Like all forms of media, games are easily replayable, given the individual's access to the proper hardware. If a particular game happens to scratch that itch you have for a particular storytelling device, or perhaps a gameplay mechanic or motif that strikes your fancy, you can either return to it or hold out for a future title that utilizes similar concepts. Where a film ca utilize twists and turns that can be rediscovered upon a second viewing, however, games are somewhat different. While dialogue can be utilized in games to similar effect, the idea of creating a twist through gameplay is somewhat different. While the amount of content present in games can certainly cause certain segments to be forgotten, the rules of gameplay often give the player all they need in order to tackle new or unfamiliar situations. If gameplay is merged with story, then the memory will likely keep. On the other hand, if a game's aesthetic is repetitive or the story nonexistent, the player must rely on the lessons learned through gameplay itself in order to form memories.
Introduction: Adventures and Puzzles
No two genres represent this dichotomy better than Adventure and Puzzle games. While some might argue that one falls into the other as a subgenre, the Adventure genre is usually based around puzzles with context- navigating characters and a world and figuring out the developer's intent with combinations of interactive elements. The Puzzle genre, on the other hand, is one where the developer creates systems that allow players to experiment with the tangible world. A Puzzle game might have a world that informs its design, but it is more about utilizing the rules of the game in order to solve multiple scenarios, rather than a chain of puzzles running parallel with a narrative. For example, Day of the Tentacle and Telltale's brand of games in general focus on navigating conversations properly and overcoming certain gameplay segments along a linear narrative, with the latter possessing some branching narrative paths to enhance replay value. Branching narratives are perhaps the only way an Adventure game can offer replay value, as their narrative tends to be so strong- or the gameplay that accompanies it, so memorable- that it remains familiar to the player upon replay.
On the other hand, games like Stephen's Sausage Roll, Infinifactory, and Pushmo are gameplay-oriented first, with little cause for narrative. They rely on fundamental rules for their puzzles, and trust the player to understand their surroundings and limitations in order to surmount increasingly complex scenarios. These games are exercises in critical thinking, rudimentary programming, and logic, and are expandable until all angles and elements have been exhausted. During their introductory period, these puzzles can have singular solutions designed to teach the player a new technique, but later puzzles might have multiple solutions, asking players to combine or streamline certain elements of their approach. Either way, objectives are deliberately designed in order to get players thinking about practical solutions, not just the developer's intention.
There are some games that utilize concepts from both of these genres in order to maximize their impact. Portal tells a quirky narrative of its own while building upon concepts that are context-driven but serve to complicate the fundamentals of its gameplay. There's a great deal of leading that goes on in Portal, but that isn't always something a player catches immediately- these visual cues can root themselves in the player's subconscious and guide them towards the solution. A better example might be The Swapper, an incredible puzzle platformer with delightful and bizarre gameplay mechanics that also manages to layer a rich narrative atop this in order to justify said mechanics and give context to the situation. Sometimes these games lean more on Adventure elements, at others leaning towards logic-based Puzzle elements.
What does all of this have to do with The Starship Damrey, though? This small Guild01 Adventure title is an absolute gem, partially because it introduces its concepts without any sort of tutorial- in fact, it is best played with as little knowledge of the game as possible. While that might seem like a difficult game to discuss, the introduction of this article is meant to give a whole lot of context regarding how I intend to expose the best aspects of this title, while doing as little spoiling as possible. Think of the Adventure and Puzzle elements as a lens to view this discussion.
Analysis of The Starship Damrey
First of all, I urge you not to look up anything about The Starship Damrey. The only thing you need to know is that it is a science fiction, puzzle-adventure game with absolutely no gameplay tutorial within or outside the game. That is to say, the developer's intent is that the player goes into The Starship Damrey blind, and learns every mechanic on their own, through organic experimentation and logic-based thinking.
