First Person Walker Footnotes

First Person Walker Footnotes #3: Tale of Tales

Rainer Sigl — Sat, 03 May 2014 10:33:07 +0000

First Person Walker Footnotes #3: Tale of Tales Rainer Sigl Sa. 3 Mai 2014 - 12:33

esearching for my article on "First Person Walkers" I sent a few questions to some of the developers regularly accused of producing "walking simulators", a term mainly used in a derogatory fashion. Tale of Tales, godfathers of artistic indie (not-)games and makers of quite a few games where walking is central to the gameplay, shared their thoughts on the topic.

Do you find the term "walking simulator" used to describe your games derogatory?

Not at all. Walking is one of the nicest things one can do on this planet. Very worthy of simulation. And the fact that we can now simulate the act of walking in a work of art illustrates in a very simple and direct way how exciting and new videogames are as a medium.

That being said, the term is a bit inaccurate for our games because the walking is rarely their crucial aspect. It's generally more important where you are walking and when and with whom. We're all about the nouns and the adjectives (more so, even, than the verbs).

How would you define player agency in your game?

Freedom of interpretation is more important to us than structural choices or decisions that impact the flow of the game.

Questions about agency always confuse us. We design with this medium as a whole. We don't separate or emphasize any particular aspect of it. What's interesting to us is that this medium is so many things. And all of those things are means to an end. The end being an joyful experience of beauty.

So we don't define agency at all. When we feel a certain interaction will improve the experience, we put it in. When we feel it diminishes the experience, we remove it. Agency needs to serve the purpose of immersion for us, of connecting the player with the fiction. It's not always about control, if that's what you're asking. It depends on the theme.

Freedom of interpretation is more important to us than structural choices or decisions that impact the flow of the game. We often think of our games as tools, tools to experiment with our feelings and to explore certain topics. We want players to come up with their own view on things and we're always delighted if a player talks about an experience with our game that we did not expect anyone to have. This is playfulness to us. The ability to become part of the game and for the game to become part of you. To play together.

Would you agree that games in general are unique in that they allow players to experience atmosphere, rather than merely be shown or told? Would you agree that the agency you allow your players is mostly about shaping this experience?

Atmosphere is indeed very important to us. And it does feel like the videogames medium, or the computer in general, is very well equipped for experiencing crafted atmospheres. If only by compensating for the different levels of imagination that people have, or are willing to use. This is also why we feel that videogames can make deep aesthetic experiences more accessible to a larger, less initiated audience.

And it is true that the things that a player does in a space and the impact they have on that space can help the sense of presence required for the experience of atmosphere. The computer may not be unique in this capacity, but it does seem very suitable.

How would you define "gameplay" in regard to your game?

We don't want to be stifled by conventions too much. So "gameplay" is whatever you do in our games.

We wouldn't. We don't like defining things. In fact we sort of consider it our job, as artists, to challenge all definitions. Because to us, a big part of art creation, is asking "what if" and very often "what if things were different?" We don't like pinning things down. We prefer to open things up, to explore alternatives. It's a weird sort of reflex, I guess.

We're trying to create amusing entertainment. We don't want to be stifled by conventions and expectations too much. So gameplay is whatever you do in our games.

Did you receive negative feedback for your game's lack of "real gameplay"? How did you react?

That's far from the worst negative feedback we've received. Usually this just reads as "I don't like your game." Which is sometimes a concern, because we want people to like our games. But we know that giving in to their demands doesn't work for us. When we try that they like the result even less. So we have to find other ways to make them like our work.

In the past some people have claimed that The Graveyard would have been just as good as a movie. I think we've moved on since then and now everyone does understand the difference. Which doesn't mean they suddenly like the game. But a world with a spectrum of games, where some people like some games and others like others, is actually an ideal situation.

