Why can't developers let us figure things out for ourselves. When I saw the fountain dissolve into a leaking pipe, I thought "wow, the world is distorted because she has to imagin-" then the game said "Things were no always as she imagined them." Thank you game but I do have brain in my skull.
Matt Cox Games and movies: explaining things to you as if you are an idiot, because we'd hate to lose potential revenue by excluding the large number of people too lazy to think.
Matt Cox I personally know of at least two people who guaranteed would NOT have been able to figure it out. Developers assuming their audience are idiots are usually right.
Matt Cox Think of it as the lowest possible barrier to entry, allowing more people of different abilities (physical and mental) to get involved in their game. Nothing wrong with that, even if it might seem to be pandering. Wouldn't mind an option to turn it off, of course, but I'd rather it be there and annoy/niggle a minority of people than exclude others. All this is based solely on the nature and scope of this particular game and in no way an endorsement of any ideology, sociology, racial, sexual or economic viewpoint.
Blind people run marathons on asphalt on predictable paths. Of course they are able to sprint, but it's not very conducive to their health if they do it in the woods. The mechanic, even with realistic falling and crashing, does not fit with the idea of a scared blind little girl carefully navigating an unfamiliar world looking for a cat.
Bartosz Skorupa I am well aware that blindness doesn't affect your leg muscles or your ability to run. It does affect the amount of head trauma though. That amount will only increase if you decide to run through an unfamiliar environment.
'' I'm discouraged from exploring '' Jim lol, your fault for going backwards instead of following the path to the right asd (7:18 it's not like the path wasn't visible. I get that you're playing a blind character, but there's a limit on how much you should roleplay ahahah) 19:20 Here you're saying that the game is good, but annoying?! I don't get why. The backwards thing was your fault, the woodpecker rant could've been relevant IF it was a real one and not just the immagination of a blind child lol. The only thing is that the character sticks when she bumps into objects, but that didn't ''pissed you off'' until you've mistaken path and fauna XD Are you carrying malcontent feelings even when you realized it wasn't the game's fault? °_° . I mean like the woodpecker, you started criticising the thing right before realizing you were wrong from doing it, but you still kept ranting and kept an annoyed mood xD. If you're annoyed by something and it turns out it's your fault for feeling that way, the natural response should be a reset and not perseverance U_U''''
TheDorianTube I love how you quote him saying he's discouraged from exploring as though he's said something wrong, then continue to tell him how he should have followed the path. Well done, you have proven his point.
Tao Yup. Telling me to go linear with it isn't really helping the game's case. And honestly, we're going to stick on my criticism of the woodpecker? We perhaps didn't pick up any trace sarcasm from me?
TheDorianTube why defend a game that clearly has flaws, its nice looking, but its just another of those explorer games been done to death at this point, truly stand out now they got go back to old TellTale games make do platforming, more puzzle solving, this just boring. Why should world look the same to blind person, if she cant' see the colours should be whatever she wanted bushes and tree should be multi coloured, or world should look like sonar like how Dare Devil views the world.
I feel that "explorative games" might be a pretty good name for this genre. Exploration seems like a central theme to most games like this. Also this game seems legitimately interesting to me, like even with slow walking pace the way the environment is filled in around is really cool, I like it.
***** "(unless the card can't keep up of course)" That's what I meant, maybe the game dropped a little below 60 and then the v-sync made the game go to 30.
Stan Claas Maybe the V sync in his graphics card is switching between adaptation (like half, when performance is bad) refresh rate, and full refresh rate. I still think that is the games fault though, because it changes on a game by game basis and not a card by card basis.
***** That isn't true at all, you seam to think that V Sync is a frame limiter, which is a completely different type of thing. V-Sync removes Screen Tearing, which is where the graphics card renders the scene again for the next frame, while the filler in the operating system or hardware has not finished painting the previous image to the window or screen, so there is a tear or join between the two images in the middle of the screen. This artifact is extremely distracting in some games, especially if the frame rate is low. I usually prefer to leave V sync off most of the time, because my computer has no problem at 60 frames per second with the settings I choose.
