A Short Hike is a 2019 adventure video game created by Canadian indie game designer Adam Robinson-Yu. Set in the fictional Hawk Peak Provincial Park, the open-world exploration game follows Claire, a young bird tasked with reaching the summit of a mountain to get a phone signal. To ascend, the player must locate Golden Feathers, which grant increased stamina for climbing, sprinting, and midair jumps, while interacting with various non-player characters (NPCs) along the way.
Following burnout from an earlier role-playing video game project, Robinson-Yu developed A Short Hike over several months, drawing inspiration from his personal hiking trips and the open-ended design of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game features a pixelated art style and an adaptive soundtrack inspired by the music by Joe Hisaishi for Studio Ghibli films. It was initially released in April 2019 as a Humble Monthly exclusive before receiving a full release for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux on the Steam and Itch.io digital distribution services in July 2019. The Nintendo Switch version was released in August 2020, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released in November 2021.
A Short Hike was well received by critics, who praised its gameplay, island design, characters, art style, writing, and soundtrack. Some reviewers have, however, criticized the short length of the game, with one stating that it is "a bit of a blessing and a curse". The game won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2020 Independent Games Festival and earned nominations at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards and 23rd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards.
Gameplay
A Short Hike is an adventure video game and platformer—a genre in which a player travels through spaces by jumping. The player controls Claire, an anthropomorphic bird who can fly, run, climb, and double jump in an open world. The goal of the game is to reach Hawk Peak's summit, and there are signs throughout the world that orient the player towards the top of the park. Claire can collect Golden Feathers, which determine her stamina when running, climbing, or performing midair jumps. Golden Feathers may also be purchased with coins. The player's stamina bar is depleted when taking an action, such as running. The bar either recharges by waiting or, when in a snowy area, by bathing in a hot spring. To achieve the summit by the established route, the player has to obtain at least seven feathers. However, it is possible, but harder, to reach the top with fewer than seven feathers. Additionally, to reach high points on the island, the player has to combine the main movement mechanics. While exploring, the player can also find "bouncy flowers" that propel the player to higher points on the island.
The world consists of several islands that form a park; some biomes include a beach, forest, and snowy mountains. The player can discover various treasures, including collectable items like coins, sticks, and shells, as well as tools such as a shovel for digging up buried treasure and a fishing rod. Items collected are stored in the player's inventory. The player may encounter non-player characters (NPCs) such as a group of children that run a marathon to the top of a hill, those that task the player with finding Golden Feathers, or those that help the player navigate the island. Some NPCs offer activities, known as minigames, that reward the player with achievements or request the player to do basic tasks. The player can also participate in races, play on the beach, or fish to earn coins.
Plot
Claire, a young bird, decides to spend her days off by travelling to Hawk Peak Provincial Park, where her Aunt May works as a ranger. Claire's mother drives her to a ferry that will take her to the park for the summer. When Claire arrives, her aunt informs her that there is no cell phone reception except at Hawk Peak, the tallest point in the park. May also asks Claire to help with various tasks around the park. Claire has never hiked the Hawk Peak Trail before, but is expecting an important call, so she decides to hike to the summit. Along the way, Claire encounters several animals who ask her to perform various tasks, including finding lost objects, delivering items, and participating in recreational activities. Claire also obtains golden feathers that allow her to reach higher areas of the mountain. It is then up to the player whether Claire wants to explore other parts of the island or head straight for Hawk Peak. A sign at the mountain's base warns it is a strenuous hike and other characters remark that the trail is too difficult for them.
When Claire reaches the peak, she congratulates herself for making it and stands in front of an aurora. Soon, her cell phone rings, revealing that the caller is her mother. She acknowledges that she had surgery after sending Claire away. Claire is upset she was not there for her, but her mother says she is proud of Claire for climbing Hawk Peak. The call is interrupted when an updraft emerges from the mountain. It makes Claire nervous, but her mother urges her to ride it before it disappears. Claire rides the updraft, soaring over the park. She then returns to her aunt and tells her about all her side activities during the hike. Afterwards, she goes to sleep.
Development
A Short Hike was created by Adam Robinson-Yu, a Toronto-based developer, also known online as adamgryu. He was the game's programmer, art designer, level designer, sound designer, and writer. He received help from his family and friends. Dawn Blair helped him with designing models as well as with writing, while Andrew Wong contributed to some 3D models. The game's logo was created by David Czarnowski. The game was created in the Unity video game engine.
