I love note-taking games and I DON'T CARE if that sounds boring

Video games like Her Story, Fez, and Tunic beg the player to take detailed notes to keep track of the story. But journaling or note-taking games are part of a long tradition that goes back to the game manuals of the 80s and 90s. Back in the day, games like The Legend of Zelda had incredibly beautiful, detailed manuals that helped the player navigate difficult puzzles and learn about lore, when memory on consoles was short. Polygon's Clayton Ashley details the history of taking notes in games, and some of his recent favorites that continue the tradition.
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[@dissonantcity8710]

finally, Clayton providing the representation for the most disregarded part of the gaming community: the ones who actually like reading

[@caseysailor9301]

JoSniffy just felt a chill run down his spine.

[@hika8538]

wait till you find the rabbit hole of interactive text games

[@cyberdiver7076]

ah yes the most oppressed race in gaming, the readers.

[@captivatingcurios]

and thinking

[@mayraa5095]

Facts

[@MrPooleish]

When I played Pokémon Sapphire at the age of 13, I got to a room where there were dots arranged in a way that suggested language. I knew something was locked behind understanding the dots, and I wanted it. I spent hours testing, modifying, and slowly decoding the secret of the symobls, and at the end I had a comprehensive alphabet with examples. The next day, I showed my discovery to my best friend at lunch. Between mouthfuls, he muttered "That's just braille, dude. There's a chart in the school library."

[@camerongranger6301]

Lmao yes!! I remember feeling like I just stumbled upon some real life ancient secret and then having my mom break it to me. Still felt cool tho

[@youdont12know]

there's a chart in the manual. At least, there was in europe.

[@MrPooleish]

@@youdont12know I don't think the US got that. Or I may have missed it...

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@MrPooleish It was in the US one too, the one I had anyway. Still remember it confusing kid me though? But at least the guide explained what to do. Not sure if it explained it’s braille

[@javi7636]

Those braille rooms will always be special to me. I figured out that they were braille pretty quickly, but instead of just referencing a chart I ended up getting really fascinated with braille as a writing system and learned the whole alphabet by heart and got a real life writing slate for it. I can still recognize and translate braille years later, all because they decided to use it in those puzzles.

[@pokkiheart]

I spontaneously combust if I go 6 months without seeing Outer Wilds in a video essay. Thank you for keeping me alive.

[@polygon]

the clock begins ticking down once more...

[@fridgegremlin5496]

You and me both.

[@rein7526]

This comment made me stick around to watch the video lmao. Outer wilds neuron activated

[@pokkiheart]

@@rein7526 same braincell!

[@Yesnomu]

I hope you get a handy musical cue when there's a minute to go!

[@thefollowingisatest4579]

Clayton's out here defending us total weirdos who love physical clutter and keepsakes as a sign of our fictional adventures.

[@Delightedly]

Although good notes were taken to write this, mentioning the actual creators of the genera and term “Keepsake Game” (invented just a year or two ago) would have been nice. For the record, it was two independent artists who specialize in these things: Shing Yin Khor and Jeeyon Shim who both still make small games and projects like that which are all crowdfunded.

[@willd.4808]

My friend had an entire board with photos and pushpins for Ace Attorney Investigations

[@polygon]

OOOOOOH that sounds SO fun if you have the space!

[@nic-pg9ed]

While Obra Dinn does have a built in notebook, when me and my friend played through it together I found myself updating a google doc called "obra dinn time." Victim's tend to appear in multiple scenes, so when you don't know their name yet (and therefore can't fill in the in-game journal), you need a way to keep track of them through other means. We started naming all the guys based on physical appearance or their first-impression actions: ARMS CROSSED MAN, BALDING GUY, SQUAT MAN, WIDOWSPEAK MAN, AMISH MAN, KNIFE MAN, and so on and so forth. Then, I listed all the clues associated with the individual in the doc. My friend took a different approach. We collaborated on the names, but he took physical notes based on the scene, so as to keep better track of the timelines. Either way, we both ended up with a keepsake at the end. I still fondly remember going through the google doc, searching for the clues we had listed before. And of course, I wish we could forget everything about the game, just so we could play it together again.

[@AllisonIsLivid]

One thing I will say about replayability - for Obra Dinn, and I assume many of these other games, it's actually pretty great to witness someone else puzzling through them. Those moments where they realize something more than they could've imagined is going on, or when they put something together and have that switch in their head flip can be nearly as much fun to witness as they were to experience. Though I don't recommend watching people with active chats play them, because it deflates everything when twenty other people are commenting on their own experience, or adding endless noise to the stream of information gathering the player should be focused on. If you're going to play a notebook game, you should probably not play it live for an audience.

[@oliviasimkinsbullock8421]

I also loved Obra Dinn for the note-taking. I played the game with a friend and we used a little notebook that I still hold onto as a fun keepsake to look through.

