The Importance of Abzu
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- čas přidán 15. 09. 2016
- In this episode of Writing on Games, I examine a game which I felt didn't get enough attention at launch - Giant Squid's 'Abzu'.
After playing games with my nephew for a long time, I found that even games like Minecraft caused him frustration due to their surprising mechanical complexity. I wondered why there weren't any games that could do the same thing the writing in Pixar's films manages to achieve, for example-provide a valid experience for everyone, regardless of age.
As it turns out, Abzu fills that gap very nicely - not only is it a non-combat focused, somewhat educational experience for children, the game has relatively simple controls which reward even imprecise movement with beautiful fluid animations. As such, for me, the game was a break from mechanically intense games - for him, it was the first experience he'd had with a game in which he felt truly in control.
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This is a videogame where sharks aren't treated as dangerous enemies. I think that is kind of important to teach children and adults alike.
Sharks are my favorite things ever
@@ellieosteen8322 same
A shark bit my great uncle’s weenie off.
I never think about how natural controlling games is to people who've been playing them their whole lives until I see someone who rarely plays games struggle to do things as basic as movement.
And jesus christ this game is gorgeous I need to play this
also great video, subscribed
Atavism I just started playing csgo after a year and I can say that almost the same thing happened to me I could not move at all and had zero idea where my charter was in relation to my view, it really was quite odd and made me think of what it's like for new gamers
Thing is, we had far more time to learn to use a controller for example. We had the NES-controller with 8 buttons. SMB gave us plenty of space in 1-1 to figure out the controls without showing it to you one single time. And shoulder came later so we only had to learn 2 aditional buttons. And only then came the Joystick into game. We had many many years and iterations to learn controllers and control schemes what todays beginner have to learn in a single game with a single controller that has all those iterations woven into it.
Not only older people learnt controller layouts at that pace - my first console was the Wii (which obviously doesn't have many buttons at all on its controller), then I added the Nunchuk (introducing me to analog sticks), and then finally progressed to the modern, Wii U/Xbox/PS4 controller layout with dual analog sticks.
A lot of people learnt video games that way, starting with the Wii, and for that, you really have to give credit to Nintendo for effectively introducing a whole new generation of gamers to controls, yet letting adults continue to have a fulfilling experience using the WiiMote. Much like Abzû, they brilliantly targeted both audiences at the same time.
Fantastic video, maybe my favourite yet.
Kids don't get enough credit in any medium as far as I'm concerned, I still think Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best TV shows I have ever watched despite being aimed at kids because it didn't patronize, it didn't dumb down or sugarcoat any of its themes, it never pulled a punch and respected it's young audience enough to put eastern philosophies and rather tragic stories into a kids show about fancy martial arts with a twist of magic (Zuko's three season long arc is still one of my personal favourite arcs in any show, whether aimed at kids or adults).
On the point of mechanical knowledge getting in the way of enjoying a game I think adults have the exact same response; I showed my dad a review of The Music Machine (an independent atmospheric game) I put together for his opinions on how I could improve and he was interested in playing it for himself when the likes of Telltale's The Walking Dead or Mass Effect have both been completely unappealing to him.
I really need to play this game (journey too), just need to get a PS4 first.
Edit: Damn, I thought it was a PS4 exclusive for some reason. I'm an idiot, but I'm happy I am in this instance.
Thanks so much! I really appreciate it. I think that any media for kids that doesn't talk down to them is destined for some kind of success.
"The channel is almost at 5,000 subscribers, which is utterly insane to me."
Honestly, with content this good, and coming out do regularly, I think it's fucking insane you aren't at 100,000 subscribers. Great job, as always, and I hope you get even more subs in the future!
Thank you so much!
He's now at 13 K. What happened in the last month?
Nevets t. Smith Blighttown vid got real popular!
exponential growth m8
indeed.
I found you through your dark souls review. You're absolutely wonderful. You have a unique eye for the medium, and I will be looking forward to each review you come out with.
Now I really want to pick this up for my 5 year old and I to play together. I almost entirely skipped over this one, but you've got me thinking about it in a different light.
Playing this while you're high is an amazing experience
Really, really interesting perspective on a game I hadn't heard of before. Also, this may very well be the best (accidental) promotion this game has. Well done.
