Why Do We Love Hostile Worlds? 

Want to check out the fancy NEW patreon tier? yeah this isn't a joke just go check it out it's cool... probably www.patreon.com/ArchitectofGames Know what the REAL most hostile possible world is? Twitter dot com am I right eeyyyyy lmao gottem: twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot

The first time I accidently stumbled into Deepnest in Hollow Knight really impressed me. It changed the game from 'I wonder what's back there' to 'what just happened and how the f#§& do I get out of here' in mere seconds.

"Slug CAT- which, you might imagine, is this half snail, half DOG..." - Adam Millard, 2022

This video is just another regularly scheduled reminder that *YOU MUST PLAY OUTER WILDS*.

Subnautica felt trully alien (before getting used to, since there's not enough turbulance). Progress is tracked by going down, not up. Your most valuable resource early on is your oxygen, which trickles down super fast. EVERYTHING is either wanting to kill you or indiferent. And after a while, the parts that are above ground feel the most alien. There are few games I would wish to experience again, but Subnautica (1) would be one of the top ones.

I think my favourite 'Hostile World' experience is the world of STALKER. The world is simulation/systems-driven enough that you really feel like the world outside of the main story just does not care that you're there. If you run into a hard enemy, it's because you walked into its territory, not because the game is trying to give you a challenge.

Totally agree with how Stray made me change my point of view on how to traverse. My bf and I both had moments while playing where we'd run into some perceived barrier to progression until we realized "oh wait, wtf do we care about this? We're a cat," and walk right through it.

Rain world is a masterpiece, it simultaneously invents and perfects its own genre of games and every part of it works cohesively to create a harsh, difficult, beautiful, unpredictable and alien world. To anyone reading this who hasn’t yet, give it a try!

Rain World is one of my favorite games. The ambience, music, mechanics, enemies AI. It all comes together so nice, even when you feel outnumbered and weak it makes you want to keep going and find the next safe, explore the next area, try to be creative on how you approach the predators that want to eat you. It is an amazing experience, very refreshing and so much fun! I've been playing coop with mods and it is a really fun time!

Player: "Okay, so I can use these poles to get around and escape danger. Therefore, pole good." Rainworld: "ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT"

When I first discovered the abyss in Hollow Knight, I felt like I really wasn't supposed to be there. Seeing all the dead siblings and the sea of void made me feel like I was way too deep down, at the bottom of the world. Great feeling.

Proposal: The ultimate foundation of all fun is learning. The reason why all moderately intelligent animals from octopuses to humans instinctively enjoy playing is because play - at its most primitive level, creating "random" challenges and solving them - broadens one's understanding of how the real world works, and new understanding can potentially give you a survival advantage in a future encounter. We create games to satisfy this primal instinct by constructing new worlds and challenging the player to learn how they work. Whether this is unlocking a new area, discovering a new item or creature, progressing in the story, or mastering the game's mechanics, the player is always learning something new about the game's world. Once the player has stopped learning, the game stops being fun. (Which brings up an interesting side-point: if all fun is learning, why isn't all learning fun? And more importantly - COULD it be? The "edutainment" boom of the 90s was hot garbage, but maybe that's just because the games were poorly designed. Games which merge real-world knowledge into their core mechanics are objectively a more effective way of teaching that specific knowledge than book-learning can ever hope to be...)

I don't think I've ever made it through an AoG episode without adding at least one new game to my wish list 😅 this time it was Rain World

One of my favourite things about Rain World is its use of contrast in gameplay. You experience both incredibly unforgiving frenetic sequences where your teeth start to ache from all the anger and stress, and at the same time, completely unexpected segments where you can literally just place down your controller, lean back on your chair, and just relax to its incredible visuals and gorgeous ambience/music. ("Stargazer" still sends shivers down my spine) Since finishing the game, I have been listening to its ost and ambience tracks every night in order to fall asleep faster. Trully and Incredible game! Videocult knocked it out of the park! :)

I wrote a whole essay about this once. It's because the spirit of adventure REQUIRES a hostile world. I mean think about it, what is adventurous about a world that helps you along as you go along? It is deeply immersion breaking when you can see the hand of the developer. Which is why many open world games are FINALLY figuring out that giving the player less information (or making the gathering of such information part of the gameplay) actually enhances their visceral experience of the world.

