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[Fuz]

Hopefully never.

First post nails it.

 

[petran79]

no need to. Take any 3d game, set resolution at 640x480 and disable all filters

 

[Jobbs]

Yup, one person with an Indiegogo budget of $50k and the interest of Microsoft.

He's doing the art and programming himself, just like your 4 guys in the garage would be. the fact that he raised money so he could work on it full time doesn't discount my point, that really almost anything is possible with today's tools if you have the talent and motivation.

 

[Noisepurge]

First post nails it.

indeed, lowpoly 3D is just weak technical limitation. Sure you can do cool art but unless that's your absolute vision, no one wants to go back to ugly warping texture maps and games looking like this:

even though we do want a new Syphon Filter!

 

[ramparter]

indeed, lowpoly 3D is just weak technical limitation. Sure you can do cool art but unless that's your absolute vision, no one wants to go back to ugly warping texture maps and games looking like this:

even though we do want a new Syphon Filter!

This is also low res.

Have you seen low poly games running on emulators? Unless they are buggy or glitchy they usual sem pretty nice.

Also look at Banjo Kazooie xbla. Low poly game on high definition, sure they upped some textures but game looks mostly the same and it's really nice.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Some of this looks pretty cool, but early 3D games didn't actually look like this

And NES games didn't actually look like Shovel Knight, not even close even. Your point being?

despite a couple of good games, it was a *TERRIBLE* era in gaming. best forgotten.

......................................... What

I think in all the time I spent here I never disagreed more with a post. Basically all we get since the PS1/N64 days are just graphical updates (despite GTA).

Couple of good games?

Wow, just....wow.

I can't even tell if you guys are serious or too young to know what you missed.

Agreed. It's baffling, to be honest. The 32-bit era is one of my favourites. I actually prefer it to the generation after that.

 

[boatie]

I would love for there to be more indie games with low polygon art style. Just as there have been amazing things done with faux-16 bit graphics I bet the possibilities would be great and hard to guess from my perspective.

Man, now I'm drooling just thinking of what could come out.

 

[Jobbs]

And NES games didn't actually look like Shovel Knight, not even close even. Your point being?

I never made that claim. My point is that PSX/N64 era graphics are shit and not worthy to be emulated. Feel free to disagree, but I'd rather drop that low poly, janky, CD jewel case sized bad memory into the ground and bury it.

 

[Kresnik258]

You know, it's weird the nostalgia I feel for that era of graphics (and controls). I was having a discussion with a friend who was saying that games from that era (Syphon Filter was the example used) are basically unplayable these days. I went back to play Syphon Filter and had a blast with it.

I do hope games as a whole have the option to return to low-poly stuff in the future. Doesn't need to be the norm like 2D retro platformers are now, but just a choice that some games make.

 

[BrokenIcarus]

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:

This looks so good, Devs should definitely go for this look.

 

[Canis lupus]

I'm tired of the 8/16 bit fetish of the majority of indies, the sooner they move on to the 3D era the better. With that I don't mean low poly graphics from PS1/N64 era, but the type of 3D games that were made during that era with better graphics. A lot of games had art styles with vivid colors back then, making games was cheaper, devs could take more risks, something you don't see much anymore because of the vanishing mid tier games and the AAA becoming more expensive.

Hopefully devs start getting inspired by these games:

Rival Schools

Banjo

Crash

Parappa

FF9

 

[Log4Girlz]

God how I daydream about an expansive space opera with simple, clean, well designed low poly art. Imagine polygon complexities somewhere slightly north of Model 2 though with much larger numbers of actual models.

 

[sublimit]

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.

Tomb Raider (1996) was made by less than 10 people.

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.

I disagree about that. You are talking about games which are "going after the soul of a bygone era" and in that context the gameplay from many classic PS1 games simply doesn't exist anymore.For example the gameplay of games such as the classic Tomb Raider,Resident Evil or Spyro has been completely extinct in today's AAA market and i think many people would have loved to see a return to that kind of gameplay from indie developers.

