TA Playlist Wrap-Up – A Short Hike

I never get tired of this view. Claire, you’re gonna have a great time this summer!

With 2023 drawing to a close, the conversations in the gaming community naturally turn towards some of the biggest and best games of the year, with huge AAA titles from major studios typically dominating that conversation. But for the November 2023 TA Playlist poll, we wanted to highlight some great games at the other end of the spectrum… no big studios, no huge budgets, just a solo dev with a vision for a great game.

The nominees included a wide range of solo-developed games from the last 15 years, including Braid by Jonathon Blow, Axiom Verge from Thomas Happ, and Return of the Obra Dinn by Lucas Pope, but the overwhelming winner (thanks to its current inclusion in Xbox Game Pass) was A Short Hike!

Brought to life by Canadian indie developer Adam Robinson-Yu, A Short Hike began in December 2018 as an on-the-side art project that eventually blossomed into a full game, releasing for PC in 2019, followed by Nintendo Switch in 2020, and finally PlayStation and Xbox in 2021.

PeriodicRx said:

I enjoyed this game. I like the casual nature of it and the ability to explore without penalty. Really solid game as a solo development effort.

A Short Hike is classified as an adventure game with some light platforming elements and a focus on exploration. But above all else, the game is most well known for its cozy and relaxing vibes (helped by an amazingly chill soundtrack from composer Mark Sparling), allowing the player to set their own pace as they make their way around Hawk Peak island.
Flash VI said:

It was my first time participating in the TA playlist, and was really positively surprised about A Short Hike. I had a short but very fun time with a game I wouldn’t have touched otherwise. It got the perfect length for a Sunday afternoon to play through. I wasn’t a fan of the graphics at first, but there are plenty of options in the menu to adjust it to your liking. Exploring the island was fun. I would really like to see a DLC or a second installation.

Reelbiggerfish said:

Very cozy little indie game that doesn’t outstay its welcome. Easy completion, and you don’t regret the time spent, in my opinion!

You play as Claire, an anthropomorphic bird who is spending the summer with her Aunt May, a ranger at Hawk Peak Provincial Park. Claire is a city bird and at first seems a bit bored by the rural surroundings, but she’s also a bit worried; she’s waiting for an important phone call but can’t get any cell reception. Aunt May informs Claire that her only hope for getting any bars is up at the summit of Hawk Peak, and so the young bird sets off to make her way up the mountain.

Bieber Sheenis said:

PLEASE take your time with this game, it’s incredibly satisfying to climb the mountain for the first time on your own. You’ll only need a guide for collecting all the feathers and maybe the fish and sprouts, but even without guidance, it’s only about 4-6 hours to 100%.

Aunt May says the hike to the peak is no problem, but other characters you meet warn you that it’s can be a tough climb. In fact, you won’t be able to make it without gathering some golden feathers, a collectible item that serves as a sort of stamina bar for Claire. The more golden feathers you have, the higher you can climb or fly, and you’ll need those skills in order to make the final push up to the summit. But collecting golden feathers is far from the only reason to take your time and explore the island; there are many different characters to meet and activities to keep you busy along the way.
Piemanns Bakery said:

I enjoyed playing this one! Was on the to do list anyway but no better time to jump in than now! Nice and chill just flying around finding coins and seashells, doing side missions for characters. The stickball game was actually kinda fun, of course some pressure to get the achievement but the mechanics were fine. Agree with some others on having a map would have been very nice. The fishing got a little redundant not lucking out for the fish needed to fill the journal but there’s some food guides and tips out there of places certain fish appear more often. Overall a fun time, recommend playing it!

Beachstickball – basically, using a stick to hit a beachball back and forth over a volleyball net — was one of the more frustrating activities for some of our commenters, as an achievement required you to get 30 consecutive hits. As Robinson-Yu himself said in an “Ask Me Anything” post on Reddit, the minigame can be quite a challenge. “It starts off non-random but slowly becomes more random as you progress. By 19 hits the ball can go pretty much anywhere on the court!”
TriRock said:

First TA Playlist participation for me! The first two hours were quite pleasant, but after that the experience soured. The stick ball game especially left a bad after taste.

