That Other Kind Of Game - Story Generators

Ойындар

Story generators are a kind of game which aren't often brought up when discussing video games as art. They don't fit neatly into one genre - instead they are characterized by emergent game play stemming from procedural generation and detailed interactions. The iconic example of this is Dwarf Fortress, a game which is tough but with extreme detail in its mechanics. Despite being the grandfather of many indie games, Dwarf Fortress and games like it don't get talked about often enough.
In this video I discuss Dwarf Fortress and other story generators, such as Rimworld, Paradox grand strategy games, Barotrauma, and Space Station 13. As a specific example, I played the Paradox strategy game Stellaris and talk about the various decisions I needed to make when I unintentionally made the game more difficult than I intended.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:54 Dwarf Fortress
04:11 Story Generators
05:48 Stellaris Playthrough
13:24 The Point
#dwarffortress
#stellaris

Пікірлер: 865

  • @buffatwo
    @buffatwo Жыл бұрын

    Wow! It’s great to see you guys liked the video! You might also like the video I did last week, it’s over how different games implement the “Rule of Cool” to keep players immersed. It did really well for about one day then traffic suddenly dropped. Not for sure for the exact reason, but those who did see it seemed to really like it too. kzread.info/dash/bejne/rKxoydWOYa_NZJs.html Also, after seeing so many recommendations for it, looks like I’ll have to look into kenshi!

  • @brennonwapple6208

    @brennonwapple6208

    Жыл бұрын

    love that this genre of game is finally getting the lime light it deserves

  • @HierisLars

    @HierisLars

    Жыл бұрын

    This is great, I just picked up Kenshi because of the steam Winter sale but haven't tried it too much. Would love to see a video about it!

  • @Nezul

    @Nezul

    Жыл бұрын

    Be aware, Kenshi is like classic Dwarf Fortress, it's arcane as fuck but once you figure out what you're doing it's an intense game.

  • @Sihgilanu

    @Sihgilanu

    Жыл бұрын

    your video quality is stellar, man! i was shocked to see you didn't have even 1k subs... here's hoping you get the recognition you deserve, because the effort you put in *really* does show. keep it up homie!

  • @Sir_Casimir

    @Sir_Casimir

    Жыл бұрын

    Mate pretty much everything you listed in this video is a sandbox game, 'Sandbox' is the name of the gerne and what you described most of them as is literally it's definition. (If you don't believe me, look it up and put some time into researching it before trying to dispute.) Some people mistake stuff like Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS) as a "sandbox" but these types of games are actually more apart of the worldbox gerne instead, which I guess is a similar name and this term isn't used very often overall. My favourite sandbox games is the Mount & Blade series and Paradox games in particular, some people even consider games like GTA and Skyrim as somewhat sandbox but I don't really see it because they do have a fully fleshed out story.

  • @labrat_09
    @labrat_09 Жыл бұрын

    Fun fact: rimworld’s hardest default difficulty is literally called losing is fun

  • @BirdieRumia

    @BirdieRumia

    Жыл бұрын

    Which is itself a Dwarf Fortress reference. It's all a circle.

  • @nukechicken4862

    @nukechicken4862

    Жыл бұрын

    @@BirdieRumia and alot of space station 13s server rules like to say losing is fun

  • @samueltheslime1125

    @samueltheslime1125

    Жыл бұрын

    Back in my Rimworld, it was called Merciless. God I love Rimworld so much.

  • @gex6692

    @gex6692

    Жыл бұрын

    Rim world is just worse dwarf fortress imo

  • @Bloodhound7

    @Bloodhound7

    Жыл бұрын

    @@gex6692 They're too different to be compared imo. I liked dwarf fortress aswell and had a few hundreds of hours fun but it never came close to me as Rimworld

  • @mrbismarck
    @mrbismarck Жыл бұрын

    Writing for the Washington Post, Gita Jackson said "You win [Dwarf Fortress] when something that’s so funny or interesting or just plain weird happens that you have to tell a real life person about it." The game has given me so many stories to tell people it'll always be my favourite.

  • @KannabisMajoris
    @KannabisMajoris Жыл бұрын

    The guy who made Rimworld (which he explicitly calls a story generator) wrote a book about story telling in games. He also worked on Bioshock Infinite

  • @JerichoJulius0

    @JerichoJulius0

    Жыл бұрын

    Guy made a game just to sell his book. Game ends up more popular than book.

  • @orangesoda4535

    @orangesoda4535

    Жыл бұрын

    Bio infinite aint much a credit. Game was pretty stinky

  • @hiiambarney4489

    @hiiambarney4489

    Жыл бұрын

    @@JerichoJulius0 Still I deem the DLC's overpriced.

  • @AshAsmodeus

    @AshAsmodeus

    Жыл бұрын

    @@orangesoda4535 I think this is why games like storygenerators exist because I thought Bioshock Infinite was pretty awesome... sure; it was awefully messy at times too but the underlying narrative of the game was a great experience for myself who's also heavily into stuff like Quantum Physics, Time travel and meta-realities. Having said that; my journey with elizabeth was absolutely as much fun as that time my heavy in rimworld threw a tantrum and decided to fire his doomsday rocket launcher... whose projectile, by stroke of luck or misfortune (your pick), ended up travelling straight down a 20 cell hallway and ended up deadcenter in my dininghall where everyone else was celebrating the marriage of my village elder with the local doctor....

  • @ellieswagaye

    @ellieswagaye

    Жыл бұрын

    It’s honestly soooo much more of an accomplishment having rimworld in your résumé than having bioshock infinite

  • @CornRecords972
    @CornRecords972 Жыл бұрын

    I love the new waves of recognition the graphical release is bringing Dwarf Fortress. Been playing since 2008, myself. I never dreamed it would be so well recognized on its own apart from all of the 'it inspired minecraft' quotes. Being able to open twitch or youtube and see thousands or maybe even tens of thousands of people experience it at long last brings joy to my heart for Tarn and Zach Adams.

