An unexpected journey: road trips without a car (Lord of the Rings, Death Stranding, Lewis & Clark, and The Forged Kingdoms). "Walking" simulators, or how I learned to make a really long journey fun.

Started by Legend, Feb 15, 2020, 09:38 PM

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Legend

I think the title says it all, ;)

In practically every video game ever made, the world is micro sized. In games if you see a mountain peak in the distance, you can usually reach the summit within 20 minutes. In real life, the same journey could take 5 hours. It gets exponentially worse when crossing whole maps.

With continuous sprinting and flat empty terrain, it takes over 24 hours of real world time to run from one side of The Forged Kingdoms to the other. Oh boy doesn't that sound fun!? Put some rubber bands on your controller because no sane human would want to do that themselves.


For a long time I've ignored this problem since there is more to the game than just traveling, but with some changes it might now be my preferred way to play. Players have limited supplies and will die unless they regularly restock them. The party can stop for a day to go fishing or hunting even if the current forest looks just like a standard forest. The party can hunker down for winter and build permanent shelters. Faster members can run off and scout ahead to best plot a route. Members can chat while moving. Members can dynamically toss items between them. Bridges can be built to cross rivers, climbing tools can be crafted for mountains, etc. Warm clothes are needed on mountains and cool clothes are needed in deserts (craft them or dress in layers).

Traveling long distances takes significantly longer but it turns traveling into fun gameplay. Who wouldn't want to role play as traveling adventures if given the option?

darkknightkryta

That stuff becomes meaningless, in my opinion.  It's why I'm getting burned by these open world games (Mentioned in my previous thread about it).  

Legend

That stuff becomes meaningless, in my opinion.  It's why I'm getting burned by these open world games (Mentioned in my previous thread about it).  
I think the issue with most other games is that they try to make every location special. It becomes distraction after distraction until at some point you eventually give up and start ignoring things.

The difference with Death Stranding and my own game is that most distractions are removed and a greater focus is put on traveling itself.

Specifically in The Forged Kingdoms, every location has the potential to be interesting but every location is not inherently interesting. Players can look left and see forest, look right and see forest, and look forward and see forest. There is no pressure to zigzag around and explore every square foot of the world. Instead players can focus on marching forward and getting closer to their destination.

Almost all activities are either to directly aid in reaching a destination (hunting so you don't starve, building a bridge so you don't have to walk around, stopping at an inn to replenish supplies) or to multitask while reaching a destination (talking to party members while hiking, making a map). Only on rare occasions would players encounter distractions that could sidetrack the expedition, such as discovering the site of a murder or a cave with strange markings.