Have you anon?

I had never heard about the web animation it's based on either but a game came out, based on it. It's a surrealist walking simulator with very fancy character animations. I don't think it's very good otherwise but the character animations are really nice.

It was a series of animated shorts based off of a couple of niche video game genres called "walking sims" and "egglikes" which have a lot of overlap, themselves heavily inspired by the game LSD Dream Emulator. Now it has a game that's basically an extremely detailed version of those types of games.

Would

walking simulator

Is this just how we describe any first-person game where you walk now?

No, it's a pretty specific genre where interactions are minor if not outright non-existent and its focus is more on immersing someone in a setting than anything relating to gameplay.

No, it's kind of more specifically referring to games where the main gameplay is just exploring an environment and interacting with stuff which has no or only very minor gameplay challenges like combat, platforming or puzzle solving.

Doesn't even have to be in first person, they could very well be in third person too.

first-person puzzle/adventure games are now walking simulators

See, I was under the impression that games like Gone Home or Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, where there's nothing to do but walk and interact with things, were called "walking simulators" for their intrinsic lack of gameplay in service of telling a story, the name being an implicit criticism for lacking any kind of challenge.

the main gameplay is just exploring an environment and interacting with stuff which has no or only very minor gameplay challenges like combat, platforming or puzzle solving

The ENA game has missions and puzzling segments. You can at least fall in a void or just get stuck somewhere.

This is how

"True Gamers"

describe any game that is not nonstop action shooting splosions every second of gameplay. It's their way of trying to be derogatory to any game that is not Borderlands or trying to be Borderlands.

ywn be smothered by a giant ena

But you cannot shoot anything or do much other than walk down the specific set path. Making it a shit game, which really stretches the definition of the word by calling it a game at all. As far as I'm concerned it's not a game. It's a long boring cutscene.

Troons fucking love the character since they think it represents them. The rest are coomers for a flavor of the month from like 5 years ago.

Yeah, the degree to which you can interact with the world in ENA is indicative of an egg-like, where there's still some minor interactivity and semblance of a gameplay element. It's a sub-genre of the walking sim which got its name from a game where you have to collect eggs that are hidden in a world to go to new areas.

It's not bad but you do absolutely have to be the target audience to get the most enjoyment from it. The biggest draw back is the length but it's only chapter one so far so it will get longer. Presumably the more chapters they add the more the branching and converging story paths will actually start to make an impact.
Still, it's free to play so you can't complain too much about the limited content so far. It's got plenty of Easter eggs and multiple routes to explore.

I've seen a bit of discourse over the game being mid level abstract art. There's no denying the game is trying to maintain a certain amount of structure despite being abstract but... that's how a game should be. You can't make the game a totally open ended sandbox story with zero guidance and still hold a large audience. It has to sacrifice a bit of the vagueness in order to still be something you can progress in.

you cannot shoot anything or do much other than walk down the specific set path

There are at least multiple paths to get to the "Bathroom," and a mission you can ignore by letting a character die.

...who cares? It's not a fucking game, it's a cutscene.

tfw my computer is busted and I can't play Dream BBQ

Should I watch a stream of it, or just wait until I get my computer fixed for the proper experience?

Vinny's was pretty good and it's neat because he voiced one of the first characters in the game

played the game when it released. the art and animation are great just like the cartoons but the game itself was very boring, also i hope the story/lore won't be as uninspired as it's shaping up to be

I am the boss.

I find this claim to be factually dubious

Yes I have, it’s very cool and I can’t wait for the full game. Most of the secrets have been found so I’m waiting for someone(s) to really sink their teeth into the games code and break boundaries.

Watching the speed runs I see they clip into a hallway connected to the alleyway you pass through to the casino. The same hall is visible in the maze. I assume there was a dummy path at some point that you could end up getting ejected back to the starting area there, that or the path will be usable in a future chapter. Ethier way interesting to see it still works and speed runners are using it to jump right from the intro cutscene to the taxi diver head quest.

it's a cutscene

More going on in it than Gone Home, that's for damn sure...

If you can’t play it yourself I don’t see the harm, however every copy is personalized so you’re going to see something different each video and from what you might end up experiencing yourself.

Aside from the location of some misc. stuff and which taxi driver head you get I haven't seen much that differs greatly between games.

I feel sorry for all the people who never found the taxi before the head and missed out on the MVP of Dream BBQ.

Cutie

Don't you mean DRATULA?

Cold take, and agree.

Imagine if ENA really was looking for an actual bathroom in the game and there was an ending where she doesn't find it in time

She didn’t really click with me, I found the other characters more charming/interesting.

Interestingly enough the Taxi Man (Doom specifically) was already there on my first playthrough. I’ve see another video where the player had the same scenario and the same head even, it’s funny how most of the randomization in the first chapter is directly tied to that character specifically.

I like her silly faces