The aesthetics of Timber Hearth and the Outer Wilds program

[Superabbit]

One of the things that enchants me about Outer Wilds is the cobbled-together look of their technology. They figured out life support and propulsion and sensors (which probably advanced quickly due to the results of their early discoveries), but their construction technology stayed pretty rustic. The ship makes it clear that they must have some metallurgy, yet it uses a lot of wood (their favorite resource, apparently).

Given the storyline, it makes sense that their technology would have evolved this way.

I've been trying to come up with a name for this kind of aesthetic. The town of Hunrath in Obduction has it as well. Primitive construction methods combined with greatly advanced technology. Wooden shacks and laser projectors.

I'm familiar with the most of the various "punk" aesthetic designations, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, etc. where there's an alternate timeline in which technology and aesthetics evolved in a different way, so I did some web researching, and there's nothing for "woodpunk" or "timberpunk" or "ruralpunk" or "backwoodpunk."

What would you call the aesthetic of Outer Wilds (and Hunrath)?

[Ishy]

There's "cattlepunk" which is sort of a wild west + steampunk, it might come close but I still wouldn't say that Hunrath or Outer Wilds necessarily belong to that genre. There might not be a good word for it yet, but "timberpunk" sounds really cool to my ears, so I'd probably call it that.

[Sonic Titan]

The game Timberborn (a beaver city builder with similar aesthetics) calls itself "lumberpunk", so that or timberpunk seem fitting - though googling "lumberpunk" didn't turn up much beyond stuff to do with Timberborn or axe-throwing ranges, so it's definitely something that could use more content. It's a cool theme!

[Superabbit]

"Timberpunk" and "lumberpunk" both share the "___erpunk" rhythm with "cyberpunk," so I like those.

Thinking about it, it goes back a ways. I vaguely recall that Andy Griffith starred in a TV show back in the late 70's called Salvage One where he played a guy who owned a salvage business and decided to build his own spaceship to fly into orbit to salvage satellites and leftover lunar landing equipment.

Going way further back, some of the early Mickey Mouse cartoons featured Mickey and his pals building and flying airplanes made out of barnyard materials. Mickey was a fan of Charles Lindbergh.

Later there's the Hackwrench family from Rescue Rangers and DuckTales.

I gotta say, for something that the Hatchling calls a "death trap" and looks like it was built by a moonshiner, those Outer Wilds ships can take a lot of punishment. I know this because of what I've put mine through. Aside from "landing" it in every possible orientation, I earned the "Pshooo" achievement pretty early on, and once sent off a Nomai shuttle, put Shipley into the cannon, then recalled the shuttle. This smashed the cannon into little pieces, but Shipley could still fly.