He intended for players to complete the game in 1–2 hours.

Wehle had no coding knowledge entering the development of The First Tree. Wehle, was inspired by Journey, Gone Home, and Firewatch, as well as the novel The Road. In his spare time, he developed and marketed The First Tree. However, it did result in Wehle being hired as a technical artist for the VR experience developer The VOID. Wehle previously developed and released Home is Where One Stars in 2015, though it did not garner much attention or profit. The game was largely produced by one individual, Utah-based developer David Wehle. There are also some puzzle and platforming elements to the game.

Joe Donnelly of PC Gamer referred to the game as a 'walking' and ' bounding' simulator, as players follow the fox as she gallops through a natural landscape. Gameplay Ī third-person 'exploration' game, The First Tree has players taking control of a fox. Toward the end of the game, the perspective switches to Joseph's first-person point of view. Joseph relays to Rachel his desire to have connected with his father more meaningfully. Meanwhile, a conversation between the human couple Joseph and Rachel is overlaid. The First Tree 's narrative is told 'through voice overs and environmental storytelling.' The game simultaneously tells two stories: it depicts a fox searching for her lost kits visually.

The game's visuals and story received both praise and criticism from video game reviewers, while its atmosphere and controls were generally considered calming and clunky, respectively. The game follows a mother fox as she searches for her lost cubs, while the voices of a human couple are overlaid over the fox's journey. The First Tree is a 2017 indie third-person exploration adventure game developed and published by David Wehle.

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