[@damedesuka77]

I gave up halfway of playing Obra Dinn due to a QoL issue. I didn't wanna walk all over the ship over and over again to replay / reconfirm the content of a memory. If only the game had a feature to replay a memory that we've discovered from the menu/journal. Still, it's an amazing game and I wish someone else would make something similar.

[@JollyboatBros]

Same, but I wound my friends up by naming them all after whether they resemble monkeys. Monkeyface, Monkey-hat, Monkey-man (the one who climbs, obvs) and somehow this system actually worked

[@rscottr]

I broke out the notebook when tracking whose hammocks were occupied in which scenes.

[@drakkenmensch]

I remember translating the Fez in-game alphabet without ever finding the classroom with the alphabet chart. I found the abandoned city with multiple signs, noted them down and came across a four letter signpost next to a warp gate. Logically, I deduced that this sign would mean "warp" or "gate", but because the last letter of the word was NOT a common letter used across most words, I concluded it spelled warp and had found my rosetta stone. The rest was just context and filling in the blanks, new letters translated helping me translate more new letters until the alphabet was filled.

[@sophiesappho]

I translated it from the big monolith that spells out "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" 😄 helps that there was in fact a quick brown fox jumping over a lazy dog there to drive the point home for me

[@rosyan]

I parsed it together from the dialogue of npcs at the end of the game. Just made some guesses what they could have maybe said, and actually a lot sooner than I expected I had deciphered everything just by deduction, from their dialogue only.

[@alextfish]

Wait, there was a classroom with the full alphabet?? I did it your way all the way through. Haha :)

[@Anastas1786]

Honestly, I only got maybe two or three pages of the _Tunic_ manual before I was compelled to stop and crack the language. (Spoilers) I was just sort of idly examining the words at first, trying to get a sense of what the fundamental unit of the system was, then I managed to produce a character using all the possible "strokes" to use as a reference. Managed to hypothesize a few of the simple one-character words from context and frequency. My Rosetta stone was the "Beginning your adventure" page, but my _key_ (or my... _classical education in Ancient Greek,_ I guess, if we're stretching the metaphor) was the controls page... you know, since it was obviously titled either "Controls" or, slightly less likely, "Control". Having deduced my fundamental unit, I knew the system was a "cursive", in a manner of speaking, so I could break "Controls" into something more like "C O N T R O L S"... except this eight-letter word was mimicked in the _Tunic_ system by a _six-character_ word. ... This eight-letter, _six-consonant, two vowel_ word. That led me to theorize that each character was a _syllable..._ but I'm rambling. I could elaborate, though.

[@thequeertelope7941]

omg linguist

[@TyWorth]

Never realized this was such a common thread amongst the games I love the most. Time for another Fez playthrough, methinks.

[@marcosm1223]

The video made me wonder If I should give it a try sometime. I just thought it was a level-to-level puzzle game with a few quirks, but apparently it's much more my alley than I had though

[@jelliejem]

Same lol. Recently playing Tunic and videos talking about Tunic inspired me to go back to exploring the other puzzles I haven't solved in Fez yet even though I already got "100%"

[@Whoeverheis11]

Another game along this line is Heaven's Vault. The game revolves around an archaeologist trying to decipher a dead language, but the game only tells you whether a word is correct when you repeatedly translate it. Although the game itself keeps a record of all the ancient writing you've encountered, alongside the translations you're going with, so the note taking aspect is more for general patterns you notice within the language, and also the interconnected mess of ancient mysteries.

[@aubreymhill]

Yeah Heavens Vault was going to be my recent shout too!

[@scobeymeister1]

God, seconded. I cannot recommend Heaven's Vault enough. Tl;dr - if you like weird little indie games and have any interest in linguistics and/or history, go play it right now it's so GOOD! I've never seen any setting quite like it: a sci-fi/fantasy star system piecing together a lost Golden Age of an Islamic-inspired culture, sailing to and fro on a river of starlight. Absolutely gorgeous. Heavy themes about colonialism, racism and classism, and how those concepts interact with academia. And the gameplay feels purpose-built for huge nerds! Extremely responsive story that changes depending on how you treat people. And I had a little notebook I used to take apart the structure of the language and I have been chasing that same satisfaction of unraveling how it works ever since. Tunic is the only thing that came close.

[@cabbitha5054]

Oh it's wonderful! I also highly recommend Heaven's Vault. It also has enormous replayability as you keep all the in game language knowledge you have accumulated in each play through. There are mysteries and places to visit you simply won't be able to solve or visit on the first couple of games, but chip away at each play through :)

[@ystacalden]

if you buy the novelisations, they have new words.

[@Anastas1786]

I love _Heaven's Vault._

[@mobiusghost]

The Outer Wilds is literally the best game i've ever played. There is a realization that happens about mid-game, that something you've seen a bunch of times by now is actually a very very important event. When i realized what it was i had to step away for a bit because it literally took my breath away. very bittersweet and absolutely stunning

[@kenzz9682]

Love the shoutout to Nancy Drew games, a true staple of my gaming childhood. I still occasionally find notebooks full of ND notes on various puzzles

[@silverandgold12]

i was thinking those too! every time me and my siblings sat down for a new one we had pages and pages of blank paper ready to go

[@blooblis642]

Yes let’s put some respect on Herinteractive’s name!

