Basically, the UI feels like a more intuitive and immersive way to react to the game. So it’s pretty interesting that when it comes to actually teaching you how to play Dead Space, Visceral is pretty on the nose. As showcased in Brown’s video, Isaac encounters blood-covered text on the wall, telling the player to “Cut off their limbs”, thus indicating that Necromorphs must be killed by severing their appendages.

"Take Playdead’s Inside. Much like Limbo, it’s a side-scrolling puzzle adventure where you’re plunged into the ether without any information. All you initially know is that you’re this boy on the run."

But wait, there’s more. A short tutorial message in that fetching, AR-like UI tells players how to aim and shoot. Oh, and shooting off the limbs for extra damage is a thing as the text indicates. Got it? Well, if you didn’t, then an audio log outright tells you to shoot off the limbs. Then one of the few surviving characters tells you the same and another UI message states, again, that shooting off limbs is the way. Pretty crazy when you think about it, especially when compared to how Half-Life 2 teaches its mechanics without outright spoon-feeding text and information.

However, this video didn’t just make me think about how games teach you how to play them. It also brings up the topic of language in general. Thinking about language in video games is pretty much like thinking about it in real life. Some of us don’t really consider the task of reading and writing as anything but natural. Others tend to emphasize language, whether it’s the task of acquiring more knowledge or simply becoming fluent. Language in today’s culture is about so much more though.

Beyond influencing the way we think and form thoughts, language can enable communication on an innate level. I’m not just talking about speaking without words or inspiring thought in a way that the player may not understand through words alone. It could be ideas conveyed through a complete lack of words, through symbols and pictures or in a completely obtuse way. Environmental story-telling also works beautifully into this as we observe our surroundings and slowly begin to understand how things are.

It’s a complex art, honestly, one that walks the fine line between environmental story-telling and environmental design. Take Playdead’s Inside. Much like Limbo, it’s a side-scrolling puzzle adventure where you’re plunged into the ether without any information. All you initially know is that you’re this boy on the run. Mysterious agents are kidnapping other folks, you’re running hither and yon to avoid being torn up by dogs, the list goes on.

"However, the over-arching narrative is mostly non-verbal, relying on symbols and a fictional language to tell the Drifter’s heart-breaking story."

As time goes by, a few things are made clear to the boy. He’s capable of controlling people or at least their seemingly soulless husks to progress forward. Along the journey, this strange presence seems to be calling to him, almost beckoning him to discover it first-hand. Of course, by the end, we learn this presence is a massive creature that’s set free in order to probably die out in the open air. Who was the boy? What was the creature? What was the point?

Though the game does invite you to discover its deeper meanings for yourself, Inside’s narrative is completely wordless. The times it does direct the player with non-verbal communication are understated and nearly mute in their subtlety. The art-style helps the player discern environmental elements, calling focus to key elements even in more aesthetically gorgeous scenes. By and large, however, you’re learning to play the game and moving forward seamlessly without any instruction (or due to instruction on a more subliminal level, if you will).

Another great example of this wordless kind of instruction, albeit with very minimal sentences in the beginning, is Hyper Light Drifter. When the game starts, you have next to no idea of what’s going on. Its jarring, almost hostile and yet mysterious as you’re introduced to this surreal world. The gameplay a throwback to the classic Zelda formula of exploring dungeons, discovering solutions, finding new tools to aid one’s journey and eventually fighting a boss. However, the over-arching narrative is mostly non-verbal, relying on symbols and a fictional language to tell the Drifter’s heart-breaking story.

For all intents and purposes, the lack of any real information or explanation allows us to sympathize with the protagonist all the more – he’s basically a stranger in this strange land, using technology that the denizens don’t quite have to cure an illness. Throughout the game, we’re offered faux-hieroglyphics of events and left to either discern NPC intentions through symbols or simply guess at what relation a mysterious character may have to the protagonist. At its core, the game is using its environment and the destruction it’s faced to provide information into its overall history. This is stuck between apparent dreams/hallucinations of the Drifter as he falls further and further down the techno-organic rabbit hole.