It's more than just kids, it's anyone who isn't acquainted with the control scheme of today's games. Games try to be or are more complicated than they were 30 years ago and that's evident in the amount of buttons on our controllers. An NES controller has 6 buttons (A+B and D-pad), PS3/360/XONE 17 buttons, PS4 18 buttons. Abzu is a mechanically simple game; it doesn't need as many of the buttons. If by "games for kids" you mean mechanically simple, there's a whole bunch of games trying to give that simple NES/SNES feel (Shovel Knight, Shantae, Rayman)
Just to add my own story, other than Wii Sports my mother hasn't really played anything on a console since the N64. I had her play Journey thinking, it wasn't demanding in terms of gameplay and in terms of the buttons she'd need to press. The concept of constantly controlling the camera with the Right stick was too new for her and she struggled for most of the session. I'd forgotten how long I struggled when I was learning to play Halo 3 7 years ago.
Flopsy J. Your story reminds me of when I first played Resident Evil 4 back when I was 8 or so. I'm scratching my head trying to remember for sure but it really must've been my first experience with manual aim in full 3 dimensions and I was in the process of adjusting and figuring it all out all the while my uncle was face palming so hard I'm surprised he has a head left on his shoulders cuz how horrible I was with it(apparently shooting _directly_ up at the sky _a lot_ as I remember it)
Your videos are killer, I'm happy your channel was recommended to me!
One of my favorite games as a kid (in a similar fashion) was Riven. There was no way I could solve the puzzles, but I could click through the beautiful and surreal world. I could also marvel at how cool some of the incredibly simple puzzles were even though I had no idea how to solve them without my dad's help. The simple controls, lack of pressing objectives, and rich world were all a factor in how my brother and I could enjoy it at a very young age.
Wow your videos and writing are phenomenal!! I really enjoy all the interesting and new perspectives you bring up, especially on the way games feel to children. I think games can be a fantastic medium for them to explore their creativity and (as you said) get in contact with the great powerful imagination that they have.
You convinced me to purchase Abzü. Job well done.
Ha, I don't know if that was necessarily my purpose in doing this video but if it means more people check out this great game then I'm happy. Thank you very much for watching!
You're videos remind me "The Game Maker's Toolkit" not saying you have to be like that guy who does that format of video. Just keep doing it like your doing. As I said in an other comment of your videos. I've just discovered your channel and I really like what you're doing. Seriously keep it up! :D I like it!!!!
The discussion about control in games is one I always have with my GF... Whereas she can be free and has a wonderful time with Abzu, Unravel, Journey... Other games, while being easy and intuitive for the rest of us who have been playing for years, give her a hell of a time to adjust... Turning the camera correctly, being aware of the surroundings and incoming strikes (she couldn't tolerate Fallen Order for instance, whereas I found it super easy). Control schemes are more important than they appear
i just fall in love with your videos dude, you have the talent to explain things so easily and they are useful one, you don't do video to be part of something but you make them to share something
Aweasome
Just discovered your channel, watched this video and have just now pledged. Brilliant content Hamish, I'm excited to see your videos going forward!
Thank you so much! People like you really make this show possible.
Awww this is nice
This reminds me of playing echo on Sega Genesis as a kid. Nothing like a water game to entertain the younglings.
Yeah - I had no idea what I was doing in the Ecco games, but I just enjoyed flipping and swimming about. Abzu captures that perfectly.
My 3yr old daughter enjoys nintendogs for similar reasons. She mostly talks to the 3ds and the fact that the dogs all respond to speech as well as the touch screen within a month she had every part figured out with very little help from me (except for the tricks which we did together). She also plays the balance games on the wii fit and it's a joy sitting with her watching her play the penguin sliding game and laughing everytime she falls off the edges (and does it on purpose too cause why not?😊)
If you look online you'll find instances where toddlers have got google home and Alexa wrapped around their fingers, telling it to play sad or grumpy music whenever they've thrown a tantrum or when they want to celebrate something. The ease of alot of technology these days have made it so easy for 2 -3 yr olds to take more independent control of themselves and surroundings and games have always been the gate way or next step into forming their understanding of the world they live in.
