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Making video games with physical elements is about clever approximations and gimmicks to make things seem physical, rather than simulating the physics outright.
by uoaei 7y ago
Making video games with physical elements is about clever approximations and gimmicks to make things seem physical, rather than simulating the physics outright.
- thrower123 7y agoVideo games are basically all clever approximations and gimmicks. Once in a while, the realism wave sweeps through, and people start touting realiatic physics, or physically-based rendering, or advanced AI systems. But it's generally not all that fun, doesn't feel right, and doesn't give designers the knobs and levers they need to fine tune things and dial them in without chaotic effects.
- andrepd 7y agoExactly. It's a lesson that developers of Breath of the Wild taught us: physics don't have to be realistic, they have to be a believable approximation. Same idea really as in most platformer games: you don't want an accurate reproduction of a human jumper, you want a a believable approximation such that it is joyful to just jump around.
- uoaei 7y agoI was originally only thinking about realism and believability on a computational budget, but you're right, the aesthetic qualities of the physics in a video game can be the difference between fun and soul-crushing.
- hnick 7y agoEven ridiculously bad physics can be a goal in itself. Games like that are very much Twitch/YT bait these days.