"That’s but one example of how The Witness uses non-verbal communication to teach its gameplay mechanics while also further immersing the player into the main purpose of it all – having a different perspective on things."

Some games don’t just eschew language for the sake of telling a story. They may rely on language in a different way, such as teaching the player how certain things work. The Witness is a phenomenal example of this. Upon starting the game, you’re basically plunked down on a gorgeous island with no context or information. What are you doing here? Why are you the only person on this island? Eventually, you work out the various puzzles and mechanics that litter the island, solving them as they pop up. There’s no urgent push to finish every puzzle. At times, you feel as though stepping back and gathering more perspective from your surroundings is essential to moving forward. Over time, the island may feel like a test but one wrapped in an indiscernible mystery and purpose.

The Witness has a number of ways to teach you its puzzle-solving mechanics. The core concept, at least in the early going, is to connect two points by drawing a line from point A to point B. It sounds simple in practice…until you start getting line mazes and have to connect multiple points. However, the environment has a way of helping you by relying on shapes and visual associations. For example, one puzzle about connecting points had multiple endpoints for the player to choose. How did you know which one was the right endpoint?

If you observed the environment, some trees with apples provided clues. Certain trees with broken branches hinted at which paths to not take. It was very well-implemented – subtle but getting the message across without beating the player over the head. That’s but one example of how The Witness uses non-verbal communication to teach its gameplay mechanics while also further immersing the player into the main purpose of it all – having a different perspective on things. After all, it’s that perspective which will ultimately guide you to the true ending.

"For all the lore inherent in item descriptions, character dialogues, boss dialogues and more, the ability of Dark Souls to tell stories through its environmental design is incredible."

It’s not hard to find games that simply won’t give you the necessary information to do something. Having a tutorial isn’t a bad thing. That being said, games like Toki Tori 2 are incredible in their approach. You don’t gain new abilities per say. Rather, you’ve always had those abilities – it’s just that new gameplay situations emerge where you learn to use them. Suddenly, you’re travelling back to previous sections and using this newfound knowledge for different things. It’s incredible and once again, Mark Brown’s Game Maker’s Toolkit goes into great detail about it.

Trying to guide players through traditional verbal means, hammering points home, again and again, is pretty essential in some cases though. Destiny 2’s recent Gambit mode is a barrage of information at times. When collecting Motes on the field, you’re told what you’ll get when banking them. The notification “Bank for small blocker” is followed by a small diamond symbol. Upon banking the Motes, you’re notified of the number banked and of a small blocker being deployed. On the bottom left corner of the screen, notifications of enemy and ally actions are displayed, keeping you up to date on what’s happening. Visual cues, especially when an enemy is invading, are also utilized. Given the competitive style of the game and how chaotic things can be, this kind of constant information flow can be essential.

Nevertheless, that games can tell so much more without their words are truly remarkable. For all the lore inherent in item descriptions, character dialogues, boss dialogues and more, the ability of Dark Souls to tell stories through its environmental design is incredible. The Vordt and the Dancer of the Boreal Valley in Dark Souls 3 are memorable bosses but seeing their spirits roaming the streets in Irithyll of the Boreal Valley tells us they weren’t always so demonic. The game is littered with such examples where it feels like the world is alive and not simply some abstract concept referred to in the lore, separate from the monsters we’re actually cutting down.

"Nevertheless, if nothing else, games that don’t need words to fully immerse players in their worlds and systems showcase the true power of language. Language and communication aren’t simply concepts to express information."

In terms of narrative, games have a wide variety of tools available. They can hold our hands, guiding us through each and every step of a situation, and keep mounting the tension. We can meet incredible characters and learn their backstories through comprehensive dialogue as much as nuanced facial expressions and body language. The story can be passed down through extensive monologue and cliché text crawls as well as it could through bits and pieces of lore, cobbled together in a rambling yet coherent history of the world.

However, games are an active medium by default. Participation is a given, whether you’re pressing the button or moving the camera around to take in the scenery. To have a game not just react to your observations but carefully ushering you through subliminal messaging, indirect clues and by your own observation is a testament to the power of media as a whole. Seeing the story unfold before your very eyes even as you’re the one who’s effectively progressing it, that too without a narrator pushing you forward from on high, is incredible even if the results seem a lot simpler in hindsight.

