Comments on: Brains vs graphics

By: Blog de Miguel Herrero » Blog Archive » Waaghman Mini-party (2): Los juegos

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:03:27 +0000

[...] Los grÃ¡ficos son pasables, pero los conejos son graciosÃsimos (como siempre) y al rato ya ni te fijas en los grÃ¡ficos. Trae bastantes minijuegos, aunque en un par de dÃas los desbloqueamos todos, asÃ que no creo que [...]

By: SteveStreeting.com » Adventures in PS2land

SteveStreeting.com » Adventures in PS2land — Sat, 19 May 2007 17:00:02 +0000

[...] So, I’ve been a PS2 owner for all of ten days or so, and what have I learned so far. Well, firstly it doesn’t look anywhere near as hideous on my widescreen TV as I expected. Even with no progressive scan it’s actually quite tolerable and I can’t say I’ve noticed particularly that I’m playing almost seven year old tech. That’s a good start; I expected to be wincing for at least a little while before the pattern recognition kicked in. [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 23:13:58 +0000

I think I just found an absolute winner in the gameplay/graphics ratio. Has anyone heard about Dwarf Fortress?
It’s an RPG/economy game, in which dwarves have decided to dig a fortress into the moutain, and you have to make everything to make them survive against the winter, hunger, savage beasts.. It’s a bit like Dungeon Keeper, but much more advanced in terms of realism.
I just discovered about it, at first I thought it was a joke, graphics don’t exist (pure ASCII) and it’s very hard to get into the game. But after a few hours, you just don’t see these terrible graphics, you just enjoy the game, and you tend to believe that the ‘c’ you can see are actually cats, the ‘d’ are dogs, ‘~’ are rivers, etc…
I wonder if all its possibilities would have been possible to create with 3D content, just because there would have been too much content to create, at least for a small studio..

By: Josh Cryer

Josh Cryer — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:00:07 +0000

@Steve, this sort of thing is precisely why I do not intend to work on heavy graphics for the eventual game I hope to bring to fruition (it’s a dream still of course). I love the cel-shaded look, and you can achieve a lot with it, I think. Your post is very insightful as to how the brain works, though, and I agree with it 100%. I just finished completing (playing) a game called Freedom Fighters, which is in and of itself a very pretty game (even for coming out in 2003; soft shadows, many point lights, bump mapping, tons of enemies, and still plays well on my laptop). There’s just a lot of “asthetic” stuff which serves no purpose. You can find yourself walking around in any of these super realistic games, looking at stuff up close for all of five minutes, and then you simply don’t care as it has no purpose in the game. A desk full of pens and paper and such looks nice, but goes ignored as you fly through a shooter with the only thing on your mind being a mix of offense and defense.

It’s something we should all think about as amateur and pro developers.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:04:54 +0000

Indeed My post was firmly from a developers real-world perspective – I realise consumers just want it all, which is fine, but we know that in the real world choices have to be made. I happen to think that the balance of those choices have been going the wrong way in increasing numbers in recent years which is why I think there’s a crisis of non-visual creativity (and why I cling on to as much creativity as I can get). Opinion, not fact

Consumers might not care if a few indies go to the wall, but it’s just not healthy for the industry to be in a state where only multi-million dollar budgets will do, any more than it would be good if low-budget movies weren’t possible. IMO consumers will eventually suffer even if they’re not yet noticing much yet.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:45:03 +0000

> This post was all about my (and many others) perception of the relative importance of visuals given a typical game playing experience, but that doesnâ€™t mean everyoneâ€™s is the same.

Yes, and a good topic it is, but what I find often interesting about this topic, when I see it brought, is the lack of perspective form the consumers side. I just thought throwing my consumer 2 cents in would be useful. You be the judge.

Just to reiterate, as a consumer. I don’t expect all games to do all things at the highest level, including graphics and if I was forced to choose great graphics or great gameplay, I would certainly choose gameplay. However, what my consumer heart really wants, is to see a somewhat steady stream of games that can deliver both. Yes, demanding I am, but I suppose that’s to be expected.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:38:48 +0000

Woops, correction: “Iâ€™m naive enough…” should have read “Iâ€™m not naive enough…”

Although, for those reading, you may think that’s debatable.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:35:44 +0000

Speak of trade-offs all you like, I am simply speaking as a consumer with varied tastes. I never said games have to vear off in only one high-budget direction. I’m simply saying I want to get a full range of experiences when I play games – and that includes games that can deliver on all fronts. Those will be unique gaming experiences I will treasure. I’m naive enough to think that all games have to be at that level, but at the same time, I want to see the do-it-all games created as well, I want to see the envelope pushed. I find it exciting, and as a consumer, I have no need to apologize to indies who feel squeezed out. Hey, I’ll play the indie games too, because I like variety. Bottom line is I like games for many different reasons, I just happen to be most stimulated by those games than can raise the bar on all fronts. But hey, I suppose that’s just me.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:25:08 +0000

Fair enough – you’re more of a tourist than I then

As I said – prioritisation is an absolute must when it comes down to real projects. You can’t avoid that – you can ignore it as a consumer, sure (which I think is the perspective you’re coming from), because you don’t have to deliver – just tell the developer you want the best looking and best playing game ever made and you want it yesterday, that’s pretty normal I think When you’re the team actually up against a deadline and dwindling budget, keeping a clear set of priorities and keeping perspective is paramount so you know what gets cut first. And something *will* have to get cut, so you can’t say everything is equally important all the time, you’ll be deadlocked Thinking in detail about the real relative importance of different elements is really important, as hard as it might be. This post was all about my (and many others) perception of the relative importance of visuals given a typical game playing experience, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s is the same.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 16:01:21 +0000

Believe it or not, I absolutely did go back to re-experience Far-Cry for several reasons including the graphics. For instance I went back and purposely took different routes to see different areas of the jungle, swam out to small islands to get different views of the horizon. I was hoping sharks would get me, but alas there were none. Downloaded a mod that added them, which was rather fun. I used the binoculars over and over looking around, taking it in. I found it stimulating. I really enjoyed the paradise environment, it was unlike anything I’d seen before at that time. Yes, I also replayed to re-experience the AI as well and go through the game on the hardest level. A fun challenge. I also went into the SandBox editor and played with the maps. That was fun too.
Steve, I guess I simply don’t prioritize as disticntly as you do. I think, although it’s easy to shove games into genres and say many of them are alike, I find that there are intriguing nuances amongst them all. Some show their strengths with graphics or soundtrack, sound effects, AI , puzzles, story and every once in a while you get a gem that does a bunch of them really well – GOW for instance.
So, although, it may be conveniant to create a priority list of whats most important in games, it really comes down to the eyes, ears and minds of the beholder.