Dear Jim Sterling, I have watched and enjoyed your videos for years now and at this point it just needs to be said: You, you lovable British bastard, aren't good at navigating 3D spaces. You *always* manage to get stuck on terrain, corners or other in game objects and/or walk in circles. Even in games where I've seen no one else ever have any navigational problems, or had them myself, you find something to get stuck on. It's just not a proper Jim Sterling video without you getting stuck on something. So I'm eagerly awaiting, whenever I watch a new video of yours, for those funny noises you make when you're stuck. Sometimes I think I should make a drinking game of it... but I fear that'd be poisons, even with water. Thank God for you Jim, because it's quite fun to watch you bumble about like an old man yelling at clouds (or in your case geometry). It always brightens my day. :)
MenwithHill Obviously they abandoned her at the city limits, due to the fact that she was undesirable as a child. This was of course set in 1000 BC, where the height of medicine was believing that semen came from all over the body and no organ imparticular, and tooth decay was caused by tooth worms.
this looks like a boring tech demo. the watercolor is nice, but it's so minimalist that it's sparse and dull and uninteresting to me. she is so methodical and slow with her meandering that i would grow frustrated far too quickly to complete a game with chapters this long staring mostly at purgatory and the back of this equally uninteresting girl.
Arkiuz Clyne Yeah, I'm wondering if I'm the only one that ended up with a massive headache by the end of the video. Can't figure out if it's the framerate, the psychedelic gasoline rainbow swirling, or the 3/4 blasting bright white screen. Maybe the way it made my eyes track back and forth on the scenery reveal? Feels like I just tried to read a novel in a moving car. Either way, wish they'd gone with black or gray for the unexplored areas.
Nitrium Oxide Actually some forms of blindness cause people to see nothing but pure white. It's not always just a black void. Also the aesthetics of the world being a 'blank canvas' as it were, it's meant as a visualization of something that is plainly not visual so liberties must be taken.
The two "walk around and explore" games I liked were Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable. I'd never really played anything like Dear Esther, and it's not for everyone but I really liked the setting and the music. The atmosphere of it was enough to keep me interested, and it wasn't so long of a game that I got bored. That said, I know that Dear Esther is not interesting and enjoyable to everyone. Though at least with that game, you can see the whole environment at once, and for me, I got drawn in by the idea of "what's that cave?" "what's that tower?" and then I was able to go and explore them. And then Stanley Parable...which I don't even have to explain why I loved it. That game is so cheeky and fun.
The two games this makes me think of are... Pulse ( www.kickstarter.com/projects/teampixelpi/pulse-reveal-the-world-through-sound ) Greenlight: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136169836 and the game (I think) Jim was talking about... Perception ( www.kickstarter.com/projects/perceptiongame/perception-3 )
I was there for that whole traumatic display last night... It felt like you were trying to communicate with us from some kind of cyber-purgatory, repeating yourself over and over again. Occasionally saying something new, only to find the new sentence joining with the other sentences being repeated for an eternity... It was like some kind of fresh hell Jim. I'm not going to lie.
It's almost as if being a blind child would confer upon someone slowness and a reluctance to explore and a sense of worry about things and the creators were trying to communicate such things to the player.
You probably already checked on this Jim but the game from the Bioshock/Dead Space folks was called Perception and yes, it DID meet its goals. so there is that game to look forward to.
I love the watercolor aesthetic! (*Event Horizon* is a great film) Miller: Oh. My. God. What happened to your eyes? Dr. Weir: Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.
its an interesting visualization of blindness I suppose, I thought the fountain being changed to a outflow pipe as she got closer was really clever, i dunno if other than that gimmick if it would keep me engaged
Wow... the game looks really beautiful... i might give it a try, i have a soft spot for games like these. It's a really nice touch how she instinctivelly reaches out her arm when you are next to an obstacle
I'm with you on Machine for Pigs 100% Jim, the story is amazing and engaging. It's minimal on gameplay as is the deal with the other Chinese Room titles but it works, it just works.
I understand that it's entirely The Chinese Room's fault for being so clandestine about the run button, and I understand that you aren't inclined to go back and play the entire game through again, but I have to question something you said in the bottom of your review about how you don't think the run button changes anything about your review. Don't you think it's possible, Jim, that your frustration with the slow walking pace and the backtracking, coloured your experience of the rest of the game and that had you known that you could sprint, there's a chance you might have found it much more enjoyable overall? I'm just curious what you think about this.
SlightlyNotorious The run button BARELY speeds you up, though. It's slow no matter what you do. Sprinting does not change it all that much. If anything, I dislike the game more for having a terribly designed sprint mechanic.
Fair enough, wasn't aware that the sprint itself was shite. Unrelated, get yourself up to Canada one of these days. I want to thank god for you in person.
