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So retro graphic has been the buzz for some time now.

MaurgrimMaurgrim Member RarePosts: 1,324
edited November 2016 in General Gaming
I grew up with games in the 80s and 90s, I played the old ones, poor graphics, 2D you name it, I played a lot.

About 2 maby 3 years back on Steam I see a lot of games being made that has just that graphic that poor and linier gameplay, and they look exactly like the games I played back then yet they get awesome rating and I cant understand why.

I would NEVER ever go back to to that kind of gameplay, been there done that yet these games gets so much good ratings, why?

Why, yes you can say they are better than modern games, but thats just hipster talk, It's cool to play retro games right? be a gaming hipster is like playing retro no matter how they are they are still retro hence 100% cred.

These hipster gamers were prolly being in diapers when these kind of games were out or not even born.

Is there so much hate in the modern games that gamer hipsters are born?
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Comments

  • SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
    thank you.

    agreed.

    I dont know but I bet the only people who like those graphics are 1. those who were not even alive then 2. have nostalgia problems

    Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

    Please do not respond to me

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] CommonPosts: 0
    edited November 2016
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
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  • GaendricGaendric Member UncommonPosts: 624
    We have to differentiate between games that look retro because of an artistic vision (or being homages) and between ones that are essentially using "retro" to mask a lack of skill and/or effort. Usually the difference is quite obvious. 

    I agree the ratings are often weird, but then again, can't really argue taste. 
    Plus, basically everything posted on the internet includes some "street cred factor" and must be taken with a pinch of salt. This applies to ratings too. 


  • ArchlyteArchlyte Member RarePosts: 1,405
    Yeah as a child of the 80's this one mystified me. I figured maybe it was a way to push phone games as that industry kicked into high gear.

    MMORPG players are often like Hobbits: They don't like Adventures
  • GruugGruug Member RarePosts: 1,789
    Maurgrim said:
    I grew up with games in the 80s and 90s, I played the old ones, poor graphics, 2D you name it, I played a lot.

    About 2 maby 3 years back on Steam I see a lot of games being made that has just that graphic that poor and linier gameplay, and they look exactly like the games I played back then yet they get awesome rating and I cant understand why.

    I would NEVER ever go back to to that kind of gameplay, been there done that yet these games gets so much good ratings, why?

    Why, yes you can say they are better than modern games, but thats just hipster talk, It's cool to play retro games right? be a gaming hipster is like playing retro no matter how they are they are still retro hence 100% cred.

    These hipster gamers were prolly being in diapers when these kind of games were out or not even born.

    Is there so much hate in the modern games that gamer hipsters are born?
    Been thinking this same thing for a while now. I started "gaming" back in 1972. Yes, 1972...there was an early version of an asteroid like game on the University of Illinois research mainframe viewed on a very early model CRT. Impressed me then and was VERY retro. If I saw it today, I would be much less impressed. Give me the new stuff any day.

    Let's party like it is 1863!

  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    The only game that I can even go near anymore from a long time ago is Baldur's Gate.  I even played it a little at work today since everyone took off early for the holidays.

    However, the thing that got me into video games were the graphics, and as they get better, it's really hard for me to look back.  This retro resurgence is just laziness in my opinion.  It's much easier to make a game with 20+ year old technology than it is to make the same game, but make it look good.
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  • SavageHorizonSavageHorizon Member EpicPosts: 3,466
    Maurgrim said:
    I grew up with games in the 80s and 90s, I played the old ones, poor graphics, 2D you name it, I played a lot.

    About 2 maby 3 years back on Steam I see a lot of games being made that has just that graphic that poor and linier gameplay, and they look exactly like the games I played back then yet they get awesome rating and I cant understand why.

    I would NEVER ever go back to to that kind of gameplay, been there done that yet these games gets so much good ratings, why?

    Why, yes you can say they are better than modern games, but thats just hipster talk, It's cool to play retro games right? be a gaming hipster is like playing retro no matter how they are they are still retro hence 100% cred.

    These hipster gamers were prolly being in diapers when these kind of games were out or not even born.

    Is there so much hate in the modern games that gamer hipsters are born?

    We love whatever game Maurgrim loves, you are king. 