Robinson-Yu was passionate about creating video games since his youth, but only became more interested in the process while learning video game development in university. Before working on A Short Hike, Robinson-Yu released a few video games on the Itch.io digital distribution service. After quitting his job as a software engineer, he became an independent video game developer in 2017. Robinson-Yu had already begun working on a role-playing video game, inspired by the Paper Mario series. He struggled with his role-playing game, growing increasingly stressed and anxious, aware that its completion could take several years. In December 2018, he stopped working on it and started on A Short Hike. After tweeting about A Short Hike online in the same month, he obtained funding for the game, but was still unsure which project he should mainly focus on. After playing The Haunted Island (2018) and Minit (2018), he ultimately decided to work on A Short Hike full-time.
Robinson-Yu was inspired to create a hiking video game after his trips to national landmarks in North America. He wanted to incorporate the feeling of reaching the top of the mountain in the game, while trying to reconstruct "the peaceful meditative feeling" while surveying the world. However, unlike the result, he first thought about creating a simulation video game in which the player would manage their own national park, similar to the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. When at Stugan, an accelerator program for indie video game developers, he pitched a hiking game while participating in a game jam with two collaborators, ultimately creating the game The Secret of Dank Mountain. After completing it, he found navigation and route planning to be interesting design mechanics, and stated he could create a game incorporating such elements. The stamina bar featured in The Secret of Dank Mountain is similar to those of A Short Hike.
He initially thought the gameplay of A Short Hike would be boring and not attract players, saying that similar games already existed, especially those with a strong narrative. After obtaining money for the game from the company Humble Bundle, he committed to releasing the game in the next three months. He divided the game's development cycle into three parts: alpha, beta, and release candidate. He created two sets of goals during development, the first covered core gameplay aspects, such as movement mechanisms, dialogue, save system, and cutscenes, and the second stretch goals, such as volleyball, parkour, fishing, and wildlife. He said that the game remained enjoyable despite missing its stretch goals. Some of the stretch goals were not featured upon the game's release on Humble Bundle.
Robinson-Yu found writing to be difficult. The Yarn Spinner tool was used for creating dialogue; he previously used the tool in his unfinished role-playing game. He also used a plug-in which allowed him to introduce controller support, and Cinemachine, which allowed him to set up a dynamic camera system. He re-used scripts and assets (content that includes media, artwork, animations, and sound effects) for various in-game tools from his previous projects. He also created several of his own tools during development. In conversations, he opted to use short and informal messaging, such as texting language. When creating NPCs, he intended to portray different types of anxiety and self-doubt. The game does not contain voice acting. It uses sounds that simulate speech.
Art style
The game features a pixelated art style, with voxel and isometric graphics. The game does not use anti-aliasing, a procedure that smoothes lines and removes visual distortions. One of the first things Robinson-Yu did when starting development of A Short Hike was establish the art style. Considering that he had more experience in visual effects, he decided to experiment with a "crunchy" pixel art style. This style helped him create models much faster and expand the scope of the game in spite of his limited art skills. Robinson-Yu wanted to create a world with as few pixels as possible, while still trying to make it look beautiful. To create this effect in Unity, Robinson-Yu rendered the world with a small texture and then enlarged it with a point filter mode. The colour palette was sampled directly from photographs of the Canadian Shield during the fall. He also created a custom shader that allowed him to control shadows on all objects, while also trying to make them look flat and consistent. Robinson-Yu used post-processing effects in the game. He noted that, without any effects, the map in the distance would contain a lot of noise. He added a fog effect (to keep the player concentrated), edge detection, and colour correction.
Map design
Robinson-Yu used Unity's terrain editor to create the world. He attempted to recreate an open world, encouraging players to explore the world in whatever way they saw fit. This direction inspired him to create minigames that can be played after taking a break from hiking. Robinson-Yu intentionally wanted players to get lost while exploring the island. He added various landmarks to "pique people's curiosity", coins, paths, and signs. He used a triplanar shader to texture the terrain; according to Robinson-Yu, "this shader effect uses the normal of the mesh to decide which texture to show". When working on A Short Hike, his main inspiration was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), primarily due to its open world design, as well as the Animal Crossing series. He tried making places on the island as distinctive as possible. For example, the game's fire tower was inspired by his hiking trip to Mount Pilchuck, while the park itself was inspired by Algonquin Provincial Park.