Besides Yume Nikki and its derivatives are there any good walking simulators?
The problem with Dear Escher, Yume Nikki and Gone Home is that they aren't even good at what they do. I'm looking for something that's genuinely interesting, not just the rejects from a russell group poetry competition.
>>320316557
Lisa the first wasn't a bad one.
to the moon was pretty good.
>good
>walking simulator
pick one
>>320316557
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is, technically, more than just a walking simulator, but I'd kind of recommend it here anyway. It's so very light on gameplay.
>>320316959
Great story and soundtrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snl67XsI6Is
>>320316557
I'm OK with Yume Nikki.
>Free
>Not really a game.
>More focused on being weird, something to get lost in than spoon-feeding you a story.
>>320317098
Everything is relative. Sometimes a good story is all you need for a 1-2 hour long game.
The Witch's House.
>>320317238
yume nikki did it right. it didn't try to tell a linear story through a nonlinear environment, it just let you explore things and pick it up as you go.
.flow is excellent too, in case you haven't played it yet. it's yume nikki but with a more clearly defined message that it's trying to get across in dreams.
Yume Nikki was great, I miss the threads from back when we were trying to figure out what it meant
>>320316557
>>320317238
>>320317519
>>320317704
I still haven't played Yume Nikki. I have some free time coming up around Christmas, so I guess now is as good a time as any. Is there an English translation available? ... Does it even have dialogue? The Wiki only seems to list one download.
>>320317519
.flow was too much for me, I can't do body horror.
>>320317978
There's an English patch, but the only real difference is the menus. The link here is prepatched to be English:
http://www.theneitherworld.com/yumenikki/links.htm
You could consider The Stanley Parable a walking sim if you stretch the definition a bit since the only real gameplay is walking and occasionally clicking.
It's also got a branching story and about 10 endings to keep you interested in it.
>>320318265
Nice, thanks.Apparently there's a Half-Life mod version. Anyone played it? http://www.moddb.com/mods/yume-nikki-half-life
>>320318489
I've never tried it, but there is a standalone 3D version that's pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4h3_2ScFk
The environments are completely different to those in the original though, so it's a stretch to call it a remake
>>320318471
Stanley Parable is probably the best of the Source mod walking simulator genre.
>>320318471
It's weird, I didn't like the standalone release very much. I played the HL2 mod and loved it - must have played for 3-4 hours straight the first day alone. But the new one just never grabbed me. Maybe I just expected more, somehow, but it felt surprisingly linear. Like the first 2-3 choices you made (what doors to enter, whether to jump off the list or not, etc.) locked you in on a path that then just played out normally. The whole point of the mod, as I saw it, was the branching narrative, with one main path that split off into a myriad of smaller stories. The standalone felt more like a "pick your ending" scenario.
Guys, what do you think makes a good walking simulator? There's a pretty clear difference between Gone Home and Stanley Parable but I can't put my finger on what it is.
>>320318813
Neat. I'll start with the real thing though.
>>320316557
LSD on Playstation 1, Anon
It's helped me a ton with my dreams by pressing things to get away from nightmares.
>>320319118
Gone Home is trying to send a message. Stanley Parable is trying to somewhat be a video game.
>>320319214
How's the LSD port to Unity compared to the original? I'd like to try it but I've heard that getting it running on an emulator is like pulling teeth.
>>320317381
Puzzle games are not walking simulators.
>>320319118
In your example its player agency. Whether you can actually influence the story that's playing out or not. Gone Home is an interactive movie. Stanley's Parable is a chose-your-own-adventure.
Really that's what it boils down to. Look at Dear Esther, which was even worse than Gone Home in its linear "hold W to win" approach, and somehow managed to fuck even that up. The one point in the entire game that could have been something (the ending), they steal control away from the player for the sake of their 2deep4u narrative. As a result, it's just mind-numbingly boring. Also the story, as well as how they tell it, sucks major ass.
A good walking sim has the player actually make choices; it takes advantage of the interactive nature of video games to tell a story a movie can't. Or at least it doesn't bore the player by forcing them through a linear path for the sake of the narrative, but let them explore at their own pace.