    Can I join your club? 




  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited November 2016
    It is just an art/graphics style, like 3d has a varied amount of artstyles.

    Plus, I think 2d games are vastly better to look at than terrible horrible 3d games (like wurm online looks ugly as hell). Even Ultima Online, decades later still looks nice to look at than even somewhat newer MMOs like EQ2.

    EQ2 looks ugly as hell as well and came out really close to WoW's release, which WoW due to its artstyle choice looks way better than EQ2 does. Granted it has had upgrades. But even looking at vanilla WoW screenshots is better than looking at EQ2. On the other hand, like I said, many 2d games are still nice to look at years later. Heck even the old 2d runescape looks vastly better than the newest runescape version they put out

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  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713
    edited November 2016
    I, and a lot of people, appreciate both modern and retro game styles. There's a certain style and magic to retro pixel games. Some of us never stopped loving those games, and no I wasn't in diapers. 

    Why is every gamer's go to insult to call anyone they disagree with a child? Being old just gives you superior taste in video games? 

    Like whatever style of game you like. I don't understand why this even bothers you? Unless you feel you are somehow being forced or overly subjected to these games you don't like? 

    image
  • wandericawanderica Member UncommonPosts: 370
    I thought I was the only one that felt this way.  I blame Steam for a lot of it.  It seems they'll let anyone with a programming certificate put a game up for sale.  I have slowly been using GOG more and more, and don't see as many of these 2D "retro" graphic games on the front page. 

    Don't misunderstand me here.  I don't mind art.  Adventure games are a great example.  There's a certain timelessness and artistic value that is given to hand painted backgrounds.  My point is there are ways of styling a game retro without going full of SNES era graphics.  Just look at the 2015 release of King's Quest.  Hand painted textures using Unreal 4.  It feels and looks like the old King's Quest games, but looks absolutely stunning.


  • Dagon13Dagon13 Member UncommonPosts: 566
    I'm kind of over the retro look but I also think it's silly to shun the games because of this.  I've spent a lot of time playing these retro style games lately and the graphics have nothing to do with why I'm doing it.

    There's also a huge difference between a retro style and actual 8-bit graphics.
  • SomethingUnusualSomethingUnusual Member UncommonPosts: 546
    I hate hipsters just as much as the next person. Are these games actually good games? Or just bad games with 8/16 bit graphics?

    I'd understand if they were fun (hell I crank up my emulators and old consoles just as often.). I'm not understanding this discussion. Generally I'd have to say if a game was good, who gives a damn about graphics. Low bit graphics for the sake of low bit graphics because they're "cool." That's just dumb. 

    Want to know how to kill a hipster? Drown them in the mainstream. 
  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    edited November 2016
    Anyone who likes that shit never had an AtarI, odyssey, i television...
    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • RamajamaRamajama Member UncommonPosts: 271
    Folks that hate retro games are the ones that had bad childhood experience and subconsciously it bothers them to go back in time in any way. 

    I am 80 years old so I know what Im talking about.

    These goddammit woodstock hipsters are all weird and all. 
  • someforumguysomeforumguy Member RarePosts: 4,088
    edited November 2016
    I see two type of games with the 2D retro (bitmap sprites, vector sprites) look.

    1. There are the games from indie studios that use this graphics style because it is cheaper and for the genre it is not really a problem. Like sandbox or tycoon games a la Rimworld, Prison Architect etc.
    This I don't mind, because some of these games are really good and are a lot more advanced in features then what was available in the 80s and 90s.

    2. Platformers, arcade shooters and other crap like that. I really hate pixel graphics for this genre. Apart from a few exceptions which show a great looking style, most of them are just plain ugly and have crappy animations. I normally ignore this kind of game, because I've played this type to death already on emulators of classic consoles and Amiga and ZX Spectrum etc. There is so much crap being released in this group that doesn't come close to classics.







  • MaurgrimMaurgrim Member RarePosts: 1,324
    Ramajama said:
    Folks that hate retro games are the ones that had bad childhood experience and subconsciously it bothers them to go back in time in any way. 

    I had a great childhood, played a lot of games back then and had fun with those game it dosent mean I want to play that crap now in 2016.

