It's gonna be awesome to download Surmount from the eShop and finally play it!
Last night, I was a bit restless and decided to look around the eShop and I looked for Surmount in the list of upcoming games. The top of the list was a game called "Insurmountable" -- I kind of had to do a double take there. It's another climbing game but it couldn't be more different from Surmount.
I think games as a whole are still struggling with a significant narrative problem. You want something that is fun and engaging but how do you "funnel" all of that play and interactivity into something that is also meaningful and fulfilling? A game about climbing a mountain, I think, has turned out to be a great solution to this problem. Everyone understands the meaning of reaching the top of a mountain, how what we are really climbing is ourselves, deep down, and how the mountain and the game serve as metaphors for each other. The mechanics and interactivity all become a bit meaningful insofar as they relate to climbing the mountain. Every step of progress is evident as well as any step back.
To sum up my thesis: the mounting climbing game is a beautiful confluence of meaning and mechanics.
(Now that my coffee stained thesis has been turned in, I gotta pull of the lab coat and get some fresh air, as I'm nervously awaiting the year-long review process...)
Thanks! And happy birthday to you too, hope you'll have a good one! 🎈
I actually didn't try the game on Switch until last week cause I didn't manage to get a devkit, so I had a bit of the customer experience with redeeming an early code and stuff, it felt a bit surreal.
I've seen Insurmountable! It came out around the time we started making Surmount. They are sooo different yeah.
It's a great thesis about mountain climbing games. I'm sure many more games like it will be made over time, even if it's not because of our influence.
Happy birthday and congrats! Excited to see how it does!
Thanks Grant! :- ))
Happy birthday! Mine is in 2 days :)
It's gonna be awesome to download Surmount from the eShop and finally play it!
Last night, I was a bit restless and decided to look around the eShop and I looked for Surmount in the list of upcoming games. The top of the list was a game called "Insurmountable" -- I kind of had to do a double take there. It's another climbing game but it couldn't be more different from Surmount.
I think games as a whole are still struggling with a significant narrative problem. You want something that is fun and engaging but how do you "funnel" all of that play and interactivity into something that is also meaningful and fulfilling? A game about climbing a mountain, I think, has turned out to be a great solution to this problem. Everyone understands the meaning of reaching the top of a mountain, how what we are really climbing is ourselves, deep down, and how the mountain and the game serve as metaphors for each other. The mechanics and interactivity all become a bit meaningful insofar as they relate to climbing the mountain. Every step of progress is evident as well as any step back.
To sum up my thesis: the mounting climbing game is a beautiful confluence of meaning and mechanics.
(Now that my coffee stained thesis has been turned in, I gotta pull of the lab coat and get some fresh air, as I'm nervously awaiting the year-long review process...)
Thanks! And happy birthday to you too, hope you'll have a good one! 🎈
I actually didn't try the game on Switch until last week cause I didn't manage to get a devkit, so I had a bit of the customer experience with redeeming an early code and stuff, it felt a bit surreal.
I've seen Insurmountable! It came out around the time we started making Surmount. They are sooo different yeah.
It's a great thesis about mountain climbing games. I'm sure many more games like it will be made over time, even if it's not because of our influence.