4 ms·

As a game developer I’ve always been saddened by the ephemeral nature of games. It seems impossible to make a game that would last 20, 50, 100 years. Books, pai

As a game developer I’ve always been saddened by the ephemeral nature of games. It seems impossible to make a game that would last 20, 50, 100 years. Books, paintings, even movies have such an advantage

refactor_master 4y ago
That’s not strictly true. There are multiple examples of e.g. Sony and Nintendo re-re-re-releasing old games that are easily 20 years old. But the comparison isn’t entirely fair. If you were to compare a game to a concert or a festival, as an “ephemeral cultural performance by a large group of people” you could also argue that a festival lasts for a set number of days, until it’s gone, forever.
- ronsor 4y ago
  Arguably the best way to make a game that'll last "forever" is to target some old console that has plenty of emulators available. If you make a PS1 game in 2022, I guarantee there will still be an emulator that can run it 20 years from now.
hedora 4y ago
Almost all commercially released games that are over 20 years old run fine on current cell phones or one of these: https://retrododo.com/best-retro-handhelds/ https://retrododo.com/best-retro-handhelds/ Software archival is not that hard unless the ecosystem is specifically designed to prevent it.
rdsnsca 4y ago
Klondike has been running on Macs since 1984 and iOS since 2009 as iKlondike. Source: https://casteel.org/Pages/Narrative.html https://casteel.org/Pages/Narrative.html
randyrand 4y ago
you just gotta develop a game for a stable platform. N64, GC, Wii, NES, all of their games still run on modern hardware. Webapps will probably fair pretty well too. As does Win32, Wine, Proton. Your choice of stable platforms is actually pretty big in the game world! Pretty much every platform except native mobile!
fsflover 4y ago
It is possible. Just¹ make a free software game. The community will support it forever if there is any interest. ¹ I know, it may harm your profit, but...

refactor_master 4y ago

That’s not strictly true. There are multiple examples of e.g. Sony and Nintendo re-re-re-releasing old games that are easily 20 years old. But the comparison isn’t entirely fair. If you were to compare a game to a concert or a festival, as an “ephemeral cultural performance by a large group of people” you could also argue that a festival lasts for a set number of days, until it’s gone, forever.

ronsor 4y ago
Arguably the best way to make a game that'll last "forever" is to target some old console that has plenty of emulators available. If you make a PS1 game in 2022, I guarantee there will still be an emulator that can run it 20 years from now.

hedora 4y ago

Almost all commercially released games that are over 20 years old run fine on current cell phones or one of these: https://retrododo.com/best-retro-handhelds/ https://retrododo.com/best-retro-handhelds/ Software archival is not that hard unless the ecosystem is specifically designed to prevent it.

rdsnsca 4y ago

Klondike has been running on Macs since 1984 and iOS since 2009 as iKlondike. Source: https://casteel.org/Pages/Narrative.html https://casteel.org/Pages/Narrative.html

randyrand 4y ago

you just gotta develop a game for a stable platform. N64, GC, Wii, NES, all of their games still run on modern hardware. Webapps will probably fair pretty well too. As does Win32, Wine, Proton. Your choice of stable platforms is actually pretty big in the game world! Pretty much every platform except native mobile!

fsflover 4y ago

It is possible. Just¹ make a free software game. The community will support it forever if there is any interest. ¹ I know, it may harm your profit, but...