[@abigailtaylor5575]

Definitely had to scroll TOO FAR to find a Nancy Drew comment!

[@ystacalden]

I've been replaying again this year, and I have a pile of various discarded pages of notes,

[@delicateghoul]

I was so disorganized my notes are scattered across multiple notebooks and sketchbooks. I always find it hilarious when I stumble across one because without context it's just madness

[@starfishhhhh79]

i keep a journal for all my playthroughs of stardew valley and harvest moon, listing things i need to do, keeping track of harvests and profits and so on. currently keeping a disco elysium journal too

[@mothman314]

this is why i love the zero escape series, i have pages upon pages of notes i took when solving those puzzles

[@Michael_Lindell]

If you like note-taking/storytelling, I've heard the journaling game 'Thousand Year Old Vampire' is excellent.

[@TheProfool]

100% agreed! I also enjoy Apothecaria for a more relaxed and less... heavy and depressing (in a good way) kind of game.

[@D0CT0RECT0C00LR]

yesss one of my favorite rpgs

[@hollyerin897]

was looking ffor this comment!

[@caseysailor9301]

Man, I just love polygons brand of video essays. Not the brutal critical analysis or the measured attacks of a political commentator, but the simple attempt at delving into something that intrigues or inspires, then sharing that passion with the world. Polygon's video team will always have a place in my heart for the dedication to teaching in a manner that is so purposefully energising and joyful. Despite the fact that they don't always pick the easiest topics, and they could frame their essays however they wanted, they always choose to be welcoming. One topic that I would love see Polygon covering, is gambling in videogames. I don't mean gambling companies opening up shop on console storefronts, or the advent of lootboxes. I mean the allure of rng or rng builds in videogames where it's a simply a game mechanic. See, I know Devs use things like random effects, rare spawns, and crit chances to balance their games, by if you're like me: no amount of optimal build or safety nets or empirical strength will ever overcome the allure of _highrolling_, or that 1 in a 100 timeskip, I want to see those damage numbers peak, even if I'm fighting a losing battle. If I'm not just a gambling addict, and someone on the polygon team can relate, I would be very grateful to see someone else's take on rng in videogames and why people might choose to utilise it even when it doesn't strictly help.

[@SomethingSonofagun]

The Nintendo DS was great for encouraging this sort of game style by including the note-taking as an integral part of the game. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 had an in-game notepad to keep track of appointments and clues for the mystery that you write out with the touch screen (you even had to hold the DS sideways like a journal while you played!), while the Etrian Odyssey series expects you to use the bottom screen to manually map out the maze-like dungeons as a core gameplay mechanic. In both of these case, it's fun to do and adds a lot to the immersion of the game and its world. The DS may be on its way out, but I'm thankful for the experiences it offered while it was here.

[@floffnie]

i am screaming thank you for talking about hotel dusk

[@littleleakyleakythere]

I'm so happy you guys are back from the short form content war 😭

[@Youtube_Hivemind_Member]

Oh My God. I've been playing video games almost all my life and somehow the idea of taking notes NEVER OCCURED TO ME Thank you for this

[@Becca-bm8rt]

When I played Outer Wilds I actually kept a Captain's Log separate to the in-game journal, to keep track of the different named Nomai and to track what I'd done each loop. It was cathartic getting to write 'Fell into the black hole (AGAIN).'

[@mariusmiller5702]

I've always been obsessed with building lore around my PCs in RPG games. I think it's a load of fun to build a personality and then play it; to really have the opportunity to play as someone other than myself who I got to make up. As though Fallout could be my own personal barbie time lol. It can be a real joy to find old character journals and reminisce about when I played that game as that character and the things I was doing in my life at the time.

[@daniellewasdelayed8921]

One thing I'd like to add to this video is that your notes can also be completely digital! When I'm playing a new game that doesn't hold everything in an auto-updated list or journal, I'll often use my private discord server to type down important things, notes for later, drop screenshots in there, etc. For Tunic, my journey with learning its language and eventually translating the entire manual (and most of the dialogue) was helped immensely by being able to use Google Drawings to piece together screenshots, manipulate images, and even create a template for when I was figuring out all of the specifics of what each part of each word represented. I end up going back to that folder more often than I'd have thought to bask in how rewarding it all was. I'm no longer fluent like I was near the end of it all, but I still feel that brain boost of morale and good feelings looking at all the wonderful work.

[@konayasai]

I loved how, in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, the Regi trio was hidden behind puzzles in Braille. I was playing that part while on camp and not having access to the manual, so I cracked it by learning Braille by using Brailled WC signs, elevator buttons and so on as tiny Rosetta stones, getting the meaning behind a few letters and deducing the rest. Definitely one of my most memorable game moments as a kid.

