Umurangi Generation

Umurangi Generation is a first-person photography game set in the shitty future, specifically a near-future Tauranga Aotearoa (New Zealand) on the brink of an impending crisis the game gradually unfolds across its levels. You play a courier working for the Tauranga Express, taking photographs along your delivery routes for cash, with the photographs you take being judged by the game on color, content and composition. Umurangi is the Te Reo word for Red Sky — the game's title is also its most consistent visual motif.

The grading system is the mechanical anchor. Every photo earns a cash score based on what the game can detect — clean composition, strong color use, presence of specific subjects within the frame — and the score feeds into your final payout for the level. Photo Bounties give specific photographic challenges to complete however you choose, and exploration bonuses reward finding hidden film canisters, recreating postcards, fulfilling timed deliveries and figuring out ways to fit all of your friends into a single frame. Once your photography is done, you deliver the parcel to finish the level.

The equipment unlocks over time. Different lenses, filters, tripods and other tools change what kinds of shots you can compose, and the photo editor lets you develop your unique color grade — experienced photographers can apply real techniques to touch up shots beyond what the in-game camera captured, while newcomers can experiment with the same tools to learn the basics. The political and atmospheric layer of the game — the impending crisis, the small acts of resistance hidden in graffiti and city detail — gives the photography genuine subject matter worth pointing the camera at.