Transit got the stupid Train Simulator rap stuck in my head. I don’t even know. More to the point, it also made me think of two games:
–Shadow of the Colossus– you could literally just spend hours going places in this game and it was enjoyable all on its own. (I also spent a good fifteen minutes running Wander headlong into waves when I discovered that they would knock him over backwards, but I am easily amused.)
–Wind Waker– Also had a lot of transit (BOATS), but somehow made people complain a lot about it. I dunno. Sailing around did get a little boring after a while, but nothing too bad I thought.
Game Design as Narrative Architecture reminded me of a couple things:
–Telling the story through setting: Portal does this and I love it. The whole story of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center isn’t told through any narration or text of any kind, it’s explored as you run around. I like that technique. A lot. It’s something that non-game mediums can’t really do.
–Effects of the player’s actions on the narrative: This actually reminded me of the doomed timelines in Homestuck. In video games, your character dies again and again, and you keep playing, but as Homestuck shows, there are sort of these alternate timelines where you failed. Wonder if something could be done to harness that in-game.
(Dead Daves keep piling up and dead Daves are somehow useful to the game?)