  • @buffatwo

    @buffatwo

    Жыл бұрын

    I originally got into back in 2014-ish when Quill18 introduced me to the Lazy Newb Pack in one of his streams. I put the game down for a long time but when I saw it was getting a steam release I decided to wait and join in throwing money at the Tarn and Zach.

  • @CornRecords972

    @CornRecords972

    Жыл бұрын

    @@buffatwo I've bought two copies so far. I throw it at friends whenever I can.

  • @LocalDiscordCatgirl

    @LocalDiscordCatgirl

    Жыл бұрын

    @@CornRecords972the day of release I bought two copies for my little brothers

  • @HellaDelta42069

    @HellaDelta42069

    Жыл бұрын

    I’ve been listening to people playing dwarf fortress for a few years now, but I never actually started playing it myself... anyways, it is indeed nice to see players old and new experiencing Zach and Tarn Adam’s Magnum Opus, brings me new hope for Humanity.

  • @DaemonicNecro

    @DaemonicNecro

    Жыл бұрын

    Who is saying it inspired Minecraft!!?? who is the source?? IMO they are WRONG very wrong... Minecraft was born from its creators parent game the Granddaddy and still truest open world crafting game there is Wurm Online also released on Steam as Wurm Unlimited that Notch worked on with friend Rolf Johansson before parting ways and making Minecraft which is a pixelated voxel version of Wurm which needs the recognition it so highly deserves!!

  • @isaiasmartinez7131
    @isaiasmartinez7131 Жыл бұрын

    Stellaris is my drug. I always come back to it.

  • @buffatwo

    @buffatwo

    Жыл бұрын

    It’s great, but boy after this video I need a break.

  • @jeffthedumb3177

    @jeffthedumb3177

    Жыл бұрын

    same

  • @uriotv1613

    @uriotv1613

    Жыл бұрын

    Rel

  • @X3105i

    @X3105i

    Жыл бұрын

    Getting back to DF but I recently played shadow empire and Stellaris is my morphine because those games hurt

  • @danielwoods3896

    @danielwoods3896

    Жыл бұрын

    This was even without the best part. Crises. Nothing finishes a game of Stellaris better than saving the galaxy with its uncountable people from an unknowable extragalactic threat.

  • @keionjg9627
    @keionjg9627 Жыл бұрын

    Games like Kenshi, and Rimworld are games that I’ve had the most fun ever in. Both games are literally the analogy of taking off the training wheels and being told “go nuts”. Kenshi especially. The game tells you literally nothing besides the controls and you do whatever you want in quite the unique world. Surprised Kenshi is still as obscure as it is in this genre.

  • @murkorus7147

    @murkorus7147

    Жыл бұрын

    I got Kenshi about a week ago for the winter sale, and it's become a drug for me. Already have 100 hours in it, and several almost max level characters.

  • @redshift912

    @redshift912

    Жыл бұрын

    Dayz does this too with even less direction

  • @Koooles

    @Koooles

    Жыл бұрын

    you could try Project Zomboid.

  • @honaleri

    @honaleri

    Жыл бұрын

    Rimworld and Kenshi both changed how I saw game design. I didn't get into Dwarf Fortress, still haven't, but I read lot about it, and admired it from a far for a long time. Rimworld is like Dwarf Fortress Lite. Its much more approachable, but does many of the things (to a less intense degree of simulation.) And Kenshi is so fascinating because its much more...intimate, than Rimworld. I loved my colony, sure, but that game makes you feel you need it to be colony to play. Kenshi makes it more like you could play with just one person, but you don't need to be alone. I can't say how deep simulation in Kenshi goes, but if makes you feel connected with the characters. My Kenshi story is, I started off in Sho-battai, alone, unaware how to play the game, running around mining some copper for cheap money, only to realize I needed help to get it done. I talked to few drifters, they demanded money for my help, eff that. I bought a slave instead, a guy with a goat head. He was skittish and didn't trust me, and just cried a lot. So...I basically babied him until he actually decided to join me for real and we mined a lot...to no avail. It picked up more drifters and headed off into the desert, not even very far, when...I happened upon a gold mine. I was like "jackpot" and made small town with a wall around the gold mine, not far from Sho-battai. Production was slave driven. (Sort of), I ended up adopting a crap tone of Starving Vagrants into my command under a group I called "slaves" and just made them work in the mine. (Through them in cages for a few days, starved them, then gave them food to make them join me.)( I would then take the gold ingots to the Sho-battai bar, and sell 50 gold bars at a time. Then, literally sneak up stairs in that bar, and steal back the gold I just sold, then sell ll 50 bars again to a fence. It was epic. I fed my people on stolen food until we made farms, but it wasn't until something happened I didn't expect. that my whole way of playing changed. I had a Starving Vagrant I'd put in a cage and nearly starved, he didn't want to join me, and I didn't need a legless man... So I kicked him out of town and he was just...laying there in front of my town like he'd given up. I...felt bad for him. So I gave him a leg and sent him on his way. For no reason, he starts following my character around on my mission to sell gold bars. Suddenly...he starts talking, saying "I've never felt this free before, is this what its like to be like you?" And...suddenly, he asks if he can join me. He's the only person that ever just...asked to join, no being put in a cage and bribed with food, no abusive dystopian behavior. He...freely joined me, cause I helped him and made him feel alive. I named that guy Free Will, and decided to "rename" my subgroup of characters from "Slaves" to "Workers". And I started treating those characters less like they were disposable and more like, these are my people. I fight for them, not with them. It was amazing. I want and need to make a game like these games. I've literally played for over 200 hours, and still haven't left that Great Desert. There is still so much to do. I'm just having to much fun running my little town.

