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How Good Games Hide Content Under Your Nose
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
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Let's talk about recontextualization. A powerful tool that breathes life into old content. It's the immediate introduction of a mechanic or piece of information that enables the player to experience already existing content in a new way.
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Video Contents
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0:00 Intro
0:47 Sponsor Segment
1:47 Definition
3:33 Mechanical Recontextualization
5:48 Knowledge Recontextualization
9:19 Design Considerations
Footage Used
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Special Thanks
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No raid shadow?😔
What editing application do you use mr mental checkpoint?
Here’s to hoping people learned from your previous video…
Stopped playing years ago because Wargaming got too greedy and implemented too many bad ideas.
what game is at? 2:02
the ending was brilliant. Now I have to watch the whole thing again. Genius.
Bro the feeling of solving it is so dope. I got the recipe now. Also NOONE tell anybody what the answer is. Let them solve it for themselves :)))
MC's a genius man. Givin' us a puzzle to solve to get a burger recipe, AND a good way to get more views by having viewers rewatch the whole thing. A win-win situation for all of us
Also he put the reveal at the very end of the video so that we would have to press the replay button to count the view. Well played you godamn legend.
Um.. it doesn't work for me, it just sends me to Mental Checkpoint channel :c
Am I doing something wrong? Did I miss something?
Not asking for the answer, but I just don't understand..
@@limonlx7182 Did you include the last time he said "recontextualization" at 12:30? That might be what you're missing. The link has 10 letters in total
Was it "RECONETEXTUALIZATION"?
I had to think of the LEGO games, where sometimes things (which are scattered all around the levels) can only be accessed with characters you unlock after a certain level. These are never needed to finish the game but they unlock dozens of easter eggs and hidden content.
for me expacilly Lego City Undercover where you have these diffrent charakters you unlock by progressing with the story with their special abilities able to unlock secrets in the whole world
Yes, those were also ones that I was thinking of
Literally came to the comments looking for this.
The Lego Games are one of the only games I’ll ever attempt to 100%. Me and my dad love getting every little thing and keep track of what kinds of characters we’ll need to access each and every secret. It helps when most of the abilities are the same throughout most if not all of the Lego video games.
@@vioninjadogdb8428 yeah same
It seems like recontextualization is very similar to foreshadowing, except it’s unique to interactive mediums. There’s lots of story-based games that are great on a second play through because you can pick out all hints they give that you couldn’t have known on a first play through. A great example is OMORI. There is so much foreshadowing in that game, it’s crazy, and really well done.
I'd say it's the opposite. Where foreshadowing is often a hint on what will happen next, recontextualization is a hint on something that happened before.
I'm sorry, but it's in no way unique to interactive mediums.
There are quite some movies and shows that use twists to recontextualize themselves.
Obviously it can't be mechanical in non interactive mediums, but knowledge based sure can.
@@dsfsebo7988 Wouldn't that just be foreshadowing then? Or am I just not understanding this?
@@colxn
No, it wouldn't be.
You can foreshadow a twist that recontextualizes the movie, but that doesn't take away from it.
Like let's say in a movie the main character turns out to be crazy and because it was from his perspective we also saw his hallucinations. Now you don't know which scenes were real, maybe one of the characters was just made up by him and didn't even exist. If you rewatch it you can notice subtle things, like noone ever adresses X besides the main character.
The knowledge of the twist recontexrualizes the movie and changes the meaning of scenes.
It can be foreshadowed and usually is, to avoid feeling like the twist came out of nowhere, so they can go hand in hand, but the two are not the same.
I thought of the exact same thing because of Attack on Titan
The walls in Elden Ring that take 50 hits to discover were apparently meant to be disabled--Zullie the Witch has a video on this.
Hilariously enough, when this video went live, they actually WERE disabled properly, in patch 1.04 that had released that morning.
So this is a strange one at a glance, but: Celeste.
When you start the game, you're careful as you jump, climb, & dash the mountain, all while cautiously containing a general sense of your stamina as you do so. But as you reach the endgame (as you build up confidence with controls and maneuvers) & the postgame stuff, you discover there were a few extra mechanics that were always available to you (and perhaps some that you accidentally stumble into throughout the game); most notably super jumps, wall bounces, & especially wavedashing/hyper jumps. They're fairly simple things, really. At their core, they just expand your movement and how far, fast, & high you can go. But it made me think back then: "huh, what can I do with these techniques in the levels I struggled in the past?".