[@THfan9412]

I love that you mentioned HerInteractive's Nancy drew games because I clicked on this video specifically thinking of them! My sister made me a notebook for my birthday when I was younger, to keep all my notes from the games. Now, when my sisters play them and get stuck, they ask for my notes instead of going straight to Google.

[@zombiesun44]

I LOVE THIS

[@FrChapeau]

Any game that has me bust out the notebook is a delight. When I played Obduction, I had to wrap my head around the physicality of a puzzle so I made props and I took notes and all that and it all felt me with such joy.

[@Casdrop_Cacan]

Currently playing the whole Zero Escape trilogy and I'm enjoying the note-taking so much, definite recommend

[@polygon]

the best part of this video is going to be getting game recommendations from the comments, haha - Simone

[@JoHasIssues]

I second this notion! Zero Escape is probably one of the series I am having the most fun with note-taking for. There are characters, and plots, and puzzles. Trying to piece things together before you get to the end is the best part of those games

[@DeathnoteBB]

@@JoHasIssues Yess. I really need to take more notes, but I’m too lazy alfjsjf

[@charlieh4607]

thirded!! love telling people to play zero escape and then perusing their microsoft paint creations afterward

[@kricku]

But... They're on rails...

[@letazieg4077]

I recently started playing Skyrim on the new survival mode and it has really good rp potential! I started a journal of my characters thoughts on what was happening in the game. It’s been really fun looking at the world through my characters eyes and after years of playing this at lvl 50-80 it’s really refreshing to start new. I find myself often making a point of avoiding quests my character wouldn’t do and going for ones that would interest them most! The best part is being able to go back and read all my entries 😊

[@caitlinweiss8801]

When my mom got into gaming she made a whole binder of notes for Breath of the Wild. I'll have to recommend some of these games to her!

[@eggegg8181]

That’s so wholesome, your mum sounds cool!

[@alyssa.jay.]

I write down every quest in games in a special notebook like a physical to do list I do feel seen today

[@polygon]

I did that with Hades to track my relationship and weapon upgrade progress and it was really fun. - Simone

[@electinae]

I think the Rusty Lake series, especially Roots, is some of the most notes I've ever taken playing a game. It's also very fun to look back on my theories as new games are released, and see what I guessed correctly and what threads still haven't been tied up.

[@ceve]

CUBE ESCAPE. I love that series with all of my heart.

[@taureleafsilver]

After watching this video, my SO and I decided to play Rusty Lake's co-op game, Past Within, by passing notes. Each player is playing a completely different game, with the answers to the puzzles spread across both games, so you have to communicate to solve the puzzles. The result looks like it was written by a madman, with pages full of symbols, nightmare illustrations, and comments on what was happening in each of our games. I really recommend playing it with a shared notebook!

[@anska7475]

That really nice journal for puzzle solving that was in the box of "Myst" was memorable. I loved it and went absolutely overboard with it, using it as an actual diary for my character.

[@melephs_cap]

I wish more games would either give you more ways to "note-take" in-game (records of significant info, markers to put on maps, etc), or explicitly encourage external/physical note-taking! I would love to take notes in more games, but I'd like to have a clearer idea of when it's valuable. I thought my Rain World playthrough wouldn't benefit too much from note-taking, but after finishing I feel quite the opposite. I wish I'd known earlier!

[@michaelaronov4421]

When I was a little kid, my dad was playing Riven and kept a college-ruled spiral notebook with his scribblings and attempts at solving the puzzles and I would sit on his lap and try to wrap my head around what in the world he was doing and sometimes offer my helpful inputs, in as much as a 6 or 7 year old kid can be helpful in solving the puzzles in Riven. Dad passed away a long while ago, and I'm certain that his Riven notebook was tossed away with a bunch of other trash when I moved. These notebook games give me a sense of nostalgia and closeness to my dad that I don't experience with pretty much anything else because it's cool to think about how he would have tried to puzzle something out or how he would have organized his notes. It's a tiny niche of gaming for sure, but I'm glad the comments aren't understating how great of a niche it is.

[@missingdev0948]

Osamu Sato's work has always been nigh indescribable, but the second I started writing stuff down I almost immediately got the puzzles in Tong Nou

[@Fallenemiko]

i was literally like, "MY NANCY DREW MYSTERY GAMES NOTEBOOK" and then less than a minute later Clayton mentioned murder mysteries/nancy drew lmao

[@GrungiAnkhfire]

So much fun seeing my little Fez notes tumblr featured :D Taking notes during that game was one of the really defining memories of the playthrough, and it was so cool seeing how many others also were attached to their own notes!

[@HollowRoll]

Another really good game where you need to take notes is "The Painscreek Killings"

[@polygon]

NOTED..

[@wingeddangernoodle]

when I played strange horticulture i pulled out my notebook to keep track of what plants i hadn't identified in my book

[@polygon]

lovely!!