I appreciate you mentioning Lorn's Lure. Its demo was really great and the game defintely deserves more recognition

My favorite game that fits the “hostile world” category has got to be Darkwood. Like a lot of the games mentioned in the video and in the other comments, it super effectively makes the player feel like they’re no longer the dominant force in their environment and that they need to adapt to survive. It’s similar in nature to STALKER in how it’s largely driven by an atmosphere of unfamiliarity, like you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be.

This reminds me of Antichamber. A first person puzzler that operates on its own internally consistent set of rules, but a set of rules that is rather alien to the player from the start. You learn them as you go and eventually have no trouble navigating non-euclidean spaces.

“Humans are so good at adapting we get bored” that’s what this video says

Oh, the Rain World! I'm so glad it was mentioned. The game deserves to be more widely known.

I love rain world and I'm happy you're talking about it, since it never gets much recognition, even in channels that delve into obscure games.

Rainworld from a game designers perspective is my favorite indie game I’ve ever played, and I’ve played Celeste pizza tower, hollow knight, outer wilds, etc.😅 now that downpour is out please talk about it more 😊

To be fair to Minecraft, from some things I've seen, the Warden has caught players of guard and instilled fear in them, for the first time since their first weird cave noise.

I think s phenomenal game that fits the alien category (the most alien/hostile I've ever played actually) is NaissanceE. It's so cold, so foreboding, and sparse of mechanics. But it sucks you in with nearly curiosity alone. It's a short game at around 5 hours, and it's free! Please try it out!

My favourite hostile world experience is Subnautica. There's so much progression from swimming around outside your escape pod to sailing your 3 man sub out from a self-sufficient base so you can deploy your mechsuit to mine needed resources or explore dangerous areas. There's so much lore to figure out the massively intricate ecosystem you're struggling to survive in. There's the mystery of your fellow crewmembers of the Aurora, the Degassi survivors, and the alien efforts to cure the Khaara plague. You have so much to explore. And yet, despite that, it never stops feeling alien. You are still stranded in the ocean, and even with the biggest tank, you've still only got about 4 minutes outside of a sub or base or below the surface before you just die because too much water, oxygen not found. You still find Leviathans and, critically, still have to get away from them because even in your mechsuit, you're still not really able to fight them effectively. ...I mean, you can, if you're determined enough, but it's kinda a fool's errand. You never develop a tool that both promises and delivers on the idea of "you can now hunt Leviathans" - the rifle stops time, the torpedo launchers cause whirlwinds or ....what do gas torpedoes do again?.... and your knife is frankly small enough that it wouldn't be particularly efficient at killing another person, let alone Reapers...and those are the smallest hostile Leviathans. The mechsuit can punch things and drill them enough to make them leave you alone, but....the game deliberately avoids giving you a tool that completely solves the problem the hostile creatures represent. Except possibly the cyclops with a shield generator. And through most of the game, the plot is occasionally reminding you that you are dying of a plague that the people who put a gigantic orbital cannon on the only solid island never cured. The only time the game feels less hostile is when you start accepting the alien-ness of this world for what it is, not on a game design level like Control and Journey to the Savage Planet, but the same kind of way you accept the real ocean, only the real ocean doesn't have hypnofish and giant fire spitting squid-dragons. (I've seen enough deep sea fish to not be 100% confident there's not a small ghost leviathan or reaper leviathan -like creature down there. But Mesmers and Sea Dragon Leviathans, no way.)

This video reminded me a lot of your Subnautica Terror video when you mentioned making dying infrequent actually increasing hostility. I think it's the same reason some people so strongly dislike save-scumming in rogue likes: once the stakes are revealed to be ultimately hollow, everything feels less exciting.

The bit about extraction games reminded me how Escape From Tarkov is genuinely one of the scariest games I've ever played. Trying to get to an extract with a quest item you've spent hours finding is seriously terrifying.

