I played the game A Short Hike by Adam Robinson-Yu, which can be played on windows, mac, and controller. The game is targeted towards casual gamers hoping to enjoy a cozy game. I played the game for 1.4 hours and was able to reach the top of the mountain while completing some side-quests such as collecting seashells, finding a head band, and joining a climbing club. The player plays as a bird named Claire who has the goal of reaching the top of Hawk Peak to receive a call. The game has the mechanics of walking, jumping, gliding, climbing, talking, collecting items, and double jumping. These mechanics help create the dynamics of wandering and exploring, which creates the aesthetics of discovery and sensation as players.
A Short Hike uses walking to tell a story through the discovery aesthetic with the dynamic wandering and is an enacted story, allowing the player to preform events as they move through the game. When I first entered into the game, the first thing I felt was a feeling of being lost. Despite there being many signs that could be used to point towards the trail, I noticed that there was no map or mini-map in the game. During my first 20-30 minutes of my play through there were many time I felt lost. One example of this was after talking to a dog npc I hiked up to “outlook point”, and I decided to glide down hoping to get a golden feather which I had spotted. After gliding down I did not find the golden feather, and I also became completely lost. The feeling of being lost helps push the wandering dynamic as players explore the map choosing between several different trails, or going completely off-trail. Players are also rewarded for their exploration by finding chests and collecting coins, seashells, sticks, golden feathers and many other items. For me this discovery aesthetic was seen most in the separate island where I climbed another mountain, and found a “Silver Feather” which helped me climb the mountain on the main island.
The Silver Feather which I found at the top of a mountain
A short Hike is an enacted story with small parts of embedded narrative, players move through the environment while interacting with npcs and discovering several buildings and landmarks. The story of the game is told as the Player moves through the environment. At the beginning of the game the player is told they must reach the top of Hawk Peak to get signal for a call. As the player hikes up the mountain or explores the island, the player discovers more NPCs each with their individual stories and when the player reaches the top of the mountain the narrative continues as Claire finally has the signal to receive her mom’s call.
The top of Hawk Peak
Though climbing to the top of Hawk Peak is the main goal of the game, for most of my play times I was wandering around the map talking to NPCs or completing side tasks. Each new NPC or area that I discovered has its own story. The child collecting seashells to make a necklace, the frog building sand castles, and the mouse looking for his lost watch are just some examples of the stories scattered around the map that the player can discover simply by wandering around and interacting with the NPCs. One design that I liked a lot, was that there were several dialogues for each NPC and many of the NPCs moved and changed off screen. During my play through I talked to many NPCs many times, and I really liked how for most NPCs there was fresh dialogue even after interacting with them 4+ times. The movement and fresh dialogue made the island feel alive, and added more of a narrative to the game.
Talking with NPCs who are climbing to Hawk Peak along with the player
One critique of the game I have is that thought the lack of directions help add to the wandering dynamic and discovery aesthetic, at times I was wandering in circles without progressing or finding new areas. I think to fix this the game could improve on the compass mechanic which points north, and instead change the compass to always pointing to a landmark, such as Hawk Peak or the starting area. I think this would also help after the player has completed many of the game quests and has already discovered all the areas and just wants to move around without getting lost.
