Monthly ·
Shutterbog — Twelve Frames of Golden Hour
A wildlife-photography game in a living twilight bog. Twelve frames, one three-minute golden hour, and a heron that only strikes once.
The Game
Shutterbog is a wildlife-photography game set in a living twilight bog. Nothing attacks you and nothing is timed but the light: you get one three-minute golden hour and twelve frames of film. The game's verb is "photograph" — notice, frame, anticipate, shoot.
Core Loop
Seven species live here on their own schedules: dragonflies hover and dart, frogs leap between pads, newts surface briefly, a heron stalks the shallows and — after a one-second frozen tell — strikes. Rarer still: the kingfisher's dive, the otter's backfloat, and the will-o'-the-wisp glowing deep in the mist. Move your viewfinder, pan the two-and-a-half-screen diorama, choose 1× or 2× zoom, and spend your shots. Photos score on subject, rule-of-thirds composition, size in frame, and a fat bonus for catching behaviors mid-moment. The session ends with a contact sheet of your twelve prints — and your album permanently keeps the best photo of each species.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Move the viewfinder |
| Drag / ← → | Pan the scene |
| Click / Space | Shoot |
| Z | Toggle 1× / 2× zoom |
Touch & iPad: drag the finder (the scene auto-pans at the edges), a large shutter button, pinch or tap to zoom.
Session & Scoring
- One three-minute golden hour per session
- Twelve frames of film — every shot counts
- Scores on subject, rule-of-thirds composition, size in frame, and behavior bonuses
- Contact sheet at the end of each session
- Best score and a seven-slot species album (captured thumbnails) persist in localStorage (
anagnorisis-shutterbog)
Visual & Audio
Twilight gold on teal: low sun through mist, silhouetted reeds, a specular path on the water, creatures as elegant readable silhouettes with single warm accents. The ambience — layered wind, croaks, bird pips — doubles as an audio cue system for spawns. The shutter has a proper click-whirr.
Technical Notes
Single self-contained HTML file. 82 logic tests cover scoring order (thirds beat center), moment bonuses, all seven behavior state machines, and the 12-shot economy. Album storage is quota-safe (drop-oldest-and-retry).
Fifth release in the Apps & Games monthly series — a new game every month.
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Content on Anagnorisis is summarized, paraphrased, and editorialized from publicly available sources for length and clarity. Original sources are linked where available. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