[@awagster]

I was going to mention Strange Horticulture, too! So good, and it has some really neat puzzles. Definitely worth a look for anyone who likes these sorts of games but haven't played it yet.

[@ohno6919]

I didn't end up with a physical notebook but I did put lots of notes on the tags on plants, like 'Leaves match Evulum' or 'Probably Ambrella', things like that. It helped with making educated guesses on plants and keeping track of my thoughts :)

[@wingeddangernoodle]

@@ohno6919 yesss i love the little labels!

[@Ninjacatmuffin]

Oh yeah, I enjoyed using the labels for that reason. I used them to mark which ones I've seen before

[@a_level_70_elite_raccoon]

I played a game last night called Fabled Lands that has an *in game* notepad. I was originally going to use my own notepad, but since the devs had been so thoughtful to include it, I decided that I should use their notepad instead. It blew me away, such a great feature for an adventure game. Okay, so this is a long story, but it's basically the moment that turned me into a lover of video games, and note-taking: One of the first games I played was the Legend of Zelda. My dad didn't have time to play anymore, so I inherited his NES. But my dad was a surveyor, so he had not only filled out the map that game came with, he had also hand drawn the entire map on a roll of grid paper. It had its own little cardboard tube, and it was like receiving a treasure map. I didn't have to suffer through the looping forest tiles or the graveyard because he was so meticulous with his note-taking, he'd even drawn the little crosses on the grave markers. He'd pointed out where to get items and hearts in the world, as well as some secrets, but he didn't say what they were. What was even *better* is that after beating the game, I found out that there was a Second Quest. So I started it up and quickly found out that the first map was **DIFFERENT**. Items, dungeons, so many things were different that I asked him if I could have another roll of paper and started making my own map. I was, like, 7 or 8 at the time, so mine was not as meticulous or detailed, but I was able to follow in his footsteps and make my own hand drawn map of the Second Quest. Anyway, if you read all of that, thank you.

[@haughtygarbage5848]

Some games I have spreadsheets, and some I have handwritten notes ☺️ However my handwriting is really gross and scribbly so they're not exactly cute notes but they get the job done all the same

[@polygon]

oh my notes look awful. almost unreadable even by me. - simone

[@kchalms]

Fez is still one of my favorite games and I still have my Fex notes. I even made a quick reference flashcard of the runic alphabet. I wish I could experience that game fresh again. Also... writing this comment while the video was rolling was like I was summoning the video content. This is such a good video, I FEEL SEEN!

[@matthewgilson9834]

clayton once again proving that he's got a lowkey incredible sense of comedic writing and delivery. love this video and love games like this!!!

[@melonysnicket]

When i played the Danganronpa trilogy, I kept a little notepad of every single detail of each Class Trial, even though the game already did that for me. It made it more fun to follow along, felt like I really was a detective at the scene

[@perjuniper6556]

My Dad, sister and I have made a tradition of playing point-and-click mystery games together on our living room TV. Mystery Case Files, Nancy Drew, Myst, Gabriel Knight, etc. I love it. I have so many good memories from these games and swapping control between the three of us when we were stuck lol

[@bigjedimullet]

My family also played Myst together! We were all crowded around my mom’s computer, lol. But it was so much fun. There’s nothing quite like solving a puzzle game as a team. My sister and I still play puzzle games together sometimes!

[@satibel]

My favorite game which does that is etrian odyssey. You literally draw the map on the ds screen, and add notes for what it found there.

[@mossy.charlatan]

my favorite note-taking game --that now i'm thinking I need to return to--was the submachine series!! I loved filling up notebooks with maps and codes and puzzle solutions. Submachine universe even incorporated the notes and ramblings of forum members which really enhanced the feeling of *being* one of the wild eccentrics trying to understand the in-game world

[@ready2cry]

everybody say thank you clayton!!!

[@polygon]

thank u clayton

[@kilo3989]

Thank you Clayton!

[@JasonMDockins]

Obra Din made me feel more like a detective than anything else I’ve ever experienced. When I did a play through of Breath of the Wild where I committed to not using fast travel I found the need to take detailed notes on where to find ingredients and materials for crafting and upgrades. I loved the experience so much I’m going to start Tears of the Kingdom that way.

[@Swarbie8D]

I bought a big journal for Elden Ring and it was honestly super helpful for keeping track of NPCs and their quests. I also used it to track my deaths 😂

[@tobiblaireau4896]

while playing The Witness i would jot down puzzle attempts and notes on whatever random scraps of paper i had around my desk, but this is making me want to start dedicated notebooks for games :3

[@jakekwalsh]

graph paper is a necessity for that game lol

[@cupfulofeathers]

Love this! The Professor Layton games definitely fall in the notebook category. There is a built-in memo function, which is super useful for solving puzzles, but sometimes pencil and paper are the way to go if you need more scribbling space. Anyone remember "How Many Ones"?

