Grounded: Shrunken Kids, Large World, Larger Audience
(Courtesy of: Steam store page)
In a heavy homage to “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”, Grounded manages to mark its ant-hill-like territory in the survival genre space. Grounded gets so many things right with its sandbox, “from building and resource management to exploration and combat” (Northup, 2022). They also add the unique twist of basing the entire playthrough as a shrunken kid in the setting of a backyard. This allows players to traverse a tiny life that could be happening in anybody’s backyard.
“The Bones That Obsidian Built Grounded on are Typical, but Solid, for a Survival Game” (IGN Staff, 2022)
What is a survival game? They all share the “common element of inviting you to craft your survival in a hostile world” (IGN Staff, 2022). Grounded does three things right: engaging, replayable, and spreadable.
(Courtesy of: Eurogamer.net)
The main star attraction of Grounded is “hands-down the backyard itself” (Northup, 2022). Mundane items in real life act as its own distinct area, with their own “dangerous creatures, things to discover, and obstacles to overcome” (Northup, 2022). An overturned charcoal grill is now a volcanic mountain range, while a sandbox becomes an inhospitable desert, full of antlions waiting to burrow up from the ground to grab you. A koi pond becomes a fantastical sunken world, watched under the oppressive gaze of the one-eyed gilled menace. Even things as simple as a blueberry now are being harvested for its rough flesh to make leather for your armor. My only warning is to keep your eyes peeled when you are hanging on for dear life in the branches of the hedge bushes. There is one type of eight-legged monster that hunts on those grounds. Easily towering over your tiny character, they are only visible by its eight glowing red eyes.
Whether it is the bull-like ladybug, grand-duelist mantis, or still-annoying mosquito, fights become a complex “tug of war” for positions of power. Identifying when you can and cannot strike an opening is a matter between life and death. (Monster Hunters Marvellous Combat, 2022)
After killing and dissecting an insect, players can use those parts to make stronger gear and items to venture into more dangerous environments and fight bigger baddies. This core mechanic becomes a positive feedback loop, encouraging people to search for bigger hunts in anticipation of bigger rewards. Also, players are able to specialize in areas of combat through their armor and weapons. As a result, each playstyle offers a unique way to face these multi-legged combatants throughout the yard. This culmination of insect hunting creates a high replay value. Now, people who are unsure of purchasing or already playing Grounded are more likely to perceive the $40 cost more as a value deal rather than an overpriced simulation. (Replayability in Video Games, 2019) Yet, what frames itself as intense combat is surprisingly simple to understand and overcome, making it appealing to children and adults alike.
One important factor in this bout of death is the player’s ability to block. Whenever a player successfully blocks an attack, a meter goes up. When they don’t hold the block button the meter goes down. When it maxes out the player becomes stunned, becoming vulnerable to all attacks. However, the player can alternatively press the block button right before the enemy hits them, called a “parry”. This ensures neither damage nor meter is taken. Parrying is a chance to showcase how much players know about bug attack patterns. This skill expression in turn is more favorable for older and veteran gamers. This can be more difficult for beginners or kids. Grounded solves this by letting people beat bugs through other means. If you can’t parry, you can use tools (such as bows or staffs), potions, and upgrade your gear so blocking isn’t as important. That way, players do not just give up after a frustrating fight, because there is always another means to beating them. Grounded’s accessibility for many different demographics of players to still be able to effectively beat the same bug helps to expand it’s market appeal.
“Grounded’s tale of shrunken children in search of a way to return to their normal size isn’t always front and center…But when it does take the spotlight, it shines by being utterly ridiculous and laugh-out-loud funny.” (Northup, 2022)
(Courtesy of: ultimaficha)
Grounded makes an incredible effort to appeal to a younger audience. All insect blood, even a mosquito that may be holding a blood sac, is green. The main characters are all teenagers, which can serve as relatable or an inspiration to a younger audience. Your ally is a spatula-handed robot programmed to cook burgers, and the bad guy’s name is Director Shmector. Dialogue is humorous, cutscenes are sometimes ridiculous, and the remarkably silly story is charming and friendly for children. Grounded never takes itself seriously, to hilarious and great effect. In previous betas, there was originally a lizard boss you could face off (JadeCraft, 2022). But the developers removed it because of the risk of having their amazing rating of PEGI-12 (ESRB TEEN) in the UK rated higher. (Robertson, 2020)
Grounded does not fail to neglect its older audience either. The game is a hard reference to “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” and the data system for insects is very reminiscent of a nostalgic Pokedex. Grounded is chock-full of attention to detail on making sure there is both visual and mechanical appeal for young, casual, and older gamers.