There are some puzzles in The Starship Damrey that are a bit too contextual to be considered purely logic-based, while others require some light reading comprehension. However, The Starship Damrey is at its best when it is impeding the player's progress, asking them to experiment more and more with the systems of the game in order to reach their ultimate goal. Many of these barriers are physical, with some key-unlocking to be done in certain places, but understanding the architecture and locations of each element within the game is absolutely crucial for completion. Understanding how to read a map, for example, is needed in The Starship Damrey, but with enough experimentation, a player would come to understand their structural boundaries in their own way. There is a narrative to this title, and some might consider adding the "horror-elements" qualifier to the game, which have their own in-game logic. For the most part, however, the game is a giant puzzle box- a structure with multiple moving parts that must be clicked into place to unlock the wonderful narrative conclusion.
While many Adventure titles force the player to learn the intentions of the developer, The Starship Damrey is more of a Puzzle game in that it's intentions are that the player learn on their own. In that way, the player is not given an explanation for how to unlock its overarching puzzle, but the progression to that point feels entirely logical- with about one or two exceptions- thanks to the player's own understandings. There are multiple systems in the game that overlap atop each other, but the player is taught to move and interact with the environment based entirely on their own experience.
The only caveat is, The Starship Damrey is only playable once.
I should specify, the game does not hard-lock itself into oblivion upon player completion. The reason it is meant to be played without any prior knowledge is precisely why another replay would be considered superfluous. The way both the puzzle design and the narrative complete very succinctly offer all there is needed to understand about the game, and in that way, it is very much a puzzle box in design. Once a player has figured out the way it works, the only way to undo it is by piecing the entire thing back together again, only this time, there is no challenge because the twists and turns have been figured out.
In the sense that many Puzzle games are able to be approached from multiple angles, The Starship Damrey is not open-ended. However, while some puzzle games do allow for a small amount of freedom in how their objectives can be met, many have one specific solution that requires the player to understand the game's fundamental mechanics. In that way, The Starship Damrey offers little else after its completion because the rules and mechanics of the game will have been mastered upon completion. If the ship had been larger, perhaps the developer could implement more logic-based puzzles for the player to complete on their way to their conclusion. As it stands, however, The Starship Damrey is by no means disappointing because of its single playthrough nature. I would say that the game would not be as satisfying as it is if it was not designed with this specific intention.
What this does bring us back to, however, is the nature of a game's replay-ability. The Starship Damrey is best labeled as an Adventure game because of the structure of its narrative and the linear progression of its objectives. When these objectives are reached primarily through the player's own organic use of experience and intuition, however, it might be considered somewhat Puzzle-like in execution. The fact that it almost cannot be replayed without having its entertainment value drastically reduced, on the other hand, means that it isn't much of an Adventure game. It might not even be a compelling piece of media because of this.
What The Starship Damrey is, is an experimental game. Neither occupying the Adventure or Puzzle game genre, it is something more akin to an Organic Discovery game. I know that sounds both absurd and extremely niche, but it raises questions that more recent games utilizing organic experience have yet to truly answer. In this small game, the player is asked a rather simple question- once you've figured out all the rules to a large puzzle through your own means, has the game served its purpose? While many games have the liberty of additional packs of content that bring a player back to complete over and over, once a player has seen everything in a full product, can it offer the same kind of enjoyment? A game like Breath of the Wild is particularly enjoyable because the player must adapt to the myriad of systems it possesses, but it offers plenty of open-ended, organic exploration atop that. Even so, the most compelling part of the game might be its opening moments, where the player is becoming accustomed to this new style of gameplay. In a much more linear, scripted narrative and constrained space, however, The Starship Damrey asks a question that is fundamental- if a game is about learning, can it remain enjoyable upon completion?
A strange comparison to make might be an educational game. Titles like Jump Start are made for the player to learn from their various mini-games, but once you have mastered all of these skills, does the game remain enjoyable? Certainly, if the aesthetic and presentation is appealing enough. But The Starship Damrey is only one of those mini-games, fleshed out into a longer string of logic and investigation puzzles.
Conclusion
Would I recommend The Starship Damrey? I don't think that I can, without giving a specific qualifier. There are many games that utilize a similar narrative to this one, but the horror-elements of this title appealed to me a great deal. Likewise, I would not be writing as extensive an article on this game if I did not receive an immense amount of satisfaction from playing through this game. For its price, I feel the content that it offers is substantial, but more importantly, it is worthwhile. Though it can be easy to boil the game down to the elements most easily identified with Adventure and Puzzle games, there is something else about The Starship Damrey that works to its benefit. It is a game that I feel deserves to be shared with others, even after the individual has finished it. Pass it to a friend. Help them understand what video games have the potential to communicate utilizing gameplay and narrative in tandem, even on limited hardware like the Nintendo 3DS.