  • @MrRavmoor

    @MrRavmoor

    Жыл бұрын

    @@honaleri I loved this story! I tried getting into Kenshi about a year ago but it just didn't click for me. Now you've made me want to try again! :)

  • @leobriccocola8141
    @leobriccocola8141 Жыл бұрын

    Cataclysm DDA has constantly blown my away by how beautifully in-depth and complex it is and the amazing stories that come from it.

  • @he3004

    @he3004

    Жыл бұрын

    CDDA is great

  • @cobalt968

    @cobalt968

    Жыл бұрын

    Both DDA and Bright Nights are some of my favorite sims/rpgs. Especially with mods! My first character was a massively in debt dance instructor who managed to barely survive the first month by throwing rocks at lone zombies and scrounging stale food from houses and drinking out of toilets. With great persistence and luck, he became a cyborg kung-fu master who could punch holes through tanks. He eventually managed to rescue some fellow cyborgs from some secret labs and start a quiet farm, occasionally venturing out to delve into other secret labs to try and save any other cyborgs that might be trapped there. My current character is a genetically engineered bodyguard whose master got zombified while touring a remote prison island. I managed to clear the island through scavenging firearms from the police zombies, and constructed a crude raft by chopping trees and doors to make it past all the zombified sea life to the mainland. Currently chilling in a cultist safe house and digesting various tomes about forbidden arcana and getting insane morale boosts from it. I’m eager to see how her story will play out.

  • @basilisk4848
    @basilisk4848 Жыл бұрын

    Stellaris and Rimworld are my go-to games. Both near infinitely replayable with all the tools to make a fun and interesting story throughout a playthrough. This is only boosted further by their amazing modding communities, with some astonishing work that makes these games some of the best experiences you can find from this kind of game. Whether it be stuff like gigastructures and acot for stellaris, or Rimworlds vanilla expanded. There’s always something that can make another run worthwhile, and that goes for unmodded too.

  • @sharksam8583

    @sharksam8583

    Жыл бұрын

    Stellaris is personally one of my favorite games. And I have modded it. Quite a bit. Rimworld has also been an occasional rabbit hole. Of mine that I go into every once in a while.

  • @DopinSmoke

    @DopinSmoke

    Жыл бұрын

    I just bought Rimworld a month ago. I already have 200 hours. It’s amazingly addictive and I’ve only played Vanilla with Biotech so far

  • @noobplaye1218

    @noobplaye1218

    Жыл бұрын

    As a digital masochist myself i play neo scavenger

  • @EddieDubs

    @EddieDubs

    Жыл бұрын

    I've played a lot of Rimworld, but it's just so soulless.

  • @mvw9078

    @mvw9078

    Жыл бұрын

    Two of the best games of our modern era, I think! I love them too!

  • @MrCMaccc
    @MrCMaccc Жыл бұрын

    4:16 when that rimworld music kicked in it just made me feel something. THAT is what story generators do. They are the TTRPGs of the video game industry

  • @AnotherDuck

    @AnotherDuck

    Жыл бұрын

    I've noticed that videos about games like these tend to use Rimworld music. For good reason.

  • @scoobydoo2587

    @scoobydoo2587

    Жыл бұрын

    Same here. I love the music of Rimworld, it always makes me wanna play again

  • @stalebread2997

    @stalebread2997

    Жыл бұрын

    Duude, tell me about it. EVERY TIME I hear Rimworld music, a tiny part of me goes haywire.

  • @LeeAmNiesen

    @LeeAmNiesen

    Жыл бұрын

    Moving On is just the best soundtrack ever. Can't explain the wild mix of feelings I get every time it plays in the perfect moment.

  • @smolbean2263

    @smolbean2263

    Жыл бұрын

    Warcrime simulator

  • @hrnekbezucha
    @hrnekbezucha Жыл бұрын

    Stellaris seems like a good time but what I like about Dwarf Fortress so much is that all the stories are so personal. Every dwarf has a name, and history, and personality. You can order someone to pull a lever that swings the draw bridge shut with an elven caravan on it, and Mafol will always be the one who gets to do it as a retribution for declining the trade of his masterpiece shirt because it had a birch button on it. So now he lives to see the caravans of dozen elves splattered against the cavern wall, and the rest fall into a sea of magma bellow.

  • @okeoi
    @okeoi Жыл бұрын

    Been playing DF since 2009 and there are so many stories. In this current version I have had a dwarven baby drown in a river, traumatizing my main stone mason who just started carving statues of this dead baby. The Fortress of Tombkeeper is living up to it's name, now, idolizing a dead child from the early days of expedition. Edit: Update: The fortress has progressed about five years since I posted my original comment and even my metalsmith ( a migrant, untraumatized I might add) has taken up occasionally making statues of Zuglar Fencedpunches, the dead, drowned Dwarven Baby.

  • @derpderpin1568

    @derpderpin1568

    Жыл бұрын

    Just wish I could actually really see that story being told with good visual representation and not just reading it. The first developer to actually make one of these games in 3D with the same amount of depth as the others will have a goldmine on their hands. The fact that nearly everything interesting is just in reading text in most of the games in this genre is the number one thing by far preventing it from growing. All of them that exist so far have clumsy and mediocre UI and presentation.

  • @okeoi

    @okeoi

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@derpderpin1568 I mean. I saw it. I can see it still. The bones of Zuglar Fencedpunches are still stuck in the river. The visual restriction allows for a much more personal interpretation. DF is a game of storytelling; like playing DnD. Theater of the mind and all that jazz. Same as reading books, I guess. You either like to read or you don't and there is nothing wrong with that, but some games just aren't everyone's cup of tea.