STALKER: Anomaly (stand-alone mod) ALWAYS keeps you on your toes, even in the starting area. It's such a superb game for atmosphere and immersion to the point that you want to take a break from that world while being in-world by chilling by the fire and listening to the in-game music

I highly recommend hylics (or hylics 2 if you want a more polished experience) if you enjoy alien games. The dialogue is incomprehensible, the visuals are one of a kind and the mechanics are just a joy to watch

17:00 "As we play games and build up a subconscious knowledge of how they work, it becomes more difficult for a game to actually feel unpredictable" Very well said. I think this is one of your best videos and it captured exactly what I look for when I play new games. It's not about the genre but the feeling of overcoming and navigating the challenges of a brand new world. And indeed, it becomes very difficult to keep capturing that spark.

Great video, good points! I just want to point out that Control has a very intense SCP vibe rather than Lovecraftian, and that this same fear of the unknown stays throughout most of the game. There are also several times where you think "how do I even get there" and later discover a power that allows you to do so, or you discover another power that interacts with the environment, which makes you realize that you've seen several of these interaction points earlier, but never recognized them as something you could interact with, prompting you to go back for special rewards.

Glad you mentioned Rain World! It's good to see one of my favorite games up there that changed how I see games. The pattern recognition is sorta unavoidable, but the antidote for it I've seen is sensible placement. Rain World has a bunch of pipes, which are just floating ledges when you think about it, but they all have a place in the world. Some are rebar for concrete, others are support beams, and they feel like they're supposed to be there. Length changes appear random as well, giving that sense of corrosion and decay over dozens of years. I think the air vents in Stray have this issue, just sorta being there instead of showing their purpose. Venting air into small areas doesn't seem to make that much sense.

I was stuck in front of a metal gate for a few minutes in Stray, looking around the environment looking for alternate paths. I will never forget the moment it clicked that I'm a cat, I can just walk right through. I'd been so conditioned by other games to see a closed gate as an obstacle I forgot I'd seen cats walk through similar spaces hundreds of times in real life. That was a brilliant level design.

Funny you mention amnesia when talking about dying, because that's my biggest complaint about the game. Mainly that death has little to no consequence and can in some situations actually be a benefit by spawning you or the monster somewhere more advantageous. When you realize the best strategy is to run up and hug the monster, the game loses any horror it may have had.

You succinctly summed up the wonderful tension of patterns and entertainment. We need patterns in order to learn and understand, but we also need patterns to be shaken up to beat boredom and be entertained. That push-and-pull is the fundamental challenge underlining all creative pursuits. Good stuff!

The best part about starting out on the back foot is the feeling of getting back to the front foot.

A great game I HIGHLY suggest is 7 days to die. Cause it's similar to when someone plays Minecraft for the first time where it's terrifying. But it keeps that throughout the game until you are capable of sustaining yourself of resources and ammo. As well as armor to make sure you don't get injured too much. It's a great game and soonish they're gonna add bandits to the game, making it all more hostile and terrifying to live in

The bees bit is delightfully nightvale-esque. I can just imagine Cecil going "Todays programming has been brought to you by our sponsor: Bees. Bees, They carry the pollen which fertilizes our corn, and who have listened carefully to our request for them not to pollinate Wheat, but do so anyways. Bees."

God I love rain world so much, it really pulls off the idea of the world being it's own ecosystem. In over words, the world isn't there for you and you alone, and if you / the player isnt there then the world will keep going out without you

Superliminal and Antechamber do a good job with the uncanny by having the most basic assumptions like how space and perception operate being what are challenged. And both are short enough that they uncanny doesn't really fade into the familiar as much as in longer games.

There are few things I love in games more than finding, or sometimes forging a safe space in a hostile world, whether it's finding/visiting a hub world between journeys, or mastering an area of the world so well that it doesn't feel hostile anymore, despite it still being full of enemies. Hell, I even find this feeling in the least likely genre, RTS games, I always play like a tank (against AI especially), slowly chipping away at enemy territory, and by the end of the match, I like to look back at areas of the map that were previously full of hostile units, now fortified by mine as a secondary base. This feeling is all about control I guess, which is exactly the opposite of what this video is trying to say, telling us to go outside our comfort zones (Something I've been trying to do for a while) instead of expanding them, but I just wanted to share my feelings about the video's topic.