And it just opened a world of possibilities once I learned how to do them. While the game doesn't hide more secrets behind the knowledge of these mechanics, replaying old levels feel much less than a difficult struggle to get past a room & more like a playground to test my newfound knowledge and a challenge to see how fast and well I can replay these levels, emphasizing how much you have grown as a mountain climber & giving the whole game a fresh coat of paint because I can do so much more now
I always love it when you go back to an area/level that you found difficult in some game and suddenly find it incredibly easy, despite the only thing that has changed being your skill and your knowledge about the game.
Features like this do indeed enhance that feeling quite significantly.
i was thinking of comenting celeste specialy for it. Specially the B zones basically being a tutorial to a new mechanic you can use anywhere
oh absolutely, coming back and replaying the game after doing farewell and all of the c sides and the levels feel like they're completely different
I was thinking the same thing!
My favorite example from the game is in farewell, where the room right before the game teaches you blocks your path with a giant gate that falls in front of you, and needs a lot of hearts collected to open again.
But, if you already know how to wavedash, you can use it to slip through the gate before it closes, completely bypassing the heart requirement!
yup, had to think of this as well. Using the advanced movement set is so satisfying...
Same thing with ghost runner btw, super nice advanced speed running techniques
Im so happy seeing games I know on the video! I personally love the Recontextualization in :
0:40 Castle Crashers
2:35 Dead Cells
3:06 Teardown
3:34 A Hat in Time
5:49 Outer Wilds
7:24 Toki Tori 2
8:15 Return of the Obra Dinn
10:22 Tunic
10:56 Valheim
12:30 Loco Roco
You're a god among men.
@@TheOriginalFayari He spoiled the puzzle. Which was pretty fun for me to find out all by myself. I don't really see the point in seeking answers in the comment section, as it is nor fun, or interesting.
@@aoelobi should have been smart and not looked in the comments 🙃
@@aoelobi if someone wanted to solve the puzzle by themselves & have fun in that they most probably wouldn't look in the comments - though if they did, as Dimalo said, it'd be their own fault if they saw "spoilers".
I personally neither mind being "spoiled" the fun, nor do I even eat burgers at all. Though a lot of people also don't find joy in solving puzzles, but just knowing their solutions (or in this case they could also not care about it at all and only care about the mythical burger).
@@aoelobi I mean, considering I've spent a good hour on this and was lost, I am fine with checking the new comments for the answer. Also, I think I have seen that burger before...
Enjoyed the vid! Recontextualization is one of the (many) reasons my favorite board game is Seafall. Its a legacy board game, so every time you play you permanently change the state of the board and the game itself. Gonna have to give a spoiler here, but about half way through the game you unlock a blacklight, an actual physical blacklight, that you shine onto cards and parts of the board, even parts of the rule book! The whole time you were playing the game you didn't know there was hidden content that could only be seen with the blacklight you unlock. This was a huge moment when playing and it makes the game so much deeper! You are now scowering every component of the game and it almost feels like a new game again.
so yeah, even board games can have recontextualization, and its awesome!
The secret in "will you snail" is a genius example of this. It makes the game filled with secrets have another layer of recontextualization
Yeah I was going to say that it made me go back through every single level when I discovered it
especially since at the start of the game there is a clear secret above you in the first room, and most players will make a couple of attempts to see if there are any ways up there. When they realise they can't, that secret stays in the back of their mind and when they do finish the game and discover the ability, you get a "Ohhhhhh" moment. I think the placement of that first secret is genius.
The ending was beautiful damn, man legit recontextulized his video
and yes I got his burger recipe
borgar
Bruh, I can't get his burger recipe. It just redirects to his RUclips channel :(
I would say there is a third type that dose not get brought up a lot in Video Game discussions. Narrative recontextualization, when you encounter something in the narrative of the story that only makes sense later with context. This gets even more satisfying when shown through mechanics. My favorite example of this is in Mass Effect 1, there is a random abandoned cave you find (I think) through a side mission that has husks in it. At this point you have only seen husks as things used my the Geth. It is only later that you realize these were not humans turned into husks they were another alien species as humans were never in this cave on this planet.
This obviously gets talked about much more in books and film.
