Adventure Gamers - Forums

nice! i’ll play the demo soon and post about it in the appropriate thread.

For the life of me I don’t understand the developer fixation with retro/pixelated graphics. If it’s a budget thing, it should be stated up front. If it’s an aesthetic thing, it should be stated up front. There are indie casual games that are somehow capable of delivering high-end graphics. No support from me here.

rtrooney - 25 April 2023 09:15 PM

For the life of me I don’t understand the developer fixation with retro/pixelated graphics. If it’s a budget thing, it should be stated up front. If it’s an aesthetic thing, it should be stated up front. There are indie casual games that are somehow capable of delivering high-end graphics. No support from me here.

Maybe it’s because I’m a developer myself but I can’t for the life of me understand the point of criticising a developer for choosing a specific artistic style. It could be for the reasons you mention, it could be something completely different, expecting an explanation for the chosen style shouldn’t be seen as necessary. My latest Captain Disaster game has a completely different style to the others, and believe me it’s not because I suddenly have access to a huge budget, it’s just because of who I’m working with on this game. If you like high-res and don’t like low-res then fine, I think this game has a really striking art style, mainly due to the colour palette used.  Personally I’m not a fan of the very low res blocky graphics style I see in some games, but that’s a choice the developer has made for whatever reason and I respect that. I think it’s great that there’s such a variety of styles in the indie adventure game scene, not every style will appeal to every person but isn’t that sort of the point? Remember when everyone was rushing to make 3D games because that was the new thing - I recall a lot of point and clickers not liking that and calling for a return to 2D around that time and for several years after. 2D, 3D, retro, hi-res, FMV, at the end of the day there’s room for all of them.

Anyway Owly all the best with your Kickstarter!

Owly - 25 April 2023 09:41 PM

rtrooney - 25 April 2023 09:15 PM

For the life of me I don’t understand the developer fixation with retro/pixelated graphics. If it’s a budget thing, it should be stated up front. If it’s an aesthetic thing, it should be stated up front. There are indie casual games that are somehow capable of delivering high-end graphics. No support from me here.

It’s not about a developer ‘fixation’ with retro graphics, it’s about intentionally creating an aesthetic that has a nostalgic appeal to some players. It’s a deliberate choice, not a budget constraint. As for your lack of support, while I respect your opinion, I have to disagree with your dismissive attitude.

CaptainD - 26 April 2023 03:13 PM

Maybe it’s because I’m a developer myself but I can’t for the life of me understand the point of criticising a developer for choosing a specific artistic style.

Let’s go for CD’s comment first. My dislike of retro graphics has been long standing. So you shouldn’t be surprised by my post. But your accusation of me criticizing the style is off base. I did not criticize the style in my original post. I said, which I think is my right, that I don’t care for the style and would not support a KS for a game that has a graphic style I don’t like. Do you have a problem with that?

To Owly - If you think that retro is catering to nostalgic thoughts of games of yesteryear, I think you are mistaken. My attitude is not dismissive. It’s simply a statement that I, among many gamers I correspond with, want to see game graphics that are at least as good as the worst casual game has to offer.

I like many styles, this style is one of them. Don’t think an artist needs to argue for the style that was used. I respect that rtrooney don’t like the style though.

Looks nice. Did you model the protagonist after Kyrandia’s Brandon? He sure looks and moves a lot like him (or maybe it’s just a common slacker’s thing).

@rtrooney - my reply was because I thought you were insinuating something about indie adventure game developers in general, and suggesting that anyone using a retro style should be required to offer an explanation. I merely offered a counterpoint, and I stand by the comments I made. However on reflection I feel I may have been over-defensive (perhaps because I have made low-res games myself including one I worked on with Owly) and misunderstood the intent of your words - if this is the case I apologise. To me it seems a likely that you see a new game announcement, think it might look interesting, and then find - yet again - that it’s using a graphic style that causes you to lose interest in the game. If that is your experience, I can certainly understand how frustrating that would be. I hope there are enough games coming out with higher res graphics to slake your thirst for new adventure games!

Back to the game itself, good to see that the Kickstarter is going well.

Not a problem.