roberto's Blog

Hmmm... interesting hypothesis. One of my inspirations for Skeleton was the CoCo game Phantom which used sound to generate fear.

 

However, I would argue that graphics and complexity must be compared with other games of the time. So the graphics and gameplay of Space Invaders would have to be compared with other games from 1977/1978.

 

Even indie games are fairly complex in graphics and gameplay. I've played World of Goo, and although I'd say it's a good game, I'm not sure it generates a significant emotional response (other than frustration when your tower buckles).

 

Also, when comparing indie games to AAA titles, you also have to consider cost & time investment. This is where a lot of the iPhone games excel - cheap & quick to play.

Hey Eric,

thanks for the comments.

 

"world of goo", like "crayon physics de luxe", indeed doesn't rely on a lot of different "emotions" but it does rely on a few relevant "basic instincts": the curiosity of exploring what to do in the environment by means of constructing new structures and the "collecting" instinct of taking all the goo balls by pushing them through the level exit. In this case, this was enough to make a compelling experience that has "glooed" many players to it.

 

Indie games can, of course, have complex graphics too but, in general, they tend to look good by artistic means (use of color, original style etc.) instead of technical means (like extensive complex shaders, textures and lots of polygons), this is the difference I wanted to point out.

 

cheers,

Roberto

Indie games can, of course, have complex graphics too but, in general, they tend to look good by artistic means (use of color, original style etc.) instead of technical means (like extensive complex shaders, textures and lots of polygons), this is the difference I wanted to point out.

True. An indie studio isn't going to be able to sink the man-hours into making photo-realistic full 3D environments with motion captured characters . . .