The Indie Informer

I feel the weight of my steps as the camera bobs slightly with my footfalls. It takes a noticeably realistic time to move over the terrain, which itself has not been made smooth for my gaming convenience. It’s clear from the outset, Lushfoil Photography Sim is about experiencing the world the way it is.

I start in southern Italy in a tree-burdened mountain range topped with snow with a lake at its center. It’s the kind of place you wouldn’t mind just walking through. So, it’s perfect for this meditative photography adventure. I get a quick rundown on how to make my photos perfect after picking my camera up from the glistening snow. The controls are deeper than a typical photo game’s but not so much as to be intimidating.

I meander, taking pictures until I discover the demo’s album is already full – possibly of fellow journalists’ shots. I’m immediately struck with the impulse to veer away from the more photographed areas, now that I know what everyone else did. My off-the-beaten-path instincts lead me to a stump bedecked by sunshine. Compared to the sweeping, majestic valley walls, it was small — inconsequential even. But I took my time setting up a shot that struck me just as hard as any other I’s seen.

Discovery, it seems is another key part of the game as I soon stumbled upon a cliff with a paper airplane resting on the ground. Of course, I pick it up and it instantly jumps to one of my directional buttons. Now, I can throw the paper airplane anywhere throughout this environment. Almost every picture after this included the flimsy projectile. Stopping before I polluted the entire pristine landscape with trash, I hit the home button that allowed me to switch locations at any time.

Welcome to Australia. Red rock, blue sky, and plenty of sun. After attempting to scale a small rock pile (made difficult because there is no jump button) I realize something is behind me. It’s a big board with photos on it. Instead of the paper airplane pushing me to find new places, this landscape encouraged me to explore via a kind of photo scavenger hunt, challenging me to take pictures to match those on the board.

But time was running low on my hands-on time, so I jumped into the demo’s last area featuring the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. I wondered how the largely linear space would work with the game’s spirit of exploration, until a cat dashed across my vision. The chase was on.

I couldn’t crash blindly through the woods — invisible walls prevented that — but there are easily missed pathways cross-crossing the fields. Hidden among the tall grass, I uncovered a lovely fox statue. I pick it up, though it doesn’t seem to do anything.

Ambling my way into another gateway-lined path, I recognize the mewing of the creature that set me off on this journey. A calico cutie is lying out in the sun behind a statue, happily sunning itself. It stays still long enough for me to snap the best photo of the day.