toblix

2013

Recommended Posts

I'm still waiting for antichamber to come out. Everything I saw and heard about that game made me incredibly excited. Last I heard it was practically complete but I haven't seen anything about it for months now. I don't think it even appeared in that PC Gamer 2013 article.

Oh, and super time force.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thing I'm most interested in with 2013 is when I heard a bunch of interviews with people from Epic Games saying

"Yeah so Unreal 4's comin out, and budgets are gonna have to double, y'know, that's just the way it is. Team sizes are gonna get even bigger, we already know that."

and I've just been slow-motion freaking out about what impact that's gonna have on the whole damn calendar. More people going bankrupt? More small-scale games? More down-sizing and startups? WHO KNOWS!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thing I'm most interested in with 2013 is when I heard a bunch of interviews with people from Epic Games saying

"Yeah so Unreal 4's comin out, and budgets are gonna have to double, y'know, that's just the way it is. Team sizes are gonna get even bigger, we already know that."

and I've just been slow-motion freaking out about what impact that's gonna have on the whole damn calendar. More people going bankrupt? More small-scale games? More down-sizing and startups? WHO KNOWS!

UE4 makes everything so much more efficient that budgets can actually shrink a whole lot. Time savings alone - not having to re-run the editor to recompile code, not having to spend tens of hours rebuilding lighting on the regular because you get the same result in real time - can save a heckofalottamoney.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was more talking about how higher fidelity games in general need more people, more time and more money- but y'know what maybe you're still right anyway.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was more talking about how higher fidelity games in general need more people, more time and more money- but y'know what maybe you're still right anyway.

But arent alot of games already produced with higher fidelity currently, and downsized/accomodated for consoles. How many games this year came out with a day-one free "Higher Resolution Texture Pack" on the PC.

EDIT: Last year*

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Like, 3 games? Not a lot as far as I know. I'm not a game developer but I would be very surprised if it's common for artists to work at a higher fidelity than what consoles can handle on all the assets they currently make.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Like, 3 games? Not a lot as far as I know. I'm not a game developer but I would be very surprised if it's common for artists to work at a higher fidelity than what consoles can handle on all the assets they currently make.

I know nintendo did most first party titles with 720p in mind with their textures at least. you see those videos of Mario Galaxy running on a pc emulator in High Def and man do they look good. Still, i know thats not what you meant.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, I didn't know that about Nintendo, but then again 720p isn't exactly aiming for the skies if you know what I mean. And you know what I mean. Since you said you know what I mean.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

First UE4 game by Epic is not a game with high resolution timers or models. Also, the large number of UDK based games made by small teams shows that you don't need a large team to use the UnrealEngine.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you have to.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Obviously you never have to do anything with a massive amount of detail. It's not like people have forgotten how to make games the way they used to be made. Pixel art, even with 16 bit palettes and all that jazz, is still quite popular with indie developers, as is 3d art with a lower level of detail (witness Blendo Games or Minecraft or AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity) or just 2d art in general (Braid, World of Goo, Binding of Isaac, FTL, etc). The issue isn't an inability to do it, it's that consumers demand more. As consoles grow more capable and engines like UE4 become able to harness that power, if your game is uglier than your competitor's game, you'll lose sales. So everyone has to pour millions into art to make high resolution models so that they don't lose market share whenever IGN.com posts a "Game X vs Game Y" comparison picture where Game X is slightly blurrier and everyone in the comments section says "well I'd better buy Game Y then."

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I'm not talking about Unreal specifically, I mean that when they raise the bar in 2014 and what a $60 Video game looks like is The Last Of Us- are games like Syndicate and Asura's Wrath and Binary Domain gonna be worth funding if they can't make back that bigger cost?

Cos if it costs more time, people and money to stay competetive, then you could LOSE that much more if you make a game that less people are buying- and you COULD just say "Oh well they'll stay small", but what if the new bar for small gets higher?

So I'm interested to see if that's gonna have any effect on niche boxed retail games like Lollipop Chainsaw and Inversion (remember that one? no?)

Maybe it won't have any effect though, and games like Catherine and Vanquish can survive without having to step their game up at all- maybe they look good enough right now. Either way I'm interested to see what happens.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

When I entered this thread I could only think of The Cave and Double Fine Adventure, but every game people mention piques my interest..

As for fears, I could post the obligatory fear of Angry Birds taking over the world, but I am getting worried seeing each year companies I like disappear forever. I fear a big name company going down for good or at least relegated to a much MUCH lower status. THQ might not exist when 2013 ends, Capcom and Konami seems to losing their status faster than I'd like.

It's going to be a weird year, it seems some companies are waiting for the "next gen" to come before making their next "AAA" game, which would explain why most of the games people are waiting for are for PC.

I do expect a lot "HD remakes/remixes", mostly because they'll want to get all PS2/Xbox and PC games from that era ported to PS3 and 360 so they can start all over again by porting PS3 and 360 games for the "next gen" systems as trilogies/packs.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure we'll get a new Blackwell game this year, that has me excited!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

In Capcom's recent poll for "which HD Remix of a Capcom game would you most like to see?" I wrote "God Hand ReArmed".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i predict 2013 will be the year i'll do the least amount of gaming for these past 20 years, my gaming has taken a nose dive this years since moving out of my parents house. So i think the ratio of talking, thinking and reading about games compared to actually playing games will become even wider

Only two must play games come to mind when i look at the first half of next year: bioshock and last of us (and even those could get middling review scores which could easily turn me off)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Steambox will be like Windows 8 except it has Steam as storefront instead of Windows Store. Because you're basically going to boot Linux into Steam's bigscreen mode.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, Steam's Big Screen mode is as ugly as Windows 8.... I wonder if I can hold out until Windows 9 or until people come to their senses.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What's wrong with Big Screen mode? It feels more fluid than any console UI I have tested and doesn't look half bad.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now