#islandstudies

the populace has not all moved to islands - they are playing “animal crossing: new horizons”, a game where you get your own deserted island that you build & farm on:

given that we’re in quarantine, this game where you get to do nice things outside is doing well. but every time i see someone say something about “my island”, i have to remind myself that they’re talking about a game...that they’re not actually growing turnips on their island. i grow lots of stuff on the island where i live & i’m always trying to connect with others who are growing stuff (especially on islands! maybe they’re even on the island i live on!), so every time i see something about someone growing something on an island, i get hopeful that it might be someone i can connect with - learn from, share with, whatever. but each time it’s from a game lol.

this all got me thinking about other games that take place on islands. here are a few:

the sims island living expansion (2019)

you go shopping for island lots...maybe you get the one with the active volcano..

what does a sims shopper want out of an island home? beach access? what about fresh water & good soil??? what if a hurricane comes through? you would NEVER build that close to an active volcano, and most volcanoes don’t look like that anyway (but it turns out that if a westerner thinks of an island, it’s almost always roundish & is very likely to have a volcano on it!). how much electricity are you going to need to power such a huge house with so many appliances? where are you going to get the solar or how much are utilities? what if there’s a hurricane?! you can’t build at ground level on the beach!

here’s some “island living” gameplay: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntqnwK4HPtE&feature=youtu.be&t=259

in this game the player is buying real estate, choosing from a number of luxury beachfront properties. they are probably not planning to fish, grow trees, or farm (can you even farm in the sims?). they’re not going to grow the trees they need to build their houses. they don’t care that it can be extremely difficult to grow food on a low-lying atoll. for them the land isn’t going to feed anyone..it’s a site of consumerism (buying stuff for your house & improving your house) and recreation (for the sims). it’s the dream of living in the beachside hotel or airbnb forever. so it’s the dream of the visitor, not necessarily the dream of the local. in many cases, the fancy upscale bungalows where the foreigners live and the hotel zones are bitter reminders of who exactly the land is currently for (not the locals).

this gets to the center of a lot of questions relating to islands in video games:

* why is an island an appealing setting from the perspective of game designers?

* who is the player meant to be in the game?

* what does the player do on the island in the game?

* why are there so many games set on islands?

but first, the games:

rust (2018)

survival game set on an island. you have to do everything from scratch and the world is filled with other hostile players who are ready to gank you. "Every time you join a server, your life begins the same way: you wake up on an great-looking island, completely (and graphically) naked" [IGN]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEAaUMzwo1c

crysis (2007)

in crysis you’re a hand with a gun on a tropical island. you’re in the US military rescuing some american archaeologists who’ve been taken captive by north koreans. so you’re on this island to rescue the archaeologists & you make a big discovery.

the islands in the game are supposed to be in the philippines, but have the same name as an island in china: lingshan. they even have a complicated fake history: “one of the Koreans [in-game] referred to the island's lucrative business in minerals as the "influence of capitalism", indicating that the island's inhabitants participate in international trade and are partially Westernized.” [crysis wiki - lingshan islands]

gameplay: https://youtu.be/rBtZhws2P9E?t=13

tomb raider

there are many tomb raiders & i’ve never played any of them, but in tomb raider (2013), lara croft is a white lady seeking adventure. her ship crashes & she ends up on an island, which is where the game takes place.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHea-oMh6k

far cry 3 (2012)

another game where you are a hand with a gun on a tropical island. this has a funny setup though: you are a nasty dudebro on vacation with your fellow boorish dudebros at a tropical island. you go skydiving & crash. you wake up as a prisoner of a weird gone-native psycho.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYXgC5RT32A&feature=emb_title

just cause (2006)

this is a third person shooter set on a tropical island. here’s a cut scene from the opening:

the player is some kind of special ops parachuting into san esperito, this fictional caribbean “island in turmoil”. “San Esperito is a tropical island-nation, composed of several islands. All islands are covered with mountains and jungles, with over 10 million trees. There's even a large volcano.” [just cause wiki]

screenshot is from this gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRE8G64vXCM

myst (1993)

in this game the player travels via a magical book to the mysterious island of myst where you explore and solve puzzles and stuff. this was a really big game in the nineties. it was known as having really great graphics. i never played it, but i remember wanting to play it as a kid.