I agree with what you say about involvement in the story making the difference between good and bad for this kind of game, but I have to disagree when you say this one lacks it. Instead of showing you characters, it really put you in the shoes of one. Sure, this is not a pleasant role, and your capacities are severely limited, BUT THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT! You are not supposed "enjoy" be blind, this game isn't made to be especially fun, but to be immersive. To give you a new, unusual perspective, something that you already asked for. Sure, there is no sprint button. How could a blind girl run around? Including such a functionality would make the experience completely "gamey" and break all its charm. I know it's childish to complain that someone else didn't like what I liked, but really, I think this game deserves far more credit than what you give it.
This may not be a good game, but I do like the ideas presented. And I think this shows that there is some potential for the "walking simulator" to do things that have a powerful message. And I hope that they continue to improve and maybe innovate
This game reminds me of an animation I saw on TH-cam a few years ago. It was Called "Out Of Sight" About a blind girl who get's her purse stolen and her guide dog goes after the robber and she has to look around for him. Beautiful animation, only a few minutes long, This game seems to follow the same sort of Idea.
I would love if this game, as you progress it would get more and more sinister and then go like full on silent hill basically in the end. NOW that would be a twist.
You know, this actually doesn't look too bad. I'd have to play it in small chunks, but it seems like something fun to just sort of play to relax. Wandering a bit, exploring the world, seeing things unfold, that sort of thing. The art style helps it greatly. Almost like Okami's mechanic of restoring color into the world, minus the combat, obviously.
I can understand the walking slow into areas you haven't explored, but with her memory you could easily allow her to move faster through areas she has already explored. This wouldn't ruin their whole "narrative" of her exploring an unknown world while blind and would reduce the time it takes to backtrack.
I really like the concept, but it is something you need to be in the right mindset to enjoy. Something you just play to relax and unwind. Not everybody does the same things to help them relax and I can see why someone might not like it, but I easily find it more stimulating than other games of its ilk. I can imagine a young girl who is newly blind taking things rather slowly, getting lost and going in circles( I'd imagine to similar frustration) and simply taking her best guess as to where she is and what everything looks like. I mean it's not an accurate simulation of being blind I'm sure but it is giving it a good shot
I can see the appeal in this game but the backtracking flaw seems to draw you away from the experince. Narratively and mechanically I think the best fix would be to have Rae walk faster with more confidence in areas she has explored. It's a simple fix that makes sense since the game is more about fear of the unknown.
I'm not a fan of walking simulators, but this is definitely the best one by far... the idea of this type of "exploration" experiences is that it needs to be rich in sound and visual stimulus, and this game does that perfectly
I think this whole game woulda worked as a "explorative/discovery" game, if there were no words. Like, with the opening (which I went and watched elsewhere) and with the narration and stuff. Think like Journey! I mean, I know ALL games can't be Journey but I think that'd be more effective emotionally in this game.
Huh... well this is definitely a game that is not for everyone and then some... but I can see some merit in the idea, you wander around a place you knew very well back when you still had your sight, rediscovering it anew, marking it in your mental map so you can navigate it more easily in future. I mean if they do a little more with it, more of being fooled by the picture your other senses literally paint for you, then it would sustain my interest longer... also the navigation would become dramatically less tedious if you could run through areas you've already been, because you know them now, while the blank areas are still too risky for you to dare. That'd be damn near mechanics as metaphor.
One day she will grow up to become Rei, Avacado at Law during the day. At night she will traverse the rooftops of her city and beat the hell out of criminals using the teaching a blind old master gave her. This thought happened all because Jim said she got the Daredevil thing going on. Thanks Jim.
Am I the only one bored to tears at this slow paced walking with a few intractable things scattered about? I always hear people telling me that I "just don't get it" when I say I'm bored by one of these artsy games, but isn't the point of games supposed to be to have fun. If the point is instead to tell a story, then shouldn't the gameplay be interesting enough to make me actually want to play through the story? Right now I could not be bothered with trying to finish the story.
LordUzaki "but isn't the point of games supposed to be to have fun." Arguably.. I'd say the point of video games (or any entertainment) is to be entertained, which includes but is not limited to "having fun". I think the people telling you "you don't get it" are right, you don't understand in where the entertainment value of games like these lie. They can obviously find something entertaining about it. But I agree with you, the player interactions in video games should be the main focus. Not story or scenery, or something other nebolous. Entertaining gameplay is more important than anything in a video game for me.
Maybe, just maybe it comes down to taste and personal preference. Some people enjoy spending their time in a museum quietly looking at paintings while others prefer watching a movie at the cinema, you know. Some even enjoy both these things. Do you also go into a museum and shout "I can't be bothered looking at the things in here. Boring!!"?
