Tricks of light in the forest

A delightful game! After a bit of an awkward and rushed start, it really eases into itself once you enter the forest proper. Lara, the protagonist, is clearly young, and their excitement and wonder at her experiences in the forest was infectious. Even in tense, objectively scary parts like the water tower collapse and the monitor lizards, I never got a feeling of dread, rather the childlike ability to just “take it on the chin” and let extraordinary experiences wow me as much as little caterpillars in the wood did. Also, it was adorable trying to “polish” the silver ring with bleach and only end up tarnishing it further, to Lara’s confusion.

I loved being able to take pictures and samples of various objects in the forest, from fossils to food wrappers. I’m a city bean, so I never experienced these things as a child and only a bit as an adult, but with the vivid descriptions, I felt transported into the world of the game. I loved the joy of being in the brook the most, and Lara’s curiosity about all the strange bugs.

Some of my favorite descriptions:

> It's hard even to know where the sun must be, down in this dark emerald tunnel where the water sings.

> I feel something like a blow to my whole body, because it's in full sunlight and so white that its glow is like a hammer.

This is all the more impressive since English is not Pseudavid’s first language! The somewhat awkward ESL wordings at points were ignorable, and the evocative imagery captured far more of my attention. I also liked that the choices and observations that Lara made lingered past the initial passage—for example, after discovering the bullet shells, Lara will think about the hunters for several passages afterward. It made treading the same paths over and over more interesting and full of variety where in other games it could’ve gotten monotonous.

I am intrigued by the world of the game, as it indicates in some parts that it’s post-apocalyptic or something, though Lara still has a phone with signal and there’s enough technology for drones, so that can’t be 100% correct. Still, her excitement about “real plastic!” in the hut and some other references to a flood and the orange dust from the Sahara (implied to be close?) made me quirk an eyebrow in curiosity. Of course, as a child, she doesn’t have too many in-depth thoughts about the situation she lives in. Any odd behavior of the forest was waved away by her blitheness, merely tricks of the light.

I chose not to walk further and just went home at the end after I found a route back, and got told “I have the feeling I’m missing something”, which only makes me want to play again in the future (after the competition) to see what I have yet to discover!

Oh, and I almost forgot, the styling of the game was lovely! I loved the shifting gradients and illustrations a lot, and I kept turning my sound up, imagining birdsong in the air.

I have a few niggling critiques: the map popped up on top of the illustrations sometimes, a variable was still called `through_the_forest` at one point, and navigating the inventory was rather awkward, especially when trying to use an object. I was confused by both the red rock location and the fork past the red rock being described as the furthest Lara has ever gone on her own, and didn’t quite understand how to read the map—a “You are Here” marker would’ve helped immensely! And I do wish the ending was a little more satisfying of a wrap-up– However, these are all relatively minor.

Really great game, I recommend you give it a shot!