In my opinion, recontextualization really helps bring a more mysterious game together, and can be used in storytelling just as much as in gameplay mechanics. (Spoilers ahead) In Arkane's Prey, you start a game in your apartment... or do you? You discover 10 minutes worth of plot, and, through a controlled segment, return to the same place. This time, you break a window to uncover your character has been living in a simulation experiment, aboard a futuristic space station. You meet someone who helps you around the place, and helps you discover what horrible being put you in such a vicious experiment, only for you to uncover it was your character's own idea. Recontextualization in Prey makes you look back on all the plot up to that moment. It serves as a great mechanism for the players to experience a lot of "Ah-ha!" moments without telling them a single word. It makes Prey the storytelling masterpiece I think it is, as well as making subsequent playthroughs seem meaningful - the game feels completely different when you already know everything, and can focus on uncovering hidden story elements you're likely to have missed the first time around.
How did this turn into me praising Prey for its story? I didn't even talk about the gameplay recontextualization in Prey that prompted me to write this...
Here's an interesting example: Performing the Lee Sin 'Insec' in League of Legends
The moment people realized they could ward-jump behind an enemy and kick them backwards, the number of ways players could play Lee Sin were cracked wide open.
Even though the game was designed to allow that, I highly doubt the developers intentionally designed the champion with that combo in mind.
That has got to be one of the biggest paradigm shifts in LoL
Man I remember finding that out by watching youtube too for the first time when I was new in League. I used to think Lee Sin was just okay and solid jungler but after I found out I wanted to grind him everyday
Something to add about players being somewhere they’re not supposed to be yet.
Somethings that’s really satisfying for a player is making them feel like they’re doing something they’re not supposed to do and reward their curiosity/creativity.
But yeah I love recontextualisation because it’s that sort of “Aha!” moment for a player where they figure something out by their own problem solving and the game never tells them. Sometimes also having weird unknown mechanics in earlier levels in games is also a great way to do progression. Because at the start this stuff is a mystery, but come back later and you now have more options which makes for satisfying progression.
It also helps with replayability, as in you can replay a game from the start and quickly get to where you need to be without doing tedious work.
A good example is dark souls, in dark souls 1 you can jump down a valley filled with skeletons and rush through the area to find a scythe. The scythe speeds up progression significantly due to the bleed damage stat on it. A new player would think about getting better gear before getting in there. But since you already know it's there, it's worth the trial and error.
Outer Wilds and Tunic do the knowledge based recontextualisation so well, it’s basically the design version of a plot twist and I love every moment when it happens
Are there enough of these types of games to justify calling them a new genre? Information metroidvania? Outer Wilds and Tunic are some of my favorite games ever and I’d love to see more new games with this kind of progression system!
@@lukel1127 that’s an interesting question. I recently was thinking about how a game like Tunic could design a difficulty setting specifically for the knowledge part. Knowledge based challenge can technically be implemented into any genre, so I don’t think it’d count as a genre, more like a feature. Still, would love to see a surge in games like these, they’re usually extremely satisfying to play from beginning to end
@@lukel1127 I have heard people calling this kind of game "Brainvania". Outer Wilds, The Witness and Toki Tori are the main examples
The Inscryption and The Hex ARGs has hints hidden everywhere within (and outside) the game, and the community had to collectively play the game over and over to find secrets that led to a secret ending/extra lore. It was really fun
Mechanical recontextualization: "Ooooh, so *that's* what that was for!"
Knowledge recontextualization: "Wait, I could have done that *this WHOLE* time?!?"
In horizon forbidden west, there are multiple places throughout the map that can only be crossed after the player obtains the correct tool. It fails to be a good re-contextualization, though, because the game actively pushes the player to find those places. At which point, the player just goes "oh yeah, that must be something for later".
This just made entire processboring, because once the player gained the required tool, the entire mechanic felt like a task to do, lacking a sense of joy and wonder.
So I guess that one other obvious, yet important, element to this mechanic is to keep these places hidden from the player, or at least make it less obvious that the player can cross them initially. But also striking a balance where the player has at least noticed such places, to the point that that realization moment of "oh, so that's what that place is!" occurs.
My example: Hyper light drifter. I was looking for secret passageways everywhere by trial and error until I noticed that (almost) every secret path has a tiny icon on the ground indicating it. The shape of the icon is dependant on the zone you're in so you have to re-learn it when you go to a new area but finding out that all my "manually" discovered secrets already have been indicated by that little symbol on the ground was mind blowing.
A related aspect of "I had the ability to do this all along??" can happen without any level backtracking. In platformer The King's Bird, the start of the final level requires you to use the mechanics to do something seemingly impossible, but not actually that hard to do once you realize it must be possible in order to proceed - this was a super cool feeling.
