Vinrafel Gaming

For most people the standard narrative arc will be quite familiar. In graph form it is akin to a parabolic curve with rising action, some climax moment, and falling action. While there may be differences in form from one story to another, there is one thing that remains constant throughout every novel, movie, play, or schoolyard story: the X-axis. Narrative time remains constant as one events leads to another in a strict, predictable, and sequential order. In the world of gaming, the linear narrative arc is no longer the only means of storytelling. Gaming is capable of expressing story through a cyclical story arc. In this form of story arc a portion of the narrative is allowed to loop, potentially into infinitum, with the events within the loop having narrative significance. In this essay we will examine the aspects, necessities, and significance of a cyclical story arc. Figure 1: Linear story arc with axis. There are three things that any narrative requires in order to prese...

You show up deep underground in the bowels of an asteroid. You don’t know how you got there, but you at least know one thing: the air is getting pretty stale. Oxygen Not Included is the latest game from Klei Entertainment, the same people who made Don’t Starve . The player is put in control of a bunch of duplicants who have to try to survive in an underground cavern. This is a colony management game at its core. The player has to work out providing food, housing, and oxygen for all of the members of the colony. Akin to similar games like Rimworld or Dwarf Fortress , colony members are both autonomous and often suffer from the stresses of survival. The player can change what jobs a specific duplicant can do, but they cannot force a duplicant to do anything but move to a particular area. What Oxygen Not Included really brings to the table is its fluid mechanics, specifically focusing on air movement. A good chunk of the player’s effort will be taken up by creating oxygen for dupl...

You receive a letter. Upon reading it, the only thing that you can do is begin your journey. Old Man’s Journey follows the story of an old man as he travels to a destination unknown to the player. Crossing the sea, land, and even air the player must mold the environment around them to allow the old man to progress forward. The gameplay consists of dragging the environment up and down to create paths to traverse the environment. It uses an almost parallax effect to allow the player to move multiple layers of rolling hills. I have not seen much like this mechanic in the past. By pulling the mountains up and down, the player can not only move from one place to another, but there is also the potential that the player can reveal new areas in the environment in a mock wipe cut. However, while the mechanic is interesting on some levels, it was not terribly engaging. It was both not complex enough to sustain a roughly one hour playtime and was not used very well throughout the game. The ...

Contents Awkward Dimensions Redux Griptape Backdone StevenHarmonGames If you are looking for a bizarre experience, you need look no further than StevenHarmonGames. Steven Harmon is an experimental artist and game designer who has most noticeably released the games Awkward Dimensions Redux and Griptape Backbone . When I first noticed Awkward Dimensions Redux on the Steam store I passed it by thinking that it was just another meme game. After my interest was piqued again by the strangeness of Griptape Backbone , I had to give both of his works a look. To get a good look at StevenHarmonGames, we will first look at each of the previously mentioned games and then take a closer look at the developer himself. Awkward Dimensions Redux This game claims to be about a person's dreams. The first scene shows the choppy images of someone in bed, drifting to sleep. From there, the player is left to explore the mindscape of the dreamer. With the simple controls of walking and intera...

Mae is given a context within which she can be begin to deal with her ontological crisis by hanging out with Gregg and Bea. Bea presents a potential new relational and foundational ontology whilst Gregg shows the failures of Mae’s old lifestyle. Mae is then left to synthesize the two viewpoints. In the end, Mae manages to reform her relationships with those around her, replanting meaning where it had been lost and while her ontological crisis is not dealt with, she sets herself on a path towards resolution. Mae's Relational Reforms The first thing that is to be considered is the reforms inherent in Mae’s relationships. The changes are referred to as “reforms” because every relationship that Mae fosters throughout the game, especially the most central relationships, existed prior to the beginning of the game. There is no relational creation, only alterations to old relationships. The reforms that are seen in Mae’s relationships follow a pattern of moving from relationships that...

Deep under the earth is a spiraling cavern of cultic ruins and ancient mines. At the bottom of the cave lies a small tent. That’s where you come in. Scanner Sombre is a mix of a horror game and a walking simulator where the player must find their way through a dark and dangerous cave. It is highly experimental in its design even if there are some faults to it. The gameplay is pretty much a standard walking simulator. You traverse an environment, occasionally getting pieces of narrative or an upgrade to your scanner. Now, the scanner is really the meat of the game. The player does not have full sight of the environment. After all, it is pitch black in a cave. To see the environment, the player must use their scanner to scan the environment, painting it with dots. The outline of the environment will come into view with a few different shades to assist the player in depth perception. I was quite impressed by the scanner system. It was a novel way of changing how the player interacte...

What Remains of Edith Finch is a new narrative game from the developer Giant Sparrow. It puts the player in the position of Edith Finch, a woman whose family has long since passed away leaving her a strange old home filled with memories. As one explores the abandoned home, they learn the different stories of her family to uncover where her family came from. We will gloss over the gameplay for the most part because the game is a walking simulator. The player just moves through the environment exploring different object. It is to be noted, however, that that formula is played with significantly in each of the memories. The story of one family member may have you play as a cat where another will see the player flying a kite. These are short interludes from walking place to place and were a rather nice change of pace when they occurred. Of course, like a narrative game would imply, the focus of this piece is the various stories. As the Steam page states, the whole of the game is a tr...