+Cool Guy Caleb You clearly haven't been to many museums then. Go to one with an exhibition on a specific artist, you'll find a lot of them will absolutely have a narrative in the way they present the artist's work and believe it or not, art can tell stories and some people go and look at paintings and the like to experience these stories. Also, who said movies were boring? What?
+LordUzaki I guess it's a branching out of games. I've just come to accept that I don't get the appeal of these kinds of games, together with point-and-click. FPSes and Horror games.
Maybe we could call these games "wander ponders" since wandering around pondering whatever message the developers are trying to impart seems to be what they're about. Plus it's fun to say and it rhymes. Say it out loud. Wander ponder.
You know what would have been interesting? If you open the thing to let the chickens out and you could use them to help you navigate. Like, you chase them out ahead of you and their clucking fills in the world to help you make decisions about where to go.
How about "Sensory Exploration Game" as a title which can be used for this sort of game broad enough to include mostly everything but descriptive enough so you know what to expect
Reminds me strongly of the game The Unfinished Swan. Though there the somewhat tedious discovery of the world through the use of black paint on the white surroundings is not making up the whole game.
Why can't developers let us figure things out for ourselves. When I saw the fountain dissolve into a leaking pipe, I thought "wow, the world is distorted because she has to imagin-" then the game said "Things were no always as she imagined them."
Thank you game but I do have brain in my skull.
Matt Cox *Bwoop* MEGA-MAN MEGA-MAN COME IN!
Matt Cox Haha spot on - it's like watching a murder mystery on TV and a subtitle comes up saying "There's the bad guy!"
Matt Cox Games and movies: explaining things to you as if you are an idiot, because we'd hate to lose potential revenue by excluding the large number of people too lazy to think.
Matt Cox I personally know of at least two people who guaranteed would NOT have been able to figure it out. Developers assuming their audience are idiots are usually right.
Matt Cox Think of it as the lowest possible barrier to entry, allowing more people of different abilities (physical and mental) to get involved in their game. Nothing wrong with that, even if it might seem to be pandering.
Wouldn't mind an option to turn it off, of course, but I'd rather it be there and annoy/niggle a minority of people than exclude others. All this is based solely on the nature and scope of this particular game and in no way an endorsement of any ideology, sociology, racial, sexual or economic viewpoint.
I like the game's concept, but I feel it lacks vision.
***** Amazing
badum tiss
***** I _see_ what you did there.
***** You. You, I like.
Low draw distance the game
DennisJ (The Last Methbender) That's one was to keep the performance up I suppose.
Console game simulator.
+DennisJ (The Last Methbender) Haven't seen a draw distance this impressive since Silent Hill on PS1.
Didn't Superman 64 had that title?
DennisJ (The Last Methbender) it's because you're playing a blind girl, makes sense.
Yes, a blind person sprinting, genius Jim.
Jack Slate This game needs more faceplant. It needs all the faceplant! Run into everything! MY FACE IS READY!
Bartosz Skorupa That... I think could actually work pretty well.
Blind people run marathons on asphalt on predictable paths. Of course they are able to sprint, but it's not very conducive to their health if they do it in the woods. The mechanic, even with realistic falling and crashing, does not fit with the idea of a scared blind little girl carefully navigating an unfamiliar world looking for a cat.
Bartosz Skorupa I am well aware that blindness doesn't affect your leg muscles or your ability to run. It does affect the amount of head trauma though. That amount will only increase if you decide to run through an unfamiliar environment.
YOU WON'T NEED EYES WHERE WE'RE GOING
'' I'm discouraged from exploring '' Jim lol, your fault for going backwards instead of following the path to the right asd (7:18 it's not like the path wasn't visible. I get that you're playing a blind character, but there's a limit on how much you should roleplay ahahah) 19:20 Here you're saying that the game is good, but annoying?! I don't get why. The backwards thing was your fault, the woodpecker rant could've been relevant IF it was a real one and not just the immagination of a blind child lol. The only thing is that the character sticks when she bumps into objects, but that didn't ''pissed you off'' until you've mistaken path and fauna XD Are you carrying malcontent feelings even when you realized it wasn't the game's fault? °_° . I mean like the woodpecker, you started criticising the thing right before realizing you were wrong from doing it, but you still kept ranting and kept an annoyed mood xD. If you're annoyed by something and it turns out it's your fault for feeling that way, the natural response should be a reset and not perseverance U_U''''
TheDorianTube I love how you quote him saying he's discouraged from exploring as though he's said something wrong, then continue to tell him how he should have followed the path.
Well done, you have proven his point.
Tao Yup. Telling me to go linear with it isn't really helping the game's case.