>>320319118
I think the difference is in the quality of writing. Strip the environment, the visuals and the voice acting from the Stanley Parable and you're still left with a pretty interesting story about narrative tropes in video games. Strip everything away from Gone Home and you're left with a Tumblr post. And, as OP said, if you strip it away from Dear Escher you're left with a poem that would be rejected from a university poetry slam.
>>320319797
strip everything away from yume nikki and you're left with every story from the erowid experience vault
Yume Nikki - The original
Lcd.Dem - A relaxing fangame with a strange event surrounding its developer
.flow - Similar to YN, with an emphasis on horror
Yume 2kki - The fan sequel
YN 3D - A fangame with the same premise, but new worlds
Crypt Worlds - Explore the underworld, eat burgs, piss into pots
Toilet in Wonderland - An educational adventure on constipation, very japanese
Middens - Like walking through a Beatles video
Barista 1/2 - By the guy who did Gravity Bone, but more focused on isolation and atmosphere
Goblet Grotto - Collect all goblets
>>320317978
It's worth saying that your experience with Yume Nikki will be a lot better if you talk about it with people. I don't think it's the kind of game that can be enjoyed in isolation - you really need other people to help you through since a lot of the puzzles and environments are built around moon logic.You could also just look at the wiki, but that's way less fun
>>320320287
Might make my brother play it with me, then. I'm sure we'll have plenty of downtime between Christmas as and New Year's anyway.
>>320319332
> I'd like to try it but I've heard that getting it running on an emulator is like pulling teeth.
Really? You sure you're using EpsxE, Anon?
I never played or even heard the Unity version, but the Playstation 1 is definitely something you wanna play.
>>320320760
One thing you should look up is how to get the bike. Having the bike will make your life a lot easier.
>>320320276
>Crypt Worlds - Explore the underworld, eat burgs, piss into pots
>Goblet Grotto - Collect all goblets
Got to throw my lot in for these games, especially Goblet Grotto. There's probably more to that game than people have ever seen, since there's like a million pages of lore included with the game.
>>320320842
Will do. I'll tackle it head-on at first, but if walking gets too dull I'll go grab it.
Worlds Online.
This one isn't an intentional walking simulator, but it kind of turned into one. In the 90s it was an MMO like Second Life where the users built and hosted the whole environment themselves, but over the past two decades people stopped playing it. A few years ago the developers unlocked every portal in the game, so it's now possible to go into anyone else's private spaces along with all the public spaces. It's a weird snippet of Internet history and it's pretty awesome to explore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIZrHe-93WU
>>320316557
Proteus was pretty cool
don't bother with the begginer's guide, it's pretentious indie game bullshit.
>friends tells me thats his personal goty
>during the same night he told me evangelion was over analytical garbage
>>320320276
According to a stream I watched the other day, the developers of Crypt Worlds, Goblet Grotto and The Path are really good friends in real life.
I like the idea that there's a secret society of game developers dedicated to making games that don't make sense.
Sluggish Morss: A Delicate Time in History is quite good if you're into science fiction and can figure out what the fuck is going on. It's about a civilization on the brink of the singularity.
>>320321593
I think I remember seeing a thing on MTV News about this thing so long ago.
I'll have to look it up now that I have a computer this time
>>320316557
>walking simulators
morrowind
watch dogs is a really, really good walking sim
>>320322413
thecatamites and Cicada Marionette being buddies isn't a big secret, but yeah, they're friends with similar tastes in weird shit.
There's been a lot of speculation that thecatamites is literally a schizophrenic.
>>320324430
Where do those usernames come from? Is the a larger bizarre games community that I don't know about?
>>320316557
Did you put Yume Nikki in the second sentence by accident?
Yume Nikki IS good at what it does.
Dear Esther is really just about the audio-visual experience so some could enjoy it to an extent, but as a game it's not that interesting. I'd consider Gone Home a puzzle adventure game like Myst. But Gone Home really pales in comparison to Myst, even in the area of secondhand storytelling that it was praised for.
