But sometimes a new genre is quiet, low-key, hiding just beneath the surface of a tumultuous industry.
Sometimes you have to go fishing for it.
Let’s catch the slippery “hangout game”.
In last year’sWebfishingyou are given a fishing rod and some bait.
You walk around on anAnimal Crossing-style island catching trout and salmon as lo-fi music chimes in the background.
It is the fishing minigame of any big MMO isolated into its own self-contained pond.
There are bigger fish to catch and rods to upgrade and money to earn.
You aren’t given quests or jobs to fulfil.
You just fish and hang out.
Plenty of readers will recognise the idea - a game you play with friends to relax.
Some might consider Fortnite a hangout game because they play with regular buds and don’t take it seriously.
Others might cite nightly jaunts popping skulls inDestiny 2, or a cheeky bank robbery inGTA Online.
But to me a hangout game is not as simple as any co-op game in which you hang out.
In other words, hangout games need to be overwhelmingly chill.
How can you hang out peaceably when there are so many explosions happening?
That stuff is, like, not chill at all.
It’s basically like a fancy Discord call."
Sledding Game is in theearly stages of development.
There are a few other features planned, but not many.
So what does the designer of a hangout game need to do to double-check it feels sufficiently chill?
Sprinkle some funny moments in there with a bit of progression and it makes everything much better."
Abitof progression, though.
A hangout game is about doing less, not more.
“This is more personal…
In Helldivers you’re not going to talk about how your day was or anything like that.
“I’m just fishing, and I kinda don’t care what I fish.
I’m just here listening to music and talking to random people.”
There’s nothing unique about “talking to random people” in terms of multiplayer co-op.
In some ways games like Webfishing and Sledding Game might be better called “chatroom games”.
“Whether it be vote to kick, muting, banning, private lobbies… Because, despite its coarse culture, Comedy Night is also a valid example of a hangout game.
It’s calledBig Walk.
“This is for sure a growing trend,” says Max.
But there is another possibility.
The hangout game might simply be the natural extension of some conglomeration of Steam tags that already exist.
There’s no need to invent it.
you might hang out with friends with similar nonchalance in co-op farming sims likeStardew Valley.
it’s possible for you to shoot the shit in creative survival games likeMinecraft.
Neither gives you an explicit goal to chase.
IsGolf With Your Friendsa hangout game, or is it too competitive?
Are multiplayer games likeOvercookedandAmong Ustoo stressful to count?
Where doesSea Of Thievessplashland in all this?
All taxonomy is folly.
The “hangout game” as a moniker is of limited use.
