The Longing

''The Longing'' is a 2020 point-and-click adventure game created by the indie developer Studio Seufz. Set in an underground kingdom, it follows the Shade, a creature tasked with watching over a sleeping king for 400 days. The player explores caves, draws pictures, and reads books as they wait out the 400 days in real time. The in-game timer progresses regardless of the player's actions, but moves faster if the Shade performs certain actions such as decorating its home or lighting a fire.

Director Anselm Pyta conceived ''The Longing'' after hearing a legend about a king sleeping inside the Barbarossa Cave. Pyta sought to explore feelings of loneliness and empathy in a narrative-driven story while using time as a game mechanic. He was influenced by idle games such as ''Clicker Heroes'' (2014), which he considered flawed because they had repetitive gameplay and lacked endings. Pyta developed ''The Longing'' mostly alone, creating the backgrounds in Photoshop and the characters in Adobe Flash, using Unity to code the final product.

''The Longing'' was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on March 5, 2020, and for Nintendo Switch on April 14, 2021. It received praise for its soundtrack, visuals, and experimental nature, while the pacing had a mixed reception. Many commentators drew comparisons between the game and the COVID-19 pandemic, relating gameplay elements to their experiences under quarantine. ''The Longing'' was nominated for the Nuovo Award at the 2020 Independent Games Festival and won the "Best Debut" award at the 2020 Deutscher Computerspielpreis.

Gameplay

''The Longing'' is a point-and-click adventure game. Taking place in an underground kingdom, the player controls the Shade, a lonely creature serving an old king. After being informed that the king will slumber to regain his diminished powers, the Shade is tasked with awakening its master after 400 days in real time.

The Shade can explore caves, gather resources to furnish its home, or perform other time-wasting activities such as reading and drawing. Interaction with the world is slow-paced, with the Shade's walking speed being particularly slow. Many aspects of gameplay depend on the passage of time, including puzzles which require the player to wait for a certain period to progress.

Other mechanics are reminiscent of idle games, such as an idle reading feature, and a "bookmark system", through which the player can instruct the Shade to automatically walk to a saved location, return to its home, or randomly wander around. The in-game timer progresses faster in the Shade's home if it is decorated with drawings and other items, and can also be advanced if the Shade performs certain pastimes such as lighting a fire.

The player is provided a to-do list of things to improve the Shade's life, but no interaction is required to advance the timer, and it progresses even if the game is not open. Resultingly, it is possible to beat the game by doing nothing while waiting. To prevent cheating, the game sends players to a dungeon as a consequence for attempting to circumvent the time limit by changing their computer's system clock. ''The Longing'' features several endings, and not all require the player to wait out the 400 days.

Development

Background

Development of ''The Longing'' began in 2014 and lasted six years. Director Anselm Pyta originally created flash animations that were released on Newgrounds, until he co-founded Studio Seufz in 2017. Pyta gained the idea for ''The Longing'' in 2012, while he was hiking in the Barbarossa Cave. He heard both a legend and poem of an old king sleeping inside the cave for hundreds of years, with a dwarf checking on the king once per century to see if he would awaken. Perplexed about how the dwarf lived its life with so much waiting, the character stuck with Pyta. The developer created most of the game on his own, but received some help with the coding. He used Photoshop to draw the backgrounds and Adobe Flash to animate the characters; both elements were coded and merged in Unity.

Design

''The Longing'' was partially influenced by idle games such as ''Clicker Heroes''. Although he was impressed with them at first, Pyta disliked their repetitive gameplay and lack of an ending, only to quit many games because they did not have an emotional conclusion. He decided to create a narrative-focused idle game containing adventure-based elements, choosing to include stakes that encouraged a response from his audience. Pyta was especially interested in to exploring time-based and waiting mechanics, believing that video games were the only medium through which time could be especially used to tell a story. The developer surmised that waiting could be paired with the right narrative to create "empathy and emotion", but felt challenged in avoiding redundancy with these designs.

''The Longing'''s atmosphere was defined while Pyta was still studying. At the time, he began listening to dungeon synth music and residing in a cellar, influencing his designs for the game's feel. Thinking of different ways that the game could be played, Pyta envisioned three possible routes that the player would take; they would do nothing but wait for the timer to advance, try to make the Shade's life comfortable while waiting, or abandon the king and leave the caves. He considered the first option because it would remove "negative stress", while including the last because it would allow for adventurous gameplay as the player solved time-based puzzles.

The Shade was designed so that the player could compare their own feelings of loneliness to the character's. Pyta deliberately made the Shade's appearance and emotions cryptic, in order to allow his audience to interpret its traits how they saw fit. Due to the game's intentionally slow pacing, Pyta needed ways to keep the player engaged and remind them that progress was occurring, even if it was not readily apparent. To do this, he implemented certain behaviors for the Shade such as self-talking and sleeping, and showed rocks falling in the cave to act in the place of a day-night cycle underground.

