Season Follows Great Indie Exploration Games like Outer Wilds

gamerant.com:

Scavengers Studio is set to finally release Season: A Letter To The Future this fall after several years in development. From what's known so far between press releases and trailers, Season will follow the player as they travel through an open world and record everything and anything they choose to along the way, whether it will be interviews with characters, photographs of people and places, or even recording the sounds they encounter.

However, in line with the game's namesake, the world the player travels through with the people and places they will see will be gone by the journey's end, as some unknown cataclysm awaits them when the season ends. The game's premise hinges then on the player's choice and agency, deciding who or what is worth preserving in their journal before the season is over, with a mysterious story to explore and uncover. If this sounds familiar, that may be because there's a current trend emerging from the gaming scene, especially from indie games, that deliver on experience over action.

Season Looks Like Another Great Photography Game

The set-up of an open-world exploration game with the freedom to travel and determine one's own path is a new style of game that's cropped up in recent years. Going back to the 2010s and beyond, games were emerging that steered away from a mainstream stereotype of providing linear sequences peppered with action, combat, and perhaps even a few puzzles and platforming segments. Games such as Firewatch and Outer Wilds have opened a door to game design that allows players to drive their own experience instead of holding their hands, games which encourage the player to stop and smell the flowers instead of pushing them on to the next scripted sequence of events.

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