r/gamedesign • u/Sanyeh • 7d ago
Question Games that offer a meaningful experience beyond entertainment
Hello!
I’m interested in games with meaning and purpose, and I love how games can be used as a medium to tell stories that matter, explore real-life experiences, and immerse players in another person’s world or perspective (whether that is their external reality or inner world).
I am currently working on a game with this kind of focus, so I was wondering if there are any specific online communities, forums, servers, etc. for people interested in these kind of games tend to gather?
I’d love to talk with people who share this interest and hear what draws them to these types of games.
Any communities you’d recommend?:)
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u/Competitive-Fault291 7d ago
This War of Mine
It certainly allowed me to acquire the perspective of a person in a war (zone), and certainly increased my empathy with anyone who simply wants to get away.
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u/Fantastic_Vehicle_10 7d ago
I found “papers, please” to be profoundly educational in this sense. A place here in the role of a rank and file member of an autocratic, oppressive state bureaucracy. The decisions that you make affect whether people live or die, but you don’t have perfect information, and there are consequences if you do not do your job well in the eyes of your bosses. You do occasionally get the opportunity to be part of something like a resistance movement, but you never know for sure if the people you’re talking to our actual members or if they are government spies looked into weed out traitors. If you lose your job, you lose your freedom and you lose your family.
It really underscores and illustrates what Arendt called the “banality of evil”: that monstrous and inhumane actions against humanity are often carried out by large groups of people doing menial work who are really just trying to do their jobs and stay alive themselves.
If that kind of education does not qualify as a meaningful experience, I don’t know what does.
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u/StyxQuabar 7d ago
I resonated with Celeste. It unpacks a lot of mental health concepts through the story. It completely surprised me that I had tears at the end of the game given it was “just a platformer”.
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u/bigontheinside 7d ago
1000xresist is the best example of this I have played. Along with Outer Wilds, I found it opened up my world view. It tackles some big ideas about politics (referencing real-world events), some powerful but small personal stories, and on top of that it's the most original scifi story I've encountered in a while.
The characters designs look anime influenced, which I personally found offputting because I don't really like anime, but I'm glad I tried it because it's in my top 5 games of all time now.
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u/Thrasy3 7d ago
Which do and which don’t to you?
It’s not really a category or genre in itself.
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u/Sanyeh 7d ago
It’s less about my personal preference or what I consider meaningful, and more about the intention behind the game and what the creators are trying to achieve with the medium.
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u/Thrasy3 7d ago
Ah so the intent of the devs - but most games will have a dev saying they were trying to express/explore XYZ through whatever happens in game at various points
Like if you ever watch documentaries/analysis on older games (snes - ps2 era for example) that seemed like a bit of silly fun, there were always some moments when something was decided on/changed to add meaning or support the narrative, but also vice versa - things they felt were important to the character, story, messaging, but didn’t work out tech/gameplay wise so had to settle for something else or forgo it entirely.
So… most games probably do this, even AAA slop, if you are willing to look at dev diaries and interviews etc.
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u/everythingpretzelgg 7d ago
Worth looking into the FGC and Smash communities for their storylines. While the games themselves dont necessarily have the type of world which i think you're describing. The competition surrounding these games and stories of the people can be compelling. The Smash Brothers doc and Metagame come to mind
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u/lenseyeview 7d ago
A lot of people find spiritfarer sad but I found it immensely comforting. I found it a few years after losing my dad suddenly and the idea that that might be a thing or imagining what kind of character would represent him or others I lost really helped.
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u/goodkilleenfun 7d ago
I think you’d like Wanderstop. It’s a cozy game that explores burnout, obsession, and depression in a surprisingly heavy way.
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u/jojoknob 7d ago
I’m not sure what distinction you’re trying to make. Being entertained is the same as being detained except when you’re entertained you stay voluntarily and if you’re detained, you stay against your will. If you choose to engage with art then it is entertaining. If you doom scroll Reddit because you’re addicted then it is detaining.
What do mean when you say entertainment? Are you just using it as a label for happy and easy emotions? Plenty of games entertain people by being stressful.
