Granddad’s Camera: press kit

Developer: OakFox, a small studio in the UK
Platforms: iPhone and Android
Release: In development
Price: To be announced
Genre: Wildlife photography, exploration
Website: https://granddadscamera.co.uk
Instagram: @granddadscamera
Press contact: hello@granddadscamera.co.uk

In one line
A pixel-art wildlife photography game for iPhone and Android, set in real places in Britain: find real British wildlife in its real season, keep still, and wait for the shot.

About the game
You’re a budding nature photographer with your granddad’s old film camera and an empty field journal. From Millbrook, a made-up market town, you take the train to the New Forest, the Norfolk Broads, the Pembrokeshire coast and Skomer, and the Cairngorms, photographing 103 real British species, from the robin on the fence to the bittern in the reeds.

Every animal keeps to its real calendar and clock, and the rare ones really are rare. You find them the way naturalists do: reading field signs, asking the locals, minding the wind and keeping still. Each photograph fills in that species’ field journal page, checked against UK sources such as the RSPB, the BTO and The Wildlife Trusts.

Features
- 103 real British species in five real places, each on its real calendar and clock.
- Granddad’s 35 mm film camera: 24 shots a roll, and you only see them once they’re developed in town. The digital cameras wait until you’ve earned ranger stamps.
- Read the field signs, creep or wait, mind the wind, and time the shutter. Photos are scored on framing, focus, light, the moment and the mood.
- A wildlife garden: feeders, nest boxes, a pond, a hedgehog highway, a nest box camera and a moth trap with 24 moths in their real flight seasons.
- Bird News: 12 rare visitors that turn up for a day or two.
- Field & Fen Monthly: a photo competition every month, and a Hall of Fame to climb.
- 20 rare colour forms and named local animals, and five conservation stories.
- Good fieldcraft built in: protected birds can’t be approached in the breeding season, and some animals are only watched from a hide or with a red-light torch.
- Pixel art, music and sound all made for the game.

Screenshots
- screenshots/encounter_fox.png: A red fox in a Millbrook alley at dusk, with the SHOOT, CREEP, WAIT and LEAVE menu.
- screenshots/viewfinder_hare.png: The viewfinder: a mountain hare in its white winter coat, and the focus bar.
- screenshots/encounter_puffin.png: A puffin carrying sand eels on Skomer, its alert meter rising.
- screenshots/prints.png: A developed print of a kingfisher: five stars, ISO 400 film.
- screenshots/journal.png: The field journal: the badger’s page, with its best time and the photograph.
- screenshots/dialogue.png: Day one: Granddad hands over his old pocket camera.
- screenshots/map.png: The railcard map: Millbrook, the New Forest, the Norfolk Broads, Pembrokeshire and the Cairngorms.
- screenshots/garden.png: Granddad’s garden with everything in: feeders, a bird bath, nest boxes, a log pile, wildflowers and the pond.
- screenshots/nestcam.png: Nest Cam on the in-game phone: blue tit chicks in Granddad’s nest box.
- screenshots/moths.png: The moth trap in the morning: hawk-moths, a garden tiger and a buff-tip on the egg boxes.
- screenshots/birdnews.png: A Bird News alert: a hoopoe on a lawn near Lyndhurst.
- screenshots/hall_of_fame.png: The Hall of Fame for Field & Fen Monthly’s photo competition.
- screenshots/town_night.png: Millbrook at night: street lamps on the High Street.
- screenshots/forest_heath.png: The New Forest in early August, the heather in flower.
- screenshots/broads.png: The Norfolk Broads in early October: dykes, reedbeds and a windpump.
- screenshots/skomer.png: Skomer in early June.
- screenshots/cairngorms_snow.png: The Cairngorms in late January, under snow.
