Task: Play a video game solo and take notes, then watch someone online play the same game, taking notes as well. Your job is to act as a researcher, taking notes and figuring out what you are noticing while you play, why that is significant, watch another play the same game, and also figuring out what is significant.
Readings:
Bogost, I. (2011). How to Do Things with Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Taylor, T.L. (2018). Watch me play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1 and 3. Login to UBC library with CWL login to access: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/stable/j.ctvc77jqw
This assignment entails playing a game solo and taking notes, then watching someone online play the same game, taking notes as well. As this is a bit more elaborate assignment, please see instructions below. Your job is to act as a researcher, taking notes and figuring out what you are noticing while you play, why that is significant, watch another play the same game, and also figuring out what is significant.
Once you have done the 3 field note pieces (NO WORD LIMIT), the final “bridge” is to put all that together in a analytical and summative “case study” of the game that should be no more than 1000 words — in other words, ONLY the analytical/case study has a word limit). Make sure you make careful and direct connections to both Bogost and Taylor. (NOTE: There is a form for this, but if you are finding editing difficult, just copy and paste it into whatever text editing document you use to clean it up for submission).
Instructions and web form for the field notes are here: Game Log Form
Session 1: Before Playing | 15-30 minutes
1. What will I like / dislike about it?
I think I will enjoy that it is a short game, I've played a few "short" games in the past, and really liked that I can fully finish the game over a weekend, or in the course of a single session. I'm not sure if there will be anything I dislike about it, I chose it carefully so that it would align with my interests. I would say it falls into the category of a "cozy game", something that is relaxing to play, more of a "sit back" game instead of a "sit forward" game.
2. What will I find interesting about it/boring or tedious about it?
I'm interested in the premis, which is that you play as a little bird trying to get to the top of a mountain to reach cell service. I hope it has some interesting game mechanics to keep the play feeling fresh and creative since it's an indie game. I'm a bit worried that it may be too slow paced, sometimes "cozy" games are a little boring.
3. What will I need to do in it?
I suspect there will be some little fetch tasks, hopefully there will be some powers of some kind that you'll get to work up to as you explore the area. Maybe some mini-games?
4. What will I need to learn within it?
From the video preview, it looks like the mechanics will be pretty familiar. Usually there is a bit of a learning curve with any new game, but since this game is only supposed to be around 5 hours total play time, I suspect the controls will be fairly simple.
5. What will it be like / similar to (other games I have played)?
Almost all my favourite games fall into the category of relaxing or "cozy". Stardew Valley is a huge favourite of mine, which is very slow paced and meant to be played over many many sessions. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a recent favourite that I am still actively playing, and has a huge emphasis on exploration. I think A Short Hike will combine those two, relaxing, but not too slow paced, and focused on exploration.
“ Cozy but hopefully not boring, easy to learn controls.”
Session 2: Solo Play-through | 45 to 60 minutes
Descriptive Notes
- The game opens up in front of a little house, nestled against a cliff beside the ocean. You play a little bird named Claire, and it's easy to walk the five steps or so towards the other character nearby. It turns out to be her aunt, who asks what she plans to do today. Claire says she has been waiting for a phone call about"the thing". Her aunt reminds her that only the top of the mountain has service, and then expresses concern about "the thing" and that maybe a short hike will help get her mind off things.
- Within a few moments of playing the flight mechanic is made obvious, as a new character reminds you that you have the ability. Claire somewhat sassily replies that "of course she knows about that".
- Within minutes of starting the game, you're able to explore in almost any direction. Personally I immediately went for a swim and accidentally stumbled on an island that was probably not meant to be found for a while. It gives a lovely sense of triumph, as if you got one over on the game. Though, of course, it's all within the scope of the game to begin with.
- Once back on track, I headed to the town to get the first little fetch tasks, meet a few new villagers, learn the climbing skill and trade a children's shovel for a big one to dig things up with.
- Two characters from the "climbing club" teach you how to use the climb function, they're cute, one of them helps you while the other shows off.
- From the get-go the game itself is beautiful, colourful but not jarringly so. The colour pallet is jewel-like yellows, oranges and blues.
- The graphics are so cute, each character and new area beautifully rendered.
- The setting and dialogue really invoke this feeling of nostalgia.
- A park ranger tells you that national parks are very popular lately so they're out of inventory for swag, all they have left is a hat. I didn't buy it though, just in case I need money for something better later.
