The survival genre usually wants you to wake up in the woods, panic, punch a tree, make a sad axe, and immediately worry about wolves, hunger, weather, dehydration, or some rude little creature sprinting at you with murder in its heart.
Under Canopies has other plans.
This cosy first-person survival sim from solo developer Novemtails and publisher Assemble Entertainment wants you to slow down, breathe a little, and build a peaceful life in a handcrafted forest sanctuary. You can explore rivers, mountains, flower fields, hidden spaces, and wildlife without the usual survival game pressure breathing down your neck like an unpaid bill.
No combat. No hunting. No violence. No “oh great, the forest is trying to kill me again” nonsense.
You can build a cabin, decorate it, grow food, cook more than 30 recipes, raise animals, photograph wildlife, and wander through nature at your own pace. Honestly, after the last few years, that sounds less like a game pitch and more like a legally required mental reset.
Announcement Trailer
The Forest Is Your Home Now, Good Luck Leaving
Under Canopies was revealed during the Latin American Games Showcase as part of Summer Game Fest, with a demo available now on Steam.
The game puts you inside a vibrant forest world designed around calm exploration and slow living. You can move through handcrafted environments, discover forgotten places, gather useful resources, and gradually turn the wilderness into somewhere that feels like home.
There are rivers, mountains, flower fields, animals, secret areas, and plenty of reasons to get distracted for 40 minutes because you saw something pretty behind a tree.
This is the exact kind of game where you set out to collect one specific plant and somehow end up redesigning your cabin, befriending a sheep, cooking soup, and taking 18 photos of a bird because the vibes were immaculate.
Survival, Minus The Usual Screaming
The interesting hook here is how Under Canopies approaches survival.
You still need to gather, craft, cook, farm, and manage your life in the forest, but the game removes combat entirely. Exploration is built around observation, creativity, and living alongside nature rather than beating resources out of it with a rock.
Solo developer Roberto Ortiz described the game as something where your main incentive is to “gradually build a more complete, cozy, and meaningful life in the forest.”
That is a lovely pitch, and also a personal attack on everyone who has ever opened a cosy game and immediately reorganised their entire virtual home while their actual laundry formed a government in the corner.
Instead of pushing you through danger, Under Canopies seems more interested in giving you space. You can take your time. You can poke around. You can make your cabin ridiculous. You can journal what you find. You can treat the woodland like a place to understand rather than a checklist to destroy.
Build A Cabin, Then Make It Weirdly Personal
One of the big cosy hooks is cabin building.
You can raise your refuge from scratch, then customise it with furniture, decorations, handmade items, and all the little details that make a digital house feel suspiciously more organised than your real one.
This is where the self-expression side kicks in. You get to build a space that captures your style, whether that means warm woodland cottage, chaotic craft bunker, fairy-adjacent plant shrine, or “I found 12 nice objects, and now they all live here.”
Good cabin customisation can be dangerously powerful in games like this. Give people a blank little room and a handful of decorations, and suddenly everyone becomes an interior designer with a squirrel brain and a dream.
You Can Cook, Farm, And Become Slightly Too Invested In Soup
Under Canopies also lets you gather plants, tend your garden, combine ingredients, and cook more than 30 recipes.
Food seems to play into the slower rhythm of the game. You are growing things, preparing meals, and using what the forest gives you rather than treating it like a loot piñata.
There is something very appealing about a survival game where the fantasy is not “how long can I avoid dying?” but “can I make a lovely little meal from ingredients I grew myself and then wander off to photograph wildlife?”
That is the kind of low-stakes productivity my brain can get behind. A tiny task. A cute reward. A pretty forest. No man with a spear trying to ruin my afternoon.
Animals Are Part Of The Daily Loop
Animals play a big role in Under Canopies, both as companions and as part of your day-to-day life.
You can raise chickens and sheep, care for bees, observe wild creatures, and fill your photo album with rare wildlife. The game encourages you to watch, document, and live alongside animals, which feels like a very different energy from survival games wherein every creature is either dinner, danger, or both.
Wildlife photography is especially appealing here. It gives exploration a purpose without changing every trip into a resource grind. You can head out into the forest looking for rare creatures, take your time lining up a shot, and then probably forget what you were originally meant to be doing.
Nature games understand us. They know we are easily distracted by a nice frog.
Under Canopies Already Has People Watching
Before this reveal, Under Canopies appeared during Steam Next Fest, where it reportedly passed 33,000 wishlists after players got hands-on with an early demo.
