Among The Sierra Nevada is a single-player survival horror mystery set in the rugged backcountry of Northern California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Blending investigation, exploration, evidence collection, puzzle solving, and narrative horror, it puts you in the role of a man chasing proof of the impossible—only to uncover something much larger buried in the forest.
You play as Dave Wilder, who, as a child, survived a life-changing encounter with Bigfoot. The creature saved him, but when Dave returned to camp, his father refused to believe what happened. Years later, with his father aging and no longer able to return to the wilderness, Dave sets out to prove the truth once and for all. What begins as a deeply personal mission to mend a broken relationship becomes a dangerous descent into a mystery involving a missing park ranger, hidden evidence, and a secret agenda built around whether Bigfoot should be exposed… or kept buried.
The deeper you travel into the mountains, the more the wilderness changes. Trails give way to isolation. Campsites feel abandoned in a hurry. Broken trees, scattered carcasses, and strange signs in the dirt suggest that something enormous has been moving through the forest long before you arrived.
This is not a power fantasy. This is an investigation into something that may be intelligent, territorial, and far closer than you want it to be.
The Core Game Loop
At the heart of Among The Sierra Nevada is a gameplay loop built around searching, documenting, surviving, and uncovering the truth.
You will:
Explore remote wilderness areas on foot, moving through forest trails, steep terrain, campsites, hidden paths, ranger outposts, and isolated points of interest in search of signs that Bigfoot is real.
Locate physical evidence such as footprints, hair samples, clawed bark, snapped branches, disturbed ground, dead animals, and unnatural environmental markers. Every clue helps you build your understanding of what happened in the area and where to search next.
Gather resources and manage inventory so you can preserve and use what you find. Collect the materials needed to cast footprints, document discoveries, and maintain the tools required for deeper investigation.
Photograph evidence with your smartphone to create proof. Getting the shot is only part of the challenge—reaching the right place, at the right time, while still staying alive, is what makes every discovery matter.
Use collected evidence to unlock progression and upgrades, improving your ability to investigate, navigate, and survive in increasingly hostile territory.
Solve environmental puzzles by finding keys, unlocking combinations, interpreting notes, tracing clues left behind by others, and revisiting suspicious locations with new knowledge or tools.
Uncover story layers through journals, notes, environmental details, and video tapes, gradually piecing together what happened to the previous park ranger and discovering the real motives behind those trying to hide or expose the creature.
Evade or endure terrifying encounters as the wilderness itself becomes more threatening. When creatures get too close and trigger infrasound, Dave’s body enters Instinct Override—a panic-fueled sprint that overrides caution and sends him running at full speed for 30 seconds. In those moments, survival becomes physical, immediate, and only partially under your control.
The result is a tense investigative loop:
search for signs, document evidence, gather what you need, push deeper into the forest, unlock new leads, survive escalating danger, and use every discovery to move closer to the truth.
Investigation That Feels Physical
Among The Sierra Nevada is built around the feeling of being an actual field investigator in hostile terrain.
You are not simply checking objectives off a list. You are reading the forest.
A broken limb may point to a recent passage through the area. Scratched bark may suggest territorial marking. A footprint near disturbed soil can lead to a cast, a photograph, or a new trail into deeper wilderness. Hair caught on a branch, an overturned campsite, or a carcass left in the wrong place can all become the next step in your investigation.
The game emphasizes observation, interpretation, and follow-through. Progress comes from paying attention to the environment, understanding what evidence means, and using what you find to make informed decisions about where to go next.
Survival Horror in the Open Wilderness
The Sierra Nevada is beautiful, but it is not safe.
This is survival horror grounded in exposure, isolation, uncertainty, and pursuit. The fear does not just come from what you see. It comes from what you suspect is nearby. It comes from the silence between signs. It comes from realizing that the evidence you are following may also be evidence that something is following you.
As you progress, the tension rises through environmental storytelling, audio pressure, sudden encounters, and the growing sense that the truth is being deliberately concealed. The mountain is not just a backdrop. It is an active source of danger—steep, remote, unforgiving, and full of places where help will not reach you.
Traverse the Backcountry
Movement is a major part of the experience, and Among The Sierra Nevada uses traversal to reinforce both realism and tension.
One of the game’s defining tools is the pole vault, which serves multiple roles throughout the journey. Use it to move quickly down switchbacks, cross difficult terrain, create distance in emergencies, and even defend yourself when necessary. It is not a gimmick—it is woven into exploration, escape, and survival.
Traversal is about more than getting from one marker to another. Route choice matters. Terrain matters. The mountains shape how you investigate and how you survive.
Instinct Override
One of the game’s signature mechanics is Instinct Override.
When hostile creatures get too close and activate infrasound, Dave enters a state of involuntary survival panic. He sprints without stopping for 30 seconds, turning fear itself into a gameplay event. This mechanic changes the rhythm of encounters by forcing you to react to danger in a way that feels immediate and human, not heroic.
Instinct Override can save your life by creating distance from a threat—but it can also pull you into unknown terrain, separate you from your plan, and leave you disoriented in the wilderness. It is both a survival response and a source of vulnerability.
A Mystery Bigger Than Bigfoot
While proving Bigfoot’s existence drives the story forward, Among The Sierra Nevada is also about secrecy, competing agendas, and the cost of truth.
As Dave searches for evidence, he uncovers signs that others were in these mountains before him—watching, recording, hiding, and perhaps manipulating what people believe about what lives there. The disappearance of a previous park ranger becomes a critical thread in the investigation, tying together journals, recordings, abandoned sites, and disturbing clues left behind in the wild.
The story unfolds through exploration and discovery rather than exposition alone, encouraging players to connect the dots themselves.
Story
When Dave Wilder was a boy, his father took him camping in the Sierra Nevada. While gathering firewood one morning, Dave encountered Bigfoot—and survived because of it. But when he returned to camp, no one believed him. Least of all his father.
That disbelief never left him.
Now, years later, with his father too old to return to the mountains and their relationship still marked by that moment, Dave sets out to find proof. He wants evidence. He wants answers. He wants to finally be believed.
But the forest is holding more than a creature.
It is holding a history.
And the closer Dave gets to the truth, the more dangerous the search becomes.
Key Features
Single-player survival horror mystery set in the Sierra Nevada mountains
Investigation-driven gameplay loop focused on exploring, tracking, documenting, and surviving
Physical evidence collection including footprints, hair, claw marks, broken limbs, and animal remains
Footprint casting and evidence preservation using gathered resources and field tools
Smartphone photography system used to document proof and support progression
Inventory management and resource gathering tied directly to investigation and survival
Environmental puzzles and locked-path progression involving keys, codes, clues, and discovered materials
Narrative exploration through notes, journals, video tapes, and environmental storytelling
Pole vault traversal mechanic used for movement, escape, utility, and defense
Instinct Override system triggered by infrasound during close encounters
Realistic visual presentation inspired by the wilderness of Northern California
Rich, story-focused experience with an estimated playtime of 8–10 hours
What Makes It Unique
Among The Sierra Nevada combines the grounded process of wilderness investigation with the dread of survival horror. Instead of simply hunting a monster, you are trying to prove, preserve, and understand what happened here while navigating a realistic mountain environment that feels hostile, remote, and alive.
It is a game about evidence, fear, belief, and the dangerous line between discovering the truth and becoming part of the mystery yourself.
You came to prove Bigfoot exists.
You may uncover why the truth was buried.