11:55 a good example is katana zero. you literally start the game by deflecting a bullet. and you do that with their slow down hability. but if you're skilled enough, you can do that WITHOUT the hability (practically required to do a good speedrun). it's just so much faster, but more dangerous, but the fact that it was always there and you could do it without the slow mo is fascinating.
"And you realize you've seen these marks before"
Me: Wait... Uh... Yeah, of course I did, pft...
An example of knowledge recontextualization can be found in Celeste with how in Farewell you learn how to do cool new tech, making speedrunning the previous levels a lot of fun because nyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom
My most memorable example of this is in Untitled Goose Game, with the final ending sequence. It's not quite recontextualisation in the sense where you go back with new knowledge/abilities, but it sure is one of my most memorable moments in gaming
E
@@oriyadid sheeesh
You do some damn good thumbnails, I was on RUclips specifically to look for a video, saw your thumbnail for a split second and as I was writing down the search bar I thought "damn have to check that out"
These are all times he says word "Recontextualization" and names of the games:
Castle Crashers (0:39)
Dead Cells (2:34)
Teardown (3:05)
A Hat in Time (3:34)
Outer Wilds (5:48)
Toki Tori 2 (7:23)
Return of the Obra Dinn (8:16)
TUNIC (10:21)
Valheim (11:00)
LocoRoco 2 Remastered (12:29)
You forgot LocoRoco
@@lunaborea got it! thanks
Doing god's work
cdtaotrtvl
Thankyou!!
Who got the recipe of the burger ?
There is one in Will You Snail, a mechanic that is always available to be used by the player, but you lack knowledge to use. The game teach you how to use it in the late game allowing you to explore new areas and find many secrets in already played levels. Its much more content unlocked at this point.
This reminds me of I think Myst, where the final door code is the same every time so it gives you the feeling of "I could have opened that from the start?" And that kind of feeling makes a game so much more fun when you find out yourself without the game directly telling you, that you could do something from the start.
Hey great video as always, I just wanted to mention an underrated game that I found that actually fits the theme of this video.
It's called Rogue Glitch and it's an indie title that is free on Steam. I hadn't realized that it used recontextualization until I watched this video. Basically when you beat zones you get more lore from the game and then get killed forcing you to go all the way back to the first zone but every time you beat a zone the zones that come prior to it get more "glitched" and this sort of introduces a new element to the game, same goes for when you beat a zone you unlock new rooms that can spawn in the prior zones. This is not an ad or a bot lol, I just went on a rant. Anyways take care and thank you if you've read so far.
Baba Is You. Every level is all about recontectualization and especially the early levels have so many solutions when you fully realize what the game mechanic entails. And not only that, when you think you've seen everything the whole game recontextualizes itself, more than once, to show you still haven't completely grasped the limits, or the lack of, the central game mechanic.
this channel has quickly become one of those ones that I see in the notifications section and think "this is gonna be a good video"! good job man please keep up the good content, sometimes I get bored and click off though but other than that its amazing and quality editing throughout
How's that for a backhanded compliment
I think ‘will you snail?’ Is a good example. At the end of the game they tell you *spoilers* that there is a certain ability that you could always do(the glitch its called), but never knew of. This is used for a lot of secrets all throughout the game. This is even the only way to find the true ending.
As always loving the video and Topped this video with killer editing, scripting and love this new transition music. Keep it up!! Lots of Love ✨
i just experienced this a few days ago without realising it. I'm playing Rain World, and there are several gaps that I can't cross, I can't jump far enough. However, if i grab onto this one harmless flying enemy, I can jump higher. And you can hold onto it for as long as you want. This is how i managed to get to different areas, as well as how i managed to unlock some goodies. Also, these enemies do this really neat thing, they ll stop flying all together and u end up dragging them around, and you think damn did it die? and you let go of it and it starts to fly again like sike. It feels like you re goin on an adventure with a guy that really did not sign up for this shit its so funny
One very big thing I learned in Rain World is that the "Game Over" prompt isn't always correct. The one that gives you the restart/reload option (I forget, it's been a while).
I have been grabbed by one of those gator things before, by the torso. The prompt came up but I just watched. It was a long day and I was frustrated. I wasn't ready to restart that day right that moment.
Then another one came by. They hissed at each other... The one dropped me and they started fighting. The prompt went away and I regained control of the slug cat.
