“It’s More Like an Explorable Painting Than an Actual Game.”
“Stone flowers will suffice to keep me nice and warm.”
Steam banner image for The Graveyard.
For a time in the late aughts and early 2010s, the term “indie game” was something like a dirty word in some circles. Divorced from its literal meaning in simply describing games developed and published outside of the AAA system, it had briefly taken off as a dismissive derogative — a catch-all for any game that dared to deviate from the industry standard template, prioritize its story-telling over mechanics, or – god forbid – not incorporate combat into its gameplay loop. Truly, these were stupid times: An era in which we apparently had to re-litigate whether or not games are art (they are), where pixel graphics were considered as lazy (they’re not), and when some of us were seriously worried that the emerging trend of “walking simulators” threatened the very sanctity of the medium itself (they didn’t). Boy howdy, did folk ever like to toss that walking simulator label around — where any game that didn’t center around constantly shooting everything and everyone on screen was somehow seen as a “political statement.” These same detractors would then go off to play military shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield, where it’s well-established that politics clearly play no part in those IPs. If all this sounds too dumb to be true — like I’m just inventing a hypothetical person to get mad about here? Well, here’s the thing: That person used to be me, and I can confirm that I certainly wasn’t alone in my boneheaded beliefs.
Suffice it to say, but the public perception of indie games has largely changed for the better in the past decade. Things have more or less completely flipped around now to where the AAA publishers are now painted as the ones who threaten the sanctity of the medium (accurately so), and indie developers are seen as a sort of last bastion of hope for innovation in the field. Anyone who tries to argue that “games aren’t art” is now viewed as completely out of touch, retro throwback graphics are very much in vogue, and military shooters are now contemporaneously considered as the single-most tired premise for a game imaginable. I like to think that most of us “indie cynics” grew up, learned to see the industry for what it truly is, and came to accept that we were wrong to dismiss the efforts of such inspired creators — of folk whose passion for this digital business never wavered, even as they had to deal with assholes like us. And for those of us who didn’t evolve our thinking or adapt with the times… I guess they still mostly stick to Call of Duty and Battlefield, but they sure don’t seem happy about it.
But what of the so-called walking simulators? Has their reputation too changed for the positive with the passage of time? Well, for one thing; we’ve largely started referring to them as “environmental narrative games” now, which is a pretty good start. And there have certainly been a few titles to emerge from the scene that have gone on to receive acclaim from both critics and consumers alike; such as Firewatch, Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, and What Remains of Edith Finch. But even bearing all that in mind, I think it’s fair to say the classification is still a ways away from mainstream acceptance — not yet quite ready to be perceived as a “real genre” unto itself: Largely passive gameplay experiences are still a tough sell for the average consumer, who have come to expect more engaging digital escapism for their hard-earned money. If I’m being honest with y’all, it’s still not a genre of game that I personally get all that much out of, either. Different strokes for different folks and all that. But maybe that’s just my old biases talking? Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate some of those titles I previously dismissed, now that I’m a bit more open to giving them a fair shake.
In the spirit of second chances and better understanding, we’re going to take a look at one of the most widely mocked games to ever bear the walking simulator label: 2008’s The Graveyard, developed and published by Belgian studio Tale of Tales. It’s a title whose intentions have perhaps been misunderstood by consumers for the past decade plus, and whose high concept premise I’ve seen written off as everything from “pointless” to “pretentious.” At the same time, it’s also a multiple award nominee, which has been cited as a direct source of inspiration for one of the top-grossing AAA games of 2009. And as if that duality wasn’t confusing enough, I also have to address the fact that its own developers don’t even like to describe it as a “game,” seeming to prefer the phrase “explorable painting.” Perhaps you’re already beginning to understand why some folk write it off as pretentious? In any event, we’ll be treating The Graveyard like any other game we’d cover on this website: Attempting to measure its merits, exploring its perceived faults, and seeking to understand how it all came to be in the first place. So button up your most somber ensemble and bring your finest flowers, as we prepare to visit an honest-to-god digital cemetery.