Kriskiills said:

Stick ball and the boat race have me fkin heaaaaaatedd. I’ll come back to the game eventually. I did like gliding everywhere though lol.

Minor frustrations with certain minigames aside, the most common criticism was the lack of an in-game map to help you navigate your way around the island.
CamTheeGamer said:

This game wasn’t too bad overall, a simple way the gameplay could be improved is by having any sort of map or minimap. Flying around aimlessly looking for a small and specific place to earn some of the achievements definitely takes away from the overall fun experience. That being said, playing it while it’s still on gamepass is worth the time and effort.

mapphew said:

Started and completed it today, for one person to make this game, it’s pretty impressive and has the bones to be even better. Everything was responsive, the glide mechanic worked nicely, and I enjoyed the dialogue. It was a pretty short and straightforward completion which is also pretty nice as well. What I think could have been better is having a map would be nice, as well as a menu or something to tell you your side missions/objectives and stat tracker for “collectibles” like the sprouts. I also felt there was a lack of information about items you can get in the game. For instance talking to the parkour person, they mention that you might want running shoes, but makes no mention of how to get them. Were we supposed to talk to every single person on the island to find these shoes? Same goes for the grey feathers as well. In my opinion, it’s a 3/5, because by the end of the completion, it felt tedious and directionless.

For at least one commenter, the lack of a map was enough to condemn the whole game:
Khyser Bier said:

Twee awful rubbish with no map. Very little to like about this one

Which just goes to show that no game can please everyone. But while a map and a checklist might have been helpful for those looking to get the achievements done as quickly as possible, some commenters wondered if that might run counter to the themes the game was trying to portray.
RiBoP said:

Quick and easy, chill and relaxing: nice little game for a TA Playlist! Had very little time the past few months, so was happy with a quick completion this month.
The title A Short Hike certainly lives up to its expectations in that matter: even the collectible part doesn’t require a lot of time. Nice to see that an indie game developed by just one person, gets such positive reviews. I guess everybody likes to play a short and decent game now and then.
It’s not only short, obviously: it’s definitely a feel-good kinda game, especially nice in this time of year. The sound of nature and the relaxing music (at a bare minimum) also adds to this relaxed feel of the game, as well as the conversations with some of the NPCs.
There are some little things that I would like to have seen different in the game: as some others mentioned as well, a map would have certainly been helpful, and I always like to have some goals/checklists for things that need to be done.
On the other hand, while I type this (the checklist part), maybe that’s just also part of the goal of the game: let go of the checklists and just explore the game (and island) without wondering about the things you still have to do. Food for thought, perhaps.

Reading up on some of the game’s development history, it certainly seems like the idea of “letting go of worrying about things you have to do” was top of mind during the early design phase. See, Robinson-Yu was deep in development of a different game – a “Mario-style RPG” – but was starting to get burnt out by the pressure. He decided to take a break from that project in order to clear his head and instead started an on-the-side art project as a bit of a release. Again, from the Reddit AMA: “I think I was feeling boxed up in the city and anxious about a lot of things. A Short Hike sort of began as a little escape from my normal project! I went on a bunch of hiking trips the year prior – and I wondered how I could try and translate that peaceful experience into a game.” From the responses we’ve seen, it seems he succeeded!
FinderKeeper said:

As I get older (“OK, Grandpa”) games like this are a good way to me to keep enjoying the interactive element of gaming (as opposed to just watching shows or live TV) and also a way to relax and not think about stressful things (outside of the game, that is, haha).

So the notion of putting aside the lists and goals and just exploring the space probably was an intentional choice, even if it’s a bit counterintuitive for us Achievement Hunters!
Spa1h said:

For me, ‘A Short Hike’ is a satirical short open-world adventure. (It’s actually more open world than adventure, which is, for whatever reason, not represented in the genres). I think not giving you a map and a quest journal is a design decision here. It really aims to stimulate exploring on your own, and using your brains as the journal.
The game clearly points fingers at Open World Monsters like ESO or Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. My personal highlight: “Oh thanks’ for the 15 shells! What you want a reward? I didn’t promise a reward! Ok ok Take this necklace. if you insist”.
I think that fishing is just included for that purpose.
I guess the point of this game is that you don’t necessarily have to offer “checklists” in order to motivate people to do some stuff in an open world. (Although we, as achievement-enthusiasts, have an “objective” list that represents 80% of the game content)
I enjoyed my time in this game, especially because I was playing Assassins Creed Valhalla for the entire week and got pretty fed up with open world task lists. This alternative approach was refreshing.
And the scene where you lend your feathers to the fellow near the top, followed by a selfie-session was a bit heart-warming

