The Forest Cathedral cover
The Forest Cathedral screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Simulator, Adventure, Indie

The Forest Cathedral

The Forest Cathedral is a part of IGF Celebration Days event on Steam!
The Forest Cathedral is a part of IGF Celebration Days, a digital showcase celebrating award-winning indie games, the Independent Games Festival, and the players who love indie games.

The event is hosted on Steam and will be between July 11 and 20. Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/IGF_CelebrationDays

Debug Magazine's Award for Accessibility
I am absolutely ecstatic that The Forest Cathedral has been nominated for Debug Magazine's accessibility award. It was something I had in mind from the beginning of development, but I truly want to highlight Britt Dye's work and dedication at Whitethorn Games for making this happen.


You can tune into the show on Twitch on February 2nd!


IGF 2024 Finalist - Nuovo Award
Hey everyone, my name is Brian Wilson and I'm the creator of The Forest Cathedral. Being nominated for the Nuovo Award (which is my favorite category in the IGFs) is an absolute honor. The Forest Cathedral is a strange, difficult, and beautiful game about science and loss. So our work in making the game as accessible as possible for everyone to play, is what I'm most proud of. Of course, I couldn't have done this without my awesome team or publisher Whitethorn Games - so, thank you! Be sure to tune in to the award show live on Twitch on March 20th or if you are in San Francisco for GDC, please, come say hi!

Nuovo Award: The award recognizes games that take risks, use unusual approaches, and make jurors think differently about games.





2024 INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL FINALISTS

The Forest Cathedral Launch Day Stream!
To celebrate The Forest Cathedral's launch today, we'll be hosting a stream at 1PM EDT, showing off the introductory moments of the game. You can join Whitethorn Games Community Manager Yared to take the first few steps onto the remote Science Island and hear a little about the making of The Forest Cathedral with developer Brian Wilson! Come along for a developer-led look into the first few moments of this atmospheric environmental thriller!

We'll see you there!

OUT NOW

RELEASE DATE!!!
In two short weeks, you'll be able to explore an isolated island and uncover the devastating secrets hiding there. My environmental thriller, The Forest Cathedral, launches on PC & Xbox on March 14th!



Wishlist The Forest Cathedral on Steam to prepare for your stay on the hauntingly beautiful Science Island, and make sure you're the first to know when it launches!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1271310/The_Forest_Cathedral/

Accessibility Features in The Forest Cathedral
We teamed up with Game Developer to bring you an accessibility feature deep dive for The Forest Cathedral - Accessibility Deep-Dive

A video summary can be viewed here


List of accessibility features

The Forest Cathedral contains two types of gameplay: a 3D visual novel (referred to as 3D) and a 2D platformer (referred to as 2D). Settings can be adjusted for different areas of the game.

General Settings and Saving

  • Settings and Pause menu accessible at all times during gameplay


Gameplay Difficulty

  • 2D Difficulty options are able to be turned on and off at will through the Settings menu. It does not require a new save or restart to implement them.
  • 2D - Option to Turn Off Spikes which removes all deadly spikes
  • 2D - Option to toggle on Float Mode which reduces the speed at which the 2D character will fall
  • 2D - Checkpoints during platformer happen at regular intervals, allowing players to restart from a checkpoint if they die.


Input and Button Presses

  • PC - Has mouse and keyboard and full gamepad controller support
  • Rebinding is supported for most actions
  • Button map available at any time in the Settings menu for default keybinds
  • Player key rebinds will be reflected in button map
  • 3D - Camera sensitivity adjustable
  • 3D - Can invert camera controls vertically (y-axis)
  • 2D - Character is moveable using thumbstick or D-pad

Haptics

  • No haptics


Tutorials

  • Gameplay Mechanics onboarding for both 3D and 2D gameplay takes place in a separate tutorial zone with checks, buttons prompts, and text


Audio Accessibility

  • Max volume adjustable


Text and Reading

  • UI text and menu text are written in a high-contrast bold typeface by default
  • Subtitles and journal text are written in high contrast and sans-serif typeface by default
  • Option to change all in-game text to OpenDyslexic, a sans-serif typeface


On-Screen Movement and Visual Effects

  • Option to replace flashing static screen on terminals with a black screen
  • No motion blur


Heads-up Display

  • Key bind prompts viewable on-screen when needed for progression
  • Player key rebinds will be reflected in button prompts


Thanks for reading and stay tuned for our early 2023 release!

Steam Next Fest Demo
It's live! Check out The Forest Cathedral's updated demo during Steam Next Fest for the next week.



Play The Demo!
Aligning with The Indie Houses you can play The Forest Cathedral's first-ever public demo from Aug 31st - Sept 7th. An Xbox controller is recommended for the demo.