As a parting gift, I give you the summary of the game, ripped from Nintendo's website, itself:
"Seek the inconceivable truth of the Starship Damrey and discover why nothing is more frightening than complete innocence."
Do you think this article is absolutely insane? Have some strong opinions on The Starship Damrey? Do you have another example of a game that executes on the same premise, perhaps more effectively? As always, we encourage discussion, critique, and sharing if you enjoyed any part of this piece. Please feel free to follow the site for more content.
Introduction: Adventures and Puzzles
No two genres represent this dichotomy better than Adventure and Puzzle games. While some might argue that one falls into the other as a subgenre, the Adventure genre is usually based around puzzles with context- navigating characters and a world and figuring out the developer's intent with combinations of interactive elements. The Puzzle genre, on the other hand, is one where the developer creates systems that allow players to experiment with the tangible world. A Puzzle game might have a world that informs its design, but it is more about utilizing the rules of the game in order to solve multiple scenarios, rather than a chain of puzzles running parallel with a narrative. For example, Day of the Tentacle and Telltale's brand of games in general focus on navigating conversations properly and overcoming certain gameplay segments along a linear narrative, with the latter possessing some branching narrative paths to enhance replay value. Branching narratives are perhaps the only way an Adventure game can offer replay value, as their narrative tends to be so strong- or the gameplay that accompanies it, so memorable- that it remains familiar to the player upon replay.There are some games that utilize concepts from both of these genres in order to maximize their impact. Portal tells a quirky narrative of its own while building upon concepts that are context-driven but serve to complicate the fundamentals of its gameplay. There's a great deal of leading that goes on in Portal, but that isn't always something a player catches immediately- these visual cues can root themselves in the player's subconscious and guide them towards the solution. A better example might be The Swapper, an incredible puzzle platformer with delightful and bizarre gameplay mechanics that also manages to layer a rich narrative atop this in order to justify said mechanics and give context to the situation. Sometimes these games lean more on Adventure elements, at others leaning towards logic-based Puzzle elements.
What does all of this have to do with The Starship Damrey, though? This small Guild01 Adventure title is an absolute gem, partially because it introduces its concepts without any sort of tutorial- in fact, it is best played with as little knowledge of the game as possible. While that might seem like a difficult game to discuss, the introduction of this article is meant to give a whole lot of context regarding how I intend to expose the best aspects of this title, while doing as little spoiling as possible. Think of the Adventure and Puzzle elements as a lens to view this discussion.
Analysis of The Starship Damrey
First of all, I urge you not to look up anything about The Starship Damrey. The only thing you need to know is that it is a science fiction, puzzle-adventure game with absolutely no gameplay tutorial within or outside the game. That is to say, the developer's intent is that the player goes into The Starship Damrey blind, and learns every mechanic on their own, through organic experimentation and logic-based thinking.
There are some puzzles in The Starship Damrey that are a bit too contextual to be considered purely logic-based, while others require some light reading comprehension. However, The Starship Damrey is at its best when it is impeding the player's progress, asking them to experiment more and more with the systems of the game in order to reach their ultimate goal. Many of these barriers are physical, with some key-unlocking to be done in certain places, but understanding the architecture and locations of each element within the game is absolutely crucial for completion. Understanding how to read a map, for example, is needed in The Starship Damrey, but with enough experimentation, a player would come to understand their structural boundaries in their own way. There is a narrative to this title, and some might consider adding the "horror-elements" qualifier to the game, which have their own in-game logic. For the most part, however, the game is a giant puzzle box- a structure with multiple moving parts that must be clicked into place to unlock the wonderful narrative conclusion.
While many Adventure titles force the player to learn the intentions of the developer, The Starship Damrey is more of a Puzzle game in that it's intentions are that the player learn on their own. In that way, the player is not given an explanation for how to unlock its overarching puzzle, but the progression to that point feels entirely logical- with about one or two exceptions- thanks to the player's own understandings. There are multiple systems in the game that overlap atop each other, but the player is taught to move and interact with the environment based entirely on their own experience.
