>mfw after s1 of shikanoko ended
Hey! What's going on? I'm doing great, life's been somewhat bittersweet this week but oh well, let's talk vidya. As the title suggests, I really want to talk about this particular genre.
Btw I passed the course I was doing on gamedev! I am really happy about that and I am glad that I now know what an ordeal making even the simplest of videogames is. However, now it is time to go back to the roots with all the newly acquired knowledge, so I am going to get back to opengl and GLSL shaders. I don't really feel like using Unity tbqhwy.
Dear Esther
Recently I played "Dear Esther". The visual storytelling, accompanied by the poem-like narration and mind blowing landscapes makes for an amazing interactive experience. I do not feel like posting any screenshots because it's best for you to spoil yourself as little as possible and be taken aback by it's beauty. Drinking is not mandatory but highly recommended.
And yeah, you'll have to buy it just as I did cause I could not find a single torrent with seeders. Eh, I am glad for once to pay for vidya, it is worth it imo. Also it is just 4 bucks on Steam :P
The Stanley Parable
Ah, the good ol' Stanley Parable. What a game. I remember I watched Guns Akimbo the very same day after finishing it. That silly little game made me laugh so much it is unreal. It has a HUGE amount of different endings, each more weird than the previous one. Similar to Dear Esther, it has an amazing narration and it is delightful to walk around without knowing how you are going to get mind-fucked next.
It was the first walking sim I ever played and finished. I had an amazing time. I might revisit it since I think the devs added a ton of new content.
Soup 0.9
Play it if you liek dream/weird/strange/liminal/japanese core. I came across this title on a lainchan's webring site I'm sure. Don't remember which one, so you might as well check out all of them ;)
Anyways, it really made an impact on me, it gave me a different perspective on what games are and what kind of games I want to make. Plus, it has moon runes.
The Beginner's Guide
I will never forget this game. Brought to you by Stanley Parable's devs. The less you know about it, the better. I'm just gonna tell you that if you pursue any sort of artistic and/or creative endeavor (especially gamedev), play it.
I cannot describe to you how this game made me feel, I simply could relate to it on a much deeper level. There is narration as well. I don't want to hype it up too much, but I've never experienced something like this. It truly is an interactive work of art. It is very short, come on, play it.
And...?
Well, one can't help but notice that all of these games have some things in common, don't they...?
- Can be finished in one sitting
- Good visual/environmental storytelling
- Great narration
- Attention to detail
- Limited to walking around and seeing
- Lots of introspection
- 3D
Soup 0.9 doest't really, but bear with me here, it's a completely different thing.
The aforementioned are short, good games, made with a lot of love and passion. Since the mechanics are quite limited, the few that are present have to be done right, or else they would stick out like a sore thumb. In Dear Esther, for example, it is amazing how the environment leads you to an implicit objective you don't even know is there. In a way, you have underwhelming freedom, you can only walk, but you can walk anywhere!
Since exploration and discovery are the main objectives in walking sims, you can do anything you want and that's okay. No silly objectives like killing 30 fucking enemies in one zone and then move on to the next one to kill 100. With the simple act of playing you are fulfilling the purpose of these games. They truly are interactive works of art, it is just like a virtual 3D painting.
And not unlike real paintings, you can analyze them, relate to them, ponder at them, admire them, think about them and let them impact you. Playing them almost felt like a meditative experience. And I really appreciate the lack of visual clutter, walking sims usually have minimal HUD's.
Wrappin' it up
It really was not my intention to talk about each one of these games individually, really, but after a while it just felt like the right thing to do, they deserve it. They were there to nourish me when I was starving for good vidya.
I think playing these games is an objectively positive experience. There's absolutely nothing to complain, if you get bored, you should consider uninstalling TikTok from your phone (or Insagram reels, or YouTube shorts, or LinkedIn shorts, or Facebook reels) Man, even Amazon has doomscrolling nowadays, what the actual hell is this timeline?
Thanks for reading, have a nice week!