I'm so glad game design tube is finally giving rainworld credit, I picked it up a few years ago on sale mainly because I found the steam store page so intriguing and it quickly became one of my favourite games ever. the design of the game feels so disinterested in your enjoyment that it makes it far more immersive than any other game I've played. it's a game that was only possible once the devs abandoned the assumption that games should be fair, and I think that's the main reason so many people bounced off it.

Getting aggroed in the baby area by Rotbart is iconic, but XCX is the best at that. You'll think you're approaching a wrecked ship and suddenly Uncontrollable starts playing.

Stray may have a dedicated meow button, but Cult Of The Lamb has a dedicated bleat button.

Outer Wilds was great for this type of feeling, despite having an inviting art direction

i think the unspoken black-hole in the room is: many entertainment companies will not bother with all this because they can make more money selling lowest-common-denominator spam forever

Cat and Dog was the answer all along, of course! How could we have missed that for all these years?! Great video as always Adam, love your new nomenclature XD

This channel is amazing. Been binging your videos all day. Informative and entertaining while helping me rethink game design 🎉

You've quickly become my favorite creator to see new videos posted. Thanks for all the great content.

It was only for like a second but I'm so happy to see someone show anything about The Eternal Cylinder. That game really doesn't get enough attention

I’m highly surprised you didn’t mention Don’t Starve anywhere here. That game absolutely NAILS the feeling of a world that wants you dead

Another banger of a video, love your insights lad. Keep up the good work.

god that last puzzle in the looker made me so mad how did I not see it coming

That was a fantastic vid! Thanks for that and the acronyms!

You can feel detached from a world when it feels like the world could exist without you. Grime's world immediately comes to mind: there are all sorts of enemies that won't attack you until you attack them, but there are instances of those same enemies that will attack you on sight and other instances of enemies that use those same character models that won't attack you at all, and instead will just speak with you. It's also very challenging, which helps the game feel like it's not made for you. However, UNWORTHY has probably the most hostile world I've ever played in. Being tortured in the opening cutscene, the phrase "you are a broken bell" within that opening cutscene, the high difficulty, the black and white aesthetic designed to evoke hopelessness in the player, the inability to jump in a 2D metroidvania, NPCs complaining about how much the world sucks, some downright disturbing enemy designs (even though most of them aren't all that scary), and a late-game story beat that I won't spoil outside of it messing me up mentally for a few days all contribute to the feeling that UNWORTHY's world isn't made for you. It never feels like you can predict what the world is going to throw at you to the point where the items necessary for progression don't have obvious tells for where you'd use them in the environment. Even the death screen (which you will see very often) contributes to this message, because instead of trying to reduce the sting of defeat or reminding you that you lost, you will instead see the reality of your failure. UNWORTHY puts its title on the death screen, telling you that you haven't earned the right to move on in the game. Where other games may try to encourage you with reducing the sting of defeat, UNWORTHY does not.

I think it is interesting you highlighted both Stray and Rain World in the same video as, largely in setting, I felt like Stray seemed inspired by Rain World. I got impeccable Rain World vibes from Stray with the whole post-apocalyptic, grimey, maybe sorta re-grown urban aesthetic. The whole sequence at the beginning with the cat falling away from its friends/family also seems to be nearly the same as the opening to Rain World.

I love this type of content. Please keep it up!!!!

Your highlighting of Stray forcing the player to rethink their environment, made me think of the Aliens Vs Predator games, especially playing as a xenomorph. Knowing that you can cling to/traverse any surface makes the gameplay in that mode far more dynamic and interesting.

I think the conclusion from this one is great. Definitely agree that the critical detail is how you achieve understanding of the game's world, both the process and the pacing. Even if the conclusion you draw from some part of a game world is something you've seen before, if you have to build that understanding up from reasoning about the world itself instead of pattern matching to other games, it'll be good. After all, there's basically no better definition of something 'fitting' in a world than that. rain world and outer wilds best videogames

I like you more and more with each video. You make so much sense.

