Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:chuappgame, author: Liu Wengyi

Walking simulation is not a limitation of play, on the contrary, the simplified method of play can better guide players to immerse themselves in the game experience.

If you want to do a walking simulation game, what are you going to do? Maybe you are fascinated by games like "Dear Esther" and think that it just allows players to collect plot clues while walking and design the way to tell the story with the help of fragmented narration. Maybe the programmer you work with abandons you halfway, leaving a half-done mess-only the code for the mobile part is written, and the rest is up to you. Or maybe your budget is really limited, and you haven't even found a reliable game planner yet. In any case, you have the plan: to design the best walking simulation game with the least amount of play.

Fifteen years after the birth of the original version of Dear Esther, the type of walking simulation has been developed under the guidance of excellent works such as Edie Finch's Secret (What Remains of Edith Finch) and Firewatch. It seems unnecessary to elaborate too much on why this type can gain a foothold, but why are these walking simulations fascinating? Their way of playing seems to be generally summarized by "walking", but in fact there are many kinds of tricks. Some pictures are fine and lifelike, while others have only color blocks or irregular curves; some have to whisper in your ear for a few minutes and still don't stop, while others simply don't have a single line. We try to find out the rules and commonalities behind them and see how these games immerse players in them.

Play and purpose: how to establish a positive feedback mechanism? Although the core play is mainly to control the movement of the character, the specific design of all kinds of walking simulators can not be summarized in a word. Trying to find the purpose of the game through appropriate guidance is the key to guide the players to play continuously. Take the traditional shooting game as an example, this kind of game often has a mature reward mechanism: every time the player pulls the trigger and hits the enemy, the game can give the player enough feedback. No matter the gun dropped from the enemy or the spatter of blood can stimulate the player's senses, thus strengthening the action of "shooting" and promoting the player to repeatedly pull the trigger.

However, in the walking simulation game, the establishment of this mechanism is not so easy: after abandoning the traditional games such as shooting and fighting, the game resources such as money and props to strengthen the strength of players obviously lose their meaning. This prompts the walking simulation game to build the reward mechanism on the mining of the game experience, which is more perceptual and abstract.

For example, the letters and conversations that players read during the game become the reward itself. In Virginia, the staggered memories at the beginning give birth to the players' curiosity, which in turn provides motivation for the players to explore and advance the plot. in the process of exploration, every clue and hint discovered will become positive feedback from the game and constantly strengthen the player's exploration behavior.

In The Stanley Parable, triggering more narration conversations is obviously one of the reasons for many players to keep playing. It is clear that narrator sarcasm does not really make players angry in most cases, but makes players curious and look forward to the evaluation of the narrator, and then tries to trigger more reactions through game behavior-which establishes a process of seeking feedback.

In Stanley's Fable, the "baby game" of constantly pressing buttons to save the cardboard baby makes many players keen to explore the narrator's response to this. In another part of the game, the reward focuses more on the game experience it brings to the player. like changing scenery and soothing music. This is mainly reflected in games such as "Shape of the World" or "Flower" that focus on "Zen" and "scenery". This does not mean that the game can use beautiful pictures to cover up the deficiencies in the design of the game. on the contrary, this type of walking simulation game actually tests the combination of play and content.

When you first open the shape of the World, the game screen is only made up of gray and white, and when you trigger the triangle symbol at the end of the road, the whole world is colored with a new color-as the game progresses, players are constantly changing the original scenery of the world. this change, together with the scenery itself, constitutes feedback on the behavior of "walking", prompting players to explore deeper.

In Flower, this feedback is more diverse: as a petal, you can skim over the unopened bud to make them bloom, and the blooming of the flower will lead to more buds. During the flight, flowers gradually spread over the fields, which is accompanied by implicit feedback: every time you let a bud bloom, a new petal will join your team. the number of buds that players can trigger at once increases as the number of petals increases, and so does the challenge provided by the game. At the end of a certain level, players control huge petals to flow back and forth among the flowers, like schools of fish swimming in the sea-it's hard to describe the state of mind at that moment, and it's hard to gain such an experience in other types of games. There is no doubt that these are the important driving forces that support players to continue to play.

The color matching of the "shape of the World" screen will change as the player acts. Apart from these core mechanisms, feedback on the details is also important. Whether it is the theme-appropriate puzzles or the built-in Mini Game, they can gradually deepen the connection with the players and add icing on the cake to the player experience.

In addition to the excellent plot, I was fascinated by the operational details of "sending Dreams far away" (SEASON: A letter to the future). The main way to move in the game is to ride a bike, and players need to press the left and right trigger alternately to simulate pedaling. If you use a handle that supports an adaptive trigger, you can feel a fascinating reaction every time you press the pedal. In the process of the gradual change of the landscape, the vibration feedback and sound effects on the hand also echo the material of the ground. This tactile, visual and auditory experience is fascinating, and it also proves from another point of view that walking simulation is not a limitation of gameplay. On the contrary, simplified gameplay can better guide players to immerse themselves in the game experience.

