Tag Archives: Walking

‘Walking simulators’ and effective game design.

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A new ‘genre’ of games has quickly arisen on the PC gaming space over the past few years, and has been the subject of much debate since its debut. The ‘walking simulator’.

It’s not clear what actually defines the walking simulator beyond extensive amounts of walking as a main gameplay mechanic, but the general consensus seems to be a game where there’s little to nothing to do, but walk and take in scenery, exposition and events you have little ability to interact with. The debate amongst gaming journalists is whether these ‘games’ can actually be considered part of the gaming medium.

The first game to spark these debates was Dear Esther. An indie game released in 2011 that originated as a mod for the Source Engine several years prior. The game revolves around a man with an unknown background making his way to a mountain in the middle of a mysterious island. You the player, guide this man around through different environments, finding items, places and other ‘things’ (No spoilers) whilst the protagonist spouts randomised exposition that differs every playthrough.

Aside from the game’s extremely ambiguous narrative that never really comes into its own (Or make sense), can it really be considered a good game? Or even a game? Does walking around in a 3-D space emulating an experience more like a novel or a film fall under the category of actual ‘gameplay’?

Put simply? It depends. In traditional terms, a game is defined by the existence of some kind of “fail state”. Which means that the ability to fail or lose the game is the key trait defining it as a part of the medium. Even this definition has sparked controversy, as many consider never reaching the end of Dear Esther (A game with no traditional fail state) as a fail state in of itself. Proteus and Gone Home are two similar ‘games’ in the genre that are worth checking out if only to help your understanding of the criticisms placed upon the ‘typical’ walking sim.

Two recent releases, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and The Stanley Parable do the walking sim in ways more deserving of the title ‘video game’, however and have been recognised as such by the gaming community as well.

The Stanley Parable is an expertly written work of genius that exists to be a commentary on the gaming medium and all of its typical tropes. While there are no gameplay mechanics beyond walking and the occasional button press, it has numerous endings (Going into the double digits) with various types of ‘fail’ states depending on what you did what you were told by the narrator. The game gets away with its lack of mechanics by being almost a critique of the genre as well as itself.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter however, is a mystery game that most typically resembles Dear Esther with its forest based setting and beautiful aesthetic, but actually contains some complex gameplay mechanics within it. You are tasked with finding clues, using supernatural powers to put events into chronological order as well as myriad of different logic puzzles to undertake. Not only that, but it has a ‘fail state’ in that you can fail to uncover the entire plot if you fail to decipher clues and events correctly. Unlike the former mentioned, Ethan Carter manages to incorporate lots of walking in pretty environments as well as some complex game mechanics.

So, is the walking sim a genre of video game? If you were expecting a definitive answer, you’re not going to get one. It depends. Some of them are lazy, unimaginative and lacking in all things required to be a video game at all. Some of them, like Dear Esther are trying to be something beautiful, minimalist and artistic in their exclusion of typical game mechanics, but ultimately fall into a very difficult grey area of classification by doing so. And very few, the exceptional ones within the genre, manage to be games in their own right, as well as be classified as a walking simulator.

But even if it’s not a game, does it matter if you enjoyed ‘playing’ it?