@@xchronox0 holy shit that s amazing. I ll watch more often then. Idk how intentional this is on the part of the developers but it s pretty cool either way
@@tofire2261 I feel like it's intentional, because if they bite you in a way that kills you, you can't come back. For example, on the head.
A game I'm playing currently I was wondering around and accidentally broke a wall. Before this I didn't know certain walls could be broken. After that I was wandering around wondering "how can you know if a wall can be broken?" After blindly trying walls with no results I noticed a painting of a hole in a wall. I tried breaking it and I was able to make a hole in the wall. It's fun when you finally connect all the dots and are rewarded. I love when games give contextual clues where once you know of them, they bring a lot of benefit. Lots of games use lighting and it's always fun to find these!
this video has once again shown that you really love what you do and are really knowledgeable about this stuff. and that ending was great as well, really making this video into a work of art about recontextualization, from start to finish.
I just completed part of Tunic and I absolutely love how there's a lot of things you can do from the start if you know where to go or how or what to do. It's great. Those moments of "wait a minute..... noooooooo" feel amazing when they pay off in some way. I really enjoyed that :3
I would love if you made a video dedicated to achievement design.
I feel like it's a very overlooked part of games and is often neglected by some game devs and an in depth look at them would be interesting.
Celeste is probably my favorite example of knowledge recontextualization. At some point in the post-game, it teaches you some specific moves that yield much more distance or height than your standard moves, allowing you to go back to previous levels and clear them at record speed or collect berries much easier.
Also the Castle Crashers X's reminded me of the beans in Mario and Luigi - I remember being frustrated at all the backtracking I would need to do to get all those dang beans!
I'm sure you considered this already, but from soft games do this a lot. There's mechanical recontextualization through item and level progression, but more importantly, knowledge recontextualization through learning enemy patterns, design cues for enemy weaknesses, not to mention the satisfaction of understanding what kinds of traps and secrets to look out for. The last three illusory walls I found in Elden Ring were purely from having an understanding of the expectations and geometry of the level, and finding an illusory wall where I expected one.
Just found your channel, binge watched most of them, VERY nicely done. Keep it up
hey man your channel is pretty cool!
at first when i started watching videos i didnt really want to make my own game and just found your videos entertaining, but the more i watch you the more i start to think of actually making a game
In castlevania on my DS, when you unlock the double jump, you can return at the start of the game to find a new place(often just bonus item). Later on the game, you are block by wather, you kill a boss that give you the ability to swim and a new part of the castle is open for you (same thing with flying ability). Realy good youtube channel, continue like this!
These videos are so high quality, helpful and informative. You definitely deserve 100k! :D
Last Week I've finished SteamWorld Dig 2, a steampunk mining game where you play as a little robot that want to find is friend in a new environment, but what is cool is there is a lot of hidden secret that need you to find your way around it. At some point if you go deep enough, you will find sort of upgrade chamber that give you power up like a grappling hook and now, secret that you could see but not reach are now available to pickup.
There so much to this game that even with clearing almost all of the overworld map, Im only at 50% of all secret. This game is really great to have a good time mining your way through the hidden secrets.
One of those channels that instantly become absolute favourites. Thank you for your work!
An example of this I have found recently is in Will You Snail?
I’m not quite sure if it’s mechanics or knowledge but at the end of the game an npc tells you how there is an ability where if you hold the jump button down long enough in a 1x1 box, you can go flying up into the air.
This caused me to go back through the levels of the game finding all these little spots which led to secret rooms or collectibles really changing how I saw each level.
Great video, can’t wait for the next!
A notification bell I'll happily hit to not miss the next one! Great topic the only comparison that comes to my mind is banjo Kazooie, before furnace fun moves was discovered, even the speed run route was forced to double back to a level to access a jiggy with a move you could only unlocked in the following world.
This dude seriously did an 180° in his vid and im all for it.
Tears of the Kingdom is full of moments like this. There are so many different possibilities for interactions with enemies, environments, abilities, and items, that you'll probably find something new and interesting every hour you play that will change how you play in the future.
One of my favorite examples is how dazzlefruit affects skeleton type enemies. I still remember when I first used a dazzlefruit on a normal enemy, and noted how useful it could be. Then I saw that it's an instant kill for all nearby skeletons, and it literally changed the game. Now I knew exactly what I would do whenever any skeleton appeared. I felt like I'd leveled up in a game that doesn't have level ups.
Cruelty squad is great at this, the amount of hidden shortcuts and unlockable mechanics means that i can play the same levels many times and not get bored because I'm always finding new ways to beat them.
