Golden Hour: A Cozy New Photography Game I Made
If you have followed along here for a while, you know two things about me: I like to mess around building little browser games, and I like to be out somewhere around Neenah at the end of the day, waiting for the light to do something worth a photo. This time I went ahead and put the two together.
It is called Golden Hour, it is free, and it lives right here on my site.
You are the one behind the camera
There is no shooting, no clock counting down, nothing chasing you. You are simply out on a walk with a camera. A scene unfolds in front of you, and your whole job is to notice the good moments and catch them. Drag to look around, pinch or scroll to zoom, and tap the shutter when something lovely lines up.
Frame it, then wait for the moment
Two things make a keeper. The first is framing. There is a grid in the viewfinder, and a photo just looks better when your subject sits along one of those lines instead of dead center. The second is timing. A great blue heron spreads its wings, the sun finally touches the water, a deer lifts its head at the treeline. Tap the shutter right then and you will feel it. The game gives you a gentle nudge when a good shot is lined up, so it stays relaxing instead of fussy. Each outing is a roll of film, and at the end you get a contact sheet of everything you caught, with a star rating on each frame.
Places worth shooting
The spots will feel familiar if you read this blog. You start at Wilderness Park with its grassy boardwalk, then unlock the lake out by the Kimberly Point lighthouse, and finally the backyard feeder, where a very bold squirrel keeps turning up. The light slides toward golden hour while you shoot, and yes, the best light really does earn you a better score.
It plays on your phone or your computer, there are no ads, and nothing to install unless you want to. You can add it to your home screen like a real app, there is a daily shot if you want a quick one, and a leaderboard if you are feeling competitive. Mostly, though, it is just a calm little thing to poke at for a few minutes when you need a breather.
Go catch some light.