[@axolotlking1072]

I am so so glad you mentioned Her Story, as it’s what immediately came to mind when I saw the title. Such a good story and I wish there were more mystery games like it

[@kip_c]

Clayton is a joy and a gift to Polygon. He represents the very important nerdy side of games that has been lost in recent years (I mean that in the most respectful way possible)

[@mcarlisle3559]

I actually haven't finished tunic,,,and now I'm super tempted to replay it so I can make a journal for it, maybe stream it!! That'd be really fun 💗

[@polygon]

Do it!!

[@rachelwahlig8756]

Physical notes are a joy. (Though I also love a spreadsheet and I *will* build a database given any excuse.) For general life stuff I use one notebook until it's full, creating a horrible little midden of a diary: work tasks, Spanish grammar, clues from a Hunt a Killer campaign, two ingredient lists for what I'd guess are soups, a trig problem, griping about book club selections, data usage for each of the last 18 months of my cell plan, the address of a USDA office in Conyers, GA. Over time it becomes a record of what I've been up to -- not counting the page that ends "Antecedents / Belarus". I don't have dealings with Belarus so that one's a bit of a mystery.

[@Me547]

Checklists and spreadsheets are my favorite. I will make one any chance I get.

[@Rachel-xf3op]

I like taking notes even in games where I don't have to. Especially if it's story heavy, it's fun to make a timeline, a family tree, or a map just to help me keep track of everything.

[@symfo]

Absolutely delightful video! I usually take little notes while playing games (codes, quantities, lists, etc), but this made me want to take more notes and do it purposefully. I usually toss my notes when I'm done, but one of my treasured gaming artifacts is the sticky note where I wrote the coordinates for the [redacted] in Outer Wilds, which has been living in my desk ever since to remind me of that first playthrough.

[@defamink]

this video was made specifically for ME!!!!!!!!!

[@polygon]

HECK YEAH

[@lollypopfiend]

I love all note-taking media! If I have to pull out a notebook to jot down some names or stats while reading a book or playing a TTRPG the media in question slides up a bit on my favourites scale. There's something about it that makes me feel personally involved, if that makes sense.

[@chancecole437]

I felt compelled to take notes during my first Elden Ring playthrough and it was wonderful!

[@FausseFugue]

Something I realised with modern gaming is that it's now so easy to take screenshots in games that I started just... taking screenshots of everything important (a letter I found, a door that won't open, ...) instead of taking notes. The issue with that is that it just made me feel like I was cheating, like I had unlocked a developer mode map of the world or something. It made some difficult games feel way more easy than they should be, and it really felt like I was ruining the experience. You video is the final nail in the coffin of screenshots for me, I'm definitely going back to taking notes!

[@polygon]

What's your favorite note-taking or journaling game that we didn't mention? Also hey: CHECK OUT THESE NOTEBOOKS IN OUR SHOP: polygon-shop.fourthwall.com/ *P.S All apparel in our new-and-improved merch store is on sale for 20% OFF through Sunday 2/12 with the code POLYGONPINK !!*

[@Michael_Lindell]

Thousand Year Old Vampire

[@kilo3989]

I would also be interested in hearing other examples of "Keepsake Games"--I actually took a ton of notes for a board game, Box One, but because it can all be put back together at the end all I have are my notes. Anyone know any good keepsake games?

[@Pyreo]

The Neverhood! it's simple, standalone puzzles, but you had to keep track of certain symbol sequences to input later in the game across the map, making notes mandatory, and each playthrough you'd end with a notepad covered in scribbled symbols (and everyone names the symbols different things. shout out to sideways-bowl-of-oatmeal)

[@NetherMockingjay]

Ace Attorney - I took meticulous notes of the timelines of all of the cases. It's a habit I'd picked up after being screwed over in a LARP game I played by not keeping track of time well enough. The timelines only became relevant a couple times across the phoenix wright trilogy and the great ace attorney, but when they did, it made me super glad I'd made those notes

[@ethanboutcher6597]

very different to most people but satisfactory. i made full maths equations to load balance and optimise production lines, this then proceeded from just nots to full on spreadsheets.

[@vivaldismurder8779]

Personally, I only ever took notes in Games like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon in which Checking the Wiki is optional but Kind of tedious. I appreciate when Games have a sort of Notebook programmed in. But then again, I do enjoy having Tons of loose papers somewhere

[@emh8025]

One of my favourite keepsake games came out recently, it’s called Season and it’s about making a scrapbook at the end of the world it’s so lovely and really nice

[@umbra4540]

rain world has been my current journal game, largely for speculating on the symbols used for the paths and in the world. i haven't had to draw out maps yet, the in game map is pretty great, but i've been slowly uncovering connections

[@kendromeda42]

Ive been playing a mystery game called The Painscreek Killings that actively encourages notetaking and journaling, both with the in game camera and also a physical . Not only is the mystery pretty in depth with lots of names and dates being thrown around, but it also has a lot of clues that make infinitely more sense when connected in a web or diagram of some kind. The feeling I got when making a full on time/date scale and connecting the different stories together on a line, figuring out where inconsistencies were and who I could investigate to find out what actually happened....ahhhhh....made me feel more like an actual detective than some Sherlock Holmes games.