One thing I would really love here is perhaps little warnings popping up a few moments before you reveal some big spoiler in the talked about games. I was lucky that I already played Witness in the past, but I remember this moment of revelation in that game so vividly and it was one of my most favourite moments in playing video games. I feel sad for the people who might have considered playing Witness in the future but are now unable to experience this moment after watching the video...
An easier but still super helpful thing to do would be to include a list in the video description of the games that might get spoiled in a video!
I had the same issue with Hollow Knight there. Not that it's going to ruin me but definitely took away spike jumping from my mind unless I wait a couple years to play.
Definitely. I was maybe 60-70% through The Witness when I discovered my first environment puzzle. It was the one you see in the trees when walking into the jungle area.
It. Blew. My. Mind.
I immediately backtracked and was just ASTONISHED at how many of these were hidden around. You can't walk ten feet without finding another one. Those weird details in the environment I just wrote off as strange before now had added context for me to start looking at them from new or interesting angles. Easily one of the biggest mind blows for me in all of my gaming lifetime.
Literally the entire channel is spoilers about game development with examples.
The fact that you just recontextualized the video at the end was just genius
The end was just perfect. Thank you for that
We kind of did this in our puzzle game Déjà Vu. There's mechanics available from the start of the game (pushing dead clones, clones maintaining momentum, etc) that can get you through puzzles quicker if you know about them. No secret areas though, just quicker solutions on earlier levels.
That popup that said "Not enough subscribers" made me smile so hard! 😂
Don't know if it has been said but Tunic is another great example of knowledge re-contextualization . The fast travel points, doors with etchings in them, etc. are everywhere and you can access them from the get-go but you don't really figure out how until later on.
Just wanted to thank you for toning down the transitions. I have sensitive ears, so some of the older ones were painful to listen to, and I appreciate the new volume/tone
Thank you for the video. And additional huge thank you for not spoiling the outer wilds. I haven't finished it yet.
Will You Snail by Jonas Tyroller has 2 aspects of recontextualization that i really like.
1. There is a secret mechanic where if you hold jump in certain positions you can get to areas that were before inaccessible. This is required for the true ending, and unlocks about 1/3 of the games completion percentage.
2. A certain level earlier in the game lets you access a water pump if you know the knowlege of #1. This water pump drowns water into EVERY non-water level and water levels get drained. This mechaninc allows you to get to areas that would require a longer jump, or no water currents.
Years ago, I played a series of games by Nifflas. "Knytt Stories" and "Within a Deep Forest" are sort of metroidvanias (and at least were freeware years ago, probably still). Well, some parts of Knytt Stories. Then there's Knytt Underground (currently 80% off on Steam, so very little), where you have all abilities once you complete the two tutorials. Exploring that world is about learning how to use momentum and the switch mechanic combined with more traditional platforming skills, so you get access to more of the world as you get better at controlling the character.
I think that this is exactly what made Pokémon feel so vast as a child. Seeing all the things you couldn't get to immediately and then going back later when you got the HMs.
The game Will You Snail does something really similar (Spoilers)
After you finish the final boss you get a little text blurb that tells you about a "bug" in the game that lets you jump higher if there is a small gap in the wall/floor. These gaps were scattered all over the game and unlocks all sorts of secrets.
Than ending was the most creative outro I’ve ever seen.
a recent example of this for me was celesete, you are introduced to a couple of movement mechanics, holding on yo ledges, and dashing, for the entire main section of the game, that's all you really know about, you get access to double jumps on some levels but you can't access it when you go back to other levels. however, once you've beaten the summit and some B side maps, you gain access to the core of the mountain, and if you get far enough in, eventually you get told about more move sets, that are entirely knowledge based, you could do them the entire time, you just didn't know you could. most of these involve precisely inputting a dash after a certain movement, and allow you to replay the game much, much faster, which introduces the player to the idea of heyy maybe I should speed run this. there's also lots of cool ones like using screen transitions to gain another dash that you normally wouldn't have access to, to get to sceret places in the maps
you put recontextualization in the video itself. genius.
A good example of this id say is Super Mario Galaxy 2, with the green stars. Pretty much ton of new hours of fun while reusing the same scenarios. Great video, as always.
