Task: This assignment entails playing a game solo and taking notes, then watching 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
A Short Hike is a game all about the small joys in life.
The discovery of a hidden spot during a hike, the enjoyment of a short chat with a stranger, the novelty of a new place, the accomplishment of reaching a summit. You play as a little bird named Claire, exploring the backcountry of Hawk Peak Mountain. There are coins and shells to collect, small tasks for other characters, and skills to learn, but the specialness of this game is that every mundane moment is imbued with a sense of beauty and thoughtfulness.
This game can be analyzed through many of Bogost’s lenses. The most applicable of which are Relaxation, Throwaways/Habituation and Transit.
Bogost puts games into two categories; “lean back” games and “lean forward” games. A Short Hike is certainly a lean back game. Bogost says leaning forward is associated with “control, activity, and engagement. Leaning forward requires continuous attention, thought, and movement, even if it’s just the movement of fingers on analog sticks and digital buttons.” he then goes on to say that “relaxation and reflection arise from constrained environments in which the senses are de-emphasized and focused rather than escalated and expanded.” A short hike is the perfect example of a lean back game, the limited scope of the game coupled with the inability to swivel the camera angle force the player to savour each frame as they pass through it. The developers have carefully chosen the angle and view of each area for you. The senses are de-emphasised only in relation to how overwhelming many video games can be. Instead of the constant alertness needed in a first person shooter, for example, A Short Hike encourages you to focus in on the beautiful, carefully rendered scenery. It offers small, subtle changes such as a character's shirt changing colour as she loses stamina or the sandcastle of a small frog character growing bigger with every visit. It also employs gentle music that subtly shifts as you move from area to area, swelling and falling perfectly along with your exploration. All this is to say that the game asks you to employ your senses in a much more focused way, similar to how you would use them were you really out for a hike, for example, noticing the subtle shifting light from the trees above, a new plant or the calls of birds in the canopy.
Two other frames from Bogost that can be applied to A Short Hike are Throwaways and Habituation. Bogost defines casual gamers as “gamers who play games for enjoyment and relaxation.” He also says that casual games are less complex than so-called “hard core” games and require lower commitment to both title and medium. A Short Hike is the epitome of a casual game. With a total play time of just 5 hours, it’s a game that was always meant to be played only a handful of times at most; a throwaway. Although casual gamers are described as those who only don’t play many games, or don’t play them often, I would argue that that is actually a very untapped niche in the market, one that this game fills perfectly. Although a common design philosophy for casual games is “easy to learn, hard to master”, A Short Hike doesn’t quite fit that mould. The simplicity of the game is what makes it so pleasing to play, the care and thoughtfulness of every second make it addictive for that short period of time. Anybody who has been to an event that dragged on for too long knows that sometimes it’s best to leave wishing it didn’t have to end, instead of having the moment slowly sour for lasting too long. That’s the beauty of this game, it leaves you wishing it didn’t have to end so soon, perfectly capturing the joy in the ephemeral. This ties in well with the idea of habituation. Bushnell’s law (that casual games should be easy to learn and hard to master) doesn’t actually matter because most people, especially casual gamers, aren’t seeking “sublime mastery”. The familiarity of the controls in A Short Hike, the nostalgia of the setting and the gentle humour and mystery of the character interactions that push the story along are much more important. The game taps into simple mechanics that are familiar to almost anybody and tunes them slightly to offer a delightful experience that is both new and familiar. The flight mechanic is a perfect example of this. I’ve never played a game with a mechanic quite like this, and yet it was not unfamiliar. It resonates in a way that is gratifying, allowing players to feel an almost instant competence in each skill. Instead of focusing on whether or not players can do the skill at all, the game starts them off with a solid baseline and easily progresses towards satisfying mastery.
The final and perhaps most poignant framing is Transit. Bogost talks at length about our collective loss of the experience of the “space between points” caused by transportation technologies starting with the railroad. Bogost acknowledged that videogames are often accused of keeping us away from nature, why not simply go for a walk to the park instead of playing an exploration game? “But this objection misses an important feature of the pre-railroad transit experience: the necessary unfamiliarity of a space being traversed.” A Short Hike is all about exploration, each facet of the game carefully composed to encourage players to both literally and figuratively “stop to smell the roses”. The game could easily be played straight through in less than an hour, accomplishing the main goal of getting to the top of the mountain. However, that would certainly be the “wrong” way to play it. The mountain starts out entirely unfamiliar and invites players to explore, rewarding each foray with treasure chests, coins and delightful interactions. The lack of an ever growing map, and the different-ness of each area and the lack of repercussions for falling or running out of stamina allow players to create their own mental map of the mountain. The small scope of the game allows this mental map-making to feel fun and adventurous instead of overwhelming and frustrating, and encourages players to follow their whims as they explore the gorgeously rendered landscape.
It is also worth noting that this game, and so called "cozy" or casual games in general tend to be very much gendered in their player base. This game does not include anything pink, nor do most of the characters even have a prescribed gender, and yet I would wager that it has been played mostly by women since its release. In fact, almost all of the most viewed Twitch streams of it were by female gamers. This game has no agressive elements in it at all, but neither does it have any that pander to typical "female" interests. It is in indie games like this that many casual women gamers finally find titles that feel accessible and enjoyable to them. The lack of constant violence, as well as the "sit back" gaming style offers gamers a pleasant and relaxing escape, something many "hardcore" male gamers often look down upon.
In conclusion, some games aspire to thrust their players into greatness with hundreds of hours of gameplay, epic lore and non-stop action. A Short Hike is about finding the beauty in the everyday moments, spending time in nature and recognizing that “the journey is not half the fun, but the entire experience” both in games and in life.
Comments