And honestly, we're going to stick on my criticism of the woodpecker? We perhaps didn't pick up any trace sarcasm from me?
His "woodpecker rant" noted that woodpeckers peck at a hundred million thousand times a minute. ...yeah, probably legit.
TheDorianTube why defend a game that clearly has flaws, its nice looking, but its just another of those explorer games been done to death at this point, truly stand out now they got go back to old TellTale games make do platforming, more puzzle solving, this just boring. Why should world look the same to blind person, if she cant' see the colours should be whatever she wanted bushes and tree should be multi coloured, or world should look like sonar like how Dare Devil views the world.
TheDorianTube Did we watch the same video?
I feel like we didn't.
I feel that "explorative games" might be a pretty good name for this genre. Exploration seems like a central theme to most games like this.
Also this game seems legitimately interesting to me, like even with slow walking pace the way the environment is filled in around is really cool, I like it.
Says he's discouraged from exploring = Ends up following the path around in a circle and has to explore to find the way forward.
"It seems to go from 60 to 30"
That's probably because you had v-sync on, Jim.
Stan Claas Lol.
***** "(unless the card can't keep up of course)"
That's what I meant, maybe the game dropped a little below 60 and then the v-sync made the game go to 30.
Stan Claas Maybe the V sync in his graphics card is switching between adaptation (like half, when performance is bad) refresh rate, and full refresh rate. I still think that is the games fault though, because it changes on a game by game basis and not a card by card basis.
***** That isn't true at all, you seam to think that V Sync is a frame limiter, which is a completely different type of thing. V-Sync removes Screen Tearing, which is where the graphics card renders the scene again for the next frame, while the filler in the operating system or hardware has not finished painting the previous image to the window or screen, so there is a tear or join between the two images in the middle of the screen. This artifact is extremely distracting in some games, especially if the frame rate is low. I usually prefer to leave V sync off most of the time, because my computer has no problem at 60 frames per second with the settings I choose.
***** hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=928593
Your thumbnails these past few videos Jim have just been out of this world, good job sir :)
"it doesn't look like a complete pile of shit." Jim Sterling
Playing this during the night is a sure way to become blind. Unless you play with the brightness to like 0.25%
Dear Jim Sterling, I have watched and enjoyed your videos for years now and at this point it just needs to be said:
You, you lovable British bastard, aren't good at navigating 3D spaces. You *always* manage to get stuck on terrain, corners or other in game objects and/or walk in circles. Even in games where I've seen no one else ever have any navigational problems, or had them myself, you find something to get stuck on.
It's just not a proper Jim Sterling video without you getting stuck on something. So I'm eagerly awaiting, whenever I watch a new video of yours, for those funny noises you make when you're stuck. Sometimes I think I should make a drinking game of it... but I fear that'd be poisons, even with water.
Thank God for you Jim, because it's quite fun to watch you bumble about like an old man yelling at clouds (or in your case geometry). It always brightens my day. :)
Amazing idea for a game, I'm going to have to stop watching this video though I want to play it myself. Thanks for bringing this to my attention Jim!
"And now she's off looking for the cat"
No pun intended...?
One has to wonder where this girl's parents are.
+Millhouse Manastorm we are cat
Millhouse Manastorm The cat is a metaphor for life. Life is a metaphor for change.
MenwithHill Obviously they abandoned her at the city limits, due to the fact that she was undesirable as a child. This was of course set in 1000 BC, where the height of medicine was believing that semen came from all over the body and no organ imparticular, and tooth decay was caused by tooth worms.
presumably dead from the fireworks incident. (haven't seen the actual intro.)
I really like the style of her filling in what sounds mean. Even if I would never pay to play it
I like how she put her hand out to feel the bridge start and end. nice touch.
Jim, I believe the kickstarter game you were referring to was Perception, and it did manage to reach its funding goal.
this looks like a boring tech demo. the watercolor is nice, but it's so minimalist that it's sparse and dull and uninteresting to me. she is so methodical and slow with her meandering that i would grow frustrated far too quickly to complete a game with chapters this long staring mostly at purgatory and the back of this equally uninteresting girl.
This is physically painful to stare at. Beautiful and artsy but God, I can't look at it for long without having to look away.
Arkiuz Clyne Yeah, I'm wondering if I'm the only one that ended up with a massive headache by the end of the video. Can't figure out if it's the framerate, the psychedelic gasoline rainbow swirling, or the 3/4 blasting bright white screen. Maybe the way it made my eyes track back and forth on the scenery reveal? Feels like I just tried to read a novel in a moving car.
Either way, wish they'd gone with black or gray for the unexplored areas.
