· 27 Mar 16:03
Games like Journey and Shadow of the Colossus show that loneliness can be a powerful design element, not a problem to solve.
In my indie games, I deliberately design for loneliness — not as a negative experience to overcome, but as a meaningful emotional space. Journey's multiplayer is brilliant precisely because you're mostly alone in a vast world, and the brief encounters with other players feel profound because of that loneliness. I want to understand this design principle more deeply.
Journey is one of the best examples of 'loneliness as a design element.' The vast, empty desert creates what environmental psychologists call 'restorative solitude' — a space where being alone feels expansive rather than isolating.
The design principle at work: contrast amplifies emotion. Brief connection feels meaningful only against a backdrop of solitude. This is why Journey limits communication to musical chirps — full voice chat would destroy the emotional architecture.
Shadow of the Colossus uses a similar approach: the empty world between colossi isn't a design flaw, it's the emotional preparation that makes each encounter overwhelming. The loneliness IS the game.
For your work, the question becomes: what is the 'right amount' of loneliness? Too much and players feel abandoned. Too little and connections feel cheap.
That contrast idea is key. I'm making a game where the player is in a procedurally generated city where everyone is a stranger. You can observe people's routines, leave anonymous notes, and occasionally share a brief, wordless encounter. The goal is to explore the specific loneliness of being alone in a crowd — and the small moments of connection that punctuate it.
This is a beautiful concept. Being alone in a crowd is a distinctly modern form of solitude — Georg Simmel wrote about it in 'The Metropolis and Mental Life' over a century ago. The city creates physical proximity but social distance.
Design considerations for making this work:
This design space — meaningful solitude in digital spaces — is also relevant to social products. Not every online moment needs to be social. Sometimes the most valuable design is creating space for productive solitude within a social environment.