"You're swimming against the tide making games like this": Why more developers didn't copy Firewatch's reactive storytelling

Firewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn’t spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more

"You're swimming against the tide making games like this": Why more developers didn't copy Firewatch's reactive storytelling

Firewatch was meant to spark a subgenre but its influence didn't spread. A decade on, we ask why Roblox and Minecraft are more

Rock Paper Shotgun
Huh new subgenre? I always considered it already part of the well-established genre of narrative driven walking simulators.
Yeah I don’t know that Firewatch was a significant divergence from the rest of the walking sim genre, let alone establishing is own subgenre. But it is weird that there did seem to be a bubble of these sorts of experiential/narrative walking sim games for a minute. Some of them pretty popular. Firewatch, Gone Home, The Stanley Parable, etc. Maybe 10ish notable titles all within the few years between 2013-2017. Then nothing significant for nearly a decade now. But thank God we’ve had 40 more online battle Royale shooters since then!
Gone home was great, another good one was Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

Recently tried to start a new run of The Long Dark. But holy shit, the whole survival mechanic is so bothersome. Even on easy or medium setting you can’t walk 500m without your character literally starting to tumble from hunger or exhaustion.

If I ate what my character in the long dark eats, I would be tolling through the snowy forest, yet he is constantly on the verge of starving to death. 2 entire rabbits for breakfast? 2h later and he acts like he hasn’t eaten in weeks… Same for water, energy or warmth.

I agree it’s a bit stark but it does ease up once you get used to the hunting and gathering mechanics, not by much though.

I think the in game reasoning is that the cold your experiencing is already coldest canada, but has an element of extra ice age cold.

Coldness increases calorie consumption due to the heating requirements i think , but i can’t say I’ve been anywhere cold enough to say if it’s accurate or not in the game.