...turning knobs and hitting buttons. Not on a controller, on a screen.

February 13, 2018 12:31 PM

Damn, I Really Like Pressing Buttons In Video Games [Waypoint] “UI games, when done well, are really great at immersion. So, the term “UI Game” isn’t exactly a real, precise thing, so, let me explain: I’m talking about a class of game where your primary means of interaction with the worlds is through an in-game UI. Like pressing buttons or hitting switches on the onscreen HUD, as if going through two layers of obstruction between you and the “physical” world of the game. Think of desktop simulators: like Cibele or Her Story, where all of the action is happening on the other side of the screen, but in this context, in a more sci-fi or mechanical setting. It's as if you are seeing this universe through a ship’s cockpit, or a viewscreen, or a helmet,”
posted by Fizz (43 comments total)

I find games that have a Victorian-esque/steampunk style setting are particularly good for this. Lots of levers and knobs to fiddle with. Games like Dishonored 2, Bioshock, and recent Fallout games are great for this kind of in-game simulated interaction.
posted by Fizz at 12:36 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I find VR games extremely satisfying in terms of buttons to press, knobs to turn, etc. It was super immersive to sit in the cockpit of a 747 in XPlane 11 and literally flail my arms about myself to flip switches, turn radio selectors, pull back on the throttle, and generally be terrified of crashing the thing.
posted by mikhuang at 12:42 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

idk i feel like bioshock fits the description well but dishonored not so much. but i'm not fully clear on my reasoning for this.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:42 PM on February 13, 2018

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes the fine example of this sort of game.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 12:43 PM on February 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

i feel like bioshock fits the description well but dishonored not so much.

With Dishonored it's that feeling of revealing a secret doorway by sliding a switch or pulling on a lever, those few seconds where I'm watching/listening to a chain reaction that I've set in motion through an in-game interaction.
posted by Fizz at 12:47 PM on February 13, 2018

Myst is calling out to us... "look at me, I was an amazing and unprecedently successful game.. why do I have no successful offspring?"
posted by Nelson at 12:58 PM on February 13, 2018 [4 favorites]

I find games that have a Victorian-esque/steampunk style setting are particularly good for this.

I'm still waiting for an idle/incremental game that has an interface that looks like the control console (?) of a 1960s - 1980s chemical plant or hydroelectric dam or whatever. Something like this or this or this. Tons of analog dials and gauges, oscilloscopes, mechanical buttons and switches (both throw and rocker), embossed black tape labels, blinky lights, the whole deal.
posted by mhum at 12:59 PM on February 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

ah yes the ritual flushing of all the toilets after you've killed or knocked out everyone in the building
posted by poffin boffin at 12:59 PM on February 13, 2018 [9 favorites]

I played the AOL Instant Messenger simulator Emily is Away 2 after getting it from the most recent Steam sale, and I loved it. It did a great job of simulating various enjoyable (and not so enjoyable) aspects of interacting and communicating over AIM. It's mostly about choosing conversational paths and then having them simulated by mashing the keyboard (more fun than it sounds, trust me), but also simulates away messages, buddy icons, and profiles as ways of communicating information and building your personal character. It also does a few clever things with putting files onto your desktop to read through as a sort of transmedia storytelling device. I'd recommend it for a few bucks. It's short, but the experience is very fun.
posted by codacorolla at 1:01 PM on February 13, 2018

Tons of analog dials and gauges, oscilloscopes, mechanical buttons and switches (both throw and rocker), embossed black tape labels, blinky lights, the whole deal.

Yeah, a lot of games have these types of control panels/dashboards but they're so often window dressing and non-interactive because of course that takes time and programming. I too would love this imaginative game that you just outlined.
posted by Fizz at 1:07 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Now that I think about it, flight simulators would lend themselves to this style of interaction quite a bit. I do not have any experience with those games.

Would love someone who plays those types of games to chime in and share if more current generation simulators have designed their games in this way?
posted by Fizz at 1:10 PM on February 13, 2018

Not only have they, but you can buy controllers that emulate the actual physical controls on the devices for deeper immersion.
posted by NoxAeternum at 1:14 PM on February 13, 2018

Yeah a lot of flight simulators have interactive cockpit controls. It's sort of useful for lesser used controls like the gear lever or the flaps; no point having dedicated keyboard / controller inputs for them. Also you don't really need that landing gear down to make a landing in a simulator :-/
posted by Nelson at 1:14 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Would love someone who plays those types of games to chime in and share if more current generation simulators have designed their games in this way?

