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Honestly I think it's a shame when people are so picky about graphics. Some of the best games I've ever played were purely ASCII-based. I'm talking about vario

by fouc 7y ago

Honestly I think it's a shame when people are so picky about graphics. Some of the best games I've ever played were purely ASCII-based. I'm talking about various BBS games, or MUD-based games. There were also some really novel interfaces like like mTrek [0], and BattleTech 3030 MUX [1]. So much fun to play. [0] http://randsinrepose.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mtrek.png http://randsinrepose.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mtrek.pn... [1] http://bt-thud.sourceforge.net/thud/big/bigpicture.jpg http://bt-thud.sourceforge.net/thud/big/bigpicture.jpg

meheleventyone 7y ago
It's not so much being picky but that from a design perspective aesthetics should add to rather than detract from the experience. For a modern ASCII example take a look at Cogmind: https://i.imgur.com/lUpcTmF.gif https://i.imgur.com/lUpcTmF.gif From a commercial point of view the aesthetics are used by consumers as (perhaps unfairly) a judge of quality.
- anchpop 7y ago
  The aesthetics of that game make me want to go buy it right away just from that gif you linked, it just looks so interesting and unique! And I don't think it's unfair to use aesthetics as a judge of quality. First of all, as you mentioned, nice aesthetics do enhance the experience. And second of all, it's a way to signal strength - a team not capable of making a good game will often not be capable of making it look interesting either, especially for indie games. And it doesn't have to be that expensive either. There's a game I'm slightly affiliated with (but not in any monetary way) that has been made with a budget of $0 by volunteers (mostly highschoolers) and I think it looks good just because of the insane attention-to-detail and meticulousness of everyone involved. Here's [0] what it looks like for reference. [0]: https://youtu.be/Uryrdj-DUcA?t=4 https://youtu.be/Uryrdj-DUcA?t=4
  - meheleventyone 7y ago
    Yup, that looks lovely.

by fouc 7y ago

meheleventyone 7y ago

It's not so much being picky but that from a design perspective aesthetics should add to rather than detract from the experience. For a modern ASCII example take a look at Cogmind: https://i.imgur.com/lUpcTmF.gif https://i.imgur.com/lUpcTmF.gif From a commercial point of view the aesthetics are used by consumers as (perhaps unfairly) a judge of quality.

anchpop 7y ago
The aesthetics of that game make me want to go buy it right away just from that gif you linked, it just looks so interesting and unique! And I don't think it's unfair to use aesthetics as a judge of quality. First of all, as you mentioned, nice aesthetics do enhance the experience. And second of all, it's a way to signal strength - a team not capable of making a good game will often not be capable of making it look interesting either, especially for indie games. And it doesn't have to be that expensive either. There's a game I'm slightly affiliated with (but not in any monetary way) that has been made with a budget of $0 by volunteers (mostly highschoolers) and I think it looks good just because of the insane attention-to-detail and meticulousness of everyone involved. Here's [0] what it looks like for reference. [0]: https://youtu.be/Uryrdj-DUcA?t=4 https://youtu.be/Uryrdj-DUcA?t=4
- meheleventyone 7y ago
  Yup, that looks lovely.