- Climbing the path up the mountain and there is a little lake, where a grumpy character teaches you how to fish. When I failed he was very magnanimous "well, sometimes you just have to try again"
- The music is gentle, but it ebbs and flows as you move from area to area, adding a lovely layer of texture to the experience.
- Meeting a little character who gossips, they tell you a bunch oif little tips about other characters and what they're up to in the game.
- The controls are buttery smooth, so pleasing to use on my switch, I'm interested to see how it will perform on the tv instead of handheld console.
- The dialogue in the game is interesting without being tedious, it's fun to talk to each little character.
- I thought it was awesome that one of the characters was clearly Canadian, talking about running to be the premiere of his "sand castle province". It's so rare to find dialogue in games that is Canadian-centric instead of American or Japanese.
- The only thing that has jumped out as being a little bit annoying is that you can't really change the orientation of the camera, so there are places where the camera abruptly switches orientation, but they haven't been overly problematic so far.
- Came to an area where the landscape changes drastically from late sumer/fall colours to snow, but I stopped there.
- I love this game so far!
“ This game is relaxing, but not boring, cute but not saccharine and beautiful without being overwhelming. It brings to mind the nostalgic feeling of being a kid sent outside to explore for the day juxtaposed with the reluctance of teenage-hood.”
Analytic Notes
1. What problems did it present me with?
The main problem in the game is to get to the peak of the mountain, but along the way to accomplish that goal you collect "golden feathers" which are essentially your stamina. As you collect more feathers you can fly, glide and climb further, opening up more and more of the world. So, finding enough feathers to increase your stamina is a problem as well. Interestingly, it took me a fair bit to figure out that the golden feathers were stamina at all. It's explained in the game, but for some reason it took me a while to click into it. It wasn't until I had about three feathers that I really noticed the boost in stamina and made the connection. Then I was briefly worried that the feathers were single use, so I was a bit cautious for a few minutes.
Another problem is fetch-tasks, where other characters will ask you to find something and bring it back to them, for example, a lucky headband before a marathon starts. These are pretty simple, and since you're exploring anyways I had no issues finding the items organically without really having to "search" for them.
2. What options did it give me (to address those problems)?
The game is meant to be an exploration game. Characters will give you little fetch tasks, like finding 15 seashells. There are also coins, and treasure chests to find, and you can fish. All these things encourage the player to explore the map in a very holistic way, by looking for chests, searching for missing items for other characters, etc. Because the whole point of the game is to explore, fulfilling these tasks isn't stressful at all, so far I've been able to more or less stumble on the items with no real searching involved. I even accidentally found a few items before being asked for them!
3. When and how does the game invoke gender, class, race, violence in ways that might be problematic?
So far after over an hour of play there haven't been any problematic invocations of any of the above. The characters do have genders, but they're little animals, so even though the main character is coded as she/her, she's just a little blue bird with a red scarf. Class hasn't been brought up at all so far and there is no violence in the game other than reeling in fish.
I actually love that there aren't really any in your face depictions of gender in the game. Not worrying about it allows you to immerse yourself in the game and just enjoy being the little animal character.
4. What about learning?
This game has a gentle mystery driving the narrative. The main character needs to get to the peak of the mountain because she is waiting for a phone call and that's the only place that has service. However, none of the dialogue has explained what the phone call is about other than her aunt suggesting the hike may "get her mind off things". The characters she speaks to have cute little dialogues, for example a painter trying to paint abstract art is struggling to capture the landscape, but as you see them from place to place they get closer and closer to something they're happy with. Really, the only "learning" taking place in the game is experimentation and failure. Often times your character will fail to climb a wall, or run out of steam before reaching a treasure chest. You can try to come at it from a different direction, or you can come back later when you've collected more gold feather stamina. The game is easy but not too easy, with buttery smooth controls that make you want to keep exploring. The most important "skill" is curiosity, since the point of the game is not to go directly to the top of the mountain, but to explore along the way.
“ As Bogost said "Places once felt isolated from one another, and the process of traveling itself served to unite them. Before the railroad, the traveler also doubled as adventurer, taming the spaces in between destinations by passing by passing through them" this game is all about the spaces in between.”
Affective Notes
Some feelings I've has playing this game so far are:
Pleasure - the art is so pretty, cute and soothing. It's very nostalgic and the music is lovely in the background.
Frustration - It took me a few tries to figure out how to use the gliding and climbing controls, they're pretty sensitive, so it takes a little while to get the hang of them.
