVELOPMENT IMAGES
A sneak peek at how it's going so far
