Walking Simulator

Genre of video games focused on exploration and storytelling rather than traditional gameplay mechanics, emphasizing narrative immersion and environmental storytelling
Agata Waszkiewicz 2026-02-18

Explication

The walking simulator genre refers to a subgenre of video games focused on exploration and environmental storytelling. Similar to casual games in the early 2000s and, more currently, cozy games in the early 2020s, walking simulators appeared in the 2010s in opposition to highly competitive genres like shooter or action-adventure games, showcasing the diversity of needs and play styles among gamers. With Dear Esther (The Chinese Room 2012) often considered the genre-defining game that established walking simulators, and others following it, the category achieved significant commercial and critical success. Games that allow wandering and promote slow gameplay also captured journalistic attention. At first, the term walking simulator was purely ironic and derogatory (Grabarczyk 2016), but it rapidly became officialized and validated through its use, for example, as a category on the Steam online store. 

To exemplify the prevalence of walking simulators as an important mechanic in narrative video games, Melissa Kagen suggests the term wandering games, to denote more broadly “games that are interested in alternative modes of expression, embodiment, environment, orientation, and community” (10). Thus, she situates walking simulators in the intellectual history of walking, recognizing wandering as a political act of resistance, strengthening the links between walking simulators and cozy games, which, by “offer[ing] safe, emotional, heart-warming experiences became the new form of escapism – not a fulfillment of a fantasy of greatness, but rather a fantasy of stability and safety” (Waszkiewicz and Bakun 228), thus reflecting the changing sociopolitical climate and the function of video games as mirrors of culture and society. 

While walking simulator games are still being made, the name is less often used since its defining quality—gameplay that encourages slowness and positions the player as a witness rather than the hero—has become a common or even expected element of other games. Among these, most prominent are certainly cozy games, relaxing and usually combat-free games (Waszkiewicz and Bakun 2020), but also some mainstream titles. Most notably, Hideo Kojima’s action and combat-heavy Death Stranding was often described as walking simulator since foot travels comprise a major part of gameplay. In a somewhat simplified way, they could be categorized according to their settings. Tom Van Nuenen notes that “Across the 2010s, a range of games have followed in Dear Esther’s wake, setting players in natural or homely settings” (53), listing mostly interiors of houses (e.g., Gone Home [The Fulbright Company 2013]) or forests and mountains (e.g., The Vanishing of Ethan Carter [The Astronauts 2014], Firewatch [Campo Santo 2016]). 

The name itself is then used most to reference the specific titles released between 2012 and 2016 in opposition to combat heavy and fast-paced mainstream games. In a similar vein to casual games label that emerged in opposition to hardcore games (i.e., difficult to master, requiring skill), walking simulators emerged in response to a need for different types of games. At the same time, their appearance corresponds with a shift in the accessibility of 3D game-making software that allows for more extensive modding and easier process of making games for independent developers. 

Considering that the beginnings of walking simulators are associated with the desire for slower, safer, and more casual games, it is interesting to observe that the genre has consistently been associated with, if not horror, then at least a sense of psychological unease, and how it evolved to now be found predominantly within horror. Arguably, both Gone Home and Firewatch explore the tensions between slowness and anxiety. In the former, the protagonist explores her empty family home during a storm, and the game purposefully leads the player to believe the mystery might be scarier than it actually is. In the latter, the player explores the paranoia and delusions enhanced by solitude in the wilderness. The genre crossed into horror more explicitly after P.T. demo (Kojima Productions 2014), a horror game in which the player explores the looped space of one house, which has inspired the surge of walking simulator indie horror games that are either set within a house or, most recently, at a subway train or station which loops indefinitely until the player solves a puzzles, e.g., Kotake Create’s Exit 8 (2023) and Platform 8 (2024), and the similar Shinkansen 0 (Chilla’s Art 2024). This transition is not surprising, and Kagen also highlights that walking simulators often center on death, allowing the player to witness it rather than cause it. In doing so, these games use the safety of slowness as a tool to encourage critical reflection.

See Also

• Digital Narrative - Form of storytelling driven by algorithmic narrativity, inflected and mediated by computation, or the context of ubiquitous technological networks
• Visual Novel - Genre of interactive game that combines text-based narrative with visual elements, typically featuring branching storylines and multiple endings based on player choices

Works Referenced

Campo Santo. Firewatch. Panic. 2016. 

Chilla’s Art. Shinkansen 0. Chilla’s Art. 2024. 

Grabarczyk, Paweł.“It’s Like a Walk in the Park-On Why Are Walking Simulators So Controversial.” Transformacje, vol. 1, no. 3-4, 2016, pp. 241-263. 

Kagen, Melissa. Wandering Games. MIT Press, 2022. 

Kojima Productions. Death Stranding. Sony Interactive Entertainment. 2019. 

Kotake Create. Exit 8. Kotake Create. 2023. 

Kotake Create. Platform 8. Kotake Create. 2024. 

The Astronauts. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. The Astronauts. 2014. 

The Chinese Room. Dear Esther. The Chinese Room. 2012. 

The Fulbright Company. Gone Home. The Fulbright Company. 2013. 

Van Nuenen, Tom. Traveling Through Video Games. Taylor & Francis, 2023. 

Waszkiewicz, Agata and Bakun, Martyna. Towards the Aesthetics of Cozy Video Games. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, vol. 12 no. 3, 2020, pp. 225-240.

Further Reading

Koenitz, Hartmut. “Beyond “walking simulators”–Games as the narrative avant-garde.” Digital Games Research Association Conference (Melbourne, VIC). 2017. 

Ruberg, Bonnie. “Straight Paths through Queer Walking Simulators: Wandering on Rails and Speedrunning in Gone Home.” Games and Culture vol. 15, no. 6, 2020, pp. 632-652. 

Stang, Sarah. “Walking Simulators Special Issue Editorial.” Press Start, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019: i-v. 

Zimmermann, Felix, and Christian Huberts. “From Walking Simulator to Ambience Action Game.” Press Start, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, pp. 29-50.

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