If you are frantically pausing your screen, navigating menus, and searching for how to save game ItLivesInTheWoods, here is the blunt truth: you cannot. Released on May 29, 2026, by indie developer AsAbove|SoBelow Studios, this photorealistic psychological horror experience completely lacks a save feature. Players must complete the harrowing story of Ibrahim searching for his missing daughter, Sarah, in a single sitting. If you close the application, return to the main menu, or encounter a game-breaking bug, your progress is wiped entirely.
Below, we break down exactly why this controversial design choice was made, how to prepare for the 30 to 60-minute runtime, and how to avoid the notorious inventory bugs that force a complete restart.
The Harsh Reality of How to Save Game ItLivesInTheWoods
Many players boot up the game, explore the dense, foggy forests of Canada, and inevitably need to take a break. They press the Escape key, fully expecting a "Save Game" or "Save and Quit" option. Instead, they are met with a barebones pause menu that offers no reprieve.
Because there is no auto-save and no manual save system, understanding how to save game ItLivesInTheWoods requires a paradigm shift: you don't save the game; you endure it. The developers at AsAbove|SoBelow Studios designed the title to be a linear, uninterrupted descent into madness. By removing the safety net of a save file, the tension of the Canadian winter is amplified. Every step Ibrahim takes deeper into the woods to find Sarah carries weight, because death or a game crash means starting back at minute zero.
Disambiguation: Are You Playing the Right Game?
If you stumbled upon this page looking for the mobile visual novel, you are dealing with a completely different system. Because the naming convention is identical, many players confuse the two IPs. Here is a quick breakdown to clarify:
| Feature | ItLivesInTheWoods (Steam PC Game) | Choices: It Lives In The Woods (Mobile App) |
|---|---|---|
| Release Date | May 29, 2026 | October 2017 |
| Developer | AsAbove|SoBelow Studios | Pixelberry |
| Genre | First-Person Psychological Horror | Interactive Visual Novel |
| Save System | None (Single-sitting only) | Automatic Cloud Saves |
| Protagonist | Ibrahim (Father searching for Sarah) | Customizable Teenager |
If you are playing the 2026 PC release, read on to learn how to survive the single-sitting gauntlet.
Surviving the Canadian Forest in One Sitting
Since you cannot record your progress, your best strategy is knowing exactly what you are walking into before you press "New Game." The entire campaign takes between 30 and 60 minutes to complete, depending on how quickly you solve the environmental puzzles and navigate the deliberately confusing objectives.
When you step into Ibrahim's shoes, you are immediately thrust into a photorealistic, atmospheric woodland. Your primary goal is to follow Sarah's trail from her ill-fated hiking trip last winter. The game relies heavily on "walking simulator" mechanics, meaning you will spend the majority of your 60-minute run exploring abandoned campsites, listening to the narrative unfold, and piecing together the paranormal mystery of the Canadian forest. Because the runtime is so short, the lack of a save feature is manageable—provided you carve out an uninterrupted hour of your day.
Atmosphere and Audio: Why the 60-Minute Limit Works
Despite the technical flaws, the decision by AsAbove|SoBelow Studios to omit a save feature forces players to fully absorb the game's oppressive atmosphere. The photorealistic graphics are paired with a dense, isolating audio mix. Every crunch of snow beneath Ibrahim's boots and every distant howl in the Canadian forest is magnified because the stakes are real. If you die, you lose your time.
While some Steam reviews have rightfully criticized the questionable voice acting—which occasionally breaks the immersion of Ibrahim's tragic search for Sarah—the sheer tension of the permadeath mechanics keeps your heart rate elevated. You aren't just playing a walking simulator; you are participating in a high-stakes endurance test where every minute survived is a minute you cannot afford to lose to a careless mistake.
If You Can't, How to Save Game ItLivesInTheWoods Time and Avoid Restarts
The true terror of the game isn't just the paranormal entities lurking in the trees; it is the technical instability. Without a save system, encountering a bug is functionally equivalent to a "Game Over." If you are wondering how to save game ItLivesInTheWoods time and preserve your sanity, you must learn to navigate its notoriously clunky inventory system.
The most infamous roadblock occurs about halfway through the story when you find a house key meant to unlock a specific frosted glass door. Many players report that after picking up the key, they open their inventory only to find the "Use" button completely missing. Because you cannot simply reload a previous save to fix the glitch, this missing Use button bug forces a complete game restart.
To mitigate these run-ending glitches, follow these strict rules:
- Do not Alt-Tab: Minimizing the game to your desktop has been known to break the UI layer, causing the "Use" button to vanish permanently from your inventory screen.
- Interact slowly: When approaching the frosted glass door, ensure the interaction prompt is fully visible on your screen before opening your inventory to select the house key.
- Crouch to trigger the climax: At the very end of the game, progression abruptly halts if you do not physically crouch. The game does not prompt you to do this, leaving many players wandering aimlessly and eventually quitting out of frustration—erasing all their progress just minutes before the credits roll.
The Two Endings: Why No Saves Makes Replayability Brutal
ItLivesInTheWoods features a branching narrative that culminates in two distinct endings. In traditional horror games, you would simply create a manual save right before the final pivotal decision, watch Ending A, reload your file, and immediately watch Ending B.
Here, the single-sitting structure demands a full replay. To experience both conclusions to Ibrahim and Sarah's tragic story, you must commit to two separate 30 to 60-minute playthroughs. The final sequence is particularly unforgiving. Whether you choose to stand and face the entity or crouch and hide, the game immediately rolls the credits and wipes your active session from the system's memory.
There is no "New Game Plus," and there is no chapter select menu. Earning both endings is a true test of patience, requiring you to master the optimal path through the woods and pray that the inventory UI cooperates on your second run.
FAQ: How to Save Game ItLivesInTheWoods
Where is the save file location for ItLivesInTheWoods on PC?
There are no local save files or Steam Auto-Cloud directories for the game. Because progress is tracked only in your active session's RAM, there is no userdata folder containing your campaign data. If you close the executable, the data ceases to exist.
Can I pause the game and leave it running in the background? Yes, you can press the Escape key to pause the game and leave it running if you need to step away to use the restroom or take a break. However, given the game's tendency to crash on lower-end rigs, leaving it idle for hours is incredibly risky.
Will AsAbove|SoBelow Studios add a save feature in a future patch? As of the latest updates following the game's May 29, 2026 release, the developers have focused on optimization and fixing the glass door key bug, but they have not announced any plans to implement a save system. The single-sitting runtime is considered a core design pillar of the experience.
Is there any way to skip the unskippable dialogue on a second playthrough? Currently, no. Because you must replay the entire 60-minute campaign to see the second ending, you will have to listen to Ibrahim's dialogue and the environmental audio cues in full again. Knowing the optimal path through the Canadian forest is the only way to speed up the process.