While both of those centrally feature walking, they're not exploration games like Yume Nikki, which does exploration very well. The player goes into the dream, and immediately there's 12 different ways to go, and there the open structure is revealed to the player. Perhaps curiosity begins to form. And from there, they can explore, and exploration will provide more curiosities, and more methods to sate them, and on and on. With each new effect, questions of how it could be used may pop into one's head, what interactions there may be in places already explored, which environmental details may be significant, etc.
Yeah, you could call it a "walking simulator", but that sort of trivializes what's actually good game design, when Dear Esther and Gone Home are often called walking simulators because they're poorly designed.
Anyway, most of these are interesting enough to take a look at: >>320320276
There are a surprising amount of YN fan games, and some of them are pretty good. I think there's a wiki which has a bunch of them on there, you could take a look at that.
>>320324771
thecatamites created Goblet Grotto, Space Funeral and several other things. He was also involved in Barkley Shut up and Jam Gaiden's development.
Here's his website: http://harmonyzone.org/
Cicada Marionette created Crypt Worlds. Here's her website: http://www.cicadamarionette.com/
>>320324982
OP here, I literally just noticed that I put Yume Nikki into the second part. Oops, I was supposed to be talking about that new game from the Dear Escher devs that I already forgot the name of but apparently I had a brainfart.
>>320325201
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture?
>>320321889
Didn't the dev of this game get run off of Uboachan for plagiarizing assets?
Also Crypt Worlds is getting a kickstarted sequel.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/357609386/crypt-underworld-a-sequel-to-crypt-worlds
>>320325297
Yeah, that one. It was kind of my incentive for making this thread - I thought I'd give it a go since I've been waiting for a good new walking simulator for a while, but it was awful. The game itself set up solving a mystery as your incentive to keep playing, but then the solution is in the title of the game and you just end up left with a bunch of dialog that serves no purpose.
I like a game called Hide.
>>320316557
>mfw fell for the Dear Esther meme
>>320325568
I dunno
>plagiarizing assets
what? Can you even plagiarize something when you don't charge any money for it?
>expecting a Myst-clone based around science and inventions
>get nightmare fuel instead
>>320325652
Also, I should say (unless it's not clear already) that I don't see walking simulator as an inherently bad thing. Yume Nikki is very good for what it is, but I'd still call it a walking simulator because that's pretty much all you do. The fun of Yume Nikki is in the metagame.
Dr. Langeskov, the Tiger and the Terribly Cursed Emerald is free on Steam. It's from the developer of Stanley Parable and it's about 20 minutes long. I'd say it's worth checking out if you liked Stanley.
>>320325604
>5 people spent 150 dollars on this
![main1[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/k0JSErk.png "main1[1].png")
I don't know anyone else who played this. You have to be willing to tolerate a highly abstract story and there's no sign yet of any further instalments. But it has some gorgeous and imaginative environments.
![step_l_en[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/QOBxux0.jpg "step_l_en[1].jpg")
Pathologic is a good walking simulator. There's actualterriblegameplay and a great story.
>hear all the discussion about Yume Nikki
>apparently it's scary as balls
>download it
>patiently play as far as possible, collecting as many effects as possible
>bored out of my skull, frustrated with how many dead ends I'm running into
>turn it off
>decide to replay it a few months later
>allow myself to use a guide if I get stuck
>suddenly there's no pressure to finish the game
>get about half way through before I really start to immerse myself in it
>start wondering what inspired all the imagery
>internally concoct stories
>wonder if the game is some sort of autobiographical cry for help
>really start to imagine the sexual trauma that may have inspired the game
>feel molested playing it
>a crushing sense of dread permeates areas I never paid attention to before
>complete the game more emotionally drained than Silent Hill 2 made me
And that's why Yume Nikki is great. In hindsight, it might not even have a story behind it and the imagery might solely be there to bait that reaction, but god damn is it good. It's the best example of "pure" psychological horror in games.
>>320326647
i would suggest to check it out too, if only because it's free.
as someone who did like the stanley parable, i didn't enjoy it very much. it had the narration and a silly scenario, but not much else. i thought the stanley parable was a pretty good exploration game, and dr. langeskov didn't really have any of that.
>>320319332
It's making slow but sure progress.
>>320327051
Ever had a bad experience with the hospital?
