We will show how walking can tell a story through the example of Paperbark, a walking game developed by Paper House and available on Apple App Store. In Paperbark, a sleepy wombat wanders the Australian bush and spends its day exploring the wilderness in search for a new home. I believe Paperbark targets audience is players of all ages because of its children’s book-inspired presentation. The game is described as “family friendly and appropriate for players of all ages” in the docs as well.
Movement Mechanics
In Paperbark, the players allowed action is tapping. They can tap on the screen to direct the wombat’s movement, but there are many more intricate actions than just walking. The wombat can spin in circles, dig and eat flowers, and do a lot of natural actions by using different tap patterns, like tapping many times in a row or doing a swipe. A key mechanic is the “painting” choice that the developers made. At first, I was confused by what they meant when they gave me the command “paint,” but it became clear once I tapped the screen. The player cannot see the entire image at once and it only shows itself when the player taps or swipes their finger across the area they want to see. Even after revealing sections, they become white again unless continuously tapped or swiped, which can be tiring for impatient players like me! So one advice I have for the developers is to implement a speed up button for certain tedious or time consuming parts of the story.
This combination of tapping patterns and swiping is actually really thoughtful because it creates a physical interaction between the player and the story that is separated by the screen. By doing those variety of actions, the player can feel more connected to the wombat. Also the way that many actions are available and causes the player to feel relative freedom, improved my comfort with the game and story.
Structure: Chapter Progression
The formal structure of Paperbark organizes the wombat’s journey into three chapters: Chapter I, Chapter II, and Chapter III, which I assume will send the wombat through different challenges and environment. The basic rules are still the same (tap, tap tap tap, or swipe), but the environments bring new obstacles and sites. The only way to learn more about the story is to walk by tapping, and nothing happens without tapping. As seen through the below image, without tapping, the Tap button will show up to urge tapping.
One thing that was annoying was that every time I entered the game, I had to wait a long time for the disclaimer and the introduction, and that caused me to be impatient. The disclaimer is a land acknowledgement, which is important, but the 30 second time to read it is a bit long. Perhaps we can stick to it when the app is opened once per day, but not multiple times per day.
For the conflict and struggle element, Paperbark implements collection goals that transforms walking from just travel into a purposeful exploration. Players can discover various bugs, flowers, and plants throughout their journey. This system serves multiple purposes like it establishes clear objectives beyond simple progression that keeps audience engaged and ignited competitive nature, it encourages thorough exploration of environments that the developers worked so hard to make, and it also works with the wombat’s survival narrative.
The game also employs multiple sensory elements to create a feeling of immersion during exploration. The watercolor aesthetic combines with audio design, showing chirping from the birds, biting of the plants, and more to create a sensory experience that immerses the player to the wombat’s experience.
Ethics: No Violence
Unlike violent games where player interact by fighting with each other, Paperbark’s mechanics focus is only on exploration and collection of materials. There is no violence involved, which feels really different to many top games of today. Instead, the conflict comes from natural obstacles and environmental changes, and our reward as players is in progression and accumulating resources. However, I am not sure if Chapters II and III will have violence because I only traversed Chapter I.
I also believe that in consideration of the team’s ethical considerations, the land acknowledgment (“We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are meeting. We pay respect of their Elders, past and present.”) makes a good effort to recognize indigenous land and our responsibility in using it. However, it could be better because currently their two lines doesn’t identify specific groups or really teach us about the history. In a way, they render the indigenous people’s identities as unimportant. To make it better, the developers can teach more indigenous history, and each time the land acknowledgement comes up, which was a lot of times, the developers can offer us more information and historical information.