Environemtal station alpha, a space themed metroidvania does a pretty good job of having both since it's a metroidvania.. Throughout the game you get hints at a overarching plot that goes sort of alongside the main one. There's actually lots of hidden post game content because of that. Many areas in the game have hidden things that clue you into more of that content, and some of it is in plain sight, you just don't know how to interact with it. Like a dip in the terrain in a specific spot that you need to.. stand next to for a while for it to open, or an invisible floor you can drop down through somewhere.
It's probably my favorite example of this kind of information based design because all that is always accesible if you know where to look.
I am so hyped for the Outer Wilds video. Cant wait! I hope you get to talk about the DLC.
I spent at least 20 minutes rewatching this video for the burger recipe. good recipe, and good video! so I got no complaints
The ending is so good, it's really what elevates you way above other channels (no hate tho, game design it's an underappreciated and mystic art)
Hopefully the extra viewtime gets RUclips to give you some more attention this time around, I think you're a very underrated gem!
Also the burger recipe looks yummy!
i really like knowledge recontextualization. as I see it basically any skill-game is like that, you can do things in a brute force way or you can do it with less effort but smarter, example can also be fighter games that have specific key combinations or attack combinations that are more powerful, they exist even before they are discovered but once they are discovered it is like the game has been reinvented, so cool!:)
Classic Nintendo did this a bunch like Star Fox 64 when you learn the difference between completing a mission and accomplishing a mission or how some levels would be entirely different based on which levels you played before them or Super Metroid where Samus has a whole set of moves that are never mentioned or addressed but allow you access to otherwise inaccessible areas. My favorite though is in Volleyball when you see the gorilla for the first time.
I believe the short puzzle game called "Linelith" explores the concept of knowledge recontexutalization brilliantly. You start your journey solving simple puzzles, much like the witness. However as you progress you realize that you can solve more an more types of material and so you start to backtrack to the beginning of the game seeing just how much you can solve that was in plain sight, you just hadnt thought about it.
Supraland is my favourite example. Definitely material, but the way those things were there all along and you had no idea they served a purpose or were interactable definitely changes how you view the game on subsequent playthroughs. There are quite a few knowledge ones that I can think of, I am just amazed by how many times you think you glitched out of the map and then it says "Secret Area!"
I would also argue plot twists can serve a knowledge recontextualisation on a storytelling level, not necessarily impacting player decisions or advocacy but just general mood or tone.
That was one clever outro, well done XD
One of the best examples of recontextualisation is in Outer Wolds: echoes of the Eye DLC
Not to spoiler anything, but the moment you realise IT your head is blown away.
dude I'm gonna get rabies if I see another person confuse Outer Wilds with The Outer Worlds
not sure which specific moment you are getting at.
I'm thinking of different ones. Or do you mean the thing with the lantern?
@@FalcFalcFalcFalc I used to do that a lot, usually by only remembering one title and forgetting which game it belonged to. Of course, I always knew I was never sure which game had which title, so I could always just say so and no one who's reasonable got offended. And neither of the games have toxic fanbases, so it was all good.
I like how Sonic Colors locks most of the wisps when the game starts, resulting in some stages feeling maybe too empty and short. When you start unlocking the wisps, especially the Drill, these stages open up and you gain access to red rings and cool alternate paths. I kind of wish the game did more with it, or in a more meaningful way, but I still appreciate what has been done of it.
Noita runs with recontextualization a lot, and very organically. As it is a roguelike, it is both a game about learning the mechanics with each playthrough, and a game where you return to the beginning quite often. As you discover the ins and outs of the game, you start figuring out a lot of stuff about areas you've already been (even if it's random seeded, key points in any given created world are consistent)
I think Hollow Knight is an amazing example of this as well. It has the knowledge re-contextualisation like you mention. It also has mechanical ones too. There are areas which you can only reach after unlocking and chaining certain abilities, like double jump and dash. Apart from this, it also has the subtle re-contextualisation as well. There is stuff like path of pain and some hidden tunnels that either provide you geo or some small reward. Really loved the video and enjoyed learning about something new.
The hiding place of the Path of Pain definitely doesn't belong with everything else as good re-contextualization. Under-telegraphed and extremely specific, the only thing it could ever be taken to re-contextualize is... every single tiny bit of unmarked wall in the entire game, despite them not actually hiding anything that way in the rest of the game, a player might be inclined to spend the time to attack every little bit of every wall for the rest of the game, which can only really make the experience worse. Honestly the saving grace here is that they literally only did that there.
Good re-contextualization should be for something more specific, and not something that is almost always nothing, or worse (like having a nondescript pit be a secret when almost every other pit in the game is just instant death). Like how the Castle Crashers example was specifically marked ground, rather than just all ground in the entire game.
