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[PeakPointMatrix]

Currently when smaller downloadable games aim for retro, they seem to usually gravitate towards 2D 8/16-bit style of visuals, and the below is what we get:

While these are great games certainly, they visually tend to start blending together to me after a while. I'm sure there is a cost-effectiveness to keeping a game limited to sprite work, but I imagine that aiming for a low-poly look is leaps and bounds easier and cheaper than it once was for obvious reasons.

It surprises me that there hasn't been a surge of games experimenting with this 3D retro style of visuals yet. When will we ever really see it take off? Is the "retro" market open to it? I know for me personally, there is a magic and charm to low poly visuals that I wish we could get back to some degree. I'd snap up a classic low poly 3D platformer instantly. Perhaps I'm not looking hard enough?

Anyway, soak in the simplicity and charm inherent in these low poly examples. Don't you wish there were more low-poly games out there?

(Shamelessly stolen from the low-poly art thread)

The few games in development I found in that thread utilizing this style:

(Sky Rouge)

(Drift Stage)

I want more!

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Hopefully never.

 

[Shaanyboi]

I hope that once more games try and emulate that style, they don't also adopt the shitty technical problems of those games too... minimally textured polygons is one thing, bad muddy textures is another.

 

[herod]

The generation best left forgotten. It would be like doing retro 2600 style graphics for 2D. Nobody wants that. Ever. Easily the worst console generation.

 

[Skilletor]

Hopefully never.

Exactly what I wanted to say.

 

[Disaster Nebraska]

The PS1/N64 era will likely get leapfrogged. No reason to emulate the horrible textures and buffering problems from that time period.

 

[Aeriscloud]

As much as I love the era, please no.

 

[Protagonist Jake]

Never because, unlike the 8 and 16 bit era pixel art, the N64/PS1 polygons have aged horribly.

 

[mrhej]

Hopefully never.

Yup that's it, let's move on.

 

[Iscariot]

I sort of hope never.

While I personally think something like a Tobal No. 1 with a metric fuckton of vertices and real time lighting could be a cool in between style, most of the ps1/N64 games didn't look that good to me then, and certainly don't now. It was more about the gameplay that 3d games opened up, rather than the aesthetic for me.

 

[Lijik]

As someone who loves this aesthetic, it will probably be a niche thing at best. Low poly games using the standard look anyone who makes stuff in Cinema4D uses will probably be more common:

 

[JB-the-Hunter]

I thought I was the only one that wanted to see this. Low poly has a certain charm to it.

 

[ThaneKrios]

I had enough PS1 when I was ten.

 

[BocoDragon]

Minecraft.

 

[MitchMan241]

Hopefully never.

.

 

[SolidSnakex]

I'd like to see it. I certainly prefer that look to NES visuals. Which at this point have been way overused.

 

[Zukuu]

Isn't minecraft like that?

 

[jstripes]

The PS1/N64 era will likely get leapfrogged. No reason to emulate the horrible textures and buffering problems from that time period.

Yup. You can go for a lo-fi polygon look without looking as horrid as that.

 

[baggagelizard]

They probably won't be a move, but a separate fork. I'm eagerly awaiting them. You can do so much with lower poly games on higher hardware. just think of a open world, n64-like game with near infinite draw distance..

 

[Jawmuncher]

It can work but has to be heavily stylized.
Would like the change to that style personally though.

 

[udivision]

No thanks...

 

[Lambtron]

Hopefully never.

Completely took the words out of my mouth.

 

[inner-G]

I'd much MUCH rather have good 2D than terribad 3D games.

 

[ThatManTy]

As someone who loves this aesthetic, it will probably be a niche thing at best. Low poly games using the standard look anyone who makes stuff in Cinema4D uses will probably be more common:

No Man's Sky Ps1

 

[Alfredo]

I personally would love to see N64-era graphics but at playable framerates.

I think low-poly stuff would make for some really cool visual design.

 

[Shaanyboi]

I feel like that look requires more artistic reinterpretation than 8/16 bit games needed.

 

[Zomba13]

No idea why some people are so down on the low poly look. You do know it doesn't have to be plagued by the same issues as the PS1 and N64 like frame rate and resolution? Just like 8 and 16 bit inspired games aren't beholden to the same restriction as those consoles.

You can have the look as shown in the OP without having the issues.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Low-poly can look great as seen in some examples on the OP but I sure hope they don't arbitrarily put textre limitations on themselves.

 

[chaosblade]

I think low poly art can be fine, but the games don't need to be "inspired" by the limitations of those consoles like some 2D retro style games are.

 

[samus4ever]

I hope never. It's like middle school. Why go back?

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

It is probably harder to make it look 5th gen and look good, than to go for something from the following gen, like Wind Waker.

 

[Oni Link 666]

Not retro enough yet. They were still making games with graphics like this on DS.

 

[Wasp]

I guess it would be hard for them to look low poly on purpose. Many games already have a low number of polygons but not as an art design choice.

For example Octodad is a PS4 game but everything is made of such few polygons, there's not a curved shape in the game, but I doubt that's an artistic choice.

 

[Shion]

Hopefully never.

.

 

[Perun]

That 2D 8/16-bit indie retro-style needs to go, though. It was a nostalgic fun to see this kind of games being made nowadays, but I'm seriously tired of it.

