Game Club Discussion: A Short Hike

[elf]

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.

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?

Comments

[isis]

The disconnect I had between expectations and the actual game is that from the description and the early gameplay, I thought it was going to be about the hike up Hawk Peak and adventures or interactions along the way. With that in mind, when I discovered that I needed at least 7 Golden Feathers, I single-mindedly went after them - getting money to buy them, doing quests with the hope that I'd get them, figuring out how to get to prominences that had them on top so I could gather them. I explored around the park and found interesting things, but I didn't do any of them for the purpose of doing them, I did them for the purpose of collecting Golden Feathers.

When I had 10, I was ready to "start the actual game" - and was surprised to almost immediately finish it! That's when I realized that the game is not "climb Hawk Peak", the game is "mess around the park a lot and do a lot of stuff and incidentally get these Golden Feathers and when you have enough you can end the game."

The endgame is cute, though a little strange in that the actual reason why Claire is at the park and waiting for a call is a little grimmer than I had expected. And you get to glide back down and see everything from above, which is fun. But - I felt like I played it wrong, focusing on the goal and not the experience, which, okay, I guess that was the lesson it taught me :-) Though on the other hand, I sucked at fishing, I sucked at the ball game, and I sucked at racing, so I'm not sure spending enough time on those to get my rewards would have counted as enjoying the experience!

I enjoyed the often very funny conversations; it was very different for me to play a game where the conversations are (mostly) not choice-driven. I also enjoyed discovering the flower trampolines!

I found all the competition-like things frustrating. Also I got partway through the poem directing me to a site but couldn't figure out the end.

I did use a controller on elf's recommendation, which I think was the right choice.

[vriddy]

When I had 10, I was ready to "start the actual game" - and was surprised to almost immediately finish it!

Oh, that must have been a shock 😂 From the moment the path breaks into two options at the beginning, my "EXPLORATION TIME" brain turned on so I didn't get too mentally stuck on the main quest and had quite a good time. It'd be nice to explore again someday.

I really enjoyed the conversations as well!! They were nearly always surprising in some ways, it was really fun. For the competition things, I tried one race and then thought "nope, nope, nope" and didn't try again 😂 It took me wayyy too long to figure out the flower trampolines and I only did toward the end. I kept trying to hit the plants with a shovel XD Definitely something I want to take my time with in a replay, some were in interesting places with no obvious ways to get water to them!

[isis]

Hah, I did get into the exploration, but for some reason I didn't twig that that was the actual purpose of the game! Like, I didn't take the boat you can rent because I was saving my money for more feathers.

You can walk around with a full bucket of water, but you can't climb with it and I think you can't glide with it, either.