    As another poster sead, these retro games are just lazy programmers I'm convinced about it, and these retro hipster gamers are falling for it.
  • SomethingUnusualSomethingUnusual Member UncommonPosts: 546
    I really hate the term 'lazy programmer' here that's being tossed about... This leads me to believe that some don't understand what and how much is entailed in even making the simplest of software. Or at least the scope of whats involved. Everyone has to start somewhere, even programmers. Can't just take one or two people and expect them to release the prettiest most complex game.

    It can really be a daunting task. It took me weeks to make my first pong game. I could only imagine how much time would be involved in scratch making a platformer in say purely GL primitives. 

    Accomplishments are accomplishments. Show some gratitude and pride. Or put your money where your mouth is and prove you can make a better game. Take that challenge and I'll even promote it for you. 
  • rodingorodingo Member RarePosts: 2,870
    edited November 2016
    Maurgrim said:
    Ramajama said:
    Folks that hate retro games are the ones that had bad childhood experience and subconsciously it bothers them to go back in time in any way. 

    I had a great childhood, played a lot of games back then and had fun with those game it dosent mean I want to play that crap now in 2016.

    As another poster sead, these retro games are just lazy programmers I'm convinced about it, and these retro hipster gamers are falling for it.
    Whether or not you hate the art style or gameplay of those indie games ( I can't stand platformers myself ), those guys are far from lazy programmers.  In fact those guys probably work way harder than someone who is a member of a big team of programmers in a decent sized studio.  Those indie studios are usually a designer/ coder with possibly another coder and maybe a hired gun to do the soundtrack and/or sound effects.  Not only is it one or two guys who design the game, but they are also the ones writing the code, testing it, and debugging it, as well as creating the art assets.  Bigger studios will break those tasks down to teams of people.  

    Not to mention a two or three man indie studio will only have the fraction of a budget that a larger studio will have so access to expensive game engines is probably non-existent.  A lot of those guys are using something along the lines of Flash Pro, Flash Builder or C++ and writing their own engines, or using Unity. The Flash Pro and Flash Builder  are relatively cheap and FlashDevelop is actually free due to it being open source and are great for 2D animation.  Unity is great for 3D but then they will need a modeler who can also hopefully rig, an animator who can rig if the modeler can't, an environment artist if the modeler can't create environments also, so forth and so on...

    TLDR: No those guys are not lazy.  They are doing the best they can with what they have or can afford and lucky for them there is an audience who will buy their games

    If you havn't seen this movie yet, then I recommend seeing Indie Game: The Movie:
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  • MaurgrimMaurgrim Member RarePosts: 1,324
    edited November 2016
    I really hate the term 'lazy programmer' here that's being tossed about... This leads me to believe that some don't understand what and how much is entailed in even making the simplest of software. Or at least the scope of whats involved. Everyone has to start somewhere, even programmers. Can't just take one or two people and expect them to release the prettiest most complex game.

    It can really be a daunting task. It took me weeks to make my first pong game. I could only imagine how much time would be involved in scratch making a platformer in say purely GL primitives. 

    Accomplishments are accomplishments. Show some gratitude and pride. Or put your money where your mouth is and prove you can make a better game. Take that challenge and I'll even promote it for you. 

    Can you explain why all of the sudden crapload of 2d, retro, pixles games coming out almost every day for the last couple of years?

    It wasent like this 3-4 years ago, It's a trend now very much like hipsters, they ARE easy to make compare to what indie game developers worked with 5 years ago.
    These games are popping up left and right, does this mean all of the sudden thousands of new degrees in gaming software development  graduated 2 year ago and starting producing theirs first projects?

    They are fast food games made for retro hipsters, simple as that.
    Post edited by Maurgrim on
  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    I can appreciate the amount of work etc. that goes into creating these retro games, and some of them do appear to be fairly popular, while at the same time realising that i will likely never play a one of them, in much the same way that i will likely never play a game made using rpgmaker, i think you have to really be into those kinds of games, i enjoyed them when they were 'current' but, that was so long ago now and the genre has evolved into what it is today, i like modern games, a lot, retro games are to me no more than a passing curiosity that, while i can appreciate them aesthetically, i have no particular wish to re-enact that particular part of gaming history. :o
  • SomethingUnusualSomethingUnusual Member UncommonPosts: 546
    Maurgrim said:
    I really hate the term 'lazy programmer' here that's being tossed about... This leads me to believe that some don't understand what and how much is entailed in even making the simplest of software. Or at least the scope of whats involved. Everyone has to start somewhere, even programmers. Can't just take one or two people and expect them to release the prettiest most complex game.

