Mechanics as Metaphor - II: Creating Narrative Depth - Extra Credits

Great games always rely on interesting gameplay mechanics to convey narrative, but it does require a development team and publisher who trust the player to think about the experience. Hand-holding players throughout a game will not do much to advance our medium. (---More below)
You can play Loneliness here.

(Original air date: August 15, 2012)
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♪ Intro Music: "Penguin Cap" by CarboHydroM

♪ Outro Music: "Hoy, Small Fry!" by HyperDuck SoundWorks

[Nidikumbaa]

The fact that these videos were posted 11 years ago and still continue to teach some of the most interesting things about creating games, is just so wonderful.

[tonybones]

I played it like a kid in a park running through flocks of pigeons. I had a wonderful time.

[Zerepzerreitug]

I look forward for this generation to reach their senior years and talk about the video games of their youth. The idea of a grandma/pa boring his/her grandsons with their memories about Mario sounds so appealing to me XD

[jenaroaragon]

"Arrow keys to move. Wait for the end screen."

[donaldjamesderrick]

I loved the Loneliness game, but from the moment the first group fled, I thought of the dots as pigeons, even though my dot was a person.  Actually, not even as pigeons, because I have literally coaxed pigeons to jump into my bare hands. That's because in my life people (or pigeons), when they don't greatly dislike me, gravitate to me.  I've almost no experience of much of anything running away from me without comment.  I'm easy to love OR hate, but my greatest ubiquitous life experience is approachability.  ... So, great game for making me think of such things!

[IntrinsicExternality]

The Wind Waker music at the end just perfectly capped those awesome videos off for me. Made me smile :)

[strongbad]

"I think it will take a radical shift in how we think about game design to create 8 hour experiences, much less 40 hour ones, without a clear and defined goal for the player."

Minecraft is a perfect example of that shift in thinking.

[nicksteiner]

So you want to see games that don't have a destinct narrative, no real goal but can still keep you occupied for hours. That trust the player so much there isn't even any explaination or tutorial.

How did you not notice this?

MINECRAFT!

[Aamedin]

When I first played Loneliness, I couldn't figure out what the point was. So I started experimenting, to figure out how close I could get before everyone ran away. After watching these videos, I realized why: I'm a scientist by profession, and I was approaching this from an analytical perspective. It's fascinating that a game can show that part of someone, without them even being aware of it--and it demonstrates the validity of the concepts being discussed. Thank you for that experience, EC!

[SingeScorcher]

Maybe this is just because I've recently obtained and gotten obsessed with Dark Souls, but I feel Dark Souls does a great job of using it's mechanics to help drive it's message and feeling. The mechanics never change but as you play for the first time (if you stick with the game and not give up) you go from feeling weak, and scared, and powerless to feeling like a badass that can mow through enemies. then you get to the Duke's archives and suddenly you're back in powerless mode. All because mechanics and difficulty scaling. Alot of what you do with your gameplay makes you go from feeling like a lost wanderer to a brave hero, or deadly adventurer. At least, that's what I think anyhow.

[RagTagPwner]

As much as I tried, I couldn't help but feel that "Loneliness" was a bird chasing simulator.

[NotAGoodUsername]

They actually didn't MEAN to remove the fog in the Silent Hill HD remake, the team responsible for it had no idea what they were doing and were just given a beta version of the game files that Konami happened to have (you can tell from the slightly different textures that didn't have detail applied to it, like the sign whose distances read different values and the textures that look cleaner) because the original finished product had apparently been deleted for whatever reason, and because the PS3 didn't have the same draw distance as its predecessor as well as it handling transparency in a completely different way, the fog was THERE but it was completely translucent, and barely hid anything at all.

[whatthebeepvideos]

8 hour gaming experiences with no goal? I scoff at that. I have over 800 hours in Europa Universalis IV and there is no goal in that game.

[Xeogin]

Windwaker! The most regret from a game I've traded in. I think it might've been the last game I was truly engrossed in and loved... I still remember the excitement of going home to play it and even the peace & joy of turning off at night until it ended. I miss those feels...

[Theyungcity]

Sine Mora's countdown mechanic was really fascinating me. It made me realize that the time we have on this earth is very precious. even a second's decision matters and so we must choose our goals in life wisely.

[reddir]

love that last one, of talking about it for years :)

omg, that means your art style made me empathize with the characters. wtg making it fit together :)

[PlanetVyctory]

The closest I've gotten to something like this is DayZ, where some people were fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough) to extrapolate deep meaning in human dynamics without any dictated narrative, only gameplay and other players.

[YeDrunkIrishman]

Something came to mind from watching this. Start a game, short sound clips over black screen showing you that something happened to you, then you wake up with no memory, and the objective to get your memory back is never actually stated, so you can do anything. Something like that in an open world game would be awesome, I think.

[LordBloodySoul]

I am so greatful that I was born in an era that developed games in such different manners, so that I as consumer can explore them thoroughly :3

[Fakechilada]

You know, part of why I like XCOM: Enemy Unknown was the immidiate attachment I developed to my troops. I have ignored the game for a while, because I'm not a big strategy fan, but this personal narrative woven into the experience made it super engaging for me.
On one of my very early mission, I had the veteran soldier getting killed and two of my squad members panicking. The only one who kept it cool was the Irish girl, so I sent her to flank the enemy, effectively killing the two aliens between me and the objective. Suddenly, a generically named randomized soldier became a level-headed hero who saved the day. She got promoted and became the "leader" of my squads ever since.
My HQ was in panic when an important mission popped up, and my most skilled leader lay in the infirmary after valiantly risking her life to bring us two live specimen of aliens we have not studied before...
...
... *cough* I got carried away there. But I hope I demostrated my point.