Animation, games and Interactivity - Studio 1 Related Work Post Week 8

Week 8 related work post.

As I am creating a walking simulator style game for folio 2, this week I researched about existing practitioners in this field and the works they have created.

I.  What Remains of Edith Finch

1. This is an interactive piece involving first-person exploration. It is a work developed and published in 2017 by Giant Sparrow and Annapurna Interactive respectively. This game was initially released for Windows, PlayStation and Xbox in 2017 and subsequently for Nintendo switch too in 2019. The genre of this game is action-adventure.

2. The game revolves around the concept of death and tells the story of Edith. According to the storyline behind this game, the Finch family has received an unescapable curse which causes all members of the finch family in one generation to die in unusual ways and only one member remains in the end. Edith comes to know of these deaths by going to each of the family member’s bedrooms. Each death has a story to tell. Whenever a player visits a dead relative’s room, a new kind of flashback can be seen. Each flashback has its own genre.  The gameplay involves less action and more exploration of the space. A person has to follow the directions and narration while moving about in the space of the house.

3. This game is important and makes a contribution to the field as it has a good storyline and presentation attached to it. Also, it makes for a great example of a narrative video game. It also came to be known as “video game as an art form” and won many awards and praise from the critics.

II. SOMA

1. Soma is an interactive game developed and published by Frictional Games in the year 2015. The genre of this piece is horror-thriller. Early versions of this game were released for Linux, OS X and Windows. Later versions of this game were also released for Play Station and Xbox One.

2. The gameplay takes place in an underwater environment. This game is a first-person walking simulator. In this game, the game play takes place inside a plot. The player encounters many characters during the gameplay. Each character contains and possesses one of the themes present in the game. Also as the game progresses, the player also finds many clues such as notes and audio tapes which lead up to the storyline and helps in progression of the game. The player has to find clues and hints in the gameplay and also avoid monsters as monsters pose to be a major threat to the player in the game. This was a problem in the early versions of the game, but as later versions came out, a “safe mode” was deliberately added by the creators of the game to protect the player from the monsters.

3. This game is important and makes a contribution to the field as it is one of the famous examples of a narrative walking-simulator style gameplay. This game has earned worldwide praise from critics and players too. It is also appreciated for its story and voice acting.

III. VIRGINIA

1. Virginia is a video game developed by a company known as Variable State and published by 505 games in the year 2016. The genre of this game is mystery-adventure. It was initially released in the year 2016 on Windows, Linux, OS X and Xbox one.

2. The game is played in first person perspective throughout. This game also following the narrative gameplay format. The main player plays the role of a graduate and an FBI agent. The main player also has a partner as the game involves investigation. The players have to travel between various locations, and explore various places and environments. This game is more exploratory and narration based and involves less gameplay and interaction by the user. The investigation plot also turns a little horror and supernatural towards the end.

3. This game is important and makes a contribution to the field because of its uniqueness in the plot and concept. Secondly, this game is an important part of the field as this game uses real time cinematic editing transitions which in turn adds to the dramatic effect of the game.