A very valid point. This is, in fact, a major problem I have with a lot of games in this genre. If you're going to strip out almost everything typically present in video games in order to focus the player's attention on the story, then your story had better be ABSOLUTELY AMAZING - and quite often it isn't. I thought…

True. But hypothetically speaking, all other things being equal, if you have an idea for a story which just consists of characters speaking and nothing else, that kind of story is better suited to theatre than cinema, in my opinion.

Yes, I'm not saying walking simulators "aren't really games", anymore than I'm saying My Dinner with Andre "isn't really a film". But the defense of "you need big resources to craft a game that makes use of player agency" doesn't really fly for me. The Stanley Parable, as far as I'm concerned, is the pinnacle of the…

As to whether designing a game in the "environmental narrative game" genre is lazy - well, there is absolutely no question that it's easier to design a game without mechanics or challenge than to design a game with those things. I do think that this genre isn't playing to the best strengths of the medium even from a…

This desire to politicise literally every aspect of popular culture is nonsense. I disagree with the idea that people only dislike the genre because of their use of LGBTQ themes - "Dear Esther" and "The Stanley Parable" are both more popular than "Gone Home" or "Tacoma" (just look up their sales figures and numbers of…

I haven't played Night in the Woods, but based on your description it sounds like it already has too much conventional gameplay and challenge to qualify as part of the genre. I'm trying to keep the definition narrow enough to be meaningful.

On the topic of what to call this loosely-defined genre, "environmental narrative game" is starting to catch on (even if it is a bit long-winded).

This was a really bitchy, mean-spirited article, which would be fine if it was actually funny, but I didn't laugh once .I really don't even know what he was talking about calling her song 'Dear Future Husband' "heteronormative". I mean, she's a straight woman writing (or co-writing) about her own experiences. What's…