Nevertheless, if nothing else, games that don’t need words to fully immerse players in their worlds and systems showcase the true power of language. Language and communication aren’t simply concepts to express information. They’re tools to incite thinking, to push for action and to encourage discussion even if it’s within the confines of one’s own mind. To see that power utilized in a video game is wholly intriguing and speaks to the evolution of game design in this age of technological breakthrough.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

In a recent post on the company website, development/publishing company Two Tribes B.V. released a statement saying that, in the face of very poor game sales, the company is undergoing a full on restructuring that will shift their priorities, but hopefully not the caliber of game they produce. Two Tribes is known for their Toki Tori and EDGE game series as well as several other titles.

In the post, the Two Tribes team says that given the amount of time they spent on making the Toki Tori 2 engine/game when stacked up the the relatively underwhelming sales they got for it, it’s not in the company’s best interest to focus on developing new custom technology at this time.

Instead, the team, which will now be much smaller, is going to focus all of their efforts at once on a new 2D side scrolling shooter project, which will utilize the pre-existing Toki Tori 2 game engine. The main gist of the post is that Two Tribes, while they have been badly shaken up, has no plans to go anywhere or to stop producing great games.

The developer expressed its disappointment with Microsoft for its stance on self-published indie titles, a further step back from the already broken Xbox Live format that requires developers to shell out $10,000 non-refundable for dev-kits.

No self publishing on Xbox One probably means no Two Tribes games.This was really a chance for Microsoft to fix the broken XBLA setup. 🙁

— Two Tribes (@TwoTribesGames) May 22, 2013

Nonetheless, Two Tribes is psyched about developing for the PS4 (and outright meh-ed the Xbox One). When asked if Toki Tori 2 would be coming to the PlayStation Vita at some point, Two Tribes responded with the following.

@magmar126 @playstation not really, Toki 2’s too complex to run on it probably and our next project is a big unknown 🙂

— Two Tribes (@TwoTribesGames) May 27, 2013

A mighty tease in a season of teases for sure. It will be interesting to see what the developers bring out on the PlayStation 4, given its developer-friendly nature and the encompassing approach Sony has taken with smaller studios and indie developers.

Toki Tori was originally released as a Game Boy Colour title back in 2001 and, despite critical success, it was sadly looked over the by the general populous who were busy waiting for the arrival of the Game Boy Advance. The game managed to extend its influence many years later, when enhanced ports and remakes started showing up on every platform underneath the sun. With the success of these remakes, developer Two Tribes are now self-publishing a sequel available on Wii U with a Steam version to follow in the future.

The game follows the eponymous Toki Tori, a small bird who finds his world ruptured by vents that emit an evil black ooze. You thus journey with him to the source of all this madness in an attempt to set things right. It’s a simple story, but it is effectively communicated with absolutely no text. In fact, no writing appears throughout the entire game. It’s a bit daunting at first, but it’s a concise piece of game design that leaves you open to explore and discover what the game has to offer, without the needless tutorials and handholding normally found in contemporary games.

This is just one example of where Toki Tori shines, for it is a game where nothing is wasted. There is no excess in its mechanics; just standard 2D movement alongside a whistle and stomp command. Everything is navigated with these functions, but the sheer variety of other creatures you encounter and their diverse reactions to player activity provides a deep and satisfying puzzle experience. There are far too many variants to cover for the purposes of this review, and part of the game’s joy is discovering what other crazy creatures inhabit the game world. Rather than being a daunting cavalcade of NPCs though, each mechanic is introduced in such a way that you can learn the skills required to progress at a steady pace.

All of these tutorials take place with no speech or text as before, instead just giving you basic puzzles to introduce new mechanics before ramping things up. And when I say ramp up, I mean it. The cutesy facade fooled me for a time, but Toki Tori’s later puzzles are absolute monsters, spanning multiple screens of pure puzzle platforming evil.