It was so funny that you mentioned Toki Tori 2+, it's exactly what I thought of when I started watching the video!
For me that’s Hitman 2016 and onwards. Many many missions stories, hundreds of ways to kill all target’s, loads of starting positions and load outs, and subtile hints on fun ways to use Golfballs to let a target die what they love doing the most.
In Death Stranding, you're adviced to use Bola Gun to deal with MULEs. But upon experimentation, the Bola Gun can also be used on BTs
Sooner or later, every game analysis channel ends up reviewing Outer Wilds. Best game ever.
Tunic is also a game that does knowledge recontextualization really well.
I love this mechanic! While the mechanical, upgrade based recontextualization is really neat, I definitely prefer the information based form (though it makes it hard to talk about the game). Outer wilds is probably my favorite example, especially since basically the only thing you can take with you is information. Though slightly more mechanically based, Heaven's Vault and The Forgotten City are also good examples, both providing a satisfying moment of realization when the clues and narrative suddenly fit together. Great choice for a topic, thanks for the video!
There’s this puzzle game called the Manifold Gardens, and there are these cubes with arrows on the tops of them. Anyways, later in the game there are these streams of water and suddenly you realize that when you put a cube on the water, it diverts the stream in another direction. And then you also realize that the stream diverts in the direction the arrow on the top is pointing. The puzzle game itself was alright but that was such a memorable experience!
One example I've always liked that, rather than recontextualizing some map element, recontextualizes an enemy type (and therefore doesn't require revisiting previous levels): Half-life 2's manhacks. When first introduced, they're annoying by design, and you mostly have to deal with them with your crowbar (which takes several hits, and they bounce away between each one) or your pistol. After you get the gravity gun, they're not only trivial to kill (just yoink them out of the air and shoot them against a wall), but they can also be used offensively. Of course, the gravity gun recontextualizes a lot in that game -- pretty much every physics object becomes a weapon -- but the manhacks in particular were presented shortly before and shortly after getting the gravity gun and change from annoying to trivial, giving a very concrete reason to value your cool new weapon, even if you haven't yet considered its other cool-but-less-obvious uses.
He recontextualized the video, the mad man. He did it
a good recontextualisation is in botw : the first 4 sanctuaries where u see things outside but dotn know how to get them then u finish the sanctuary and then u understand how
In Bendy and the Ink Machine, when you complete the final chapter, you’re given a “seeing tool” that you can now use in previous chapters. This allows you to take out the tool with right click and find hidden messages written on the walls (presumably by you).
These are all just lore-related things, like messages about being in a time loop, people’s names on coffins, or maybe some Easter eggs. It only reveals something related to gameplay in the final chapter when you first obtain it.
In Valheim I really liked the fact that You need Medows resources for endgame recipes. I remember looking for flowers in Medows before facing Yagluth.
Maybe these are weak examples but in Monster Hunter (Freedom United on the PSP) the fact that monster parts break, wan't really put in front of you. You most likely found that out for yourself, same with the different natural barricades that can break if you lure a big monster attack into them. I loved the moments when I noticed them.
I think Unsighted is an example of a game that uses both methods. You go through a majority of the game climbing walls and platforming. Only to find out you could also be wall jumping, but they don't teach you how to do it until it's absolutely required. That and there's blueprints you find for items. You don't NEED the blueprint to craft the item. So you can actually get certain key items very early in the game if you already know the recipe.
Tunic has one of my favorite recent examples of this. Blew my mind.
There was only the one wall that took 50 hits to open and turns out that was a bug. It seems it was an illusory wall at one point during development, but the devs decided against having it, but while they removed the event script to make it disappear on hit, it was still breakable as it had health. This has since been patched and is now a firmly solid wall.
I think another example of Recontextualization is in Will You Snail where at the end of the game you learn you can do this [Secret Move] to get to areas you couldn't before. The mechanic itself has always been there, you just didn't even know until the game told you "Hey! Try this thing!"
For the burger recipe:
Castle Crashers
Dead Cells
3:14 Teardown?
A Hat in Time
Outer Wilds
Toki Tori 2
Return of the Obra Dinn
Tunic
Valheim
LocoRoco 2
that ending was pure genius
There was a lot of mechanical recontextualisation in the mario and luigi games. Things to dig, to fly up or go under. Also nice steal at 3:04.
This channel is like a gold mine about game design