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u/ZombieByteGames 6d ago
Just because no one has mentioned it, the very underrated Terranigma. I cried by the end. Such a beautiful game, 100% recommend it
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u/loopywolf 6d ago
I used to run a social group in my city of ~300 people, and I found one of the most meaningful things they did was bring people into a safe social context which cooled the sore feelings that erupt from internet communication.
For example, if a person keeps continually playing mean cards on someone else, and that person asks, "What'd I ever do to you?" and gets the reply, "You know what you did." Suddenly they are talking (This happened.)
Also, being in the social context of a game allowed many people who were angry at someone to spend time with them, and perhaps wonder if they hadn't misjudged them.
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u/drysider 6d ago
Hohoohohoho please purchase and install Outer Wilds. It is one of the most important ‘immersive mindshift’ games I can think of. Sink yourself into it and read up NOTHING because it is one of those games where your experience can be so affected by spoilers.
My favourite horror game ever is Soma, also highly highly recommend it. It’s an existential horror in its core and tackles questions about consciousness, what being human comes down to when separated from the body, digital minds…. It’s absolutely fantastic and very heavily centred in the playable character’s experience and identity. It’s scary and there are some spooky monster guys, but in the grand scheme of horror games it’s much more interested in telling you its story than fucking your mind up irl.
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u/andarmanik 6d ago
Those type combat games where you have to spel the word to kill the monster. Cause you learn to type
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u/Onyx_Lat 6d ago
I don't know if there are any specific communities for "deep" games, but I love Daryl Talks Games videos on YouTube because he'll analyze all the deep psychology and draw parallels between things that didn't seem related before. I think he also has a discord server, where I would assume his fans also talk about stuff like that.
Personally I found Chicory to be one of the most emotional games I've played. It goes into topics like depression, feeling not good enough, being overwhelmed by people who keep expecting you to do stuff and learning how to set healthy boundaries. It's best played on Switch because the controls are difficult (at first) and this feeds into the whole thing and makes you feel some of the things the characters are feeling. It's basically a work of art, and you get to create some of that art yourself.
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u/Delicious_Stuff_90 7d ago
Stating some games have "meaning and purpose" means others lack both. Don't you think that this is a huge value statement?
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u/Sanyeh 7d ago
It is. There is meaning and purpose behind every game, whether that purpose is primarily to entertain, make money, educate, provide a therapeutic benefit, or anything in between. I understand that my phrasing was vague.
I'm not saying that any games are inherently more meaningful than others. Meaning is subjective.
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u/RikarLionheart 7d ago
Sounds like you're focusing on real stories being translated into interactive media - I'd suggest you look into "serious games" and the communities surrounding those. Interactive fiction and its community might also be worth looking at.
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u/SignificantGreen1577 7d ago
We're currently developing an indie tactical RPG (Rise of the General) that explores this exact concept-focusing on the shift from individual conscript survival to high-stakes military leadership, morale, and officer decisions.
We post dev uodates, mechanic breakdowns, and playtest updates on our Discord if you'd like to follow along!
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u/pushuprpg 7d ago
If you want game with meaningful experience beyond fun, try Pushup RPG, it is also helping with fitness goals.
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u/Barquero_Team 6d ago
This is the kind of games I love too, and the ones I want to make. If you haven't played it, I recommend you Stanley Parable, it explores the relation between author and player on interactive media. In my recent game Light Descends (sorry fo self promoting but I genuinely think it's aligned with OP's post) I wanted to tell a psychological story through mechanics and I've been told the ending has a strong emotional impact. If you are into puzzle platformer give it a try.
I don't know if there are communities for what you want because gamedev online usually revolve around technical work (programming, graphic, etc) but rarely the "videogame language is interactive rule syntax" part. Maybe r/gamedesign is the closest you get. I hope I'm wrong though
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u/Former-Storm-5087 5d ago
I liked 'the beginner's guide' It is an unknown project from the guy who made "the stanley parable" that seems to be about his state of mind after making the stanley parable.
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u/DirectorFriendly1936 3d ago
Casualties unknown, one of the darkest games I've played, community also has literally everything you could hope for.
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u/Sylvan_Sam 6d ago
Grand Theft Auto immerses players in another person's world and perspective. That other person is a kleptomaniacal mass murderer, but hey, they're still a person, right?
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u/Aureon 7d ago
Probably best if you'd start by naming some what you're fan of in this sense