Games like these are great for kids, they're not in your face educational or anything but young kids learn things better just by experience which is something educational games sort of lack (or have lacked since the original carmon sandiago - gawd that brings back memories...a game as a kid that got me interested in learning other cities/countries around the world without ramming it down my throat...but through the game play unintentionally. Shame they went WAY off in the other direction in later years)
I'm going to have to get a copy of Abzu now I got a switch just for little miss as she'll utterly love it and the freedom it'll give her without her getting upset that the game isn't working because she doesn't understand the controls. There needs to be more of these as I don't want to exclude her from playing games with me and her dad.
great video!! thanks for making this, really looking forward to checking out abzu
Thank you for making this video it really helped me to understand why i like this game and why i so deeply enjoy it.
Couldn't agree more. I bought this game for my 6 year old daughter and she's absolutely entranced. We play a lot of games together, but this truly is a game she can connect with. Subscribed..
Great thoughts. It was already on my radar, but now I HAVE to get this game!
Great video, you are like the nerdwriter of video games, very insightful.
Really interesting thoughts, you should have more subs! Great videos!
Thanks for another great video, made me think about how I may approach introducing my own son to video games in the future. Keep up the good work! As soon as I can afford it again I will renew my Patreon pledge for Writing on Games!
Thank you! very much appreciated.
This game replicates what scuba diving feels like. Most underwater games fail the complete immersion effect of the underwater world, Abzu does not.
The swimming is some of the best I've ever played, for sure
Dude excellent video, I want to get this game but haven't and you did not interrupt my choice to get this game, going to do that soon, cool review
4 years later, I wonder if any games DID take a lesson from abzu? I can't think of any, but I hope they exist
Your nephew has great taste
God when I was 5 windwaker was my jam, Sailing between the islands and just soaking in the amazing scenery and the various story's of the people on the islands. the controls worked well enough for me to almost fully grasp them (I hade to get my brother to do the wind orchestrating) when I get a good pc I would love to play Vr windwaker so much
Keep up the awesome videos!
Thank you!
never heard of this game, but wow, that looks beautiful
Perhaps it only enhances your point about the ill-conceived nature of many kid-oriented things that I initially balked at your calling this a “kids game.” You ended up reminding be that when creators narrow their intended audience, they often cheapen their product. Well done
Hey! I'm also working on a video about Abzu. Beat me to the punch..
Excited to see your video on it!
lol when I was a kid, I was also playing with my uncle, but it was stuff like "battle Isle", or "sid meyers Pirates" ... xD good times though, arrrrrrr
This is really fucking good!
I had a similar problem with my sisters, although at the time the oldest was more or less 9 year old.
After a couple of games she couldn't play(even 2D games), I've found out that Sonic Adventure was the best game for teaching the absolute basic concepts, like how to navigate a 3D space, how controlling your character actually works, I've let they play the game after loading a complete save, you see the game have three somewhat large hubworlds with no enemies and only environmental dangers, the actual stages connected rather organically with the hub, so my sisters kept playing on the hub world, figuring out the mechanics, and when they felt ready they moved to the stages, which also made them realise the difference between a hub world and stages, which also made them notice the menus of the game and how to head straight to the stages without going to hubworld
Awesome. I think I know at least part of what I'm getting for my little cousins at some point...
very good!
Thanks!
Take that "challenge is the most important thing in games" crowd!
Indeed, games don't need to be difficult because of the controls. ARMA is hard enough without one forgetting the Hotkeys! Admittedly I didn't get far as I am one who likes to change the control scheme and there were one too many buttons and combinations.
A game like Dark souls doesn't use THAT many buttons. Fable is incredibly playable. A lot of amazing games have many functions despite the minimalist control scheme. It doesn't mean it is for children. It almost goes as far to mean that the control scheme is well designed.
FANTASTIC episode! I remember being a kid and visiting my cousin. I always said the exact same thing as your nephew. "Can we play a game? PLEASE!"
Well, back then we played Super Mario Bros and later games on his PS1, like Ace Combat, Crash Bandicoot, racing games, Command And Conquer (I think) and Metal Gear Solid. I was so bad at most of them, it was frustrating. This episode really did it for me.
Thank you for watching! In my somewhat vague memories of youth I remember wanting to interact more with games I was playing but felt like I wasn't 'getting' something about them, or that the game wasn't explaining things to me. hugely frustrating.
good video
This game is amazing
Subbed!
How do you not have more subscribers
I'm always taken aback with what I've got!
Buying it. Can't wait to play with my 4 y/old. Thanks.
Thanks for watching! Glad your kid gets to experience such a cool game.
Reminds me a bit of Ecco the dolphin.
In some ways
I will say the Ecco the Dolphin CD version soundtrack is amazing.