“It’s a testament then to how incredibly strong every other part of Grounded is…to my style or my immense enjoyment.” (Northup, 2022)
(Courtesy of: google images)
The intuitive design of Grounded is more than the gameplay itself. Looking outside, the hub of menus you use for crafting, insect research, and mission checking, are best discussed through the Eight Steps to an Intuitive UI:
Discoverability
- Some tabs categorize each very direct menu. These starting points are very easy to “get” what the menu entails. However, the biggest issue would be what the “OS” menu could mean. I was confused when I first saw it and realized all it did was change the color formats of my UI. I deemed it pretty useless for my experience.
Affordance
- Nothing on the menu serves as a decoration. It is very focused on telling exactly what everything does with no filler between.
Comprehensibility
- Words are direct with face-value meanings implemented. For example, the “Craft” menu crafting resources. This is further split into smaller menus to differentiate.
Responsive Feedback
- Rather than a response to success or failure, it rather indicates it is not possible to take the action at all. The originally brightly-colored button will become a muted variation. This serves as the sign that you can’t press the button at all.
Predictability
- There is an emphasis on ease of accessibility, like a color blindness setting and even a way to turn off the scariness of spiders for arachnophobes. (Yes, you read that right. You can make all spiders in the game, and there are many, look less scary. A small detail but very useful.)
Efficiency
- All the tabs are clustered together in the menu, with a model that is repeated when categorized into smaller menus for ease of understanding and visual space efficiency.
Forgiveness
- Unfortunately, there is no real forgiveness in the menus. If you accidentally craft 15 bandages instead of 5, there is no way to retract the crafting to then utilize it in the correct spots. To be fair, making crucial decisions about where you use your resources is a core part of any survival game.
Explorability
- The UI is in general very easy to handle. You are able to see every single general menu tab no matter which menu you select and look into.
“That said, while running amok in Grounded is almost always a blast, it does occasionally subject you to some painful design choices that bring the good times to an abrupt halt.” (Northup, 2022)
As great as Grounded is, it has only recently come out of beta. As the wider early adopters pick up the game to try out there are bound to be more bugs and quality-of-life issues. One main issue is the tiny inventory space you have to constantly manage in the vast world of someone’s backyard. There are almost zero opportunities to expand your storage space, turning resource management into more of a tedious task than an interesting feature. With the exception of building (a phenomenal feature), there aren’t much ways to habituate and cool down from a big bug fight or an expedition to new grassy areas. (Adam Millard — The Architect of Games, 2022) This runs the risk of players getting burnt out from too much intensity, which in turn makes them likely to put down the game or give it up entirely. For a game like Grounded that relies on replayability and loyalty, this can make it harder to issue out DLC content and more marketing opportunities like toys or more funding for the game in the first place to continue working on it.
There are a lot of bugs (not the insect kind) within the game itself, and some of them are significant. There have been times when my friend would log out, and when he came back all the stuff in his inventory was gone and nowhere to be found. There have also been times when my game crashed, which can be annoying when I am in the middle of a fight or have not saved in a while. Although the game has only recently come out, it is vital Grounded makes an effort to solve as many of these bugs as possible before too many initially curious players are put off by abrupt halts in their gameplay. Multiplayer is not Grounded’s strong suit.
Although more players in the same server make it easier to collect resources and build magnificent fortresses, fighting becomes a grind. The insects typically get overwhelmed with hits, causing them to be stun-locked constantly and have no chance to fight back. Even then, Grounded never failed to make me stop playing in the many hours I put into the game.
“Grounded is a zany, challenging, and memorable adventure that benefits from Obsidian’s instantly recognizable style, humor, and RPG bonafides, making it one of the best survival games in years.” (Northup, 2022)
(Courtesy of: vg247)
As mentioned in the above headline, Grounded is hands-down one of the best games I have played in years. The problems that Grounded has are minuscule compared to the giant leaps in its visual and mechanical efforts to make the game fun and marketable to the masses. It’s a testament to how even during its beta Grounded amassed 5 million players in under six months. (Kerr, 2020) Who knows how many loyal players it will garner once it has been fully released for the next six months? All I know is that I will be one of them.
References
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/-i-grounded-i-tops-5-million-players-in-under-six-months
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-10-best-survival-games
https://www.ign.com/articles/grounded-review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZa_yV8B1A
https://www.taminggaming.com/en-us/game/Grounded
https://screenrant.com/grounded-honey-shrunk-kids-tie-in-game-disney/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAk-cp4C9rA&t=690s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NULyN7iuhjE