The development of technology undoubtedly provides a great help for this experience-oriented design. With the further development of sensory simulation technology, the experience that walking simulation games can provide will be more abundant.

The bike tour of "sending Dreams from afar" has not only pleasant scenery, but also appropriate feedback narrative: the art of telling is better than text and video. Games have a natural advantage in capturing attention: high-frequency interactive needs allow players to highly focus on the play process. Of course, it is not easy for walking simulation games to take advantage of this advantage. Most walking simulation games have no time limit, and the process of "stop as you go" means that the player's attention may be drawn away at any time. How to arouse the player's desire to explore with the help of the plot and guide the player to explore through narrative clues has become an indispensable part of the walking simulation game design.

Dear Esther seems to provide a "stereotype" of a walking simulation game: players follow linear maps and trigger conversations at fixed locations to advance the plot. This does not mean that developers can put all the plots into the game without consideration in the form of narration, and how to trigger the right plot in the right place is worth thinking over and over again. This is a poetic but logical narrative: as the scenery changes, the narration seems to evaluate or associate what the player sees. Narration must be closely linked to the content of the game-which is particularly important in walking simulations. The right rhythm and proper blanks can make the player's attention transition smoothly between the two without being excessively fragmented or at a loss what to do.

We often describe the narrative of walking simulation games as "emotional and fragmented", but behind every good walking simulation game, there is a theme that connects the whole game together. Around a certain tone, fragmented narrative can also bring a complete experience for players. On the basis of Dear Esther, the game "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" brought by the same team combines scene interpretation with the environment to the extreme.

Unlike the previous linear process, the production team The Chinese Room tried to expand the space that players explore into an open area the size of a small town. The plot no longer has obvious linear logic, and in each chapter, players can choose which part of the scene to explore and the corresponding story. Around the question of "where are the people in the town", the entanglements, contradictions and friendships between the foreign protagonists Kate and Stephen and the townspeople are also slowly unfolding.

Under the disaster, the actions of each character and the past reappear in front of the players in the form of virtual shadows. at the same time, where the players' eyes touch, the rich scene details become an extension of the story. In the abandoned vehicle, the blood-stained paper towels caught the attention of the players, providing information not only to the doctor's account on the phone, but also to the character's movements; the scattered folders on the table echoed the quarrel between Stephen and Kate; the flickering lights in the pub created an ambiguous atmosphere.

The exquisite attention to detail and the right plot arrangement in "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" bring the empty town to life, weaving the fragments of the plot into a network of interpersonal relationships in the form of an open world, and making players unwittingly shocked by the aesthetics of the game.

"Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" not only attracts people by its beautiful scenery, but also has a great detailed design. Overall, "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" tells stories in a more traditional way, while "Edie Finch's Secret" incorporates the narrative into the game. The subtitles are integrated with the content of the game, with "deathbed experience" as the theme, players are driven by curiosity to explore the secrets of the Finch family. Each large narrative in the game corresponds to different ways of playing, and players are not only looking at the story, but also looking forward to the next part of the game.

Take the most classic "cut fish" link design as an example, players need to control the protagonist to cut fish on the assembly line, while manipulating the character to explore in the fantasy world, play and narrative at this moment to achieve a high degree of unity. On the one hand, the game design of two operations at the same time forces the player to "multitask" and intuitively experience the feelings of the characters in the current story; on the other hand, the narrative rhythm of the narration does not interrupt the player's experience. it also allows players to better understand the character's thoughts and mental process.

Scene design plays a complementary role at the moment: at the end of the experience, the psychedelic murals in the room and the hookah on the table provide a background for the character and give players a better understanding of the character.

There is no difference between the different narrative techniques of the psychedelic room design and the "leaves" on the wall, but when it comes to the walking simulation game design, the key lies in whether all the elements can be mobilized to serve the narrative. When players lose their pursuit of solving puzzles faster and killing enemies more accurately, their attention will naturally be distracted from every detail of the game, and the lack of dominant ideas will make it easier for players to get distracted. The narrative art of walking simulation games is to gather the distracted attention of the players, to guide the players' attention on the scene, composition, music, and even roadside bushes back at the right time, to a clear theme, or a definite feeling.

When the player's attention is focused on the story itself, the subtraction in play can finally provide the player with a deeper sense of narrative immersion-when you don't need to think about the efficiency of changing bullets and killing, a gentle and calm narrative can take your mind to a more distant place.

The ending, duration and the rhythm of the story it is not easy to grasp the narrative rhythm of the walking simulation game. Compared with horror or puzzle solving games, a repressed atmosphere and a steady stream of puzzles can arouse players' enthusiasm, and their instinctive desire for survival will also increase players' expectations for follow-up development, but in a walking simulation game, rashly adding horror and thriller elements will make the direction of the story out of control. Players' exploration often begins with a question, for example, where are the people in the town? Who wrote the letter read by the narrator? As the plot continues to move forward, the truth is revealed like a cocoon.