This kind of difficulty is a welcome part of the later game but, as with the earlier tutorials, the lack of text is a mixed blessing. It’s nice to play a game that doesn’t condescend to me; allowing the thrill of discovery lost in the modern game. Having said that though, there will be the odd moment when you just don’t quite get what you’re meant to be doing. I’m sure everyone will have their own unique experience of losing the plot of Toki Tori 2 but, whilst this is an inevitable frustration, it becomes massively satisfying when you make it through anyway. There are a few pacing slip ups due to textless tutorials and the later difficulty, but pushing through these barriers leads to some of the greatest satisfaction I’ve had in any game for some time. And you’ll want to persevere with the tough bits, if only to see what Two Tribes have in store for you next.

Though the pace of the game fluctuates based on how quickly you take to certain game mechanics, it begins as a classic linear adventure. This section of the game builds up momentum gradually up to a point where things open up into a metroidvania structure. You gain the ability to fast travel amongst your previously visited areas and are able to progress as you please. Very few 2D games are ambitious enough to attempt an open world structure, and the progression becomes curious as a result. Rather than being locked out of areas based on your progress or specific items and upgrades you need to collect, the only thing preventing your from getting anywhere in the game world is knowledge. It’s a bold move that makes the thrill of exploration all the greater but, as before, the lack of signposting regarding your next objective may throw some players. That’s not to say the game doesn’t give you a firm objective, but some still may not quite fully understand what is required of them initially.

This non-scripted gameplay direction effortlessly evokes a retro style of gaming, a nostalgia that is also upheld by Toki Tori’s visuals. It’s a blatantly shiny and sweet aesthetic, one that is entirely geared towards outright fun. It doesn’t quite drum up Mario levels of charm, but the whole thing comes close. Added in are a series of background tracks that, whilst fairly standard for the genre, are catchy enough that you might find yourself humming along every now and then. As an added bonus for the Wii U version, you can also play the entirety of the game on the Gamepad controller. It works well, though the clarity of the visuals is noticeably reduced when playing on the smaller screen, robbing the crisp art style of its normal impact.

Most titles in the puzzle platformer vein struggle to maintain their clever puzzles for any length of time. Toki Tori 2 manages to keep the ball rolling, creating an absolutely colossal adventure that doesn’t let up throughout. Early promotional material implies the impending release of Toki Tori 2 on PC will include a map editor, a feature that is absent from the Wii U for the mean time. It’s a shame this is missing, as it would extend the experience in a way that makes sense for the Wii U’s touch screen functionality, but the main game content is long enough to tide you over even without a map editor.

For the price it’s difficult to fault Toki Tori 2. It’s a stellar edition to the Wii U’s download library, and a decisive affirmation of Nintendo’s much friendlier policy towards independent developers. The lack of clear directions may lead you astray at times but, if you’re as tired as I am of games that patronise the player with incessant tutorials, you’ll find it a welcome change all the same. If you have a Wii U and want a solid and deep brain scratcher, then Toki Tori’s charms will be just up your alley. If you don’t have a Wii U then begin eagerly anticipating the game’s PC release. It will be worth the wait.

This game was reviewed on Wii U.

It’s cute, at least. But the trailer also finally announces a release date for the game. Toki Tori 2 will be coming to the Nintendo Wii U on April 4th. Logos for the Nintendo eShop were seen at the end of the trailer, which indicate both digital availability and an upcoming demo.

As the follow-up to the original, Toki Tori 2 has you taking control of an adorable yellow bird as it walks, chirps and butt-stomps its way past a myriad of puzzles. There’s plenty of opposite and the open world aspect still remains to be properly showcased. But for a cutesy diversion, it looks like it’ll be worth the wait.

Check out our interview with Two Tribes co-founder Collin van Ginkel to learn more about the game.

So I just walk to the right. Just… walk. Five minutes of experimenting all by myself, and all of a sudden I get it. Toki Tori 2’s genius lies in its simplicity. Its appeal, in the deceptive complexity underlying all that simplicity.

Mechanically, there isn’t a whole lot to explain. The three actions I listed above: walk, whistle, stomp- they are literally the only ways you can directly interact with the world. But each of them has a range of consequences, consequences that you need to exploit to progress through the challenges the environment and the world throw at you. There’s a ledge you need to get on to, but you can’t jump, and so it’s beyond your reach. This means that you need the help of the surrounding wildlife, you need to set conditions up just perfectly that you’ll get from here to there.

