The designers realized they ended up being a distraction and were subsequently removed.If you have something you're curious about and then use the information you have gathered so far to try and find it, then the game has succeeded in making your exploration both player directed and intentional. But there was no puzzle or other use for them to the player. The idea being that this was how the Nomai communicated between planets. Previously there were "lighthouses" dotting the solar system which the player could interact with and make them light up. In addition the game has made sure that the vast majority of dialog and writing exists to communicate directly useful and actionable information to the player. If you enter a room and nothing immediately catches your eye then that's because there simply isn't anything to find in that room. Nor does the game hide things behind secret doors or secret switches that encourages you to try and interact with every wall you come across. No inventory system, no crafting system or anything like that means that there is no reason to look behind every bookcase and under every table because there is nothing to find. In order to make the exploration intentional the game again uses minimalism in its design. Intentional exploration is perhaps a bit more difficult to explain, but to put it briefly I'll quote the game director: "We didn't want players to approach exploration like they're mowing the lawn".īasically if one explores by systematically checking every nook and cranny one lacks an intentional direction. (This is also what it says in the thesis for the student version)
So the only motivation left is exploration to satisfy ones own curiosity and by being guided only by curiosity the exploration becomes truly player directed. In addition to that the exploration is only for explorations sake, at the end of the rainbow there is no pot of gold, no epic loot, no upgrades or XP to be had, only the knowledge gained from the journey. The only explicit instruction in the game is going to the observatory to get the launch codes. The meaning of player directed exploration is pretty straight forward: exploration without being told by objectives, markers or otherwise. Exploration that is both player directed and intentional.Įxploration that is both player directed and intentional I consider Outer Wilds to have three major design pillars:
I'm going to go over why I think it is so special in general terms while putting specifics behind spoilers to give people who haven't played but still want to read this post a chance to experience the specifics for themselves. I also want to discuss Outer Wilds in more detail because I think it is a great game and because I think much of the discussion about it is being overly secretive in order to not spoil the game.Ĭhances are that if you've heard about it you've also heard all the lavish praise and if you still haven't played it then maybe that's because you don't see what's so special about it and nobody seems to want to give a straight answer. In this post I want to explain how I think Outer Wilds has succeeded in merging gameplay and narrative. But I think that's a false dichotomy, the way forward is to make gameplay and story the same thing. Where people argue like they're two elements in opposition, that one of them can only happen at the expense of the other. In discussions around video games and stories the argument frequently revolves around gameplay versus story.
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