Developer: Mobius Digital Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Release year: 2019 Spoilers: Minimal Reviewed on: PC
Imagine a cross between a camping trip, an Indiana Jones adventure and a journey into space: Outer Wilds somehow merges these evocative images together. Mobius have created a beautiful single-player game combining space exploration with puzzle-solving and woven everything together with an emotionally compelling narrative. Set in a new solar system with excitingly unique planets to explore, players take on the role of a new astronaut on their first venture into space. In this post, I will be focusing on how narrative is used to deliver the ‘tutorial’ of the game, and how their approach to the tutorial narrative reflects their approach to the game as a whole. Outer Wilds is best experienced with the least knowledge of what it entails, so whilst I have kept the spoilers to a minimum, I recommend not reading further if this game interests you enough to try it.
Mobius’ game introduction differs from a usual tutorial as the player can choose what they interact with, and so how much they learn. Players are directed through the village and, along their journey, they can read the notes displayed in the environment, talk to the Hearthians (NPCs) and take part in activities. These activities are playfully designed: a boy invites you to fly their model spaceship; a worker mentions getting ‘zero g practise’; some children want to play hide and seek using your signalscope. Mobius succeed in conveying a sense of community and excitement within the village – this is especially interesting after learning the initial design involved the villagers being opposed to space travel (Noclip - Video Game Documentaries, 2020). Their choice to change this and have the NPC interactions encourage the player to explore space makes more sense in terms of the narrative and motivation of the player.
Yet, are there issues with having too much agency in the tutorial? Encouraging players to keep playing the game can become difficult if the player struggles to grasp the mechanics of the game. The tutorial game design relies on the player to choose to interact with the ‘lessons’ which can cause later frustration if not done. This can also be accentuated by there being too many possible interactions within the village, creating boredom or restlessness. The villagers’ encouragement can also enhance this after the first few conversations and so players may miss out on valuable learning opportunities.
The team deliberately designed a path that guides the player past these opportunities, and they could also have decided for certain important interactions to be triggered by proximity. This would ensure that the player understands important contextual information (e.g. ghost matter) or how to respond in certain situations (e.g. making ship repairs in space). Yet, forcing these narrative elements would change this game section to a more embedded narrative structure and decrease player choice. The designers have to weigh up what is more important: setting up the theme of player freedom or providing instructions regarding game mechanics.
Considering this, their decision to maintain the approach that characterises their game (player autonomy) takes precedence; it fits in with their mission to create a game without explicit mission markers or objectives. Those who choose to interact with all of the available opportunities are rewarded with compelling narrative experience/information, whilst those who bypass these will experience the enjoyment of figuring the mechanics out on their own terms. There is only one ‘mandatory’ conversation in Outer Wilds – retrieving the launch codes – and this is a justifiable exception that helps establish the narrative and mechanics. The mandatory conversation with Hornfels reinstates player autonomy through his question, “What’s your plan?”, thereby indicating your independence within the game.
There is much more to Outer Wilds than I have touched upon here so I hope to explore more narrative elements in the future: the characterisation of the Nomai, the non-linear plot and the distortion of space and time… This game offers rich content to explore and interact with, and has been one of my favourite games to play during the current lockdown. On that note, I might go jump in my spaceship…
Reference: Noclip - Video Game Documentaries, 2020. The Making of Outer Wilds - Documentary. [Online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbY0mBXKKT0 [Accessed March 2021].
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