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The History and Future of Walking Simulators | How they have Influenced Game Design and Storytelling
An Analysis of the history and future of Walking simulators, and how they have been more influential than people may think.
Are Walking simulators games? This is a question that is constantly asked by people, yet no one has answered it definitively. This essay is a historical retrospective of the walking simulator as a genre , and attempts to get into why they are more influential than you may think.
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That point of "Anticipatory play" tells a lot actually. And applies to almost all genres when you think about it. I think so far, IMO Edith Finch has been the best implementation of the points you've discussed here, combining mechanics to tell the story directly and indirectly.
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
Yeah I agree, most games use some form of anticipatory play, and if you think its too general, Brian Upton outlines it in more depth in his book 'The Aesthetic of Play' which I would highly recommend!
@OMGclueless
4 жыл бұрын
@@thegameoveranalyser4835 Anticipation is just such a major part of enjoyment, in general. For example, studies have shown people are often happier while planning a vacation than they are during it.
I really hope that there will be historical correct walking simulators, so that you can see and learn older times and habbits. I ofter just walked around in LA Noire, just to get the feeling of this time, even I know that this game is not correct in every aspect.
This was great. I hope you do more. Walking sims are nice in that the player gets to experience the story at their own pace. In theatre or movies, the story is force fed to the audience at the discretion of the director. Even that minute interaction is enough to make every experience unique in a video game.
I'm deaf. Can you please upload your speaking script into the captioning tool so that KZread can pair its speech recognition engine with the script to automatically time it through the video?
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I wasn't aware that you could do this. I uploaded the file so it hopefully should be working now. Hope that fixes it!
I really enjoyed this. The comparison I like as to where games are, is if we compare them to film, games have only just left their silent era. I think you're right in that storytellers are becoming more integral to the ground floor of a game's development, but then I always think that the adventure game genre (one of the earliest home computer genres) has always had story as a starting point. Of course the mechanical problems of the genre are well documented. Heck I'd say Walking Simulators are an adventure game subgenre, just stripping out the puzzles and leaving the exploration and narrative. I look forward to your next video :)
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
That's a really good comparison, and actually reminds me of something Chris Crawford said in his book 'Interactive storytelling'. He claimed games have to learn how to listen to its players, just like movies learnt how to speak, so i think the analogy is really appropriate.
I recently discovered your channel and I really like your content. Suscribed.
One of my favorite "walking sims" is Leviathan: The Old City. The atmosphere and story are so immersive and sad. When I was going through a really tough time in my life I tried to imagine what the world would be like if I was the only one left.. and that game did just that. It showed me the true sadness of an empty world, where youre truly alone. It will always be an amazing game, despite its short comings.
@karstenmeyer1729
2 жыл бұрын
The Leviathan is in my opinion no walking simulator! The Witness is one because i can free use my way on the island. Gone home is one, Leviathan is a rail game because i walk like on a rail as i am in a ghost train. I have not the possibility to go where i want.
In portal, failure state is getting stuck and not being able to progress.
Great video! Just as many others, I oftentimes over-emphasize the importance of interactivity in video games. So much that I was blinded to the large influence that is the anticipatory portion of video games. Although they are obviously highly interconnected--thank you for opening my eyes to a different game design perspective.
Honestly, I'm just stoked to not have the same sounding voice talking to me in video essays. Keep going.
Wow... how have I not found you earlier? Totally underrated channel you've got here. Hope you grow bigger. Subbed.
I just finished 'Journey' on my PC yesterday and absolutely loved it. But I was kind of confuse that whether it can be considered a walking simulator or not. And while searching for it I stumbled upon this video of yours and I absolutely loved it. It was well narrated and researched. I have subscribed. But I'm still confuse though. 😅 So can you please tell me that whether or not Journey can be considered a walking simulator or it belongs to some other genre. Because it's official Wikipedia page says it's a adventure and art game.
