Pyre and Kentucky Route Zero are among my favorites. There were games I fell in love with as a kid, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment, and as an adult I’ve been fascinated by modern classics that encouraged me to take another look at game design, player expression, and reactivity in games in general. Since then, my relationship with reading has been tense, often uncomfortable, and I usually read novels that are inspired by politics and history, or are touched by magic realism. I used to read one fantasy novel after another, but I lost my passion for this type of literature once I started studying the Western canon at university and reading became my duty. Paste Magazine: What were your main inspirations for Roadwarden? Were there novels or other games that especially inspired you?Īureus: I wear my inspirations on my sleeve the problem is keeping track of all of them. I spoke with developer Aureus about the inspirations behind Roadwarden, the game’s approach to unsettling nature, and what’s next for the studio. In short, it’s a mini epic, one that is made all the more impressive for being produced (for the most part) by one person. It’s also a massive undertaking, consisting of thousands of lines and dialogue that changes based on your character’s health, emotions, and personal goals.

It’s a pixel-art fantasy that takes place over the slow slide into autumn and turns into an investigation of the twisting, overgrown roads of a faraway peninsula. That game is Roadwarden, a simple but deceptively detailed text-based RPG from Moral Anxiety studios that has been a smash hit in RPG communities. And as of this fall there’s yet another text-based adventure to add to the list, one that matches the season with a chill and a feeling of adventure.

The varied complexity, length, and depth of these releases means we’re all spoiled for choice.

For narrative game freaks like me, this is excellent news. We’ve had NORCO, Immortality, Citizen Sleeper, and, if that’s not your style, the cumulative hundreds of hours of JRPG cutscenes that have been released this year. 2022 has indisputably been the year of the narrative-heavy game.

The Company of Shadows by Lisa Olsen