Viewfinder eyes 2023 release on PC and PS5

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Environmental 3D puzzler that brings photos to life "coming soon" to PC and PlayStation 5

Perception is often reality, though rarely is that so literally true as it will be in Sad Owl Studios' upcoming environmental 3D puzzler, Viewfinder.

Rather than tell a particular overt story, Viewfinder drops players into a free-roaming 3D world whose secrets are yours to discover (or not) as you please. There are many obstacles standing in your way, however, and you're armed only with an instant camera. Fortunately you are no mere tourist snapping pictures as mementoes, and this is no ordinary Polaroid. Instead you must make strategic use of the photographs you take, along with various "paintings, sketches, screenshots and postcards" you find in order to bring them to life.

Players will explore a series of scenic skybound hub worlds that are "all cohesive and encompass similar, but complex, differences." You'll navigate each area in first-person perspective, and perspective is crucial to solving the many environmental puzzles blocking your progress. The pictures in your possession can be "placed in the world to become a fabric of its reality, reshaping the environment around you," but only after you've correctly placed and manipulated their orientation to properly integrate them into their immediate surroundings. Depending on the image you use, you may find yourself wandering through black-and-white pencil sketches, traversing painterly watercolour pathways or even pixelated dungeon corridors.

There is no firm target release date just yet, but Viewfinder is "coming soon" in 2023 for Windows PC on Steam and for consoles exclusively on the PlayStation Store. To learn more about the game in the meantime, be sure to drop by the official website for additional details.