.flow has the same effect, but more crushing and hopeless with more primal fear.
>>320324771
Saltworld.
>>320319214
>>320319332
>>320320774
>>320327189
Too bad LSD dream emulator is fucking trash and a pure example of awful walking sims
>Look random colors so trippy!
>Ahhh scary grey man!
>No correlation between anything you touch one thing and now you're somewhere else: the game
It's a fucking bore fest and while that's not saying much for walking sims I've had some that were actually interesting, this is one where it's just mindless babble thrown together.
Wish I would have played through Yume Nikki on Acid the first time.
>>320327051
Have you tried .flow? It's a similar deal except it has a more clear message about what happened to the character. It's worth playing if you have a few hours to spare and you can handle body horror.
>>320327421
It gets a little leeway for being the first of its kind. Yeah, it's an early, extremely experimental attempt and it's not great compared to things that came later.
>>320327051
I think the most interesting Yume Nikki theory is that Madotsuki never actually escaped her rapist. That explains why she's locked in a dirty room and the only way she can leave is through the balcony, and why she has such strange dreams.
>>320327027
Can't wait for the reimagining of that.
The original is indeed very clunky, but Ice-Pick Lodge are some of the very few, I feel, that really try to take full advantage of their medium, and can make artistic games which have huge real depth to them, and don't just wear a pseudo-artistic facade to try and look like something they're not.
>>320320942
Yeah, Goblet Grotto is amazing.
>>320325604
She doesn't need that money for the game, she stated she's just using it for living expenses and stuff. So the game itself isn't really being "kickstarted".
>>320327385
You know they probably wouldn't like you mentioning that site here, but everyone is probably too intimidated to create an account on the forum anyways.
>>320327805
>She doesn't need that money for the game, she stated she's just using it for living expenses and stuff. So the game itself isn't really being "kickstarted".
This is the case for 90% of Kickstarter projects. She's just the odd one out that's being honest about it.
>>320327051
I don't remember which game it was, but one of the Yume Nikki fangames got taken offline and the developer asked people not to speak of it again because it was autobiographical and he wanted to forget it.
>>320316557
>>320327805
>You know they probably wouldn't like you mentioning that site here, but everyone is probably too intimidated to create an account on the forum anyways.
If it's a private forum then why do they even allow you to make accounts? And if it's public why would they be mad about people posting it here?
I'm making one, not that that matters here.
>>320328224
Pretty sure that was Lcd.Dem, but I don't remember if the creator specified the reason he took it down and didn't want people to talk about it, I thought it was a mystery.
>>320327051
This posts reminded me why I never bother reading about Yume Nikki. I regret coming here.
>>320328356
i think it matters. please tell me about it.
>>320328224
that was Lcd Dem
>In April 2013, the game's creator posted a bizarre message on the official site asking fans to forget about LcdDem and to remove any content that is related to it. They asked not to share it or even speak of it. It is not known why they chose to do this. It has been speculated that the game reminds them of something they would like to forget. (The official site has been closed, so the message could not be found on internet in current.)
What the fuck do the 5 alternating icons at the top of goblet grotto mean?
Why did my gem princess disappear?
Why does one of my saves suddenly trap me in an endless hallway with no sound or UI?
>>320328224
Lcd.Dem.
He didn't state a reason, that's speculatory.
The message he left was very odd however - he asked that if you have the game on your hard drive, to please delete it, to not reupload it anywhere, to not make fanarts or other works about it, and to just please forget it ever existed.
The ending involvesChie, the main character, finds a relative(possibly her mother) dead in another room in her house. She tries to wake herself up by pinching her cheek, but it doesn't work because she is awake. She starts crying, and that's the end of the game.
It's speculated that the game, perhaps this scene, contained something he wanted to forget.
>>320328615
>What the fuck do the 5 alternating icons at the top of goblet grotto mean?
read the manual m8
everything else you're probably better off not questioning
>>320328224
>>320328576
I have no respect for people who do this.
>>320328615
>What the fuck do the 5 alternating icons at the top of goblet grotto mean?
The icons represent your character's current mental state. Look in the supplementary material that comes with the game, you'll find a file that shows each icon and what it means.
