NOCLIP Pocket E37 - Tell Your Grandmas - A Short Hike

A fish ate my podcasting license… Welcome back to NOCLIP Pocket!
Today, we’re going to be talking about A Short Hike, an indie
adventure game and the third game in our deeply important series of
bird based games on Pocket. A Short Hike is a very minimalist game,
both in style and length, but there is still a good bit to do and
explore, even if the game’s world isn’t so big. Part platformer,
part adventure game, you spend much of your time in the game
collecting items to reach new heights and complete tasks to deepen
your relationships with the animal characters who inhabit the camp
in which the game takes place. It’s these charming characters that
give the game it’s personality. To the point where it feels
reductive to refer to doing things for them as “completing tasks,”
as the rewards you get for finishing them are much less important
than the mostly tiny stories they all have. Combine that with a
surprisingly satisfying set of movement mechanics and a dynamic
soundtrack, and you get a really focused experience that oscillates
between calming exploration and exhilarating flights around the
island. We’re going to be talking about the host of different
activities available to do in the game’s open world, how the
dialogue really sells the game’s light but personal narrative, and
how close we are in age to the target demographic for fishing.
Thank you for joining us again this week! This game comes from a
half-joking suggestion on our Discord server we got after posting
the Unfinished Swan episode, and I’m personally really happy to
have been made aware of it. This type of short, calming game is
really welcome during stressful times (see, e.g., a global
pandemic, playing Resident Evil VII, etc.), so I hope if you
decided to play along this week that this game was able to put you
in a more relaxed headspace. Next time, we’re going to be talking
about Phasmophobia, partly to act as a counterpart to what we’re
playing for the main podcast next, and partly as an excuse to screw
around online with some friends, so I hope you’ll join us for that!