Fallout New Vegas actually has some areas that do this, and I wish it was stronger. When you start out, there are some things you absolutely have no choice but to run from, or certain enemies you simply cannot deal with. Modding it to make these themes stronger and extend to more enemies makes the game immensely better!

12:27 "You play as this adorable creature called a "SlugCat" - Which as you might imagine is half SNAIL, half DOG..." ME: So it's not a SnailDog then? OK cool...

Absolutely love this channel ❤️

Man, this is such a great channel.

kenshi ticks all of those boxes and then some it also has cats

Rain world is a game that blew away all my expectations. Glad to see you covered it!

i feel pikmin 2 does an amazing job of making me uncomfortable, the bulbear for example is a big threat because its unpredictable, it could run around gathering children, it could eat all your pikmin carrying something. the boss arenas are great too like the long legs bosses having web shadows cast onto the floor, the whole submerged castle, the bulblax queen having many crushed insects. the sheer quantity of traps always keeps you on edge too

I think a hostile world that does its job really damn well is Don't Starve's. The game has a lot of standard survival mechanics but it sometimes doesn't really uses a lot of typical video game iconography so you're not sure about how things will turn out until you actually try them. As a new player a lot of events have seemingly random triggers, like how the heck are you supposed that cutting trees would spawn a treeguard? And it's impressively systemic in the ways some mechanics interact with each other interact sometimes. It's basically designed in a way that requires your constant attention or things could go south incredibly (and hilariously) quickly

6:57 gotta love the Don't hug me I'm scared clock

This is a very interesting analysis, I really liked the video. Although I must say, until very late game, creepers in minecraft still give you the chills when you randomly hear that tssss sound next to you in a dark cave lol

I think Noita would've been an EXCELLENT example of a game that's challenging, alien and turbulent.

Whether hostile worlds are fun for me to explore greatly depends on what quality the save havens have. It's fun to overcome challenging environments, but worlds which have no space to (reasonably) retreat to when you're done feel overwhelming and exhausting. I have a strong preference with games that have good hubs that (ideally) contain friendly NPCs, allow for the restocking and reorganizing of resources and provide a place for meaningful parts of the story to play out. When playing Minecraft, the the first thing I usually do is to locate a village and make that my base of operations for a while. The parts of World of Warcraft I'm most fond of are the capital cities and memorable quest hubs/settlements. Returning from an extended trip in the wilderness, turning in a bunch of quests, selling off collected junk, storing collected resources and restocking on critical supplies is at least equally as satisfying as overcoming said wilderness. Sometimes, when all the fighting and killing starts feeling like work, it's a nice fallback to just hang out with a bunch of friendly NPCs for a while, to explore their dwellings and to plan, organize and improve your character or operation in a protected environment.

The STALKER games seem to fit this mold. It's a game that is not afraid to let you bleed to death under a bridge. And you'll never be safe, no matter what you achieve, in The Long Dark

It's an older title, but NaissanceE is a great game for that alien feeling. Its spaces are large and mostly indifferent to the player, so it avoids the Mirror's Edge issue of making parkour paths super obvious.

NaissanceE (not a typo) is the most alien game I've ever played, and because of that and where I was at in my life when I played it, it resonated deeply.

This essay was so engaging. I put it on while grinding Destiny, and set my controller down and listened to the whole thing.

12:26 "you play as this adorable creature called a slugcat, which is as you can imagine, half slug HALF DOG"

Great video, rain world is an awesome game it’s ai is extremely complex and cool, it has a great difficulty system as well. Btw did you know that it’s animations for all its creatures are procedurally generated.

I recognize that clock....

I got the looker after you mentioned it and oh man it did NOT disappoint.

There’s this fancy little VR horror game that I adore called Into The Radius that exemplifies pretty much everything in this (minus having a cat so far). Theres just enough mundane human activities that you need to do to keep you grounded as a regular person within the fiction, and that completely juxtaposes with the terror of the unfathomable cosmic events happening around you, and makes you feel even more powerless and alone in an environment that used to be familiar but is now warped beyond comfort

I knew this video was something special when Lorn's Lure was mentioned. You really do your research!

