2023 Video Game Innovations EVERYONE Should Copy

1. Trust In Player Intelligence & Intentional Misdirection - Dredge

When you kick things off in Dredge you learn you’re a fisherman who will be sailing the local waters collecting and tetrising fish in your cargo hold to then sell them back in town for some quick cash.

But that’s not all. This is a game that holds its cards fairly close to its chest and trusts you to persist and uncover its secrets at your own pace. This is a trust that usually makes publishers nervous.

This is because often we still hear stories about studios and publishers being concerned that obscuring the true nature of their game will limit the potential for consumer appeal and financial success. As a result of this initial misdirection, a theme that has been tried and tested with games like Doki Doki Literature Club and Inscryption, there’s a level of intrigue that just doesn’t hit the same as when you know exactly what you’re in for from the outset. This is especially true when the game features horror themes or intends to slowly let you peel back its layers to learn nothing is quite as it seems.

Beyond this, Dredge is one of those rare games that doesn’t make it especially clear how to best progress, nor does it make any haste with ensuring you understand everything it has to throw at you.

This level of trust in the player to explore at their own pace simply for the joy and intrigue of it without continually pressing you with objective reminders is refreshing in the gaming space and while it makes sense why we don’t see more of it, it’s worth celebrating when we do, and hoping there will be more of it to come.