Exploring Micro Worldbuilding
Making a world feel alive in under an hour
I've been in love with an emerging genre of videogame recently, though this form of fiction has been around for far longer.
TR-49, Mole, Escaton, Proximate, White Knuckle, Idols of Ash, Amatsuko, Carimara, Paratopic, and everything by indie developers Yames and Mike Klubnika. They all share, to some extent, the following properties:
- Short Experience, usually 1-3hrs, good for replaying to pick up on additional details (in some cases, might be a roguelike where new details can be identified each run)
- Individual Focus, the story usually centers on isolated individuals, depicted relationships are professional or transactional, there is no comfort to be found in the safety of a group or community (oftentimes the protagonist is silent)
- The Fantastical Made Mundane, the characters are not on a hero's journey discovering novel wonders, they are thoroughly acclimatised to the bizarre world they inhabit, and their lack of emotional response to the world around them contrasts with the experience of the player
- The Bizarre Yet Tangible, something (or many things) about the setting are completely foreign to our experience of the world, but they also give the impression of following rules, even if those rules cannot be easily comprehended. The world around these anomalies has clearly been shaped by them, which in turn allows a keen-eyed observer to infer things about the anomalies by observing details in the world
- The Periphery of The Storm, the focus of the story is not The Bizarre, but instead something tangentially connected to it. As such, no one will ever condescend to directly explaining anything, and piecing together any story or lore is entirely on the player1
The effect these traits cumulatively generate is one that draws you in, beckons you to pay attention, and refuses to give you any answers unless you work for them. But that work isn't strenuous, and it isn't the goal of the game (unlike, say, many Golden Idol cases). Piecing together what little you can about the setting from details you notice from moment to moment, sharing theories or wild speculation with friends, these are the experiences these games evoke.
I think this kind of worldbuilding differs dramatically from the kind deployed in Dishonoured, Deus Ex, or even just The Lord of the Rings. These texts all have detailed worlds, incredibly fleshed out, the kind of thing people write wikis about. Some people eat this stuff up, but others quite rightfully find the level of exposition in such stories a drag. You may be subjected to a nearly homework-level of reading just to understand the basic dynamics of what is going on, sometimes literally.
The polar opposite is obviously feeling lost and confused because the game refuses to explain any of the context for what is going on, which is also definitely not for everyone. That said, the stories these games tell are often designed to be effective even if you only pick up a little of the surrounding context. This is why a lot of these games tend to be focused on horror - even if you understand nothing about what is going on, you can still have a terrifying experience.
I also appreciate these games from a more personal perspective - they're the kind of stories uniquely suited to being told by a diverse range of indie developers with a clearly authentic and unique style. As someone who would like to be one of those one day, it's exciting to see the works of others who have completed that journey!
All in all, I'm excited to see what future games this genre holds - I might even keep this post updated with any future bangers as I play them!
This was actually the criteria used to exclude a lot of other games I was toying with adding to my list of genre-adhering games. The Incident at Galley House, for example, has a very specific thing in it's world that is interesting and counterintuitive, but the game focuses entirely on exploring it and understanding it, so it doesn't achieve the same effect as the other games I've listed here (which isn't to say it isn't one of my favourite games of the year!). I was conflicted about whether to put games like TR-49 on the list for similar reasons, but the core conceit of that game's setting is never laid out directly (even though it affects the ending you get), which means the game never directly explains why you got the ending you did, which I think still maintains the impact I describe these games as having later in the article↩