Steam developer and actor Dogus Cagrici spent 40 days solo in the Turkish wilderness to capture footage for his upcoming interactive fiction game, Wordless Forest.
According to a report from Polygon.com, the creator traveled through four different Turkish cities to document real-life survival challenges, including encounters with bears, boars, and snakes.
Cagrici, who serves as the writer, director, actor, editor, and coder for the project, spent twenty of those days in the Yenice Forests, Turkey's largest continuous forest.
Working without cell signal or easy escape routes, Cagrici documented himself struggling through icy rivers and hiking through dangerous terrain. Some scenes were staged for the script, but Cagrici maintains that the survival skills used in the game are legitimate.
"The physical toll was constant," Cagrici wrote in the game's press kit. "The exhaustion on screen is 100% real."
A dialogue-free experience
Unlike many full-motion video (FMV) games, Wordless Forest contains no dialogue, narration, or inner monologue. Players must navigate the story through pure choice.
"This is an unforgiving world where the story is shaped not by words, but by those choices you make," the game's Steam page states. "One wrong decision or a single overlooked detail has irreversible consequences."
Cagrici's filming process involved significant physical risk. While working in Muğla, he waded into freezing rivers in soaked clothing, and in Antalya, he filmed alone on the edges of cliffs where a misstep could have been fatal, Polygon.com reported.
Cagrici also noted near-miss injuries during his production, writing that he "survived countless falls and almost broke my foot several times out there."
After two and a half years of development, Wordless Forest is scheduled for release on August 24, 2026.
Cagrici aims for the game to provide an unparalleled level of immersion. "I hope you feel that raw, unsettling isolation when you play," he wrote.
