Game Club: A Short Hike
Oct. 21st, 2022 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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indie_gamesFirst game for the game club, inspired by Play Like a Feminist's gaming circles:
A Short Hike, which was included in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.
It's currently $8 on itch.io, Steam, GOG, Switch, and various other platforms. It was once a free game on Epic, and it used to be in the Humble Trove.
The plan: Get game. Play game. On November 12, I'll make a Game Reactions Post with questions (which you don't have to answer, but they can be part of the discussion) and options for the next game; on November 19th, I'll post the next game, and so on.
...This does not preclude extra posts in the between-time related to this game or other games. The goal here is "Play games, enjoy games, talk about games, make friends." I'm fairly arbitrarily picking the first one because we need to start somewhere.
Next month's selections will all be free games from the Megabundle lists, to avoid cutting into people's holiday shopping money and to experiment with less well-known games.
Questions to consider before starting (these are going to apply to all the games; there'll be more specific questions for this one later):
1. What did you think this game was going to be, before you played it? What was surprising about it?
2. How far did you get in the game? Do you want to play more/again?
…Go!
ETA: Interactive Map, for those who want spoilers.
A Short Hike, which was included in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.
It's currently $8 on itch.io, Steam, GOG, Switch, and various other platforms. It was once a free game on Epic, and it used to be in the Humble Trove.
The plan: Get game. Play game. On November 12, I'll make a Game Reactions Post with questions (which you don't have to answer, but they can be part of the discussion) and options for the next game; on November 19th, I'll post the next game, and so on.
...This does not preclude extra posts in the between-time related to this game or other games. The goal here is "Play games, enjoy games, talk about games, make friends." I'm fairly arbitrarily picking the first one because we need to start somewhere.
Next month's selections will all be free games from the Megabundle lists, to avoid cutting into people's holiday shopping money and to experiment with less well-known games.
Questions to consider before starting (these are going to apply to all the games; there'll be more specific questions for this one later):
1. What did you think this game was going to be, before you played it? What was surprising about it?
2. How far did you get in the game? Do you want to play more/again?
…Go!
ETA: Interactive Map, for those who want spoilers.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-22 06:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-22 11:10 pm (UTC)I have now tried it for a while, and it's fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-23 05:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 12:06 am (UTC)2. I have no idea how far I have gotten in the game. I have played a couple hours I guess? I have two feathers, eleven seashells, I lost at volleyball a lot, I have circumnavigated the island, I'm about to start one of the upland trails.
I will keep playing! I haven't really got to the point of being OK with the keyboard controls, and knowing whether that's something that will change if I play more or if I will just always hate the controls. But so far I am mostly being reminded of why I always got frustrated with "adventure" games before.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 05:35 pm (UTC)Walking Sim recs - "Journey" and "Gone Home" are on almost every Walking Sim list. (They're both very good.) There are plenty at itch.io but I have no idea which ones are any good.
Walking Sims in the megabundles, sorted by popularity.
OH HERE'S A FREE ONE I LIKE: Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - I was considering recommending it for next month but decided it's too short (it really is a 15-30 min game, and replay options are weak).
"A Short Hike" is much better with a controller than a keyboard. (I have a controller, so it didn't occur to me to check before starting; Kid the Elder told me "You'll want to use the controller" when I started getting it set up.)
Spoiler advice stuff: You will need at least 7 feathers to tackle the final hike, and probably much more - I have 10 and that's not enough because I'm not good at jumping.
Feathers: You can buy two from the Ranger; the rest will need to be found or purchased from the brat who scalped them to resell at a much higher price. There's several in chests and sometimes they're rewards for the mini-quests.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 06:46 pm (UTC)And yeah, it's pretty frustrating to be playing a game that's all about wandering down meandering paths when the controls are up, down, left, right and *maybe* a 45 degree angle, if you're not flying or jumping. I'm getting more used to the quickly alternating presses if I want to go at an angle though, I was pretty good at it back in the day.
It's partly that I'm used to Minecraft's keyboard controls now; that is of course a very grid-based game, and yet you can easily walk in any direction you want. I also really don't like the camera though; it seems like that's probably not super-different with a controller? But an infinitely adjustable camera is probably a lot more work that walking in diagonal lines.
spoiler cut
I have seven feathers now, just from wandering around! I did spend about forty-five minutes trying to get to one before I realized I was supposed to buy one from the ranger first (one of the things I find frustrating about this style of game.) Possibly some of them were quest rewards, but if so I didn't notice I was doing a quest. I only bought one so far, and I stopped last night after I got frustrated because #8 is stuck on top of a sand castle and I can't figure out how to get to it.(does Games Club have official spoiler guidelines?)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 07:48 pm (UTC)...Occasionally some game dev or another gets very huffy about "My game is NOT a [pathetic] WALKING SIM; this is a HORROR GAME." Gamer community consensus seems to be, if nothing can attack you while you're walking around, it's a walking sim. (But again: No rules, here. It's like these things are decided based on consensus that's synthesized from twitch streamer chatrooms rather than coherent discussions.)
The few negative reviews about ASH at Steam usually mention the camera. And no, that's not very different. It allows a very limited range of camera change - basically, you can shift enough to see from a slightly different angle, but you can't actually move it around.
Game Club does not have spoiler guidelines yet. (I have no idea how to do a spoiler tag cut thing.) I probably want "spoilers before the official discussion post goes up should be tagged/hidden etc," but the main discussion post will be "here there be spoilers."
This may work out to... hmm, maybe 3 posts per month? One game announcement; three(ish) weeks later, a discussion post for everyone; immediately followed by voting/discussion of the next month's game options, because I don't think those should be folded into the game-of-the-month discussion post.
The game announcement post may have some discussion, tips, etc. and should be "please hide spoilers." Main discussion post will have spoilers without hiding them.
That's subject to review/change, because maybe we don't care about spoilers at all. Maybe we'll decided that story spoilers are okay but not game mechanics spoilers, or vice versa. Or we tag spoilers for the first week but after that it's open. *shrug*
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-27 08:22 pm (UTC)Those look like reasonable guidelines to me, to start with!
I guess I had assumed a walking sim would have even less in the way of objectives or sand-box-ness - I feel like there's at least one game in the bundle that was pure exploration, you just move around with almost no interaction - but that's interesting! That "nobody can attack you" is enough to define a fairly limited genre sure says something about how we design games. (I guess I play minecraft walking-sim-style, since I use "nobody can attack you" mode.)
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-28 02:00 am (UTC)...however, almost all noncombat games get accused of being walking sims. (IMHO, they are not.) It's considered an insult by the gamerbro factions, so marketing teams don't use it unless they're openly advertising "this is an artsy experience more than a game."
(And you can't rely on tags at itch.io. OMG. I would not call this a walking sim. This also does not look like a walking sim to me, although I have not tried it.)
History of Walking Simulators - including several lists of games that are considered central to the genre. (I have played "Gone Home" and "The Witness" and seen a few of the others.)
And thanks for the spoiler tag info!
(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-28 01:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-28 02:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-10-28 01:42 am (UTC)Haha, same!
I'm using a controller which I think is better than keyboard for this game.