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
In my opinion, journey is hard to classify, because it shares a lot with walking simulators, there is no explicit challenge and it uses environmental storytelling, but it is also more interested in being an interactive version of the hero's journey, which makes it an adventure game. It is also artistic in that it has something to say, so all these definitions apply. However , I think the problem has more to do with how we classify games in general. In this video, i wanted to defend walking simulators as a group because that is how culture has classified them ,but each of these games is about different things. Journey is about the hero's journey and finding meaning in helping others, gone home is about reconnecting with family and lost connections, and the stanley parable is about freedom and control. In games ,we classify games according to mechanics, so none of these games can find a home. Ultimately, classification is a little arbitrary, and games can be members of many groups. Deus ex is an rpg, a first person game and a stealth game, and that became the immersive sim. Genres are always evolving. Journey is a walking sim, its an adventure, its an art game, but most importantly, its its own experience with all kinds of emotions. In short, i don''t think there is a definitive answer, it all depends how you and all of us classify things.
@JaydevRaol
5 жыл бұрын
Thanks that was a great reply. And thanks a lot of for defending 'walking simulators' because I completely agree with you that the way we discuss games is not really great. I think just like Films, Books, TV, Music, Painting or any other art form the discussion should be about both technical mastery of the craft (in this case game play, sound design, graphics etc) and also on literally aspect of it (story, emotion and overall themes and behind it) Because I consider myself more of a cine-phile then gamer but I still love art of video games so much because I know how much it can achieve when done right. And I think people who use the term 'walking simulators' in the derogatory way, I just want to asked them that why does it matter? If a game uses every aspect of its design to tell a wonderful story which also perfectly fits with its mechanics. Then that game in my opinion is perfect and deserves credit. A game like 'Journey' is perfect example of it and even if we considered it to be a 'waling simulator' I think its still a best one of that genre. And I am going to remember it more than some FPS or any game other from other genre, which has great game play or more things to do than 'Journey' but which unlike 'Journey more often than not just fails to use its mechanics to its fullest. I had also left a comment on your other video about "Are Video Games Art?" requesting you to make a video on 'How we discuss games in general and why its neither right or productive of doing it'. So please do make that video whenever I will be looking forward to it. Thanks
Excellent video and very thought provoking. I will have to watch it again and takes notes, as I try to teach games design. My students (16 years old) get very excited when talking about story v gameplay, it seems to be a major divide in gamer types. I was intrigued to see your reference to Wittgenstein and Hofstadter. I was surprised you did not counter Wittgenstein's ideas with Bernard Suits arguments in "Grasshopper" in which he deliberately takes on Wittgenstein's lack of confidence in being able to define a game.
@thegameoveranalyser4835
4 жыл бұрын
Thank you Nick, Glad the videos are useful for your teaching! Thats a great point about Bernard suits counterpoint to wittgenstein, and perhaps could have been explored more. i have mentioned the grasshopper in other videos, albeit briefly, (the aesthetics of play), but i actually want to do more videos on it in the future, as it is a fascinating book.
Fantastic video, but I completely disagree that in Uncharted the division of gameplay and narrative is arbitrary. I think that at their core walking sims and Uncharted have more in common than not. They are both adventure games at their heart. While nominally Uncharted has "action gameplay", in reality it is so precisely designed to be an interactive cinematic experience that the player can smoothly go through while having the feeling of doing something amazing, but conveyed through tight scripting and amazing animations, so in that sense the gameplay isn't too different from cutscenes. The player is at no point encouraged to think "I can't wait to go back to the shooting". There's also entire chapters like the Tibetan village and others which are a literal proto walking sim.
I prefer walking simulators that don't have stories but just allow to explore the worlds and visit cities. Just imagine exploring the world of Ivalice in Final Fantasy XII with no combat and no stories to tell. You can wander anywhere you like, relax, and enjoy the scenery. :)
Hey. What do you think about how Cyberpunk 2077 approaches dialogue and storytelling?
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
I'm certainly looking forward to it. It'll be fascinating to see how they integrate dynamic narrative and gameplay in that game, but if it's anything like the witcher 3 , I'm sure it will be excellent!
@jeromekerdusz
5 жыл бұрын
@@thegameoveranalyser4835 considering that 48 minute gameplay demo is available, could you refer to it and tell me something more? : )
Exploration games (walking simulators) are subgenre of adventure games. Adventure games are about story which is told through the gameplay and gameplay that focus on delivering the narrative. The classic adventure games use puzzle-solving which is about finding solutions for narrative problems, but there are adventure games that use different methods like making choices or finding information about characters. In the case of exploration games they use navigating the environment and piecing out information about the story. And while we are in the subject of adventure games, may I remind you that the selling point for Lucasarts adventure games was that there is no file state, there is no game over, and no one said that it made them less 'gamy'.