  • @birdsie9791

    @birdsie9791

    Жыл бұрын

    @@derpderpin1568 I think limited graphics actually lend it a lot of fun room for interpretation.

  • @starofaetherius

    @starofaetherius

    Жыл бұрын

    @@derpderpin1568 thats is sort of impossible though. They would have to makes a statue for every single emergent gameplay thing that could happen, and thats just the stoneworker example. The game would end up with a massive file size from all of the extraneous items it would have inserted into it when descriptions would have worked fine, take months or years longer to develop and still be more broken than its 2d counterparts. Story generator games belong in theatre of the mind.

  • @talknight2

    @talknight2

    Жыл бұрын

    Me with 40 Dwarven skeletons lying unburied in the chasm beneath my tavern because the waterwheels that were supposed to operate the pumps stopped spinning for no apparent reason and my artificial waterfall flooded half the fortress: 0_0

  • @starhalv2427
    @starhalv2427 Жыл бұрын

    For Stellaris, I give my highest recommendation to the "Civil Wars" mod. It adds a bunch of ways for civil wars to break out outside what the base game offers, making it so that conquering the entire galaxy is just the start of your problems. For example, if you change your government from Imperial, your heir can either go into exile and become an admiral for one of your rivals, or try to make an entire sector revolt against you as a new, feudal society empire. Or, when a faction within your empire dislikes you, you'll be given a couple years to fix the situation before that faction revolts. These are just a part of your problems.

  • @Someone-vq6jk

    @Someone-vq6jk

    Жыл бұрын

    I’m pretty sure the mod is called civil wars

  • @starhalv2427

    @starhalv2427

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Someone-vq6jk yes, correct. I'll edit that.

  • @matiassilva713
    @matiassilva713 Жыл бұрын

    I consider Crusader Kings 2 a good story generator game, because of the emphasis on characters and their personalities

  • @PepsiMagt
    @PepsiMagt Жыл бұрын

    As for story generator games, an influential game has to be the Sims. If you take a war game or a management game and add a bit of Sims to it, then you have Stellaris or Rimworld.

  • @bananahat3350

    @bananahat3350

    Жыл бұрын

    Especially since its code name in development was “Dollhouse”, and what is a dollhouse if not a story generator lol.

  • @rodrikforrester6989

    @rodrikforrester6989

    Жыл бұрын

    Or Crusader Kings!

  • @danieladamczyk4024

    @danieladamczyk4024

    Жыл бұрын

    Would you call The sims a tactical game?

  • @Duncanois

    @Duncanois

    Жыл бұрын

    ​​@@danieladamczyk4024epending how you play, yes, it can be a lot more tactical than what you see at face value Edit: typo

  • @danieladamczyk4024

    @danieladamczyk4024

    Жыл бұрын

    @@Duncanois Thank you for your answer. Doing the best with time we got counts as tactics for me.

  • @dmitriwojcik210
    @dmitriwojcik210 Жыл бұрын

    Was happy to see NEO Scavenger get noticed if only for a moment, can get alot of fun stories out of it depending on how you play

  • @raggebatman
    @raggebatman Жыл бұрын

    I never knew I wanted a game category called 'Story Generator' so much. Literally one of my favourite types of games

  • @TheWisme
    @TheWisme Жыл бұрын

    A lovely story generator in my library is Wildermyth, where the developing of the story is the entire purpose of the game. I'd reccomend checking it out.

  • @KatelynCollins225
    @KatelynCollins225 Жыл бұрын

    you've earned my subscription. I've been a massive fan of these games for a very long time, and none of my friends ever understood them or why I liked them. This video perfectly summarises these games. Also, great editing!

  • @buffatwo

    @buffatwo

    Жыл бұрын

    Im glad you enjoyed it! I’ve only heard these kind of games discussed as individual examples, rather than a category altogether. I’ve also had friends be confused at this choice of games, and I always found it hard to explain succinctly. Hopefully this opens people up to the category more!

  • @monchyd6519

    @monchyd6519

    Жыл бұрын

    bro the amount of times i heard someone say "i dont like this game/this game looks trash/looks boring" just because the game "looked weird" made me cry out in pain

  • @beaub152

    @beaub152

    Жыл бұрын

    I'm lucky I have friends that play these games

  • @zombierobot8769

    @zombierobot8769

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@@buffatwoI've sort of connected these games in my head but never really had a good encompassing title for what they all were. Space station 13 is great, Kenshi also has to be one of my favorite games ever. I think someone needs to start a website dedicated to finding and hosting information about these sorts of games.

  • @LilyKittyCatto
    @LilyKittyCatto Жыл бұрын

    this is my favourite kind of game. id recommend wildermyth to everyone, your characters develop as you play and form relationships together or become rivals etc and can have kids who can eventually join your party and the stories you can find in each playthrough are so fantastic its a game i will never get bored of

  • @simex909
    @simex909 Жыл бұрын

    One of my favorite story generators is the game Drox Operative 2. It is like diablo, but you play as a spaceship and collect parts and upgrades. While you're doing this, computer controlled races are playing a 4x in the background without your direct influence. You as a single ship in a 4x try to influence events in your favor by choosing who to attack, forming alliances, helping the factions with quests, etc...

  • @chazdomingo475

    @chazdomingo475

    Жыл бұрын

    Sounds like Star Sector but without the fleet mechanics.

  • @simex909

    @simex909

    Жыл бұрын

    @@chazdomingo475 thanks bro, i will check it out

  • @Azure9577

    @Azure9577

    Жыл бұрын

    @@chazdomingo475 starsector with nexerelin installed but without the fleet and direct controlled combat

  • @Azure9577

    @Azure9577

    Жыл бұрын

    @@simex909 starsector is amazing but install the nexerelin mod

  • @TooZooted
    @TooZooted Жыл бұрын

    I feel like 'Story Generators' will be the games that age best with time. Dwarf Fortress is a perfect example of this, even excluding the new Steam version for a game to have a dedicated community for over two decades is unheard of in other genre's. They are the only single-player games that have infinite replayability, no two playthroughs will ever be the same experience.