The only caveat is, The Starship Damrey is only playable once.
I should specify, the game does not hard-lock itself into oblivion upon player completion. The reason it is meant to be played without any prior knowledge is precisely why another replay would be considered superfluous. The way both the puzzle design and the narrative complete very succinctly offer all there is needed to understand about the game, and in that way, it is very much a puzzle box in design. Once a player has figured out the way it works, the only way to undo it is by piecing the entire thing back together again, only this time, there is no challenge because the twists and turns have been figured out.
In the sense that many Puzzle games are able to be approached from multiple angles, The Starship Damrey is not open-ended. However, while some puzzle games do allow for a small amount of freedom in how their objectives can be met, many have one specific solution that requires the player to understand the game's fundamental mechanics. In that way, The Starship Damrey offers little else after its completion because the rules and mechanics of the game will have been mastered upon completion. If the ship had been larger, perhaps the developer could implement more logic-based puzzles for the player to complete on their way to their conclusion. As it stands, however, The Starship Damrey is by no means disappointing because of its single playthrough nature. I would say that the game would not be as satisfying as it is if it was not designed with this specific intention.
What this does bring us back to, however, is the nature of a game's replay-ability. The Starship Damrey is best labeled as an Adventure game because of the structure of its narrative and the linear progression of its objectives. When these objectives are reached primarily through the player's own organic use of experience and intuition, however, it might be considered somewhat Puzzle-like in execution. The fact that it almost cannot be replayed without having its entertainment value drastically reduced, on the other hand, means that it isn't much of an Adventure game. It might not even be a compelling piece of media because of this.
What The Starship Damrey is, is an experimental game. Neither occupying the Adventure or Puzzle game genre, it is something more akin to an Organic Discovery game. I know that sounds both absurd and extremely niche, but it raises questions that more recent games utilizing organic experience have yet to truly answer. In this small game, the player is asked a rather simple question- once you've figured out all the rules to a large puzzle through your own means, has the game served its purpose? While many games have the liberty of additional packs of content that bring a player back to complete over and over, once a player has seen everything in a full product, can it offer the same kind of enjoyment? A game like Breath of the Wild is particularly enjoyable because the player must adapt to the myriad of systems it possesses, but it offers plenty of open-ended, organic exploration atop that. Even so, the most compelling part of the game might be its opening moments, where the player is becoming accustomed to this new style of gameplay. In a much more linear, scripted narrative and constrained space, however, The Starship Damrey asks a question that is fundamental- if a game is about learning, can it remain enjoyable upon completion?
A strange comparison to make might be an educational game. Titles like Jump Start are made for the player to learn from their various mini-games, but once you have mastered all of these skills, does the game remain enjoyable? Certainly, if the aesthetic and presentation is appealing enough. But The Starship Damrey is only one of those mini-games, fleshed out into a longer string of logic and investigation puzzles.
Conclusion
Would I recommend The Starship Damrey? I don't think that I can, without giving a specific qualifier. There are many games that utilize a similar narrative to this one, but the horror-elements of this title appealed to me a great deal. Likewise, I would not be writing as extensive an article on this game if I did not receive an immense amount of satisfaction from playing through this game. For its price, I feel the content that it offers is substantial, but more importantly, it is worthwhile. Though it can be easy to boil the game down to the elements most easily identified with Adventure and Puzzle games, there is something else about The Starship Damrey that works to its benefit. It is a game that I feel deserves to be shared with others, even after the individual has finished it. Pass it to a friend. Help them understand what video games have the potential to communicate utilizing gameplay and narrative in tandem, even on limited hardware like the Nintendo 3DS.
As a parting gift, I give you the summary of the game, ripped from Nintendo's website, itself:
"Seek the inconceivable truth of the Starship Damrey and discover why nothing is more frightening than complete innocence."
Do you think this article is absolutely insane? Have some strong opinions on The Starship Damrey? Do you have another example of a game that executes on the same premise, perhaps more effectively? As always, we encourage discussion, critique, and sharing if you enjoyed any part of this piece. Please feel free to follow the site for more content.
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