Essentially, whistling works to attract attention. When you whistle, things turn towards you and move towards you. When you stomp on the ground, they either move away in fright, or just tumble away because of the stomp. Keeping that in mind, you need to work with the environment. Take that ledge puzzle up there I just mentioned. It sounds simple enough, but how you solve it will differ greatly based on your immediate environment. If there’s a frog there, then almost certainly there will be a little bug the frog eats nearby. You have to find this bug, cause it to fall from its perch (usually on an outropping or ceiling) by stomping, lead it to the frog by singing or stomping, let the frog eat it. What happens when the frog eats it? It ejects a bubble that envelops you and carries you to the ledge above.

Or there could be a bird above, a protective bird that carries everything it sees to its empty nest (a nest that is presumably on the ledge right out of your reach. You have to catch its eye by singing, and you have to make sure you aren’t hidden by any sort of grass. Once the bird sees you, it’ll grab you and take you to the ledge.

Or there could be a hermit crab near by. If you whistle, it moves towards you. If you stomp, it moves away from you. You make the hermit crab move close to you, clamber on to it, fall to the other side, whistle again so it moves back towards the ledge, clamber on to it, and then onto the ledge that is now within your reach.

Toki Tori 2 uses a variety of these sorts of puzzles in most situations, challenging you to think, and making you exploit your environment so that it works for you, as opposed to against you. The best part? It never explains any of the mechanics I listed above to you. Not a single time. Unlike modern games that force you to sit through painfully long, increasingly banal tutorials, Toki Tori 2 throws you into the mix, challenging you to observe everything around you, notice patterns, and then to work with them.

It’s a wonderfully refreshing game. As platformers work, it’s like nothing else on the market. Unlike other games in its genre which get increasingly fast, frantic and frenetic, Toki Tori 2 invites you to stop, observe everything at your own pace, and then to do it at your own pace. It’s more of a puzzle game than anything else. And it looks beautiful, and sounds elegantly simple too.

Toki Tori 2 hits the Wii U eShop later this month. Watch out for our coverage for the game, including a full review, around then.

Read the full interview below.

Ravi Sinha: So from the Game Boy Color in 2001 to the Wii U and Steam for PC/Mac in 2013. It’s been quite the journey for the little yellow bird, hasn’t it?

Collin van Ginkel: You didn’t know Toki Tori’s life officially started back in 1992 on the MSX-2 system as Eggbert? It’s a three decade spanning journey already, which makes me feel really old! Thanks!

Ravi Sinha: Toki Tori isn’t your typical video game hero, yet he sacrifices quite a lot for the sake of his family. Was it a desire to approve to a wider age group or to simply go off the beaten path when coming up with a hero?

Collin van Ginkel: Toki Tori sort of happened to come into existence. He started off as a walking egg and for some reason became a bird. There’s no master plan there.

We did redesign him when we moved to 3D models for the WiiWare reboot we did. We tried to make him into a character with a lot of personality without being too cute.

Ravi Sinha: How will Toki Tori 2 evolve on the puzzle-platforming formula set about in the first game, such as with the interactive storyline and open world?

Collin van Ginkel: We’ve thrown a lot of the old Toki Tori out and kept the core values that people appreciated about the game. So it’s a brand new game which hopefully both appeals to our fans but also manages to reach a wider audience.

The big difference is that it is indeed an open world and that Toki Tori’s abilities have been limited even more, stripping him completely of his tools and weapons. All he can do is whistle and stomp, so he needs the help of the game’s inhabitants to get around. It’s a much friendlier and deeper mechanic than the old Toki Tori.

Ravi Sinha: Today’s mobile and social gaming scene has evolved to astronomical proportions. As with the original, will Toki Tori 2 be making its way onto iOS and Android or even to a massive social audience in the near future?

Collin van Ginkel: Actually, Toki Tori 2 design has evolved to require proper directional controls. We are not a big fan of virtual controls on touch screen devices, so to be honest we don’t have a clue as to how we’d go ahead and make an iOS version. We’re going to worry about that later!