[@bucca2]

Very specific example: in FFXIV, doing daily Grand Company (they're like the NPC-run version of guilds) turn-ins of crafted or gathered items can give you a huge boost of xp without grinding. I LOOOOVE jotting down what items they're asking for so I can go acquire/make them and what ingredients I need to assemble.

[@secondratesaint9418]

Another example that didnt get brought up was the original Phantasy Star games! I remember using graph paper to draw out the maps as I played! This segues into the Etrian Odyssey series, where they made it a little easier by proving a spot for you to draw those maps INTO the game using the DS screen. Love it! Fantastic video.

[@douglasmarr9708]

An underrated note-taking game and text-based RPG is A House of Many Doors by Pixel Trickery. Putting aside the excellent gothic-Victorian atmosphere, the game has a quest to find the City of Glass, and it can only be completed if you literally type in its location into a text box on the quest screen. The game doesn't keep track of any prior hints you may have received, so it's truly up to the player to connect the dots and figure out the city's location by piecing together the clues by themselves.

[@michellev8475]

I came late to the Polygon party, so the first video I watched was Clayton's Black Box video. It blew my mind, and I loved the accessible complexity. He had many of the thoughts I always had about the game, but I could never articulate them half as well as he did. And, now, I live for Clayton's musings. ;)

[@wikiediea]

the HerInteractive Nancy Drew games were my childhood! I would sit down with my dad and my sister before bed and we'd all play together, we completed almost all of the catalogue at the time. References from the game would become inside jokes, and the scraps of paper and post it notes around the family PC were a staple. this is making me want to force my family to spend the summer playing one of these that you mentioned- or better yet, replay my favorites with a notebook and pencil :)

[@LionMettled]

I love taking physical notes and letting them be sloppy because then I transcribe everything into a Google Doc or Excel sheet and neaten everything up in there. Did this for Cultist Simulator and Octopath Traveller. I didn't for Obra Dinn, but I played that with my siblings and three heads can hold more details than one! I appreciate Clayton making this video and I definitely wish I could forget the games and play them with new eyes again.

[@naughtypanda4891]

This is why those Nancy Drew games are always pretty fun, you will fill a good few pages with notes if you go at it without guides

[@robina.9402]

Wasn't ready for the memories! I grew up in the late 80s/90s and used to read the manuals while my family was playing the games. I got stuck on levels pretty quickly (have never been able to land jumps), so I had more fun reading.

[@DiscoBroccoli]

I remember completely mapping out my way through Rock Tunnel in Pokemon Blue. I didn't know you were supposed to use Flash in there and walked through the pitch black tunnel for hours until I found every ladder and every item. That sure felt like an accomplishment but I don't mind extensive quest logging in-game today. Especially since I only get to play games once every week or two, I don't want to read 8 pages of my own journal first, to find my way into the game again. For the character there's been no down time to forget stuff, but for the player there might have been weeks between the sessions

[@rope9568]

I never took notes before I tried Her Story but I loved it. Your video also reminds me how much I wished I would have played some of these old games who literally required notetaking. It sounds so cool but I am so damn intimidated. The video absolutely motivates me to look more into it. Oh and I never heard of the genre keepsake and that's so wierd because I absolutely love journaling and the whole premise of this genre honestly sounds like a dream. So thank you so much for the motivation and inspiration

[@Mister32]

The Venn Diagram of people who have played Fez and people who have played Tunic should be one circle. If you've played one, please play the other. Both incredible games, and both left lasting impacts on my perception of games overall.

[@aimelle3]

"Startropics included a letter written by your in-game Uncle that you dipped in water to reveal a hidden code." Suddenly that Tunic water/letter puzzle makes way more sense. The layout of the letter is the same, even!

[@kropotkinnie]

pathologic classic hd and pathologic 2 are my favorite games of all time in both story and gameplay departments, no i am not joking, and i have an entire notebook dedicated to both where i took notes, drew little maps, wrote my thoughts on characters, and made wholeass diagrams for the crafting mechanisms in order to make it through the game. it's so cool now because i can go back and see the frenzy of my first runs and then see where i began to improve and try new things. patho is also basically like a book that hands you occasional extreme suffering and feelings of helplessness, so it's def a reading game lol i hope we get more games that have good old note taking and reading stuff

[@ianod]

Elden Ring is a great game for this, I've been doing an illustrated journal of my playthrough since it came out and maping out the dungeons and places is really fun.

[@simoncantwell9256]

Is there somewhere we can see these?

[@coriander55]

great video! i'm excited to try out the games you've highlighted. Side note, I deeply appreciate the descriptive subtitles: writing "plucking mysterious tune- synthy but old" rather than just "music."

