Worlds at Our Fingertips: Reading (in) What Remains of Edith Finch

Abstract

Video games are works of written code which portray worlds and characters in action and facilitate an aesthetic and interpretive experience. Beyond this similarity to literary works, some video games deploy various design strategies which blend gameplay and literary elements to explicitly foreground a hybrid literary/ludic experience. We identify three such strategies: engaging with literary structures, forms and techniques; deploying text in an aesthetic rather than a functional way; and intertextuality. This paper aims to analyse how these design strategies are deployed in What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017) to support a hybrid readerly/playerly experience. We argue that this type of design is particularly suited for walking simulators because they support interpretive play (Upton, 2015) through slowness, ambiguity (Muscat et al., 2016; Pinchbeck 2012), narrative and aesthetic aspirations (Carbo-Mascarell, 2016). Understanding walking sims as literary games (Ensslin, 2014) can shift the emphasis from their lack of 'traditional' gameplay complexity and focus instead on the opportunities that they afford for hybrid storytelling and for weaving literature and gameplay in innovative and playful ways.

Mímesis de acción y significado existencial en videojuegos a través de What Remains of Edith Finch

“…Within the context of puzzle-solving, it has been argued that empathy is the ludic skill required to overcome problems that arise in-game, and thus to foster the creation of meaning in terms of intergenerational reconciliation (Reay, 2020). The literary strategies implemented in the game's design have hardly gone unnoticed either, especially intertextuality, the aesthetic use of text (as opposed to simply functional) and the use of literary structures, forms and techniques (Bozdog and Galloway, 2019). In their study, Bozdog and Galloway conclude that, through the use of literary devices, the game "achieves a new level of interpretive play for walking sims" (2019: 16).…”

Performing walking sims: From Dear Esther to Inchcolm Project

“…This demands little concentration and dexterity from the player allowing them to focus instead on the aesthetic, narrative and sensory aspects of gameplay (see Calleja's 'Player Involvement Model', 2011, or Upton's discussion of interpretive play, 2015. This minimal interaction design requires little previous gaming experience which makes them accessible to a diverse player community, while at the same time encouraging designers to experiment with the form and creatively explore alternative mechanics, visual storytelling, lighting, music and sound design to create atmosphere and convey the narrative (Bozdog and Galloway, 2019).…”

“…We have to provide space and time for different types of experiences and different types of resonances to flourish" (Pinchbeck, 2012a). Walking sims allow the players the time to explore and experience the gameworld at their own pace (Kagen, 2017;2018;Ruberg, 2019;Bozdog and Galloway, 2019). Furthermore, 'walking simulator' loses all negative connotations if one considers and embraces the richness and complexity of the practice(s) of walking.…”

Humanising gaming? The politics of posthuman agency in autobiographical videogames

“…Certain words and phrases are displayed onscreen in a font suggestive of handwriting. This ‘aesthetic use of written text’ is something the game shares with other ‘literary games’ (Bozdog and Galloway, 2020: 791), and underscores its debt to autobiographical literature, with its emphasis not just on narrating events, but on exploring the psychological, emotional and spiritual dimensions of subjective experience. Like many interactive auto/biographies, That Dragon, Cancer also contains elements of ‘archival adventuring’ (Kagen, 2019), incorporating digitized documents and recordings that deliver diegetic information while foregrounding the mechanisms through which ‘memories and histories are archived and made discoverable’ in contemporary culture (Barker, 2019: 87).…”