Exploration and discovery are key parts of many games. Really, all games feature them to some degree. Even in Super Mario Bros. you can explore levels and discover hidden item boxes throughout the levels. But that’s certainly not the main mechanic of the game. There are some games that focus entirely on exploration and discovery as the driving force that keeps the player engaged and I’d like to analyse how some of the best have done it, starting with Ancestors: A Humankind Odyssey.

In Ancestors you play as a monkey, or tribe of monkeys and your aim is to build up your tribe, increase their intelligence and knowledge and pass through generations and evolve into more advanced species of hominid.

Ancestors: Exploring Yourself and The Land

Ancestors: Humankind Odyssey excels at capturing the feeling of discovery through exploration. This is especially true early on in the game but it manages to keep giving you things to discover for a long time. Perhaps the biggest reason for this is that the game doesn’t tell you how to do much. There are a lot of ways to interact with the game world, but it only gives you vague instructions for the most part. The pause screen gives random hints and even when choosing new skills, you’re not told explicitly how to use them.

In this way, it focuses on exploring the mechanics of gameplay rather than just exploring the game’s world and finding new areas. The lack of clear instruction makes it so that every time you figure out how to use a mechanic, it feels like you’ve made a significant discovery of your own. It helps that different mechanics can often be used together, such as being able to hold 2 items at once enabling you to create sharp sticks, which in turn leads to being able to go spear fishing.

Each new discovery makes your monkey tribe stronger and better, but it also makes the player better at the game. Focusing on mechanical discovery like this means the player and the player character can grow together. Unlike Skyrim, for example, where it’s only the player character getting stronger. Sure you can get better at playing the game but that has only a marginal effect on the outcome of a battle compared to your character’s stats and level.

In fact, Skyrim presents a good example of how many games waste the potential of an open, explorable world. In that game, there are many caves and ruins and such to explore but for the most part you’ll just get loot that makes your character slightly stronger or sold for money.

Finding a new sword can be fun, but it doesn’t have the same significance as unlocking the skill in Ancestors that allows you to hold 2 items at once, for example. That opens up a whole new way to interact with the world and everything in it. Even the skills that are just incremental improvements on existing abilities like being able to smell fruit from further away feel so much more important because of how difficult the game can be and how those things are necessary for your survival.

Every discovery in Ancestors is a big thing because they significantly impact how you play the game and how well you can survive in its world. Every time you figure out how to do someting it’s gratifying because the game didn’t tell you how to do it, and now you can reap the rewards of your discovery!

Outer Wilds: Exploring The World and The Past

Another game that’s worth talking about in regards to exploration and discovery as main mechanics is Outer Wilds. It presents you with a solar system and a space ship to zoom around in. Unlike Ancestors, it doesn’t give you a main objective except for going into space. The story simply begins with your character eagerly awaiting their first trip into space to see what they can see.

The lack of any main objective is an intrinsic part of Outer Wilds’ game design. Whereas Ancestors and Outer Wilds both involve a lot of exploring new areas, Ancestors mostly focuses on exploring and discovering new gameplay mechanics to use in the game world. In contrast, Outer Wilds has few gameplay mechanics and is more interested in using exploration and discovery as a method of story telling.

The main story is about an ancient civilisation called the Nomai and the mysteries surrounding their disappearance, though there are other smaller stories too. However, the game never outright tells you that your goal is to discover what happened to the Nomai. It merely nudges you in that direction. Meanwhile the sun is going supernova and will explode, killing you and everyone else in the solar system. Fortunately, your character is stuck in a time loop and wakes up at the start of the game every time this happens. This is integral in encouraging you to explore because it naturally gives you another objective to work towards. And of course, eventually, you discover the Nomai might have known something that could help you and again, you’re encouraged to explore further to discover a way to save the world.

And that’s what makes each new discovery special in Outer Wilds. The objectives you set at the beginning are your own and so anything you find out relating to them feels important. Another thing to consider is the fact you’re given free rein to explore the planets in whatever order you like.

Again, this level of freedom means you’re never pushed into discovering some big revelation. While something like Uncharted may have a big plot twist in its story, it’s always going to happen when the writers decide is best for the pacing of the story. In Outer Wilds, that same plot twist is made more significant because you really never know when it’s going to happen, as it’s entirely up to you to find that information.

Since the information is spread out amongst the planets, it’s also up to you to piece together the story. So while you’re exploring planets and discovering new areas and alien creatures, you’re also discovering new twists and turns in a story you naturally got yourself wrapped up in, rather than watching a story play out because that’s how it was scripted.

So to sum up, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey and Outer Wilds are two games that I think best capture the feeling of wonder from exploring and discovering new things. They both do it in different ways but both equally well. Ancestors thrusts you into a world that threatens to kill you and lets you discover new ways to survive and progress all on your own, whereas Outer Wilds merely lets you know that there are interesting things to discover out there and gives you the tools you need to find them.

Neither game gives you too much information, or pushes you strongly in any direction. They both give just the right amount of freedom and direction that lets you feel like you’re really uncovering something important every time you play.

Have you played either of these games? What did you think of them? Are there any games you can think of that encourage exploration in the same way, or that give you the same sense of wonder on discovering new things? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @Kevlooks.