Aitch Agreed. The White is a very strange choice for a blind person. Black would surely be the go to colour here.
Nitrium Oxide Imagine game that would be pitch black. That would be fucking depressing, don't you think?
Nitrium Oxide Actually some forms of blindness cause people to see nothing but pure white. It's not always just a black void. Also the aesthetics of the world being a 'blank canvas' as it were, it's meant as a visualization of something that is plainly not visual so liberties must be taken.
This looks pretty interesting for those who enjoy these kinds of games. Not a fan myself but wouldnt mind to give it a try
The two "walk around and explore" games I liked were Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable. I'd never really played anything like Dear Esther, and it's not for everyone but I really liked the setting and the music. The atmosphere of it was enough to keep me interested, and it wasn't so long of a game that I got bored. That said, I know that Dear Esther is not interesting and enjoyable to everyone. Though at least with that game, you can see the whole environment at once, and for me, I got drawn in by the idea of "what's that cave?" "what's that tower?" and then I was able to go and explore them. And then Stanley Parable...which I don't even have to explain why I loved it. That game is so cheeky and fun.
The environment looks like what the Pyro from TF2 would see if he had Daredevil's radar sense.
What a beautiful game. It makes you see the world without sight, through the imaginative mind of a child. Genius.
The two games this makes me think of are...
Pulse ( www.kickstarter.com/projects/teampixelpi/pulse-reveal-the-world-through-sound )
Greenlight: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=136169836
and the game (I think) Jim was talking about...
Perception ( www.kickstarter.com/projects/perceptiongame/perception-3 )
I was there for that whole traumatic display last night... It felt like you were trying to communicate with us from some kind of cyber-purgatory, repeating yourself over and over again. Occasionally saying something new, only to find the new sentence joining with the other sentences being repeated for an eternity... It was like some kind of fresh hell Jim. I'm not going to lie.
I kept having flashbacks to Age of Empires, exploring to find gold, slowly revealing the map details.
It's almost as if being a blind child would confer upon someone slowness and a reluctance to explore and a sense of worry about things and the creators were trying to communicate such things to the player.
Beyond:Two Eyes
You probably already checked on this Jim but the game from the Bioshock/Dead Space folks was called Perception and yes, it DID meet its goals. so there is that game to look forward to.
Seems interesting, if a very slow paced game. I might actually enjoy this.
It would be interested if this had a 'new game+' option, where you can see reality and find out she is in fact walking through a slum
"staying alive" was playing somewhere in tune to the girl's steps at 10:00.
It was amazing.
GammaWALLE MY FUCKING SIDES MAN
Steven Galvan it was indeed glorious.
I kept expecting at any moment for a T-Rex to charge up, swallow the girl, and...game over.
I love the watercolor aesthetic!
(*Event Horizon* is a great film)
Miller: Oh. My. God. What happened to your eyes?
Dr. Weir: Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.
Interesting art direction. Looks beautiful.
Wow, I never thought someone would have the bright idea to make a Turok-inspired walking simulator.
Is she fucking Heimdall? She can "hear" every blade of grass there is!
its an interesting visualization of blindness I suppose, I thought the fountain being changed to a outflow pipe as she got closer was really clever, i dunno if other than that gimmick if it would keep me engaged
Wow... the game looks really beautiful... i might give it a try, i have a soft spot for games like these. It's a really nice touch how she instinctivelly reaches out her arm when you are next to an obstacle
Good to see Team17 is involved with something other than Worms or Alien Breed, for a change!
The game you were talking about with the Bioshock devs is called Perception, and it did make its funding.
I dont know why, but crossing that bridge made me remember Spirited Away, anyone else got that feels?
Jim Sterling is a sexy beast of a man.
*Jim Fucking Sterling Son
sexy man of a beast*
I'm with you on Machine for Pigs 100% Jim, the story is amazing and engaging. It's minimal on gameplay as is the deal with the other Chinese Room titles but it works, it just works.
I understand that it's entirely The Chinese Room's fault for being so clandestine about the run button, and I understand that you aren't inclined to go back and play the entire game through again, but I have to question something you said in the bottom of your review about how you don't think the run button changes anything about your review.
Don't you think it's possible, Jim, that your frustration with the slow walking pace and the backtracking, coloured your experience of the rest of the game and that had you known that you could sprint, there's a chance you might have found it much more enjoyable overall? I'm just curious what you think about this.
SlightlyNotorious The run button BARELY speeds you up, though. It's slow no matter what you do. Sprinting does not change it all that much.