Switch version of abzu pls
And it's there!
“Maincraft”
Eh i grew up with pikmin and portal
K- Ki- KIDS GAME? WHY?!
I played god of war when I was 5...
its me im the toddler
hmm, we never had problems with controlling games when we were kids. what has changed? are kids "dumber"?
If you grew up with controllers with just d-pads and 4 buttons, then no
kids that young aught to be playing with cardboard boxes and the like, not video games - learn to produce before you become a consumer.
There's no reason why kids that young can't do both. My 3yr old loves her toys as much as the next kid but she also loves watching dad play Jurassic world just because it has dinosaurs. While she watches, dad talks to her about the different dinosaurs and she turns it into a game with him even though she's not technically playing. I wouldn’t deny them that daddy daughter time for the world as she chose to do that herself, no one plonked her infront of a game and expected it to baby sit. (unlike my parents generation in the 80's and 90's. Those who had parents who tried to get involved were super lucky - i was lucky on that front myself with a grandad who loved playing golf on his Amstrad with little toddler me on his knee, a mum who loved puzzle games and a dad who played anything under the sun and a younger sibling who loved them too.) I like to feel there's a huge difference between interacting with your kids and just leaving them to entertain themselves (something you shouldnt do with toddlers unless you want crayon all over your walls) and if games allow that then they can valuable too.
as nice as ABZU is its $20 for an hour and a half of gameplay
It is, but it is quality over quantity. Takes longer to make these types of games and for people who want it, you have to pay for it. Its easier to just copy paste enemies around :P
That's the price of a movie ticket and a soda. Not a bad trade in my opinion.
€7 on ps4, free on epic games' site if I'm not wrong
Best indie game I've ever played. Bought it on ps4, Switch, and Steam to support the devs and artists.
Got the CD and bandcamp soundtrack too. And it made me follow Giant Squid and play The Pathless.
I feel really bad for people that feel this cagey, adversarial relationship with video games where they feel like they have to constantly pay as little as possible or else they've somehow been wronged.
I relish opportunities to support good games and the human beings that create them for us.
I just have to point out: a four year old is not a toddler. The word "toddler" comes from the verb "to toddle" which is our first way of walking - so toddlers aren't really much older than two. A four year old is *twice as old* and that makes a big difference with regards to motor skills, which is an important part of what you're talking about in the video.
Depends. Some places young children are toddlers until they start primary school at the age of 5. It's usually because they don't start the structured educational part of learning until then as commonly kinders usually do learn through play which is pretty much letting them experience things themselves if they want to as they're not quite mature enough to be ready to read, write and remember more complicated things. (Some kids are still not ready by primary school either, it depends on the child. Some are more mature and ready for things than others.)
Fully disagree
4 year olds are 100% toddlers.
5 and 6 maybe too, depending
The word gets used in differuent ways, but strictly speaking, it's a word for kid's of toddling age. Just look it up.
The main problem is that Abzu is really just a much less good version of Journey.
Or a better version
Not less good. Just different. Journey was about learning to reach a higher state of being through facing adversity. Abzu was about learning to find harmony within your environment.
@@derek96720 Sure, except Journey was much better regardless of their intents.
@@BarchueetadonaiSo what? Do you refuse to see a movie just because another, better movie already exists? That's a non-argument.
Horrible take
2 different games telling different stories in different ways.
Both are just art/music/nonverbal storytelling focused.
You can lime Journey better sure, but ABZÛ has tons of merit. Swimming/3D traversal kicks Journeys ass for one thing. They both have strengths and weaknesses
abzu is a bootleg subnautica thats why i dont play that garbo
Bruh
You're literally a concave brain.
They are completely different games with vastly different goals and vibes.
In your brain, did subnautica somehow invent ocean-themed video games or something? That's the only thing they have in common
Seems like I won't like this game, Journey is the most boring game I have ever played.
It's not for you then. Shame.
Both are some of the best I've ever played
dude, abzu isn't a game. It's patronising to say that kids couldn't handle games - shit, I was playing some simplistic adventure games and one action/platformer I can think of that was *fucking brutal* for 5 year old me.
Devil's Advocate So why is it not a game? Sure you beat something that was hard for you, does that make it the only game? Games don't have to be hard to be good or games
ABZÛ is one of my favorite games of all time
THE MOST OVERRATED CHANNEL EVER!!!!
Thanks!