Was not expecting anything on rain world but a realy good suprise, such a good game

I think this video taught me that what I've been trying to do with Minecraft for many years since I started playing was to recreate the initial sense of danger and fear that I initially had when I started as a wee child. I've had some success even, and have approached the task of making the game more difficult all over again dozens of times, but I think seeing my gradual shift towards playing more roguelikes in my free time demonstrates a point the video ends on, which is that we can either embrace the empowerment that follows mastery over these hostile worlds, or we can keep searching for new lands to tame and opportunities to pursue.

Hope you have a great day adam and that your video performs well. Best wishes :)

NaissanceE is a game (I hope he talks about it, I'm commenting early) that is a master at the feeling of a hostile world. I've beat it, twice, explored every secret little nook, every repeating, deceiving, humanity disregarding room. And... I don't know if the ways I've taken through some areas are intended. I genuinely feel like it wasn't meant to be played. The creator exists, but his inspirations we're large worlds that were never made for us, and despite fulfilling the brief perfectly, you can't see his fingerprints anywhere, it's like he was an afterthought. It doesn't need me, it doesn't need you, it wasn't made for you, it's alien, and sovereign, and if that appeals to you, it won't care. But I will, go play it.

"...Understand an enemy's inner workings." *Gaping Dragon* Can we all just appreciate the time he spends on visual gags?

The darkness of mouldwood depths in ori and the will of the wisps made me uneasy. It feels so oppressive and is super threatening (oneshots you if you stay in the dark for too long) Combined with the absolutely gorgeous visuals and perfect soundtrack it remains my favorite level of any game ever made!

this is part of why modded minecraft is so important. just throwing a bunch of new rules into minecraft can make the game feel new again for a time

Very insightful essay :D

Yo! Glad to see a mention of Lorn’s Lure! I’m a big fan of the works it’s inspired by, BLAME!, and am even on a related discord with the creator

Bro the half snail half dog joke had me dying, I don't know why it was so funny, but I swear that is the hardest I have laughed all week

I think the new deep dark biome in Minecraft fits your CAT model really well: -In true Minecraft fashion, it is as challenging to explore as you allow it to be. You can of course just retreat every time you get shrieked at, but if you go in too deep or you run into hostile mobs, things can get messy fast. -It introduces the vibration mechanic, which is a completely new threat to the player and messes with your ability to mine and place blocks, limiting the tools at your disposal. Plus, the dedicated soundtrack for this biome really gives the feeling that the biome is alive and hostile to you. -Since the cave generation is random, it is always posible that there is a shrieker in a nearby cave, even if you cannot see any skulk, which means the only way to truly be sure if the area is save is to cause vibrations and check if you get shrieked at. The formations of shriekers and sensors you will run into can also be very akward and challenging to pacify. TLDR: The deep dark biome is nightmare fuel and I love it.

I fondly recall an old Flash game called "Depict One", which was a platformer deliberately designed to break your standard assumptions of how platformers worked. Shiny collectible gems hurt you while spikes help you, for instance. I found it very effective at creating a disorienting experience.

Jesus, there are so many weird games here that I haven't heard of before. If nothing else (and there is PLENTY else), you're well-versed in a variety of games. You keep making me think "how the hell haven't I heard of this before??"

Although I've seen many hostile worlds in games 2 standout right now 1. Alien homeworld in Alien Isolation, it felt like humans shouldn't be here and that just made me wanna know every secret it held 2. Valheim Black Forest. Again you should not be here, dark, dangerous, everything wants you dead yet I built a huge fortress in the middle of it. The idea of living somewhere I know most people struggle to even survive in is just amazing

7:21 ok, that got a laugh out of me. well done bro

You know what? I feel like I am just a tad bit more grateful for bees, now. Thank you.

A old game called echo is one of the most unsettling stealth games I’ve played in the beginning but the magic dies fast once you realize you should never run when the lights are on.

Rain World!