Philosophy

Pyta found meaning in the "pain of boredom", believing that moments of constant excitement were unhealthy or impossible. He felt that emotional responses could not be forced quickly, and giving time to something allowed for greater attachments to form. The developer used own his experiences of loneliness to gain inspiration for ''The Longing,'' and explored this theme through the Shade. In particular, he highlighted the growing darkness that appears around the Shade as it leaves the starting area, saying that it represents "the journey to overcome loneliness". Pyta underscored the importance of honesty in how he portrayed these emotions, enabling his audience to relate. He believed that "If someone is traumatized by what you deem to be emotionally true, it's maybe a little too early for them to experience this in their life. But ultimately, there should be no self-censorship".

Pyta considered empathy to be a key strength of the game and set out to encourage it between the player and protagonist from the start. He placed distinct importance on using empathy to keep a bored player interested, and utilized behaviors such as the side dialogue to prevent them from giving up. In addition to these emotional themes, Pyta sought to portray the "subjectivity of time" by demonstrating that if the player keeps the Shade comfortable, the speed of the countdown will increase; he said this reflected how happiness will help to endure waiting.

Although ''The Longing'' has multiple endings, Pyta wished players would not restart their saved game and begin another playthrough: He believed that resetting games causes the player to lose the value of their experiences, robbing them of their emotional appeal. The developer cited his thoughts to an essay by Roger Ebert, in which Ebert argued that video games could not be considered art because choices could be easily unmade and life respawned. Pyta hoped that when players reached an ending, they would feel the story had properly concluded, and find meaning in its outcome.

Reception

Prior to launch, the game was featured at PAX West in 2019 and a demo was showcased at AdventureX 2020. ''The Longing'' was published by Application Systems Heidelberg and released on March 5, 2020, to Steam for Windows, macOS, and Linux, followed by a version for Nintendo Switch on April 14, 2021.

Reception of the game was largely positive; It won the "Best Debut" award at the 2020 Deutscher Computerspielpreis and was nominated for the Nuovo Award at the 2020 Independent Games Festival. On the review aggregate website Metacritic, the PC and Switch versions received "generally favorable reviews". Critics praised ''The Longing'' experimental premise. ''Adventure Gamers'' recommended it to players who liked unusual gameplay, or observed video games as an art form. ''PC Gamer'' in Swedish called it a "fascinating experiment" with plenty of atmosphere. ''The Washington Post'' said that its creativity helped him better understand what video games could do.

Critics enjoyed caring for and improving the Shade's environment, and reviews of ''The Longing'' often alluded to the Tamagotchi virtual pet. Other reviewers focused on how they left the game running while doing unrelated things, such as playing or working. Specific commentary centered around ''The Longings atmosphere, which was variously described as "gloomy", "lonely" and "eerie". The visuals were highlighted as a strength. ''Nintendo World Report'' felt that each of the caves was distinct and well-drawn while ''4Players'' and ''Der Spiegel'' compared the art style to that of German cartoonist Walter Moers. In a more critical review, ''Nintendo Life'' found the atmosphere to be "phenomenally dull" but accredited the art and sounds for their boldness. The soundtrack also received praise from critics. ''Adventure Gamers'' appreciated the music for displaying a medley of emotions, feeling as though the songs expressed the breadth of the kingdom and the Shade's small size in comparison. ''The Games Machine'' similarly felt the sound did well blending the movement of the Shade with the atmosphere.

Reception towards the slow-paced gameplay was mixed. ''Nintendo Life'' called the game "perhaps the most boring we have ever played", saying that although ''The Longing'' provided a thoughtful reflection on themes of loneliness, the large amount of waiting made the game feel like a waste of tine. ''4Players'', ''Adventure Gamers'', and ''The Games Machine'' said that many users would become impatient while playing, and the game's slow nature would not be for everyone. On the other hand, ''The Washington Post'' compared the "glacial" pacing to the works of filmmaker Béla Tarr, saying it "stimulated thought". Likewise, ''Hardcore Gamer'' said that the appeal of the Shade helped pass the time and ease the pacing, causing waiting to "feel natural".

Due to the game's release during the COVID-19 pandemic, commentators frequently compared playing it to life under quarantine. ''GamesRadar+'' analogized ''The Longing'' to experiencing a COVID-19 lockdown, saying it "best sums up life in the 2020 pandemic"  ''Adventure Gamers'' questioned whether ''The Longing'' would have found an audience outside the pandemic: The reviewer opined that players would have had little interest in topics of loneliness, and the game's appeal may have been aided through isolation brought by the lockdowns. The circumstances under which Pyta released the game were not what he originally expected, and the developer himself felt as though the pandemic allowed for players to better connect with the Shade. ''Wired'' agreed with his assessment, writing that the Shade felt alive with a "magical quality", and that the game best captured "2020's sad and surreal lockdown energy".

See also

* Kyffhäuser legend

Notes

References

External links

*
Studio Seufz website

2020 video games
Art games
Exploration video games
Incremental games
Indie video games
Linux games
MacOS games
Nintendo Switch games
Point-and-click adventure games
Postmodern works
Video games developed in Germany
Video games with alternate endings
Windows games
Single-player video games
{{Good article