I finished the Bookwalker, developed by Do My Best, and published by tinybuild. It’s a narrative, point-and-click game. I would only recommend it to those who want to play something light. Play it for the art, the sound, or for the puns. That was the only thing that kept me going because there was nothing mind-boggling about the plot. It tells the story of a writer experiencing some severe form of writer’s block. Having to write what the publisher wants you to write is imprisonment.
Etienne Quist, the protagonist, is arrested by the Writer Police Department. To remove his writer’s block, he has to undergo a job where he dives into books, stealing unique items to write off his sentences. There are 6 books (chapters) in total minus the epilogue. They don’t take very long to complete. My favorite books were the last two: Timeless Mansion and The Heart of Sand.
Regarding gameplay, it reminds me of mini-quests where the player completes tasks in each book. That part I like. I didn’t like the random battle occurrence. For instance, in the first book, a spider crawled out of nowhere and I had to fight it. Like the character in the game…I wonder what was the purpose of the spider.
It’s an ink eater…[you shudder] they’re found in books, but they’re not part of the plot.
I suppose gamers are used to killing things that if there’s no battle then it’s not a real game. Now that I think of JRPGs, I often kill cute animals without any real reason. At least, this game tried to put things into context, but like many players, I did find the battle system out of place. So, I wonder what the developer’s intentions were when developing the game. I feel like the game was more about self-expression against the business practice of publishing works that have been done over and over.
Nowadays every jackass with some cash wants to recreate something.
This is just one quote. There were several more. If you are an elitist indie gamer, or an elitist game developer, then you might find yourself nodding with the game’s message: Yeah, the new generation of writers lacks originality, and the audiences who choose to escape into fantasy books stopped living in reality. I just wanted to argue: What’s the purpose of entertainment if you cannot offer an escape? The game would have been decent if it removed those writer’s inner monologues. It makes the writer of the game sounds like an arrogant, pompous. Why should we play games that insult the audience?
For my final thoughts, as an artistic form of expression, it’s a pretty atmospheric game with a great soundtrack, but it is too short. As I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite books in the game was The Heart of Sand because I thought the stage level was interesting. I was expecting the game to pick up after going through several bland stage levels, listening to the characters bashing booksellers, fantasy readers, writers, and the entire entertainment industry for robbing creativity out of creative individuals. Overall, The Bookwalker could have meant more to me if only it was a good game. I suppose Do My Best gets a cookie for trying to be clever with the book metaphor.
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