If anything, I dislike the game more for having a terribly designed sprint mechanic.
Fair enough, wasn't aware that the sprint itself was shite.
Unrelated, get yourself up to Canada one of these days. I want to thank god for you in person.
Jim Sterling didnt we had this one already? a psychedelic kid in an alice wonderland environment ....
just with a LOT of fog
SlightlyNotorious Why are we talking about this on a different review... >_>
Logan Snider Because it was mentioned and discussed in this video.
4:27 Watch out jim, I think this one is from "Blind girl pretty scenery" asset pack!
I agree with what you say about involvement in the story making the difference between good and bad for this kind of game, but I have to disagree when you say this one lacks it. Instead of showing you characters, it really put you in the shoes of one.
Sure, this is not a pleasant role, and your capacities are severely limited, BUT THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT! You are not supposed "enjoy" be blind, this game isn't made to be especially fun, but to be immersive. To give you a new, unusual perspective, something that you already asked for. Sure, there is no sprint button. How could a blind girl run around? Including such a functionality would make the experience completely "gamey" and break all its charm.
I know it's childish to complain that someone else didn't like what I liked, but really, I think this game deserves far more credit than what you give it.
This may not be a good game, but I do like the ideas presented. And I think this shows that there is some potential for the "walking simulator" to do things that have a powerful message. And I hope that they continue to improve and maybe innovate
I believe the Kickstarter game you were wondering about is Perception. According to its page, it was funded successfully.
"We need more eyes"
michaelgtho "Our eyes are yet to open..."
"Plant eyes in our brains to cleanse our beastly idiocy"
This game reminds me of an animation I saw on TH-cam a few years ago.
It was Called "Out Of Sight" About a blind girl who get's her purse stolen and her guide dog goes after the robber and she has to look around for him.
Beautiful animation, only a few minutes long, This game seems to follow the same sort of Idea.
I think I've found the tag-line: Don't come near my lawnmower, girl
I would love if this game, as you progress it would get more and more sinister and then go like full on silent hill basically in the end. NOW that would be a twist.
Jim that's quite clearly a Chaotic Serial Killer Shed...
Why is the cat called "what"
AdvancePlays Cause it's kawaii.
AdvancePlays I thought it was a shortened version of Nanny. Like the cat is the girl's Nanny, Eh?
That kickstarter game is called Perception. It made it's goal, but barely.
You know, this actually doesn't look too bad. I'd have to play it in small chunks, but it seems like something fun to just sort of play to relax. Wandering a bit, exploring the world, seeing things unfold, that sort of thing. The art style helps it greatly. Almost like Okami's mechanic of restoring color into the world, minus the combat, obviously.
"Where we're going you won't need eyes to see."
I can understand the walking slow into areas you haven't explored, but with her memory you could easily allow her to move faster through areas she has already explored.
This wouldn't ruin their whole "narrative" of her exploring an unknown world while blind and would reduce the time it takes to backtrack.
So...it's another artsy game?
Blindness and Walking seem to be popular right now...
Where we're going, we won't need eyes.
Apart from the movement speed, this looks interesting.
"Ori and the blind forest" is a best example of how good Unity game can look.
I really like the concept, but it is something you need to be in the right mindset to enjoy. Something you just play to relax and unwind. Not everybody does the same things to help them relax and I can see why someone might not like it, but I easily find it more stimulating than other games of its ilk. I can imagine a young girl who is newly blind taking things rather slowly, getting lost and going in circles( I'd imagine to similar frustration) and simply taking her best guess as to where she is and what everything looks like. I mean it's not an accurate simulation of being blind I'm sure but it is giving it a good shot
You can play this game for free, just close your eyes and try to walk to the shops.
I can see the appeal in this game but the backtracking flaw seems to draw you away from the experince. Narratively and mechanically I think the best fix would be to have Rae walk faster with more confidence in areas she has explored. It's a simple fix that makes sense since the game is more about fear of the unknown.
I'm not a fan of walking simulators, but this is definitely the best one by far... the idea of this type of "exploration" experiences is that it needs to be rich in sound and visual stimulus, and this game does that perfectly
Am I the only one who remembers this from the Microsoft EA press conference?
Where she's going, she wont need eyes.
he's walking, he's walking, he's walking and walking and walking, walking, walking, walking.
Now THIS is how you do a Blind-LP!
The game Our Lord Jim is talking about around the 6 minute mark is Perception, which did make it's funding goal, thankfully.
The game you were thinking of was Perception and yeah it made its funding, even broke a few stretchgoals.
"What are the chances of finding the cat she hasn't SEEN in ages", Wonderful.