[@laurafrakinroslin]

My gaming notebook is mostly command codes, loves/likes for dating games, and journaling bits about what i’ve been doing in my 10+ year old Minecraft world. I don’t often end up needing reference notes because I just play the same games for hundreds of hours each. This makes me want to create more reference pages though.😊

[@SarahGadd89]

Beautiful games manuals and third party guides are the reason I became a Technical Author. Loved this video!

[@pix23]

Cool that the Fez dev referenced Riven. Riven was the peak of my game note-taking experiences. These days I'm less likely to expect (or trust) that something that looks like a note-book-worthy puzzle is legitimately a puzzle. Even when I have the impulse to write something down, later the game will be like "oh, we'll just enter that code for you". Then I come to expect that assistance, but it takes something away. In much the same way a movie robs you of the joy of imagining a world by presenting it so vividly. Nice to hear about these games that are truly notebook-worthy.

[@mannagrynet]

I grew up playing games like Myst, and if I got stuck I would "cheat" by reading my dads notes. Fez looks really cool, I will have to check it out, and take some notes!

[@meganellis5479]

I loved the HerInteractive Nancy Drew games because I’d need several notepads of puzzle solutions and ciphers in order to solve the secret of shadow ranch or whatever.

[@marcush4741]

I miss this aspect of gaming. When I was little, my friends and I all got Dragon Warrior Monsters. We had gotten our fill of pokemon red/blue, and gold/silver hadn't come out yet. Breeding was SO complicated in DWM. We didn't have the internet, so we collectively took notes on which portals every monster came from, the library-archive notes on which breeding combos make which monsters, and everything we could possibly think of. We then compiled everybody's information into one breeding guide that we ended up passing out to anybody who wanted to play with us.

[@ZoeyChuu]

This is why teen me was so in love with the Professor Layton series. It encourages you to take notes, and while they did provide a tool to do so on the 3ds, I always preferred jotting them down on paper. Thank you for this awesome video essay :)

[@Mustang_Click]

Outer Wilds is genuinely the best game ever, I love how confusing everything one at first, and then how you began to understand everything once you discover how it all fits together. It really feels like you’re learning alongside your character.

[@energypulse9591]

One of my favorite topics to talk about. Note taking in video games. I love taking notes and this video just speaks to my heart.

[@leighkenneally7969]

i haven't even finished the video yet but i clicked right away because i have a little notebook on my desk for videogame notes and ppl think im crazy for this. this is the representation i need thank you

[@leighkenneally7969]

yknow whats funny is i actually have my notebook mostly for sandbox games so i can figure out how much of what resources i need for certain projects, or to plan base layouts and such which is not what the video is bout lmao. its fun seeing all the different reasons ppl take video game notes

[@XxSqueegiexX]

i love taking notes for games! i've got notepads for kingdom hearts, stardew valley, animal crossing new leaf, and certainly other games

[@shada0]

I find myself taking notes on a lot of older adventure games, & many indie games. Either with google doc or my smartphone. I've played a few metroidvanias where I have to take a screenshot of the map & draw over them in an art program just to keep track of key places & where I've searched. I was even printing out parts of the in game map & making my own map markers for a steam game called Kenshi

[@FlamingSwordOfDoom]

i also want to add to the physical vs digital experiences, i tend to do a mix! i usually have a notebook with drawings and scribbles, but i also keep folders with screenshots. especially for visual puzzles, a screenshot to match with written notes works well for me

[@1rainbowstrike426]

I miss when the DS (and DS family) had a note app on the menu that you could access just by pressing the home button. I remember scribbling down which routes had a certain Pokémon or places I needed to revisit when I had surf or cut… I really miss that

[@xXluluchanelXx]

I literally went out of my way to find a copy of the LOOM manual on eBay because it had that big of an impression on me as a kid T_T it's one of the best manuals of all time

[@feathero3]

I do miss getting a manual with my games. It was fun to read over for secrets or extra details and unique illustrations. I also love note taking for games, but have never written an entire journal or notebooks worth! That's impressive and honestly sounds fun!

[@mollymcintosh2090]

I LOVED this video. As an avid reader I’m always digging into games’ codexes and reading everything I pick up. I’ve played a bit of outer wilds and loved the notebook style quest/mystery organisation. Really keen to get into more note taking games, and very much intrigued by keepsake games! Gonna try the one mentioned next!

[@user-ut5nx6hm9d]

I'm fond of taking this kind of approach with my ttrpgs actually. Each player has a Diary or journal that belongs to their character, and they can do whatever they want with them so long as they stay in character when writing in them. One of my players made a full on spellbook with diagrams, and when they ran out of pages they started adding more.

[@mildlycornfield]

I would never have gotten through the Ace Attorney games without taking notes. I love mapping things out and figuring out clues as I play

[@vonhendrik]

The hand with many fingers is an awesome example of this. Plus it's a real world mystery you're unraveling.