  • @CoqueiroLendario
    @CoqueiroLendario Жыл бұрын

    Aw yeah those are my favorite type of games and i'm glad that Rimworld got not one but TWO DLCs really focused on creating stories, right now i have a small tribe of nudist pigmen that lives in a desolate wasteland, slowly cleaning it back into the beautiful place it once was while defending themselves with tamed animals!

  • @peenyyt4921

    @peenyyt4921

    Жыл бұрын

    Lame ass tribe tbh

  • @CoqueiroLendario

    @CoqueiroLendario

    Жыл бұрын

    @@peenyyt4921 They indeed have some round asses. :]

  • @AramatiPaz

    @AramatiPaz

    Жыл бұрын

    Wich DLC you consider not history focused?

  • @CoqueiroLendario

    @CoqueiroLendario

    Жыл бұрын

    @@AramatiPaz Royalty, it has some storymaking elements but it is mostly fun with psycasts and mech clusters.

  • @merezko4339
    @merezko4339 Жыл бұрын

    Love Dwarf Fortress been playing it over a decade, obviously your video took a turn, but the premise and quality of the video still held up while you took me to the stars :D

  • @Sondi
    @Sondi Жыл бұрын

    this is why neo scavenger is a game i can always make a run like weekly for. the stories i told my friends made them all buy it only to be turned off by the graphics. ive been playing that game for almost 10 years now and i still find new interactions and events that i didn't know existed

  • @sendmechecks
    @sendmechecks Жыл бұрын

    My favorite kind of game. These games you mention, along with the Sims, Terraria and others have the potential for thousands of hours of fun. Since they are essentially just Lego blocks for you to rearrange and make your OWN fun with. You could sum up this genre simply as: "Player autonomy in a sandbox world." The toughest part about this game is making the gameplay and experimentation fun, rather than feeling like you're wrestling with an obtuse input box (or how I feel playing DF).

  • @zazmeister5889
    @zazmeister5889 Жыл бұрын

    I remember playing Barotrauma in it's earlier days, I was part of the security team for the submarine. A moloch had absolutely destroyed the outer hull of the ship, and as the interior flooded, I managed to lock myself away in the ballast just before the water reached me. I was the only survivor onboard as the rest either drowned or were torn apart by the monster right outside. Then, it was a long and silent trip down to the deepest depth survivable, as the destroyed sub had no captain, it sank. And there I sat, talking on my dying radio only to yield no results on the other side. Any attempt to rescue me was futile, I was just too deep to safely get to. After a while I realised my only choice was to end my suffering, no one was coming for me, that fact was clear. So I opened the door to let the sea consume me. I didn't last 5 seconds underwater as the high water pressure almost instantaneously crushed my entire body. 10/10 would recommend.

  • @themadone2942
    @themadone2942 Жыл бұрын

    Space Station 13 is worth playing and learning even with some difficulties. It will took a lot of hours but trust me you will not regreat it(and even when you would not be good that's okay too you can always improve and become better).

  • @NedInYaHead

    @NedInYaHead

    Жыл бұрын

    Honestly, after attempting (and failing) to get into Dwarf Fortress, Cataclysm: DDA and Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, Space Station 13 was really easy to get into in comparison. I hopped onto Beestation and spent my first round being taught the basics by a friendly assistant, and from there anything more specific I needed to find out could be solved with a quick look at the wiki. And because the rounds are ~2 hours instead of the 7+ that the rest require, it is realistic to have at least a few stories by the time you'd finish one of the other games - this is only helped by the fact that all 15-25 players in the server are also working towards that goal.

  • @pagodeiromaster3347

    @pagodeiromaster3347

    Жыл бұрын

    @@NedInYaHead is beestation goonstation?

  • @IAmGameAddicted

    @IAmGameAddicted

    Жыл бұрын

    @@pagodeiromaster3347 no its TG code

  • @jagothegamer5750
    @jagothegamer5750 Жыл бұрын

    My favourite Stellaris Megacorp I made was a xenophobic space McDonalds that would capture other species as livestock... I would then open up restaurants across the galaxy. It was called the Xeno Burger. There is a reason I have over 1,000 hours in Stellaris.

  • @TheControlStick1
    @TheControlStick1 Жыл бұрын

    Project Zomboid is my favorite example of this. Neo Scavenger and Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead are also amazing

  • @valitsemllaluokanavahyvaks3556

    @valitsemllaluokanavahyvaks3556

    Жыл бұрын

    UnReal World also.

  • @eatpant3270

    @eatpant3270

    Жыл бұрын

    I did play neo scav before and cdda too

  • @potatoboy6094
    @potatoboy6094 Жыл бұрын

    Story generator type games are my favorite, I’ll admit I’m not quite at the stage where I can completely embrace failure as part of the fun, but even if I savescum later on to save my virtual babies, those alternate timelines of terrible decisions will always have a special place In my heart

  • @scopaf1662
    @scopaf1662 Жыл бұрын

    I initially heard you say "most beautiful" in conjunction with story generators and scoffed. Then I heard the first note of the rimworld song play about 4 minutes in, and realized how legit that was as the emotions welled over.

  • @Kuhmuhnistische_Partei
    @Kuhmuhnistische_Partei Жыл бұрын

    It's also very funny to see that people who know and like one of those story generators are very likely to also know and like a lot of the others. I mean, Rimworld is probably one of the more known ones. Like when I talk to people who play videogames and I mention Rimworld, they usually had heard of it. So not every Rimworld player is truley into the whole story generator-thing. But when I meet people who like to play Kenshi, Project Zomboid and to a lesser extant Stellaris, those usually automatically also play other story generators.