Digital Combat Simulator does have a fair number of plane modules that feature "fully clickable" cockpits, which is exactly what it sounds like. VR integration, or at least some kind of headlook rig, is highly recommended.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:15 PM on February 13, 2018

Again life reminds me that I've never played Captain Blood.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 1:17 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's also Kingsway, the fantasy RPG which takes place entirely on a Win95-looking desktop. I can't tell if it's a gimmick or a brilliant idea.
posted by Pfardentrott at 1:21 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Anybody remember Steel Battalion, the giant robot simulator that came with a physical mecha cockpit controller big enough to take up a whole coffee table?
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:22 PM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Real flight trainers before the 80s were mainly operational simulators with no graphics, descendants of the Link Trainer. Useful for testing emergency scenarios and IFR, not so useful for dogfighting practice. But even the first Sublogic Flight Sim game had a realistic-ish cockpit.

Submarine simulators were also popular in the 80s, and they were 95% UI, with a blue horizon and maybe a surface ship when your periscope went up.

And I forgot about Chris Crawford's SCRAM nuclear reactor simulator.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:23 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

The short indie game Please Don't Touch Anything might be of interest here.

I also found the way that Papers Please simulates the actions involved in verifying documents at a security checkpoint -- scanning, stamping, pushing buttons, &c -- surprisingly satisfying.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 1:27 PM on February 13, 2018 [7 favorites]

Am I so old that "..., as if going through two layers of obstruction between you and the “physical” world of the game. the pun of abstraction and obstruction is sufficiently passé that no one comments to it? Such as using a diacritical mark over a letter from an alphabet, so old? Anybody, so...know the Bueller reference. do people make references any more. Hello? Is this thing on? Literally, physically's quoted with air bunnies. What's Going On?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 1:28 PM on February 13, 2018

Myst is calling out to us... "look at me, I was an amazing and unprecedently successful game.. why do I have no successful offspring?"


The Witness is not quite as "tactile" as Myst, but it still scratches that mechanical puzzle itch and looks gorgeous.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:30 PM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

Games with well-designed crafting menus also provide a lot of satisfaction.
posted by Fizz at 1:40 PM on February 13, 2018

I also found the way that Papers Please simulates the actions involved in verifying documents at a security checkpoint -- scanning, stamping, pushing buttons, &c -- surprisingly satisfying.

I've thought about the idea of a LARP version of "Papers, Please" that would include all of the various documents and rulebooks and physical stamps and so on, but then realized that half of that game is negotiating the extremely janky early PC-era interface, in much the same way that an actual Eastern Bloc bureaucrat would have to deal with busted-ass, antiquated equipment.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:40 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Myst got shrunk down and turned into the Room Escape genre.
posted by RobotHero at 1:43 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I've thought about the idea of a LARP version of "Papers, Please"

I've got good news and bad news
posted by theodolite at 1:44 PM on February 13, 2018 [22 favorites]

Submarine simulators were also popular in the 80s, and they were 95% UI, with a blue horizon and maybe a surface ship when your periscope went up.

Jane's 688(i) Hunter-Killer is from the 90s, but it's a great example of the apotheosis of the form. Look at these screens.

Sure, you could turn over the plotting of sonar contacts to AI crew members, but why would you when you could poke around on this screen to identify your contacts and mark their bearings and cavitation, then move to this screen to plot out its course on your map to get a firing solution?
posted by tobascodagama at 1:45 PM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

This reminds of the 1992 "Shuttle: The Space Flight Simulator" which came with a massive poster of the flight deck controls, which you needed to study in great detail to even start the engines.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 1:48 PM on February 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

flight deck controls, which you needed to study in great detail to even start the engines.

As much as I love turning a knob, the main reason why I stay away from games like this is that it feels too much like math homework and that's just not my thing, but kudos to those who love this genre. To each their own.
posted by Fizz at 1:50 PM on February 13, 2018

There's a horror game called Stories Untold that relies mostly on diegetic interfaces.