But low-poly PS1 graphics? Nah.

 

[Lijik]

Low-poly can look great as seen in some examples on the OP but I sure hope they don't arbitrarily put textre limitations on themselves.

Working in small texture sizes is kind of the key to getting the chunky pixel look that I feel like most people pursuing this style would want to emulate.

 

[Vilam]

Lots of lousy opinions in this thread. I love the low poly look and would welcome more of it - plenty of cool things the indie scene could do with it.

 

[duckroll]

I've actually thought about this myself many times and had various discussions with friends about it. The conclusion is usually that it's tricky because retro-ism isn't necessarily just about something old or nostalgic. It can be just about that, but those are usually the more superficial stuff which ape an old art style, often not very accurately, just to get retro cred. The games which really feel retro in the right way are games which are going after the soul of a bygone era, not just the aesthetics. It has to feel authentically part of that era in scope, design, visuals, and sound.

When we consider that, this creates a problem when we're looking at stuff PS1 onwards. The expansion into disc format and 3D was very much characterized by FMV, voices, and more elaborate and complex art assets. The games which largely defined that era were no longer made by 5-10 people, but rather teams of dozens or even a hundred. Furthermore the type of games made in this era are still very much made today, just in an even larger scale. They're not exactly lost from the commercial field like 2D platformers or top down shooters are. For these reasons, I think it would be very unlikely that we would really see smaller independent developers looking to make retro stuff to explore the PS1 era. It really never went away.

The N64 is a more interesting choice though. It's actually a very nice sort of in-between era where a lot of the type of games which defined the system would not be extremely difficult to make with a small team today, and there's definitely a distinctive feel (read: ugly!) for the 3D which is very different from what we've seen since. So I could actually see more people attempt that sort of thing.

 

[Muffdraul]

The PS1/N64 era is to 3D game design what Space War and Pong were to 2D game design. i.e. extremely primitive and virtually incapable of strong aesthetics. I don't think we'll see a big resurgence of PS1/N64 graphic stylings in the same way we never saw a big resurgence of Space War/Pong style graphics.

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

No idea why some people are so down on the low poly look. You do know it doesn't have to be plagued by the same issues as the PS1 and N64 like frame rate and resolution? Just like 8 and 16 bit inspired games aren't beholden to the same restriction as those consoles.

You can have the look as shown in the OP without having the issues.

Yeah, I'm honestly a little shocked by the volatile reaction, especially with the Drift Stage and Sky Rouge examples that look visually stunning to me, embedding great art direction that caters itself to a lower-poly look. Are people imagining these style of visuals automatically guarantee sub-20's fps, texture warping, and fog or something?

 

[ghibli99]

Yeah, unfortunately "retro polygon" usually equates with fugly beyond belief. Technology was a very limiting factor more so than the 8-bit/16-bit era was on 2D art. Then once you start refining it, you end up with PS2-like quality, which for the most part, still holds up reasonably well.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

Hopefully never.

Nailed it.

There's a lot of charm in spritework. I'm not interested in regressing back to the days of janky polygons, even if some of my favorite games of all time came from that gen.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to resume playing Legend of Dragoon on my Vita.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Pains me to see so many immediately write it off, low-poly definitely has a charm to it if the art can back it up. It doesn't need to be accompanied with the rendering flaws that hindered it on the 32-bit machines.

 

[jooey]

Never because, unlike the 8 and 16 bit era pixel art, the N64/PS1 polygons have aged horribly.

do you really think Shovel Knight looks exactly like an 8-bit game? no, they used things like actual artistry and modern technique to make it look good, not aged. just like -- gasp -- the low-poly examples in the OP!

 

[Meffer]

If the concept and art style intended fits for low-poly, then by all means go for it.
And I also mean touching up low-poly like what Shovel Knight did for 8-bit.

 

[Unicorn]

Sky Rogue and Drift are made by the same Dev.


I agree though, Love good low-poly stuff and the dev behind the two games mentioned have a knack for the right aesthetic.

 

[MrBadger]

I do think there is a charm to early, low-poly 3D games, but I also think they show their age a lot more than sprited games. All the key players in the 16-bit era still look damn good visually. Early 3D games that came after, not so much.

 

[Diablohead]

Once people has easy to use 3D game software I guess, sprites are a lot easier for the most part.

I just want to see higher poly art work, rather sick of 16 x 16 sprites, give me 128 x 128's

 

[cacildo]

I REALLY want this to happen

Not because im madly in love with N64/Ps1 era graphics...

(even if this is lovely)

... but because indie games NEED to grow from 2d plataformers.

I dont like 2d plataformers a whole lot. But the huge amount of 2d plataformers are almost making me HATE em.

And what about the ones indie plataformers made of shadows? Fuuuuck these are the worst!!! Somebody probably said "loook.... its made of shadows... so beautiful... so artistic.." and then bam, twelve indie 2d plataformers made of shadows

(probably not twelve)

Anyway, Shovel Knight was my last indie game until they start making some indie 3d (wiiu) games that arent The Letter

(im lying, ill buy Zacisa´s Last Stand because its on sale)

 

[Interficium]

The few games in development I found in that thread utilizing this style:

The same artist is behind both of these games, so it's hard to use these as an example that it's catching on.

plataformers

plataformers

plataformers

plataformers

plataformers

wat