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indie_games2022-11-13 08:13 am
elf) wrote in indie_games2022-11-13 08:13 am
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Game Club Discussion: A Short Hike
Now that we've had time to play (...and possibly, time to forget why we played and lose track of time because of NaNoWriMo), let's talk!
This month's megabundle game was/is (for another week) A Short Hike (itch.io version), "a little exploration game about hiking up a mountain."
Here are some potential questions to discuss, but you're not required to answer any of them. Feel free to make up your own questions and answer those, or just talk about what caught your attention.
This month's megabundle game was/is (for another week) A Short Hike (itch.io version), "a little exploration game about hiking up a mountain."
Here are some potential questions to discuss, but you're not required to answer any of them. Feel free to make up your own questions and answer those, or just talk about what caught your attention.
 | 1. What did you think this game was going to be, before you played it? What was surprising about it? 2. How far did you get in the game? Do you want to play more? 3. What was the central focus of the game, and what was on the sidelines? How did the sidelined parts support or detract from the central focus? 4. What kind of worldbuilding does it have? What questions about the setting were left unanswered? 5. Did you particularly like or dislike any of the characters? 6. What parts were most frustrating? What parts were most fun? 7. Did you use a keyboard, a controller, or both? How do you think that affected the game? |
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2. I don't know how far I got. I have ten golden feathers and have made it I think *very nearly* to the top of the peak; I have enough money to buy a couple more feathers from the scalper which would get me up, but I'm being stubborn.
On the other hand, I haven't raced, I've barely played the ball game or fished, and in wandering around looking for free feathers I discovered an entire new archipelago I hadn't noticed, and a motor boat I can rent? I am not capable of predicting if the motorboat rental will take me to *another* whole new island or do nothing except let me pilot a boat. And I have a treasure map I haven't found the treasure for. Plus there's a hint there's another way up to the top involving going through the old mines, and when I try to go into the mines I just get a black screen, so I'm assuming if I find the right item, that will let me go up via the mines and there's a whole 'explore the mines' bit I haven't even started? But I am not sure, maybe that's just a red herring. And there's a bunch of items I have and haven't used, and I only just figured out how to make the bouncy flowers go and there's a bunch of them I haven't tried either, so maybe there's even more map I can get to with that?
3. See above. Though one thing that has always bothered me about "adventure" type games is that they often start you out with a fairly pressing objective! At least here it's just "get phone reception", not, say "defeat the evil dragon". But then they design the game to steer you into doing a lot of wandering around and wasting time. I know some more serious gamers make a joke about actively avoiding the mainquest, but even in a game this simple, it seems like if you roleplay enough to actually have some urgency about getting the phone call, you miss the game. It would be just as easy to set up the game with a "finish" that there's no reason to rush toward. Or in this game, even keep the same objective, but make it more clear that your character is looking for excuses to avoid the phone call and you-the-player is helping them! I role-played that anyway but I think I would have enjoyed the play more if I hadn't worried that screwing around on the island was going to make me miss a deadline.
4. I liked the island and I think there was about the right amount of worldbuilding, and it was well parcelled out! Although since I haven't got to endgame I don't really know.
5. The characters were all fun! Although another thing that I never liked about this style of game is that you often have to be rude to the NPCs in order to advance the game. I kept going through every conversation twice because I didn't want to just walk away without saying goodbye. :(
6. See above and below. But also I do get frustrated when I can't tell in a game like this what I am and am not supposed to be able to do. I probably spent forty-five minutes trying to get my first golden feather (because I thought you only needed one!) before I realized I was supposed to get my first one somewhere else and then come back for that one. As I got a better feel for the game I got a better idea of what was and wasn't supposed to be possible, what things were meant to be puzzles and what weren't... but I'm still discovering things that I thought weren't interactive or accessible actually are, if you do it just right.
7. I used a keyboard. If it's possible to fly up to the top of Hawk Peak with seven feathers and a keyboard, I don't blooming know how. Even with ten I can ALMOST get up but I have to waste so much lift maneuvering awkwardly around that I think I would have to be 100% perfect to do it.
Also I assume with a controller/joystick you can go diagonally, but with a keyboard you can only go up/down left/right, and that not only makes it awkward it also feels just plain wrong on a map that's all about windy organic paths.
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I think the controller definitely makes this a little easier, but I still couldn't manage either the ball game or the race.
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I did OK enough on the ball game that if I really worked at it for awhile I'd probably get it, but it wasn't fun enough to be worth it. I think the race is a lost cause.
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Also this game seems like it's a really good one to get confident with the controller with, so I'm going to keep playing around I think. Nearly everybody seems to have a different dialogue once you've been up to the peak, and at least some of them will go back up to the peak with you, which is fun!
But I think I wouldn't recommend it without a controller.
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And aaah I'm so curious about the mines, too!! I kept wondering if I'd missed a quest where you get a light or something to figure out what blocks it? Definitely something I'd like to poke around more if I replay, secret passages are fun. Unlike you, I decided to buy the extra feathers I needed, haha, I was just stuck flying below the Peak otherwise (but ended up finding a bunch of treasure chests and coins doing that, so I had enough to buy these feathers in the end!)
I got a controller for the diagonal moving reason you mention. I was struggling way too much with that first climbing tutorial at the very start without it.
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If I do another game like this (errr... sort of like this? Because the plan is not to repeat things), I'd mention in the main post that controller is much better, and I'd post links to various tutorials/walkthroughs, so people could decide whether to use those.
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