I had been thinking about games with diegetic interfaces recently but not in terms of the satisfaction of clicking knobs but as it is an alternative to organizing a game by physical space.
posted by RobotHero at 2:03 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

Subnautica does a great job of this - the big submarine in particular feels really tactile because you're interacting with button controls throughout it.

Also one thing about this kind of game is that making mistakes with the interface often is much less frustrating than with a straight game UI - I was rigging my submarine for silence and turning off the lights to inch past a horrific sea monster in the dark.

And then I accidentally hit the horn BLOOOOOORNK and everything for a mile around comes after me. It was great because the horn's right there in the middle of the steering wheel and it felt like such an in-character mistake.
posted by xiw at 2:13 PM on February 13, 2018 [6 favorites]

Jane's 688(i) Hunter-Killer is from the 90s, but it's a great example of the apotheosis of the form. Look at these screens.

Oooooh yes. This is relevant to my interests.
posted by mhum at 2:18 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Steel Batallion, the game where if you didn't hit the eject button on your coffee table sized controller in time, the game actually erased your save. You dead. Start over.

Out Of This World had an amazing sequence where you tapped a bunch of buttons inside some sort of military weapon. Super cool.
posted by effugas at 2:50 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love train simulators because they’re a lot like this. Is there a train simulator where you have to maintain boiler pressure and stuff?

For whatever reason, I really love games where you’re just sort of doing stuff out of the manual. I’d love a game with a whole checklist. It seems like a weirdly great way to kind of zone out. Like, not a flight simulator or anything, but a stationary workstation. A satellite dish control sim or something.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 2:53 PM on February 13, 2018 [5 favorites]

Myst is calling out to us... "look at me, I was an amazing and unprecedently successful game.. why do I have no successful offspring?"

AHEM
posted by saturday_morning at 3:00 PM on February 13, 2018

Rogue System is a flight-sim spaceship game with very detailed cockpit controls.
posted by figurant at 3:00 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

What Remains Of Edith Finch surprised me with some delightful physicality in its interactions. Instead of just wandering up to a door, pushing a button on your controller, and seeing it mysteriously open, a hand comes up and grabs the knob, and nothing else happens until you push on the joystick in an appropriate direction. And if you stop pushing the stick before you’re done? The on-screen hand stops moving the door. Or whatever - window, music box crank, there’s a lot of things to play with.

It is also that rare thing: a first person game where you see your character’s body when you look down.
posted by egypturnash at 3:05 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

There is a fully enclosed cockpit box for Steel Battalion at The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment in Oakland, CA, if one were so inclined.
posted by AlSweigart at 3:17 PM on February 13, 2018 [1 favorite]

Myst is calling out to us... "look at me, I was an amazing and unprecedently successful game.. why do I have no successful offspring?"

A four game long (and counting) series says otherwise.
posted by juv3nal at 3:42 PM on February 13, 2018

Oh yeah, and the Atari 2600 Space Shuttle simuator, which had an overlay that turned your console into a flight deck complete with checklist.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:19 PM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

I think it's also worth mentioning that Nintendo seems to be aiming to tap into this desire for physical interfaces with its new Labo venture, albeit having the player build their own physical interfaces. On the one hand, it makes a lot of sense since a physical interface for each game gets expensive. On the other hand, it seems like a whoooooole lot of work, and not too sturdy to boot.
posted by codacorolla at 4:24 PM on February 13, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm still waiting for an idle/incremental game that has an interface that looks like the control console (?) of a 1960s - 1980s chemical plant or hydroelectric dam or whatever.

Needs more picture window facing the town downstream and alllll the little people that live there. Also all those 'or's should be 'and's..."ACME Services: the finest in chemical waste management, dam control, and pizza delivery. Also we control all the air traffic, emergency services, sewerage processing, traffic lights, and that big nuclear power plant in the middle of town."
posted by sexyrobot at 6:28 PM on February 13, 2018 [3 favorites]

I always feel vaguely guilty about this sort of game, like if I really enjoy interacting with something like this, I should be actually operating a backhoe or something.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:35 AM on February 14, 2018 [2 favorites]

Some of the puzzles in Lumino City seem like they fit this. (And the game is gorgeous, too.)
posted by Lexica at 12:00 PM on February 14, 2018