Surprise - I was surprised when there was clearly Canadian dialogue from one of the characters. It's really rare to see that since most games are from either the States or Japan.
Curiosity - I'm one of those people who want to explore every inch of a map before moving ahead, so this game is really fun since there's lots to explore
Satisfaction - The exploration in the game is always rewarded with little treasure chests, seashells or coins to pick up as well as new characters to interact with.
“ The journey is not just half the fun but the entire experience.”
Session 3: Video observation | 45 to 60 minutes
User TsundereJessie on Twitch
Descriptive Notes
Document what the player is...
Doing:
- looking around, following the path
- trying to climb the wall to learn how to use the climbing skill, struggling the same way I did
- talking to each character
- completing each fetch task
- exploring to the left of the map instead of the right which is what I did.
Paying attention to:
- How beautiful the game is
- The controls, “I can fly!”
- How fun the controls are
- How the shirt changes colour when you run out of stamina, which I didn’t notice
- How the music changes in each mini area
Ignoring:
- Early off path opportunities for exploration
- That you can ask characters to talk more than once and they give different dialogue
Prioritizing:
- What can she do with the items she picked up, checking what the description of each item is as she picks it up
- Following the logical path of the game
- buying the hat for 100 coins
- solving each mission as she comes across it before going on
Talking about (i.e. what they verbally frame as important during the play through):
- the little missions are framed as important, which is interesting because I didn’t overly prioritize those, I assumed I’d solve them along the way as I explored
- Talking to the people in the chat
- The talking is boring, why do people like this?
- The chat is totally off topic, it has almost nothing to do with what's happening in the game.
How is that different from your play?
This player had a similar style of play to me, but she was clearly more of a “gamer”. I've noticed this with my partner who is also a gamer, he is very direct about what he does in games, there is a lot less meandering and backtracking. I tend to enjoy wandering around the map, I don’t mind backtracking and want to experience the world, the tasks are just an incentive to explore for me.
Analytic Notes
The player only played for a short amount of time, but she encountered very few obstacles or difficulties. There was only one that stymied her for more than a second. It happened when she was trying to climb up a small hill to get to a chest, and her stamina kept running out since she only had one golden feather. She hadn’t yet realized that the feathers are your stamina and she repeatedly tried to reach the chest, first by jumping, then by climbing. I thought it was interesting she gave up after that though, because when I played the game I found higher ground and glided down to chests like that instead of giving up. A short while later when she had built up enough stamina she remembered that chest and went back, whereas I usually forget specific locations like that.
There is really no class, race or violence in the game to comment about. There is gender, but only in passing. Many of the characters aren’t gendered at all. She did not comment on it.
I noticed when I was watching how small the map really is. When I was playing it felt much larger, perhaps because I immediately went off the trail instead of going the way the path indicated. But that sense of exploring the unknown is so strong and the graphics so beautiful that perhaps that's why it feels larger when you're playing.
Affective Notes
What affective responses did you observe the player having while playing?
Lots of oohing and aahhing over the game being so pretty and cute
Excitement when she realized that the character can fly
Curiosity about the spots where there are clearly things meant to be dug up, but you don’t have the tool to do it yet
Competence; she mastered the controls almost immediately, much faster than I did and I thought I figured them out quickly!
What evidence did you have of their affective response/s?
You can see her face in the stream, she has lots of facial expressions, but she was also very verbal about how she was feeling and narrated her emotions.
What did they choose to focus on? How were they different from responses and focus/foci you had? Pay specific attention to instances where you were surprised by something the player said or did.
She paid more attention to the “completion” of the game in some respects. She followed the trail, and especially right at the beginning, chose the routes and characters most obviously presented.
In contrast, when I played I went immediately off path, not even getting to the first little “village” until about 20 minutes after I started playing.
If possible, reflect on how affective responses impact the ‘learning’ or ‘engagement’ you think can be recognized and documented from this observed play session.
I think this game is meant to be very relaxing and zen, this Twitch streamer expressed a lot of excitement about that aspect, similar to how I felt playing it, but from her commentary with her commenters, it also sounded like she had been away on vacation for quite a long time and had chosen this game specifically because it was calming. Her excitement about being back to streaming and learning the new controls was infectious and her watchers clearly enjoyed cheering her on as she gained more competence with the controls and a better understanding of the game mechanics. On more than one occasion she said "oh, no it's so short I don't want this to end!"
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