That makes sense. Cosy survival is having a real moment, and Under Canopies has a strong hook for anyone who likes Among Trees, A Short Hike, Spiritfarer, or games where the emotional tension is gentle but still meaningful.
There is a real appetite for games that let you exist without constantly putting you under threat. Sometimes you want tension, danger, and a boss fight that rearranges your bones. Other times, you want to build a cabin, feed a sheep, photograph a bird, and feel like your nervous system has been tucked into a tiny weighted blanket.
Under Canopies is clearly going for that second feeling.
The Solo Dev Behind The Forest
Under Canopies is being developed by Roberto Ortiz, the solo developer behind Novemtails.
Based in Mexico, Ortiz has worked with teams including Estación Pi, Amber Studio, 1SimpleGame, Macula Interactive, and Jettelly. He also works alongside nine cats, which is either the perfect indie development environment or a daily battle for keyboard ownership.
Possibly both.
The game has that personal project energy in the best way. You can feel the specific obsession behind it: nature, craft, calm systems, peaceful routines, and interactive detail. It is polished enough to feel substantial, but still has that “one person really cared about this exact feeling” quality that makes indie games so exciting.
Game Info
| Detail | Info |
| Game | Under Canopies |
| Developer | Novemtails |
| Solo Developer | Roberto Ortiz |
| Publisher | Assemble Entertainment |
| Genre | Cosy first-person survival sim, open-world crafting, exploration |
| Platforms | PC via Steam |
| Release Window | Q3 2026 |
| Demo | Available now on Steam |
| Showcase | Latin American Games Showcase, Summer Game Fest 2026 |
| Key Features | Cabin building, crafting, farming, cooking, wildlife photography, animal care, exploration |
| Combat | No combat, hunting, or violence |
Accessibility Snapshot
Accessibility information checked June 2026. Detailed accessibility settings have not yet been fully confirmed, so this section should be updated when Novemtails or Assemble Entertainment share more.
| Category | Feature | Options | Notes |
| Confirmed | Platform | PC via Steam | Demo available now |
| Confirmed | Gameplay Pace | Slow-paced exploration | No combat, no hunting, and no urgency are highlighted |
| Confirmed | Perspective | First-person | Listed as a first-person survival sim |
| Confirmed | Violence Level | No combat or hunting | The game focuses on exploration, crafting, farming, cooking, and wildlife photography |
| Confirmed | Steam Features | Steam Achievements, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing | Listed on Steam |
| Confirmed | Controller Support | Full controller support | Listed on Steam |
| Confirmed | Languages | English and Spanish interface/subtitles | Listed on Steam |
| Not Confirmed | Text Size / UI Scaling | Not confirmed | No detailed public accessibility settings confirmed yet |
| Not Confirmed | Control Remapping | Not confirmed | Full controller support is listed, but remapping has not been confirmed |
| Not Confirmed | Colourblind Options | Not confirmed | No detailed public accessibility settings confirmed yet |
| Not Confirmed | Motion / Camera Options | Not confirmed | No detailed public accessibility settings confirmed yet |
| Not Confirmed | Subtitle Size / Caption Options | Not confirmed | Subtitles are listed, but detailed subtitle options have not been confirmed |
Accessibility options can vary by platform, build, and demo version. Players should check the final in-game settings, Steam page, and developer updates for the most current information.
Why This One Has Our Attention
Cosy survival is a tricky little beast.
Push too hard on the survival side and suddenly everyone is stressed, starving, and being bullied by weather. Push too hard on the cosy side, and the systems can start to feel decorative rather than satisfying.
Under Canopies looks interesting because it still gives you survival-shaped routines. You’ll be gathering, cooking, crafting, farming, caring for animals, building shelters, and exploring. The difference is the mood. You are living with the forest, learning its rhythms, and making a home inside it.
You can still have goals. You can still make plans. You can still build, decorate, cook, collect, discover, and improve your little life. The game just does not seem interested in punishing you every five minutes to prove it counts as survival.
And frankly, thank you. Some of us are already surviving enough outside the computer.
TLDR;
- Under Canopies is a peaceful first-person survival sim from solo developer Novemtails and publisher Assemble Entertainment.
- It was revealed during the Latin American Games Showcase as part of Summer Game Fest 2026.
- You can explore a handcrafted forest, build and decorate a cabin, farm, cook, craft, care for animals, photograph wildlife, and journal your discoveries.
- There is no combat, no hunting, and no urgency.
- The game is coming to PC via Steam in Q3 2026.
- A demo is available now on Steam.
- Official Steam Page
- Trailer: YouTube
- Official Site: Assemble Entertainment
Stay unruly.