But the more scattered narration often affects the coherence of the experience, which also makes walking simulation games tend to tell several short stories separately, rather than directly telling the whole story. Players need to piece together the truth of the story gradually in the fragmented narrative. This is similar to many horror puzzles, but combining the two is not necessarily a good idea.

"Gone Home" is an inappropriate example. When entering the game for the first time, the urgent cries from the door made the players worried about the safety of their families and doubted the empty houses. The room was dark, there was no answer, and the eerie red darkroom and hanging photos played up the scary atmosphere. The elder sister played by the player explored alone at home, gradually piecing together the story through her scattered notes and handletters. Finally, I saw the truth of the story in the attic: it turned out that the parents were just traveling, while the younger sister's notes recorded their own love experiences. It decided to elope with its sweetheart.

This walking simulation game has received relatively high media reviews, but the player rating is relatively poor. The content of the story and the way it is told do fit the slow narrative of the walking simulation game, but the suspense gimmick at the beginning makes the whole story top-heavy. From a common sense point of view, the younger sister's behavior is obviously unreasonable; from the point of view of story design, it is also difficult for players to sympathize with their younger sister in this process. This is not a problem unique to the category of walking simulation games, but as far as "going Home" is concerned, the lack of play undoubtedly further exposes the failure of story design.

The answer given by "going Home" is obviously far-fetched in fact, in most walking simulation games, players do not have the right to choose the direction of the ending, and inevitably, the opinions of the players may differ from the arrangements of the designers. this difference will naturally affect the player's sense of substitution and game experience. In order to reduce this sense of disobedience, the options in these games are often ambiguous or do not have a real impact on the plot. But there is also a part of the game sword on the wrong side, by violating the player's choice to make the outcome more impressive to the player.

South of the Polar Circle (South of the Circle) is just such a game. In the course of the game, you will be faced with many choices, and the game will record every decision you make. But at the end of the game, your choice will be completely rejected by the system, which gains a lot of controversial comments, but also allows players to rethink the structure of the story after anger: if the hero does not make a choice contrary to the player, then the story is untenable from the beginning. In this way, the game skillfully hints at the beautification of memories by the protagonist through the player's choice, and also allows the player to make the same choice with the protagonist unconsciously.

When the story comes to an end, the emotion of the player is often pushed to the peak with the progress of the game, and it is not only the walking simulation game that faces the problem of how to control the rhythm of the story. but the rhythm of the story is vital to a walking simulation game that focuses on the player's experience. On the other hand, a simple story can be eye-catching because of the right arrangement.

Hiking and camping (Trekking and Camping) is just such a game. The camping process experienced by players is not complicated, and there is no soul-stirring turning point and foreshadowing, but after the insipid driving and staying overnight, the mountaineering trip has gradually been given meaning in these trivialities. Finally, when the player finally climbed the hillside and saw the dawn falling in the clouds, the unique open-minded feeling of mountaineering drew a perfect end to the game.

After a tired day, the sun rises slowly, so why does it have to be a walking simulation? You've come to realize that walking simulations are not as easy as you think. After overturning the original idea several times, you begin to think about a question: why did you want to do a walking simulation game in the first place?

We have to admit that there are objective reasons behind the birth of many walking simulation games. The Chinese Room Studio, which became famous for Dear Esther, had no choice but to make walking simulation games in a sense. Dear Esther started out as an experimental project in a university, lacking financial and technical support. Later, the widely acclaimed "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture" was supervised by Sony's Sony Santa Monica, but it was inevitable that there was a deadline in the development. After the launch of "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", The Chinese Room Studio had to go out of business for a while because of financial problems, until it found a new investor and began to plan a larger project. Studio founder Dan Pinchbeck says they don't want to make walking simulations and story-oriented games all the time. They want to make more complex, more content, and larger games.

No matter how many gameplay compromises are behind, the claim that "Dear Esther" is still a beautiful game Pinchbeck may upset fans of walking simulations, which seem to condemn in a sense that walking simulations are, after all, experimental works of independent game developers at a stage of limited resources or creative exploration. But the upper limit of walking simulation games will not stop there-in recent months, we have seen games such as "Dream far away" and "White Journey" explore this field.

The core of the walking simulation game is to get rid of the restrictions of traditional play, explore and try different ways of playing, and try to mobilize everything in the game to provide a completely different experience for players. Innovation is certainly accompanied by numerous failures, but these attempts have come a long way in the 15 years since the launch of Dear Esther. After excellent works such as "the Secret of Edie Finch" and "death stranded", we don't know what the future walking simulation game will look like in front of us. These intrepid trailblazers will bring us more surprises.

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