Really like the art style, and it seems like they're going for something like Journey's exploration.
Would you say the major hurdle for these types of games is the pacing or how much they let the player interact with the world, or both?
I think this whole game woulda worked as a "explorative/discovery" game, if there were no words. Like, with the opening (which I went and watched elsewhere) and with the narration and stuff. Think like Journey! I mean, I know ALL games can't be Journey but I think that'd be more effective emotionally in this game.
The game by the people behind bioshock and dead space is called Perception and it reached it's funding goals. :)
Huh... well this is definitely a game that is not for everyone and then some... but I can see some merit in the idea, you wander around a place you knew very well back when you still had your sight, rediscovering it anew, marking it in your mental map so you can navigate it more easily in future.
I mean if they do a little more with it, more of being fooled by the picture your other senses literally paint for you, then it would sustain my interest longer... also the navigation would become dramatically less tedious if you could run through areas you've already been, because you know them now, while the blank areas are still too risky for you to dare. That'd be damn near mechanics as metaphor.
One day she will grow up to become Rei, Avacado at Law during the day. At night she will traverse the rooftops of her city and beat the hell out of criminals using the teaching a blind old master gave her. This thought happened all because Jim said she got the Daredevil thing going on. Thanks Jim.
Am I the only one bored to tears at this slow paced walking with a few intractable things scattered about? I always hear people telling me that I "just don't get it" when I say I'm bored by one of these artsy games, but isn't the point of games supposed to be to have fun. If the point is instead to tell a story, then shouldn't the gameplay be interesting enough to make me actually want to play through the story?
Right now I could not be bothered with trying to finish the story.
A game should be enjoyable not just fun. This is not it. The people telling you "you don't get it" are right.....you don't get it, me neither
LordUzaki "but isn't the point of games supposed to be to have fun."
Arguably.. I'd say the point of video games (or any entertainment) is to be entertained, which includes but is not limited to "having fun".
I think the people telling you "you don't get it" are right, you don't understand in where the entertainment value of games like these lie. They can obviously find something entertaining about it. But I agree with you, the player interactions in video games should be the main focus. Not story or scenery, or something other nebolous. Entertaining gameplay is more important than anything in a video game for me.
Maybe, just maybe it comes down to taste and personal preference. Some people enjoy spending their time in a museum quietly looking at paintings while others prefer watching a movie at the cinema, you know. Some even enjoy both these things.
Do you also go into a museum and shout "I can't be bothered looking at the things in here. Boring!!"?
+Cool Guy Caleb You clearly haven't been to many museums then. Go to one with an exhibition on a specific artist, you'll find a lot of them will absolutely have a narrative in the way they present the artist's work and believe it or not, art can tell stories and some people go and look at paintings and the like to experience these stories. Also, who said movies were boring? What?
+LordUzaki I guess it's a branching out of games. I've just come to accept that I don't get the appeal of these kinds of games, together with point-and-click. FPSes and Horror games.
Its draw distance is even lower than field of view of Turok 2 on N64!
Maybe we could call these games "wander ponders" since wandering around pondering whatever message the developers are trying to impart seems to be what they're about. Plus it's fun to say and it rhymes. Say it out loud. Wander ponder.
I've already seen this paint by exploration concept in "The Unfinished Swan" couldn't keep me entertained long. Oh well.
I honestly forgot that Unity was anything more than a shitstorm of asset flips
You know what would have been interesting? If you open the thing to let the chickens out and you could use them to help you navigate. Like, you chase them out ahead of you and their clucking fills in the world to help you make decisions about where to go.
Walking Simulator is the genre. We don't need a new name.
How about "Sensory Exploration Game" as a title which can be used for this sort of game broad enough to include mostly everything but descriptive enough so you know what to expect
This is a solid game with a solid idea. Good form!
Let's call these Walk 'Em Ups. "'Em Up" makes it sound more exciting.
I wonder if their team is just an army of texture artists and modelers with one lonesome coder.
I kind of like this game...like an art show, make me relax...
Reminds me strongly of the game The Unfinished Swan. Though there the somewhat tedious discovery of the world through the use of black paint on the white surroundings is not making up the whole game.
This reminds me of that cute short animation about the little blind girl
eye like this video jim
ill see myself out
Adrian .C *Eye'll see myself out ftfy
paul duncan the protagonist wont
This one actually looks kinda nice... Might pick this up at some point.
its beautiful simple but beautiful for sure ill look it up on steam ^^
I'm yet to play it but visually this game is fucking gorgeous, and conceptually it's lovely.