on its production: “Cyan took inspiration from games like Zork, Star Wars' mythic universe, portals to other worlds like in C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia, and the mysterious islands of old literature like the works of Jules Verne.[9] The game's name, as well as the overall solitary and mysterious atmosphere of the island, was inspired by the book The Mysterious Island by Verne.” [wikipedia]

Crash Bandicoot (1996)

platformer that takes place “on the fictitious Wumpa Islands, an archipelago situated to the south of Australia” [wikipedia]. you play as crash bandicoot, an escaped animal test subject of some mad scientists.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhAKTBfWKYQ&feature=youtu.be&t=65

plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash_Bandicoot_(video_game)#Plot

assassin’s creed 4: black flag (2013)

this game has some complicated plot in the caribbean in the 1700s. something something pirates.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1NUunvO0Hs

plot summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin's_Creed_IV%3A_Black_Flag#Setting

yoshi’s island

there are many yoshi’s island games going back to the 90s. i guess a lot of people love this game, but i’ve never played any of them.

the actual yoshi’s island appears in a number of mario games and is the home of the yoshis.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8btNneN8ew

fallout 4: far harbor (2016)

this is an expansion pack for fallout 4. the game is “set on Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine.” the player rescues a missing girl. [fallout wiki]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYgbS-Poubk

donkey kong country (1994)

platformer that takes place on donkey kong island, the tropical home of the kong family. it appears in a number of donkey kong games. there are neighboring islands as well.

the 1994 game was super popular and was “one of the first games for a mainstream home video game console to use pre-rendered 3D graphics” [wikipedia]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4EUEsEM328

animal crossing: new horizons (2020)

very popular at the time of this writing (may 2020). the game starts with the player having booked a “getaway package” to a “deserted island”. you are moving there and starting your new life of growing things and crafting. 

regarding the setting: “In terms of why they chose a deserted island environment for the game, they explained that they wanted to give players a new experience from the previous game titles. They wanted to give players the freedom to choose what they wanted to build and where, opposed to having a preexisting village.” [IGN]

people love this game, but i am skeptic. look at what happens AFTER you’ve flown to the island, upended your life to ‘start again’, named the island, set up your tent, and been given a phone provided by the same company that has provided all the other services you’ve received so far:

the player sounds like any other tourist who’s been hoodwinked into a timeshare, but in this case it’s indentured servitude! how convenient that your bill (which you can’t dispute) is in a currency you don’t have..guess you’ll just have to work it off!

i do not trust this tom nook guy:

gifs and tom nook screenshots are from this video: https://youtu.be/IPT0fG8gOJI?t=1785

the island of dr. brain (1992)

puzzle/adventure game that takes place on a mad scientist’s volcanic tropical island.

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnEBo0UICY

the legend of zelda: windwaker (2002)

action-adventure game that takes place across multiple islands. it looks like the setting followed from some earlier decisions about the game’s art style: “The team quickly decided the setting would be islands in an ocean, determining it would provide interesting visuals and mechanics in the cel-shaded style.” [wikipedia]

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xnA9tAqaUg

grand theft auto 4: liberty city (2008)

the player does gangster-type things while driving around a stand-in for new york city. check out the map: https://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/16701/google-maps-powered-street-view-of-liberty-city-via-gtanet.html

gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVS3TGJmc0c

monkey island

this is a series of games: “Each of the games takes place on fictional islands in the Caribbean around the Golden Age of Piracy sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries.” [wikipedia]

“Ron Gilbert's two main inspirations for the story were Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides.“ [wikipedia]

some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfAo3O2qZR0

i wanted to provide a sampling of games set on islands. this is not an exhaustive list. there are so many more games...but i’m going to stop here for now. in the next section, we’ll talk about why islands are an attractive concept for game designers...