  • @NoneNullAnd0

    @NoneNullAnd0

    Жыл бұрын

    Had to make sure that somebody at least mentioned Kenshi here.

  • @DesignFrameCaseStudies
    @DesignFrameCaseStudies Жыл бұрын

    The term you're looking for is Emergent Gameplay :) I love seeing new folks get into those types of games. They're quite fascinating.

  • @One_Point_Safety
    @One_Point_Safety Жыл бұрын

    I remember being very disappointed when stellaris first came out- I’ll have to pick it up and give it another chance. Paradox games usually have to age a bit to be great haha

  • @awesomegj
    @awesomegj Жыл бұрын

    Personally have almost 2000 hours in stellaris and in all that time NOTHING comes close to my favorite story of the first time a crisis hit my galaxy to give a tldr it was the launch version of the game most of the the time I played the game I died since I was still learning well in this story it was me and a friend playing and we got lucky we were right next to each other and almost all the aliens spawned away from us in no time flat we were about a quarter of the galaxy combined it was the farthest we ever got and we felt amazing and strong!....now anyone whose ever played stellaris can see what's coming we uh detached strange signals about to hit the edge of the galaxy all of them were in me and my friend....and on that day we learned what an end game crisis was!

  • @napalmman8202
    @napalmman8202 Жыл бұрын

    When the Rimworld music hit at 4:25... I smiled wide with intrigue. Rimworld rep always gives me joy

  • @mazen2460
    @mazen2460 Жыл бұрын

    What an excellent video. I enjoyed every minute of it! Condensing your gameplay of 30 hours into a cohesive story sprinkled with explanations of the strategies used was especially entertaining.

  • @webbycroissant5692
    @webbycroissant5692 Жыл бұрын

    Space Station 13 has been my favorite story generator for awhile. Each round is completely unique and randomized, while possibilities are huge. My personal favorite parts of the game are the customization system and the paperwork system. IRL it would be boring as heck, but in this game, knowing that most documents and files were written by actual players and such makes it feel more...professional? And surrealist at the same time? I don't know it's just really fun, so I spend most of my time either as the QM or the HoP. Really an adventure.

  • @jakobbredell103
    @jakobbredell103 Жыл бұрын

    Kenshi is a hidden gem in this genre. Cannot wait for the sequel

  • @zanewarp3970
    @zanewarp3970 Жыл бұрын

    Just gotta say, this is by far one of the best video essay's I've ever watched. Instant subscription

  • @notasovietspy8008
    @notasovietspy8008 Жыл бұрын

    Stellaris and dwarf fortress are my bread and butter. The rich history that each game creates hooks you into the vast, expansive world. In dwarf fortress no matter what happens, it'll be fun. As your colony of dwarves grows from 7 up to 250 (my most until my PC crashed) you will become attached to each of them, of course as long as you take the time to pause the game and read into the depth of the world you have been placed upon. In Stellaris it's less about the individuals and more about the grand galaxy that you explore as a nation (that usually you make). As the time ticks by you become attached to your nation, you make careful decisions on how to handle situations the game throws your way. I cannot express how much both games are so good.

  • @chebikitty5566
    @chebikitty5566 Жыл бұрын

    RimWorld has been my favorite game for years. I have played dwarf fortress many times in the past and it is on the top of my wishlist on steam. Story generators are amazing especially for people who want to create.

  • @nickcol1616
    @nickcol1616 Жыл бұрын

    A wonderful playthrough anticipated by the exact description of why I think it's so good and underrated. Kudos for sharing Stellaris love, Sir!

  • @Abbetmaan
    @Abbetmaan Жыл бұрын

    Didn’t even realise this video would be about literally all my go-to games! Great video

  • @oscario7644
    @oscario7644 Жыл бұрын

    This is so good, how do you only have 500 subscribers, just subbed.

  • @sass_
    @sass_ Жыл бұрын

    Great video! Hope to see more essays like this in the future from you and good luck with your channel!

  • @NuclearDystopia
    @NuclearDystopia Жыл бұрын

    i love all these games and i was sort of aware of this genre but thank you for fleshing it all out

  • @trgs30
    @trgs30 Жыл бұрын

    Your videos are great, I'm shocked you have less than 1k subs. I'm glad you popped up in my feed

  • @UncleHectorHegemonytaxdodger
    @UncleHectorHegemonytaxdodger Жыл бұрын

    Bro I watched this and thought it was made by some channel with like a few thousand subs but dang you are making very professional content with so few subs, Keep up the good work!

  • @Emka877
    @Emka877 Жыл бұрын

    Stunning video, it's cool that you made this for everyone to see, because I'm pretty sure many people don't know DF (for example). Yet it is an experience to try at least once in a lifetime.

  • @PearOnPearOff
    @PearOnPearOff Жыл бұрын

    Great narration, great video! Love Rimworld, only game I`ve ever been this in to in a long time, even drove me in to creating my own content. Keep up your work, can`t wait to see what else you create!

  • @gabrote42
    @gabrote42 Жыл бұрын

    1:46 YESSSSSS!!!!!!! Glad you made the video. While I don't like stellaris much I can understand why you did not pick the other two games to tell a story about. Man I miss mitadake high

  • @Iamheggemo
    @Iamheggemo Жыл бұрын

    Made sure to sub, love this type of content so i look forwars to seeing more. Great pacing, good script and the visuals to go with it. All the best!

  • @honorbound5439
    @honorbound5439 Жыл бұрын

    Awesome video! Thank you for putting into words one of my favorite game categories!

