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Forests Are For Trees is the most colourful game you'll see today

Kaleidoscopic exploration

I do like a good wander in the woods, but all those browns and greens can get a bit samey. Luckily, Forests Are For Trees is here to rectify that, with every shade under the sun packed into one tight space for you to explore at your leisure.

There are no set goals or progressions here, only an invitation to get stuck in and look at some very cool foliage. And there’s more than enough to see. The uniformity of the trunks lined up in neat rows contrasts with the chaotic overlap that makes the canopies and roots light up with kaleidoscopic brilliance. And each tree is a kind of portal into a similar forest, but with new colours on display, making wandering around a constant exercise in changing up the palette.

Its soundscape is also fitting: mostly the chill noises of running water and birds, but with another undercurrent that I can’t place but certainly seems a little ominous. It might just be cars on a nearby highway, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s not some kind of haunted machinery, either.

Developer Ian MacLarty has made a host of other games, including the similarly bright Catacombs Of Solaris, which made Pip equal parts ill and intrigued. Forests Are For Trees isn’t quite as sickness-inducing, with softer shades and patterns, but invokes a similar kind of optical illusion and asks for the same simple appreciation of colour and visual busy-ness.

You can buy Forests Are For Trees now for pay what you want with no minimum on itch.io.

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