Ravi Sinha: Looking at today’s blockbuster games, including the party titles of more well-known franchises like the Rabbids, where does Toki Tori 2 fit into the Wii U’s lineup?

Collin van Ginkel: As of this moment, we don’t think there is any game on Wii U that compares to the Toki Tori 2 play experience. Of course all games are different, but since it’s so early in the system’s lifespan we’re pretty sure we are filling a gap in the eShop’s offerings.

Toki Tori 2’s a decidedly classic game experience, not looking to shoehorn every new feature into the game’s design.

Ravi Sinha: Is it more difficult to cater to a generation that identifies with Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty as much as Angry Birds and Cut the Rope when it comes to gaming – or has it been easier?

Collin van Ginkel: I think it’s too early to make that call. We’ve basically made a game that we’d love to play ourselves. Since we’re getting pretty old now (thanks again!) we may be blind to what the new players like. We will see the outcome later this year.

Ravi Sinha: Could you elucidate a bit about Toki Tori 2’s Wii U features, and how it takes advantage of the Wii U Gamepad?

Collin van Ginkel: As I mentioned, we didn’t shoehorn every feature into the game’s design. Instead we looked at how the Gamepad could compliment the game experience. We use it for a few small things, but the major features are the Tokidexm which uses the gamepad as a viewfinder to take pictures of the creatures in the game, and of course we also fully support off-TV gameplay.

Ravi Sinha: Has Steam helped the exposure to Toki Tori 2 better than if you went the typical retail route from the last decade? How does it help you find and cater to your audiences better?

Collin van Ginkel: We’ve been focusing on Wii U for the last couple of months, but we’re keeping our beta on Steam updated too. Steam allows us such a great direct connection with our fans, it is amazing and one of the things we love the most about Steam.

Ravi Sinha: Toki Tori 2 was delayed from December 20th 2012 till early this year due to several “weak spots” the development team wanted to iron out. Tell us a bit more on those weak spots, and how they’re coming along.

Collin van Ginkel: I actually wrote a blogpost on this today, you can read it here.

Ravi Sinha: Finally, a solid release date for Toki Tori 2. Can we get one, or is there going to be an announcement soon on the same?

Collin van Ginkel: We’re close! But a date has not yet been determined. We’ll be sure to let the world know when this changes!

The developers believe that the game is not yet ready. “Toki Tori 2’s a personal project for us. It’s first game we’ve made without being tied to a license or publisher, it’s something we’re putting a lot of love in, and it’s something that’s just not good enough to be released yet,” they said.

They believe if they were to release the game in it’s current form, it will be disservice to the fans. ” All these things are in the game right now, but there are so many things that could, no… should be a better that we feel we would do you a disservice to you if we release it in its current form.”

In the mean time they will be working on Toki Tori 2’s weak points but as mentioned before they are not announcing the release date yet. “So what now? We are busy making a plan to fix the the game’s current weak spots, in all categories ranging from gameplay to graphics to technology. We are not ready to commit to an exact release date at this point, but it will definitely be early in the new year.”

So basically the game will be ready when it’s ready.

The Wii U version was supposed to release before the PC version but now it will be interesting to see whether they will release on both platforms simultaneously.

Lets hope that this delay makes Toki Tori 2 worth while for its fans.

In the mean time check out some screens from the game:

About Toki Tori 2 :

Game Overview :

Toki Tori 2 will see Two Tribes’ poultry mascot character return in a completely new adventure, developed from the ground up for today’s players and technology. The initial release will be through Steam for PC and Mac in the spring of 2012. Continuing the tradition of Two Tribes to support multiple platforms, subsequent releases on downloadable stores from Apple, Nintendo and more are planned.

Developer : Two Tribes

Platforms : WiiU and PC

Release Date : 2012 (WiiU)
2012 (online) (PC)

Stay tuned to Gamingbolt.com for more news and updates.

It’s all very interesting (yes, we’ve said that twice now) but hopefully there will be other Wii U titles that do more than the usual with the gamepad and touchscreen.