  • @pepe-fy5kw
    @pepe-fy5kw Жыл бұрын

    please make more videos like this, was a great watch, subscribed

  • @randallorndorff
    @randallorndorff Жыл бұрын

    One of the big ones, that spawned a lot of "AARs" and creative writing, was the original X-COM series (the new one to a lesser degree). Love to see you cover that.

  • @clarter
    @clarter Жыл бұрын

    Continue making these types of videos this was really good

  • @EphemeraEssays
    @EphemeraEssays Жыл бұрын

    Story generators! I've always loved this kind of game and I could never put into words why, and you absolutely nailed it. I'd love to add that this is not only a genre, but also a way of playing. There are plenty of games not designed to be story generators, but I've seen a lot of people who will play them like one. I know someone who played who Far Cry 4 completely ignoring the main missions and wanted to see if he could "escape" the country (which making a goal to hit the far north end of the map behind all of the main story content). He snuck out of the main rebel village at night, hit the road, avoiding passing patrols of both friendlies and enemies, and learning about the country's culture as he stumbled upon shrines and temples. He learned a lot of the lore by himself and, in his roleplay, thought that his character may change his mind about leaving his new home, and so he came back to help. The game never "allowed" him to do any of this, if anything it fought against it, but in the end it was so much more rewarding for him.

  • @0xhayleydev
    @0xhayleydev Жыл бұрын

    This video was awesome ! Watched it with my flatmates who also play this style of game. Was surprised to see you not even having 1000 subs, great video and all the best for the upcoming ones (:

  • @ryanstewart2289
    @ryanstewart22898 ай бұрын

    Fun fact about Stellaris: because of the way that the game handles galaxy generation, if you use Experimental Subspace Navigation from a system that's not connected to the galaxy via hyperlanes(such as the L-Cluster) your science ship will only be MIA for a single day.

  • @LordofSorrow7
    @LordofSorrow7 Жыл бұрын

    Leaving a comment for reference here. Because this is a great video. And also because I think you've said all that matters for the deep understanding of what these games are and why they are the greatest type of games.

  • @ThiVasss
    @ThiVasss Жыл бұрын

    There is also beauty to death generators like Spelunky and Noita. Get pushed into bomb that launches you in the air and drop on spikes. Yes that can happen... A lot.

  • @RangerLab
    @RangerLab Жыл бұрын

    Excellent video. While I don't normally play these sorts of games, it was satisfying to have you put words to a feeling I get when I played Spore as a kid. I might have to start playing these more often now, lol

  • @mtchllBarrett
    @mtchllBarrett Жыл бұрын

    These are my favourite games, and I didn't even realize it until you listed them all back to back like that. Especially CK2 and Rimworld. I have no idea how I first learned to play CK2, and I have no idea how paradox expects people to learn a game like that, but I'm so glad it exists and I'm glad I learned it. Despite being so extremely difficult to learn, story generators are such an excellent type of game

  • @gumdrop_galaxy
    @gumdrop_galaxy Жыл бұрын

    This video unexpectedly became an essay about Stellaris...and I love it haha this is coincidentally the best video I've ever seen to show to non Stellaris players to understand what the fuss is about, very cool!

  • @HierisLars
    @HierisLars Жыл бұрын

    Besides all the praise for the games in the comments, you sir have made a excellent video. Keep coming with videos like this and you're channel will grow for sure!

  • @Poli-uu6zh
    @Poli-uu6zh Жыл бұрын

    I hate when videos of this quality have this little views I really enjoyed the video and I hope you continue to bring more In 2023

  • @en5420
    @en5420 Жыл бұрын

    Very good, I didn't notice your subscription count untill the end of the video, your speech and editing got me thinking I was watching a hundred thousand big youtuber. Liked and Subscribed.

  • @buffatwo

    @buffatwo

    Жыл бұрын

    One day! Thanks for the sub!

  • @emilianozamora399
    @emilianozamora399 Жыл бұрын

    I've been wanting to make a video on automation as a genre, and this video serves as a good bar to pass because it's well written. Good video

  • @joshhendrix8407
    @joshhendrix8407 Жыл бұрын

    I rarely comment on videos, especially their quality, but this video was amazing. Superb job.

  • @augustday9483
    @augustday9483 Жыл бұрын

    This was a great introduction to this genre of games. I've been a huge fan of story generators for many years.

  • @Delcat42
    @Delcat42 Жыл бұрын

    Literally this week playing Don't Starve (again) and thinking about how it just doesn't get old, and this is why! Thank you for laying it out, and for saying video games are art. Get so tired of people going "video games aren't art".

  • @callsignflip
    @callsignflip Жыл бұрын

    Dude, this video was excellently written. Who cares your total subs. This was great content. Keep it up!

  • @shocknsonic9013
    @shocknsonic9013 Жыл бұрын

    Would Kenshi count as one of these, actually never mind. Kenshi is definitely a story generator (I have spent to long rp'ing a grate journey and over arking story that inevitably leads to me wiping evrybody out or die tying)

  • @wfr1108
    @wfr1108 Жыл бұрын

    4:12 I recognized the song almost instantly. Unforgettable.

  • @raptor4916
    @raptor4916 Жыл бұрын

    I think one reason why story generators aren't really talked about is that they are in a sense the fundamental genre of video games Will Wright sorta talks around this in one of his Spore(lol) GDC talks, like yeah the story in the game is cool and all but the sick backflips I did on my motorcycle, after robbing a convivence store, to get away from the cops is so much more memorable, I believe that was his example he used.

  • @surmabrander2244
    @surmabrander2244 Жыл бұрын

    Really good video ! I see that you successfully became space Switzerland !

  • @hippiedippity9732
    @hippiedippity9732 Жыл бұрын

    Hearing someone mention SS13 in a KZread vid instantly earns my sub.

