You were only walking a forest path. Now you wake beneath a great tree, beside someone who came here before you and never left — and an old storybook lying in the grass. Its first page is the only guide you have.
Keep the fire burning
By day the forest is a picture book. By night it twists into something else. Light is safety: campfires and torches hold back the dark, while darkness wears down your sanity and draws out the shadows that wait beyond the glow.
Gather, craft, build
Chop trees, break rocks, and forage. Craft tools at the workbench, then raise a camp of your own — tents, campfires, cooking pots, drying racks, chests, rain barrels, fences, and farm plots tilled with a hoe. Forge iron tools, sew seasonal clothing, and bind the blueprints you find into stories that teach new recipes.
Four seasons, one long year
Spring rains, summer heatwaves, autumn harvests, and a winter that buries the world in snow. Dress for the weather — a straw hat against the heat, thick furs against the cold — and plan ahead, because food spoils faster when it's warm.
Body and mind
Watch your hunger, thirst, body temperature, and sanity. Fall ill from poisonous mushrooms, infected wounds, or heatstroke. Let your mind slip too far and the world itself begins to lie to you.
Old stories, new threats
Face the Gingerbread Witch in her candy house and the Great Wolf in the dark woods. When winter comes, a Frost Predator may follow the light of your fire. Rats raid your stores, and crows steal what you leave out — unless a scarecrow keeps watch.
Every life counts
Death is final — unless you carry a Doll. Sew one, keep it close, and you'll wake again beside the nearest tent you've slept in, leaving everything else behind.
Grow your own way
Seven life skills — Gathering, Pioneering, Combat, Crafting, Building, Cooking, and Farming — improve as you use them, and the traits you choose at the start shape how you survive.
The world is generated anew for every game.
