Still Garden: A Wildlife Photography Sim

A quiet garden. A real camera.

Still Garden is a cozy first-person wildlife photography game. Wander a stylized Japanese garden of red bridges, stone lanterns, bamboo groves and hilltop shrines, where animals go about their day. There is no health bar, no enemies and no timer. You walk, you watch, and you wait for the moment.

Photography that feels like photography

• Work the lens. Aperture from f/1.4 to f/16, a manual focus ring and real depth of field.

• Hold your breath. Half-press the shutter to steady your hands. Wait too long and they start to shake.

• Choose your film. Six looks, from Warm Film and Golden Hour to Monochrome. What you see in the viewfinder is what ends up on the print.

• Earn your stamp. Every shot is judged on framing, focus and steadiness, and stamped 並 Ordinary, 良 Good or 秀 Excellent.

Animals with lives of their own

Foxes, deer, stags, horses, alpacas, a shiba and more wander, graze, sleep and play. Every pose is a photo to collect: a sleeping cat, a dog at full run, a leap with all four feet off the ground.

A shy cat lives near the tea house. Feed it, photograph it, and in time it will trust you enough to follow you along the paths.

• Orders and an album of your own

• Read the notice board and take on photo requests from the people of the isles.

• Shoot with a vintage instant camera: manual focus and aperture, 2× zoom, a flash and a composition grid, all there from the first minute. Finished orders open new pages of your album.

• Lay out your prints in a handmade album. Move them, turn them, resize them and write captions in your own hand.

At your own pace

From warm afternoons to lantern-lit evenings, the garden changes through the day. Stay as long as you like.