Supposedly there's a huge amount of the game that nobody has seen simply because there are places where certain icons appear to explain something and nobody has interpreted them yet.
>>320328615
>>320328615
open "howtowinatgobletgrotto.zip" in the game folder.
>Use this page to understand what your Toad is saying.
>Grotto toads cannot comprehend traditional writing, but they have devised a simple pictographic language.
>Here are some basic glyphs and their approximate translations:
It also has about a million pages of lore, it's worth a glance at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXAbTW13edY
Goblet Grotto has a way better soundtrack than it has any right to have
>>320328742
>>320328847
>>320329357
IT CAME WITH A MANUAL????
Jesus christ I spent a half hour just trying to decipher them myself.
Team Ico games are what you are looking for. Lots of atmosphere and light on gameplay. Since you can find them cheapish they are worth it.
>>320329617
They only explain the basic glyphs, there are some that you have to figure out yourself.
God, I forgot how ridiculous that game was.
>>320320287
>I don't think it's the kind of game that can be enjoyed in isolation
I disagree entirely.
Isolate yourself and enjoy the insanity.
The characters in these games have been driven into isolation in one way or another. The best way to understand them is to do the same to yourself.
>>320324430
This is him. What do you think?
and then cicadamarionette is trans and thats just ew
>>320322247
I enjoyed The Beginner's Guide. Didn't go in with any expectations, thought a lot of the maps were fun/interesting. The game only takes like an hour so who gives a shit.
>>320324430
Some helpful tips from his manual:
>The pink light of Solid Red City suffuses smoke plumes winding towards the haze that clings to the cavern ceiling. The bats within the haze are clutching their money. Your incredible car shreds ruts into granite and the crumbling plateau belches fossils in your wake. The Purple Worm passes by on its way to nowhere while you're stopped at Tea Cottage, using the phone.
Yeah, he's definitely schizophrenic.
>>320329879
It shouldn't cost money imo
>>320329994
"
Desert sands shift around you--horrid scorpions arise from concealment!
[REMOVE POUCH 1 FROM YOUR GOBLET GROTTO BOX. OPEN IT AND AFFIX THE TWO RUBBER SCORPIONS TO YOUR MONITOR.]
They lunge with claws and pincers--you hurriedly begin your ritual.
[UNFOLD SCORPION-THEMED PRAYER MAT INCLUDED IN YOUR GOBLET GROTTO BOX. KNEEL AND READ ALOUD FROM BOOKLET B ("SCORPIONS.")]
A sudden pitfall drops you into the pyramid's heart--the Scorpion Priest scowls and unsheathes his envenomed dagger.
[REMOVE POUCH 6 FROM YOUR GOBLET GROTTO BOX. OPEN IT AND EAT THE GUMMY SCORPIONS INSIDE.]
Scorpions pour from the flapping jaw of the sarcophagus. A phone begins to ring.
[REMOVE POUCH 7 FROM YOUR GOBLET GROTTO BOX. COAX LIVE SCORPION OUT WITH A CRICKET OR BEETLE. YOUR SCORPION REQUIRES A HOT, DRY ENVIRONMENT WITH JUST A LITTLE WATER. DURING TIMES OF DURESS, IT MAY DESIRE A LARGE STONE TO HIDE BEHIND OR UNDER.]"
Also, http://harmonyzone.org/A1REVIEWS.html if you want more nonsense
>>320329879
i liked a good amount of it, it was pretty interesting in the start.
i really disliked it as it came to the end and it revealed itself more as a self-centered meta thing where davey vented his sad frustrations to me. i had already read his depressed blog post on his website and the game was just like a reiteration of that and it seemed pointless to me then...
>>320330020
Oh, I pirated it. Didn't even know it cost actual money. In that case I wholeheartedly agree--the game should've been free, sorry anon.
>it can appear on the map at any time. hide inside a submenu until its screams subside.
why does the game that goblet grotto has tutorials for sound better than goblet grotto itself
>>320330896
>If you're a fire, I'll find out
What about Funny Pizza Land? That's another weird walking simulator.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfVbN27o5jQ