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New Games Online &raquo; This Week in Video Game Critici Di. 6 Mai 2014 - 01:37 Permalink

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[...] “walking simulators” at VideoGameTourism.at. The three, with Ed Key, Dan Pinchbeck, and Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn of Tale of Tales respectively, are all available in English on the typically German-language [...]

First Person Walker Footnotes #2: Dan Pinchbeck

Rainer Sigl — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 08:18:50 +0000

First Person Walker Footnotes #2: Dan Pinchbeck Rainer Sigl Mi. 30 Apr 2014 - 10:18

Researching for my article on "First Person Walkers" I sent a few questions to some of the developers regularly accused of producing "walking simulators", a term mainly used in a derogatory fashion. Games innovator Dan Pinchbeck of The Chinese Room, maker of Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and the coming Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, was once again kind enough to answer my questions.

Do you find the term "walking simulator" used to describe your games derogatory?

Not really, although I think it was Jeroen Stout who said that it's a bad name, because they don't really simulate walking very well if all you do is hold down one key ;). I just think we make first-person adventure games, but terminology isn't something I get very hung up on. I think maybe that's because I used to be an academic, so I'm grateful I don't have to worry so much about definitions anymore.

How would you define player agency in your games?

It's essential: the fact you devolve control over what the player chooses to do, and when, is central to game storytelling and is a phenomenally powerful and unique thing in itself. It's the sense of being there that is paramount to me, supported by other forms of agency. Trivial interactivity is currently fashionable to support this, but it's interesting in the context of older games, which managed very high levels of sophistication and presence without much trivial interaction. So it can't be as important as some people make out, or older games wouldn't be able to do this, right?

Do you think that your background in drama has influenced your games' interactive scope?

When you think of games as rituals, it leads you to do some interesting design spaces.

Probably, in terms of I don't think like a film maker, or have any interest in making films. Theatre is fundamentally about moving players around a three dimensional space, without having to consider how this is reduced to a two dimensional space like film. I'm sure that's helpful somewhere. I also studied a lot of performance anthropology and ritual, people like Richard Schechner and Victor Turner, and they were very influential. When you think of games as rituals, it leads you to do some interesting design spaces.

How would you define "gameplay" in regard to your games?

I would say that outside the normal exploratory interaction, our core gameplay isn't about mechanical interaction with the game, but the players emotional interaction with it. Both Dear Esther and Amnesia could be seen as mystery or even puzzle games, but that takes place within the mind of the player, at an emotional level. You don't figure out sequences of levers or buttons, or work out how to chain a skill activity to progress, but instead you have a complex story that requires piecing together. That comes, I think, from me not seeing story as different to gameplay but a fundamental aspect of it. Engaging with the story is the core gameplay in our games.

Did you receive negative feedback for your game's lack of "real gameplay"? How did you react?

Yeah, it's kind of inevitable. You take seriously the criticism that is actual criticism and is given intelligently and passionately and if you don't, you are not just failing your fans, but you are missing an opportunity to learn. But the whole "is it a game" or "does it have gameplay" thing - to be honest with you, it was a boring question in 2007 when we first made Esther and it's a boring question now. Games are a really broad church, which is a really good thing, and not every game is for every player and that's totally OK. Science Fiction still gets the occasional absurd attack as not being "proper literature" - who gives a damn what someone who can't see past an academic, theoretical naming argument thinks?

And does it matter that you don't like every game you play? Of course not. There's detailed arguments that are important, there's stuff we got wrong or could improve in both Esther and Amnesia and we always try and engage with that, learn from that, listen to those arguments very closely. But trying to quantify gameplay on the basis of an amount of mechanical interaction, or visible dexterity-based goals? That's reductive. If we only defined games according to those things, then our medium wouldn't be in the amazingly creative and diverse place it is now.

All images from Everybody's Gone To The Rapture.

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New Games Online &raquo; This Week in Video Game Critici Di. 6 Mai 2014 - 01:37 Permalink

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[...] on so-called “walking simulators” at VideoGameTourism.at. The three, with Ed Key, Dan Pinchbeck, and Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn of Tale of Tales respectively, are all available in English on [...]