The meaning af walking simulator is not just for games like Gone Home, Ethan Carter, Ether One and other, but for riddle games like the witness, antichamber and other. Walking simulator is a first person shooter without shooting. Games that tell storys when i walk on a rail are not walking simulators, because i can't choose my way. The game where a girl walkt in the mountain is no walking simulator.
Collins dictionary ; A game is an activity or sport usually involving skill, knowledge, or chance, in which you follow fixed rules and try to win against an opponent or to solve a puzzle.
You know, there's very little that Gone Home offers that a pop-up-pictures book can't. 1. You can look at things in 3D. 2. You can rotate those things around as much as you want. 3. There are lots of words. Why use software to make something that could easily be put into a pop-up-pictures book? The only additions are sound and a pre-rendered environment. You could get the same emotional experience from a novel - either a paper one, or a virtual visual novel. That is the main crux of why walking simulators aren't considered 'true games.' They just don't use the medium of software to its grand potential. Imagine a movie that was just scrolling text. Or, imagine a song that was just two people talking normally. That's what a game without play is like to anyone that knows better. Meanwhile, Journey was highly praised by everyone, and even hardcore gamers were sucked in. That was because there was something very essential to its experience that you could truly interact with, which you couldn't have gotten from any other medium: Another player. The initial widespread burst of frothing hatred for the walking simulator was primarily for Gone Home specifically. Pretty much all of the other games provided in your video actually used the interactive aspect's greater potential - even Dear Esther, which randomly shows ghosts to the player if they're curious enough to keep looking around! The Stanley Parable had its seemingly-endless choices and dialogue, too, which no choose-your-own-adventure book could have ever replicated so effectively. So, as a guy that bites his nails over watching professional Street Fighter matches and played Dark Souls 3 for over 1,000 hours, I am indeed still glad that there are fascinating games like Edith Finch and the like. I just don't want Gone Home to be praised as some sort of gold standard for emotional games, because if people encouraged Gone Home's 'gameplay,' we'd pretty much be encouraging movies of scrolling text. (...Y'know, even merely changing around how you simply move can convey feelings to a player, and I don't think there was any moment in Gone Home where your movement was changed - which is something that even Metal Gear Rising did for dramatic effect. Eugh.)
@MrCANAD14N
5 жыл бұрын
While I agree that Gone Home shouldn't be held as the "gold standard," I sincerely disagree that you could get the same experience from a pop-up book. Walking simulators in general build off a sense of environmental and narrative immersion. Gone Home was aiming to make the player feel like they were exploring a real house where people actually lived. It tried to make the setting detailed and believable enough that merely through the remnants left in the house was enough to progress a narrative. Perhaps you could recreate such intimate detail of an environment in a book or even movie, but you are inherently guiding the audience and telling the story exactly how you want it to be told. In this format, it's up to the player to discover these narrative plot lines themselves and it's up to them to piece things together in a way that makes sense to them. It's a fundamentally much more personal experience than anything you could create outside of an interactive medium. That said, I think Gone Home was an interesting proof of concept but I did not particularly enjoy it. I didn't connect to the story but I can appreciate it for the influence it has had on game design.
What's the game at 10:37 ? Thanks!
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
It''s called What Remains of Edith Finch. Its awesome!
What game is that with the maze?
@thegameoveranalyser4835
5 жыл бұрын
The game is called the unfinished swan
@TheShadow7426
5 жыл бұрын
@@thegameoveranalyser4835 Thank you!
Games have a fail state, win and lose, so if your walking sim has a goal you can fail at, its more than interactive storytelling, its also a game.
i think 'no game' genre would be a better suited name for these kind of games
No Amnesia: The Dark Descent mention?!
I have no desire to ever buy any walking simulator, since you can just watch the story play out on a KZread video. They offer no replay value to me.
We get it, walking sims are games too. Now let's boot up a nice game of reading a page of text every few minutes! Or even listening to audiologs! Playing a game where you participate in the story is too much work anyways.
This is pretty pointless. It's a genre that is going to die. With Streaming and KZread destroying any value it might have the argument falls apart. Interaction really isn't worth much, only true gameplay is.
@momin351
5 жыл бұрын
I disagree walking simulators that have a great story are often better told than most action adventure or reg games I'd rather play what remains of edith finch a thousand times more than fallout 76.