Nearly all the character interactions in this game are heart-warming, in fact, from the tortoise who gives his headband to a race competitor in order to build up her confidence, to a painter who learns to have confidence in his art (certainly an autobiographical insertion from Robinson-Yu), Claire goes around the island meeting all the inhabitants, helping some to solve their problems, and being helped by others. It all adds to the cozy, conflict-free vibe that is the heart and soul of this game, and in the often contentious world we live in, that probably accounts for a large part of this game’s appeal.
Catching ZZZs said:

As others have mentioned, this was a short, relaxing game. Nothing too difficult or annoying, except maybe the volleyball minigame on the beach for some, but luckily I had no issues with it. Exploring the map was very enjoyable, and I laughed out loud a few times after interacting with certain characters.
The only thing that confused me was the really pixelated look to the game. I cannot for the life of me figure out the appeal of it. I played many games back in the day that were pixelated, but they didn’t look so….blurry as well? I could not play this game for more than a few minutes without my eyes starting to really strain. I am so thankful it was an option you could change in the settings. I turned it off immediately and was happy. Overall, really enjoyed this one.

I personally didn’t know about the option to change the pixel size until I was roughly 90% of the way through my playthrough. The “big and crunchy” pixel look was based on Robinson-Yu’s previous experience developing an entry for a “Game Boy Jam” where the entrants were challenged to make a game using the look and colors of the original Nintendo Game Boy. That look stuck with Robinson-Yu, and he decided to keep a similar look – low res, but with more colors than the Game Boy – for A Short Hike.

All of this led to A Short Hike being a surprise hit for Adam Robinson-Yu and a fun, relaxing game for all of us. The game went on to be nominated for several awards, winning both the Audience Award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2020 Independent Games Festival.
Legohead 1977 said:

Sometimes a game is hyped and doesn’t live up to that hype, happy to say this was one of the other games, that are as enjoyable as people say. Chill, relaxing and good fun.

We had a total of 1,775 tracked gamers playing along with A Short Hike in November, with 1,532 of them starting the game for the very first time. Despite the relatively easy completion, “only” 614 of the tracked gamers finished off the game during November, but that was still enough to make it the most-completed TA Playlist game (during the active month) since last December’s featured game, A Plague Tale: Requiem. In all, the community unlocked 10,904 achievements in A Short Hike during the month of November, worth a grand total of 870,950 GamerScore and 1,263,068 TrueAchievement Score.

The most unlocked achievement during November was Hawk Peak, for making it to the summit the first time. It’s a bit of a surprise to me that that’s the lowest-ratio achievement in the game since there are certainly several other achievements that could be unlocked prior to that one, but since getting to the top of the mountain is ostensibly the “goal” of the game, it makes sense that players focus on that first.

On the flip side, the least unlocked achievement for the month was a tie between two of the harder collectible achievements in the game: The Fish Are Biting Today, for catching every type of fish, and Feathers Forever, for finding all the Gold and Silver feathers. Each achievement was unlocked 670 times during the month of November.

Not surprisingly, with a short and easy game like this, we have a long list of Shout-Outs for the month, with 504 total gamers making the list. Special kudos to JhosetLR, who turned in the quickest completion for the month at just 49 minutes from first achievement to last.

And with that, our Short Hike comes to an end. We’re on a much longer journey with the December 2023 TA Playlist game, Starfield, so whether you’re out exploring the Settled Systems or not, drop in to give us your thoughts in the Spoiler-Free and Spoiler Discussion Threads, and advance your TA Playlist badge count at the same time. And don’t forget to vote in the poll for January’s game of the month, the winner of which will be announced next week.

Thanks for another great year of TA Playlist! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we’ll see you in the New Year!