The unusual survival game *Wordless Forest* is composed of footage shot by the solo developer, who roamed the forests for weeks on end to create it.
Would you survive in the world of a survival game? After all, in addition to cold, hunger, and exhaustion, there are often zombies or other deadly dangers as well. But simply being alone in the woods is often enough. That’s also whatWordless Forestwants to show: To create this extraordinary game, the developer himself wandered through the woods for 40 days, as he writes on Steam.
Survival like in real life?
In the game, we see only the footage from the developer’s journey. Wordless Forest is therefore more of aninteractive survival film, in which we must carefully plan our next move and make decisions to survive. There is no dialogue; we are entirely on our own to reach one of four different endings.
Developer Dogus Cagrici writes on the Wordless Forest Steam page:
There wasn’t a huge crew behind this game. No support vehicle to quickly take me into town in case of an emergency. To capture this atmosphere, I went out into the wilderness alone, with just my backpack and my camera. […] The exhaustion, the freezing water, and the pain you see on screen are 100 percent real.
To capture the footage, Cagrici hiked alone through four different forest areas in Turkey and, by his own account, took great risks: With no cell service, surrounded only by nature and wild animals, a single mistake could have had serious consequences. He nearly broke his foot several times after falling.
The game has been available on Steam since August 24, 2026, and has also faced some criticism: For example, reviews criticize the very short playtime of just under an hour. On the other hand, there’s praise for the developer’s acting performance and the footage itself.
What do survival games need to be like for you: Should survival be portrayed as harsh and realistic as possible? Or do you prefer building massive bases and mowing down hordes of zombies? Would Wordless Forest be something for you? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
You can find even more survival stories in the box above: Marie-Lena introduces you to her latest survival discovery, and our video on Project Zomboid shows you the latest, massive update for the zombie simulation.
