How roasting marshmallows became the ‘emotional core’ of Outer Wilds
Each time you start a new playthrough in Mobius Digital’s time-loop game Outer Wilds, your character blinks their blurry eyes open to see a night sky and you hear the light crackling of a fire. In the game, you explore a solar system 22 minutes at a time. At the end of each run, the solar system explodes and the game kicks you back to your home planet. And when you restart, the game settles you back into its world with the comforting scene of a four-eyed alien donning hipster garb and roasting a marshmallow over a fire.
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Roasting marshmallows (or “mallows,” as they’re lovingly called by some) is a time-honored tradition in North America. Whether you’re camping or just hanging out around a fire in the summer, odds are someone will bring out a bag of the fluffy confection at some point. Whether you prefer to eat them by themselves or paired with chocolate and graham crackers as a s’more, you’d be hard-pressed to find a food that better encapsulates the spirit of summer camp of the warm, gooey years of old.
In Outer Wilds, you can press a button to hold out a stick over a fire and wobble it around to roast the mallow. If you hold the marshmallow the perfect distance from the fire for the right amount of time, you’ll end up with a golden crispy dessert that can heal some of your health. It’s a novel reprieve from the cold deadness of space, and as creative director of Outer Wilds Alex Beachum said in an interview with Polygon, it isn’t just some cutesy addition with no use. As it turns out, the concept was central to the creation of the game even in
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