    It can really be a daunting task. It took me weeks to make my first pong game. I could only imagine how much time would be involved in scratch making a platformer in say purely GL primitives. 

    Accomplishments are accomplishments. Show some gratitude and pride. Or put your money where your mouth is and prove you can make a better game. Take that challenge and I'll even promote it for you. 

    Can you explain why all of the sudden crapload of 2d, retro, pixles games coming out almost every day for the last couple of years?

    It wasent like this 3-4 years ago, It's a trend now very much like hipsters, they ARE easy to make compare to what indie game developers worked with 5 years ago.
    These games are popping up left and right, does this mean all of the sudden thousands of new degrees in gaming software development  graduated 2 year ago and starting producing theirs first projects?

    They are fast food games made for retro hipsters, simple as that.
    Variety for the sake of variety and making a game and publishing it for the sake of making a game and publishing it. 

    Tossing the hipster bashing aside -- I'll join you in that, just not here, I've already done it myself in this very forum.

    It's not a sudden crap-load. There have been thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of independently published 2d games using these "retro" graphics every year for the last three decades. (What the hell does that even mean? Graphics are graphics, it's like calling a photograph on film 'retro', why bother? Merely another medium that accomplishes the same thing.) Unfortunately, it just happens to be something for lack of better terms trendy. This I believe is more to do with the popularity of the internet now bringing them into light. See chart for example: http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm 15% more of the world using the internet than in 2013 -- that's a huge number. 

    Simply put, 2D graphic games are nothing new in interests in development, just a growing popularity over all. Can't pin that on one demographic of sub-culture. Would be just as silly as saying a music genre is 'dead.' and piss off just as many people in saying so -- of the many possible reactions from any person. 
  • mastermind335mastermind335 Member UncommonPosts: 15
    It is the buzz for us 80's and 90's but if you ask the children they think it literally sucks :D
  • MaurgrimMaurgrim Member RarePosts: 1,324
    Yes I understand that there are few who are actual from that generation who still love that kind of games, It's the same with the old school modding scene if you know what I'm talking about, they are few but dedicated.
    The majority are the "IN" crowd who thinks these games a cool its the new cool thing to play pretty much like Pokemon go, hence why I wrote hipster. 


  • SEANMCADSEANMCAD Member EpicPosts: 16,775
    Maurgrim said:
    I really hate the term 'lazy programmer' here that's being tossed about... This leads me to believe that some don't understand what and how much is entailed in even making the simplest of software. Or at least the scope of whats involved. Everyone has to start somewhere, even programmers. Can't just take one or two people and expect them to release the prettiest most complex game.

    It can really be a daunting task. It took me weeks to make my first pong game. I could only imagine how much time would be involved in scratch making a platformer in say purely GL primitives. 

    Accomplishments are accomplishments. Show some gratitude and pride. Or put your money where your mouth is and prove you can make a better game. Take that challenge and I'll even promote it for you. 

    Can you explain why all of the sudden crapload of 2d, retro, pixles games coming out almost every day for the last couple of years?

    It wasent like this 3-4 years ago, It's a trend now very much like hipsters, they ARE easy to make compare to what indie game developers worked with 5 years ago.
    These games are popping up left and right, does this mean all of the sudden thousands of new degrees in gaming software development  graduated 2 year ago and starting producing theirs first projects?

    They are fast food games made for retro hipsters, simple as that.
    there is something that gamers have been saying for decades now that large companies have been ignoring and now that its easier to become an indie the evidence of that voice is being seen.

    That game play is more important than graphics. HOWEVER....that doesnt mean graphics are not important at all. But the 8bit graphics with high end play is just like an extreeme counter balance to try to get things back to center. Its not conscious but I think that is why

    Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.

    Please do not respond to me

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