I created a video game for tired gamers. Now I have to find them | Hacker News Reader

I created a video game for tired gamers. Now I have to find them

gamespress.com

32 pointsyoulweb9 comments

As the author says, this is what I love and hate about GTAV.

I just wanted a game where I could drive around, listen to amazing music, enjoy the incredible sights. A pure relaxation experience.

In GTA:SA, this was possible. You could drive to the desert, get in your Rustler and fly towards the sun with America's Horse with No Name taking you on your spiritual journey.

In GTAV they removed this aspect. Yes the game looks amazing, but every interaction you have in the game forces you to be destructive, and all the NPC's react badly to you regardless of how you act to them. Its a deeply stressful and toxic game, and the online community is even more so.

You could look at mods - I'm sure there's trainers around that can disable NPCs aggroing on you.

When the Wii first came out, I had a dream that I met Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the designer of Rez (my favorite video game). In the dream, he wanted to show me what he was doing with the platform, so he put a Wiimote in my hand and guided me through the process.

The game started off with a completely black screen. By moving the Wiimote you could dispel the inky black miasma with light. It was all about uncovering what lay hidden in the darkness, and illuminating certain objects could bathe entire sections in light. Eventually it was revealed that you were in a forest, and there were ancient ruins with carvings in them, writing in a lost language that actually had meaning within the game (though I do not remember what it was).

I still smile when I encounter real games, like this one, that remind me of that dream game.

> The most noticeable struggle is the player’s exploration speed, which will cause her to wake up when walking fast for too long.

> The exploration speed restriction serves the implicit goal of the game, which is to unearth beauty.

I wonder if this actually works as expected. My first thought is that this sounds like either a “push your luck” mechanic or just a frustration akin to all those game interfaces with “beautiful transitions” that just make you annoyed because every menu press has a 2 second delay.

I haven’t played the game so I can’t say one way or the other or if this nails it and gets the desired effect. If anyone has I would love to your perspective.

This game is unfortunately only on PS4, but maybe for us PC gamers, maybe "Eastshade" might do the trick? https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/ I've not played it yet, but bought it because it looked so serene

I played Eastshade about halfway through. Visually it seems similar, and it does have a decent amount of serenity, but it is very much a traditional RPG, with a distinct setting and story, a lot of fetch questing and time pressure for certain things. E.g you freeze at night and can find yourself rushing to get back inside as the sun sets. It just happens to not have combat and requires you to take nice screenshots every now and then.

Don't they say the original pacman had no 'goal'? And that GTA was basically pacman where instead you drive a car aimlessly? I think there is a good market for brainless, exploratory games and IMO those are the best :) congrats on the launch

Make a pc version for us tired gamers who turned their gaming systems in for work computers :)

That said, this looks really cool. Great job!

The game looks interesting! I don't have a playstation but think I would pick it up if I had that platform.

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