Explorer: an exploration game from before there were explora Fr. 20 Jun 2014 - 22:40 Permalink

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[...] constantly closed in on you… well, it would probably have got even worse reviews. But as Tale of Tales told the VideoGameTourism site in response to all the “walking simulator” jibes about their games: Walking is one of [...]

First Person Walker Footnotes #1: Ed Key

Rainer Sigl — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 08:26:22 +0000

First Person Walker Footnotes #1: Ed Key Rainer Sigl Di. 29 Apr 2014 - 10:26

Do you find the term "walking simulator" used to describe your game derogatory?

Yeah, I find it pretty stupid. I was talking about this on twitter recently and how QWOP is the only real walking simulator. Rich Wilson pointed out that Miasmata was another one - since this actually does emulate some elements of physically walking over different terrain, like momentum when running down slopes. My counterpoint to this: Why don't we call all tradional FPSs "face clickers"? It's a similar kind of reductionism.

On the other hand, perhaps it is genuinely useful for some people in identifying games within this vague genre of exploration with minimal interaction. I don't get too stressed about it.

How would you define player agency in your game?

Agency in Proteus is more about moment-to-moment framing and mixing.

Well, you can literally go anywhere with nothing telling you when to move on! I'm not sure if this is exactly on-topic but one of the things I like about Proteus and the reactions to it is that nothing tells you what to do or even tell you there's an arc or an ending. I think a lot of people struggled with this, most of whom probably switched it off, but I love hearing from people that got drawn through that, maybe after a few tries and end up really enjoying it.

It's deliberately kept minimal because giving more options to affect the world would change the focus of it, and make it become about "doing" those things. Agency in Proteus is more about moment-to-moment framing and mixing, and the inherent choice in where you are. Player agency is hugely important to me but I guess it manifests in subtle ways in Proteus.

That's a good way of putting it. Instrumental music is also similar - in fact, any artwork that allows interpretation has a kind of built-in freedom and agency to it, but perhaps I personally feel like I get this most with music. Of course, this is much more concrete in videogames, and inherent in the capability of the medium. It's still highly dependent on what individual creators do. There are games that basically don't use atmosphere at all, and games that do but throw it away with excess prompts and pop-ups and interruptions.

How would you define "gameplay" in regard to your game?

I would say it's mostly the same as the idea of agency and continually reframing the world for yourself. It revolves around following little sensory threads in the world, discovering now entities, events and scenes. I think of it as taking the exploration element from bigger games, removing anything else that would intrude or distract and then making it pleasantly responsive and reactive to your presence.

Did you receive negative feedback for your game's lack of "real gameplay"? How did you react?

Yeah, we definitely had that. Probably most vociferously on the Steam forums, with the effect that I gave up on using them altogether. One always focuses on the negative, but in the end we've had way more significant messages of thanks and support so it wasn't a big deal. It also made me think about how a lot of "accepted" games are just about things like upgrade cycles, making numbers go up steadily, and how it's possible to make something that the average gamer would be happy to call a game but which would be totally hollow and un-playful.

Kommentare

New Games Online &raquo; This Week in Video Game Critici Di. 6 Mai 2014 - 01:37 Permalink

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[...] interviews on so-called “walking simulators” at VideoGameTourism.at. The three, with Ed Key, Dan Pinchbeck, and Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn of Tale of Tales respectively, are all [...]

Explorer: an exploration game from before there were explora Fr. 20 Jun 2014 - 22:40 Permalink

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[...] Yes, you could successfully argue that earlier first-person games — Mercenary, The Eidolon — created a similar atmosphere of exploring the unknown. But Relf’s game has a much deeper connection to today’s “walking simulators” (and by the way, I love Ed Keys’ point that if we’re going to deride exploration games on those terms, we should just go ahead and call FPSs “face clickers”). [...]