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Is the new Retro look here to stay?

Total Posts: 187

Joined 2005-01-25

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Adventure - 12 June 2012 03:20 PM
After a brisk nap - 12 June 2012 02:51 AM
Adventure - 11 June 2012 08:28 PM

Also, don’t go thinking the 320x240 retro style is anything but a style decision for nostalgic value. ... The only reason is budget: nobody can afford making a new engine so they use the few adventure engines out there that have severe limitations because they’re open source works.

We just covered this! No, it’s not because of the engine(s). AGS, Wintermute, Visionaire, SLUDGE; they all support (fairly) high-resolution games.

Yes, you are just repeating what I said with regards to higher resolution. .. Also, you are ignoring the fact that 1024x728 isnt by any means a modern resolution - it’s a 4:3 aspect ratio that’s not only not widescreen but also legacy from the 90s. AGS and Visionnaire don’t offer widescreen as default resolutions.

Aspect ratio is a totally separate issue from resolution. Lack of engine support for widescreen may explain why developers make 4:3 titles, but it does not in any way restrict them to making low-resolution games. I should also point out that close to 40% of people are still using monitors with an aspect ratio close to 4:3 (based on W3C figures), so either choice is going to be a compromise for a significant part of the audience.

Like I said before, 1024x768 is not a terribly high monitor resolution by modern standards, but it’s plenty for a high-res 2D game. To take some examples from this site’s recent PC games list, A New Beginning, Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle and J.U.L.I.A. are all 1024x768 games according to MobyGames.

     

Total Posts: 76

Joined 2008-01-31

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If developer doesn’t have enough money to create good looking modern graphics and animations, then it is better to use pixelated retro look, because it “hides” the low budget. Low-budget HD graphics are the worst choice. I don’t mind those retro graphics, but I definitely prefer good looking modern graphics.

     

Total Posts: 187

Joined 2005-01-25

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JuntMonkey - 11 June 2012 06:30 PM

The thing that bothers me is that there are people in this thread who still have the “2D is better than 3D for adventure games and 3D doesn’t look as good” mentality. I can understand, to an extent, having that attitude in 1999. But in 2012? Jesus Christ, have you ever looked at modern 3D games? The graphics quality of Heavy Rain (or any number of other titles) could easily support an old-school slow-paced adventure game where detail is important. Immersion is one of the most important things an adventure game needs to accomplish, and you’re clueless if you think that 3D can’t achieve (or exceed) that as much as a 2D game can.

I like Quantic Dream’s games a lot, and their mocap technology can certainly add to both the gameplay and the presentation side. But looking at the videos for Beyond: Two Souls, I’d argue that the character models are still down in the uncanny valley (with the zombies from Polar Express); aesthetically, I don’t think it’s as pleasing within its graphical style as many 2D titles are within theirs, whether low-res or high-res.

That’s not to say that 3D adventure games can’t look good. I like the comic-book look of The Walking Dead, for example. Just that superior technology is much less important than superior artistry, and that so far there are (IMO) many more examples of adventure games that fail to come up with an appealing 3D style than there are of ones that succeed.

     
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Total Posts: 70

Joined 2004-02-18

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JuntMonkey - 11 June 2012 06:30 PM

The thing that bothers me is that there are people in this thread who still have the “2D is better than 3D for adventure games and 3D doesn’t look as good” mentality. I can understand, to an extent, having that attitude in 1999. But in 2012? Jesus Christ, have you ever looked at modern 3D games? The graphics quality of Heavy Rain (or any number of other titles) could easily support an old-school slow-paced adventure game where detail is important.

Well, Heavy Rain is a first party console game made with a huge team, using expensive motion capture (heck, Quantic Dream has _their own_ motion capture lab, which is uncommon even for AAA devs), with an enormous budget compared to what most adventure game developers have to make do with.

So yeah, if you have that kind of budget then by all means, 3D is the way to go. But the games mostly discussed in this thread are made by tiny indie teams, and if they’re going to make something that looks good, they need to take a very different approach.

As we see from this thread, not everyone likes the retro style, but it’s not like it’s the only art style that people have different opinions about. Personally I love it, and I think Resonance and most of the Blackwell games are great looking games. They’re clearly made by people who _know_ how to make low-res games look good.

And besides, it’s not something I tend to give a lot of thought either, because what happens when I play these games is that I get really caught up in the story. I’ll finish with a quick quote from Rock Paper Shotgun about Resonance, which I think is pretty appropriate:

You know what – I went into this thinking, “Yeah, but I’m pretty much done with this whole retro pixel AGS adventure thing. Sure, it’s a useful took for making amateur classic-style point n clickers, but when they’re released commercially is there really a reason to stick to graphics from 1993? Ten minutes into the game I’ve forgotten all that meaningless grumbling, and instead I’m just enjoying myself. That’s a pretty good thing.

     

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