  • @mvw9078
    @mvw9078 Жыл бұрын

    My two most played games on steam are Stellaris and Rimworld. And even after 1.5k hours in Stellaris and almost 2k in Rimworld, I still find myself having new and unique experiences. As someone who loves stories, writing, rpgs, and DMing tabletop games - it's hard to explain how perfect those two games are for me. It's almost never about "winning", rather it's almost always about moving forward, surviving, and making a story worth talking about. Love the video!

  • @eatham.
    @eatham. Жыл бұрын

    Hello I greatly enjoyed the video. Very cool that it blew up for you, I'm glad I found it I am subscribing now I hope you make more like it :)! My only recommendation is in the future to summarize gameplay a bit more it was a bit odd as it was almost a mix of a video essay and stellaris summarized playthrough which took away from the video essay's message in my opinion. I think keeping it focused on how it relates to the theme of the essay would be a bit better and summarize more. I love the editing though and I do love video essays :).

  • @villeisometsa8925
    @villeisometsa8925 Жыл бұрын

    Amazing video! Goos job buddy!

  • @francescoluchena8302
    @francescoluchena8302 Жыл бұрын

    Incredible quality, great job, only little gripe is something we all do, the part where you talk about stellaris is a bit abstract for those who haven't played the game

  • @Biouke
    @Biouke Жыл бұрын

    That's what happens when you just design a bunch of interconnected systems and let the players do their thing within these systems. It's glorious.

  • @Biouke

    @Biouke

    Жыл бұрын

    ​@Scott's Precious Little Account Depends how it's designed. I'd even say it cares for a particular individual who's not even within the game : The player. Meanwhile IRL nature and the universe really don't give a shit about you or me, and the only rules we can impact are social ones. We can't change how physics work.

  • @EldenRingOfficial
    @EldenRingOfficial Жыл бұрын

    criminally underrated channel, you get john elden ring's seal of approval

  • @ghoulsome9483

    @ghoulsome9483

    Жыл бұрын

    a very high praise

  • @Kuyuup
    @Kuyuup Жыл бұрын

    i like the sseth reference and you did a good work aswell

  • @pixal243
    @pixal243 Жыл бұрын

    Very well made, well done!

  • @knight_lautrec_of_carim
    @knight_lautrec_of_carim Жыл бұрын

    Kenshi fits right in there. You can do just whatever when you start and don't get any directions. You can become a lone wandering swordsman or build a drug empire or decide to overthrow the slavers.

  • @ThomasstevenSlater
    @ThomasstevenSlater Жыл бұрын

    Wildermyth is a example of this as the story is affected by the random dudes and lasses you get and all the weird mutations you have happen to them.

  • @aev6075
    @aev6075 Жыл бұрын

    Damn this video brought up great games to cover a great game. Research well done

  • @chemicaljellyfish
    @chemicaljellyfish Жыл бұрын

    an excellent testimony to an overlooked genre

  • @kaisfeki1798
    @kaisfeki1798 Жыл бұрын

    Nice video, I love these games, happy somebody talks about them. But hey ! You forgot Kenshi !!

  • @eurosat7
    @eurosat7 Жыл бұрын

    4:25 what a fitting background music - well played :D Although DF is one of my most favorite games (if you haven't played it - try it, now!) I would have used rimworld for explaining the concept because it pictures the story teller engine as a personality ("Randy Random", "Phoebe Chillax", "Cassandra Classic").

  • @thomasroberts2663
    @thomasroberts2663 Жыл бұрын

    My god that PF1e to DND5e comparison is so nail on the head, I love it.

  • @theodoregabranth1800

    @theodoregabranth1800

    2 ай бұрын

    I'd say GURPS instead of e5 but that's fine too

  • @cameronmac4134
    @cameronmac4134 Жыл бұрын

    It was right at 4:12 when the Rimworld music kicked in I couldn't help but smile and reflect for a while. Realising quite how much of an impact these games have had on me suddenly I'm sure isn't something only I feel. A bit of imagination and well crafted generators seems to come closer to immersing us in worlds than even most VR titles seem to be able to currently and that is beautiful :)

  • @gusswe12
    @gusswe12 Жыл бұрын

    great video, keep up the good work

  • @george-stefanleoca1319
    @george-stefanleoca1319 Жыл бұрын

    Glad to see DF getting the love and respect it deserves.

  • @soul_of_crystolix8642
    @soul_of_crystolix8642 Жыл бұрын

    When you finished explaining the concept of a story generator game, it hit me, that something i need to finally dip my hands down into, is playing more of STALKER Anomaly, now i know its a mod on the original games, and on top of that i play the GAMMA modpack on top of that, but this fanmade rerelease of STALKER doesnt tell you what to do (and im pretty sure the original games dont either but im not sure, never played) it just throws you in, and tells you to survive in the Zone. you can walk around doing tasks for other stalkers, hunt mutants, or other stalkers, and you can hear gunfire in the distance as another group just happens to run into a rival faction, or a pack of mutants, or you can roll into a small group of stalkers sitting around a fire and playing music to pass the time. These story generator games sometimes can feel Alive outside of player intervention, stuff happens in the background that doesnt need the player to be active for it, so each time the player plays, the player can experience a whole new game, providing more stories to the experience as a whole

  • @arckmage5218
    @arckmage5218 Жыл бұрын

    I think my favorite memory from stellaris was in my early days of playing it. I started as the humans, and at some point I allowed migration between me and my neighbors. About 100 years in I see a new faction arise and they are humans. I'm like wtf where did humans come from, I thought I was the only humans. Turns out my migrated humans had rebelled and made their own faction from within my "allies".

  • @solartrash6146
    @solartrash6146 Жыл бұрын

    Not even 1k subs? Been a while since I stumbled on a low sub channel that produces a banger. You got my sub. Love me some dwarf fortress, rimworld and stellaris.

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