 

[kabel]

I would like to see more low-poly games with beautiful textures. I think this will be the next step for indies.

here is more:http://www.pinterest.com/emmasmith92/low-poly-and-handpainted/

 

[SonyToo!™]

Futuristic Racers

Rail Shooters

Arcade Racers

Mech Games or 1Vs1

3D Platformers (not this parkour crap we have atm)

JRPG's / SRPGs

I love the low poly look when it's not muddy / oddly shaped. However the main thing I love it that it's a style that does justice to all those PS1 era sub genres that have for the most part fallen out of favour.

Even if I hated the look it would be a small price to pay for more of these type of games to get made and become successful, Or in JRPG;s case continue to get made as more of the Japanese market moves to mobile.

 

[Valkyria]

I'm tired of the 8/16 bit fetish of the majority of indies, the sooner they move on to the 3D era the better. With that I don't mean low poly graphics from PS1/N64 era, but the type of 3D games that were made during that era with better graphics. A lot of games had art styles with vivid colors back then, making games was cheaper, devs could take more risks, something you don't see much anymore because of the vanishing mid tier games and the AAA becoming more expensive.

Hopefully devs start getting inspired by these games:

Rival Schools

Banjo

Crash

Parappa

FF9

I have bad news for you, apparently all those are terrible games and that Era should be forgotten /s. Some people in this thread are so edgy that the could shave themselves with the tip of their fingers

 

[PdotMichael]

Doing lovely and high quality low-polygon stuff takes a lot of time and skills, so many indies will stay 2D because it's cheaper and faster to make and other developers with the skills and manpower/money will try to nail the own vision instead of copy old mid 90s CG.

 

[tiggerkiddo]

Hopefully not. I don't see why they should get away from sprite based games, which still work fine in this day and age.

 

[Log4Girlz]

I'm the sort of person who likes perfected art styles. The problem with consoles in particular is that every time there is an increase of power there is a change in art design/aesthetics that push the hardware just a bit too much. So the PSX/N64 art style was never perfected (ok, except on PC for the games that did migrate over but that wasn't as common as it is today). Actually, that's kind of why I like PC, whatever consoles dish out and struggle with you suddenly get on PC with OMG JESUS IQ.

 

[Mohonky]

Personally while I am okay with 'retro looking' titles, that to me only extends to games as well animated as things like Metal Slug. All these indie titles that look like Nes games just look horrendous to me and I have absolutely zero interest in playing them. I had a Nes thanks. It was great. In the 80's....

32bit 2D looks good and I quite enjoy that but given that or the style of say, Hard Corps Uprising, all for it. Low res for the sake of low res just infuriates me.

If they are going for retro looks, use modern tech. 3D Dot Heroes looking fucking amazing, a game that emulated the Nes visual style of Zelda but used a more modern take. That looks amazing.

Again, things like Metal Slug also look amazing because of that animation, but the Nes look for the sake of looking Nes like, no.

3D 32bit look? Get that trash out of here. I could barely tell wtf was happening on screen with the Saturn and PS. N64 was marginally better due to some anti aliasing and slightly higher res but otherwise its still not a place I would like to see developers go.


Every single one of those screens in the OP looks like hot trash to me.

 

[SonyToo!™]

Hopefully not. I don't see why they should get away from sprite based games, which still work fine in this day and age.

Why not both, I think there is demand for both types so it doesn't mean 2D has to go away for 3D to become a thing like 20 years ago.

Besides most indies stick to 2D because it's much easier to program than 3D which is more mathematically complex

 

[sublimit]

3D Platformers (not this parkour crap we have atm)

This is one of my biggest disappointments from the indie devs so far.I was expecting that by now some of them (probably those who are older fans of the TR games) would have tried to recreate an experience like that.

 

[McLovin]

Hopefully never.

I was gonna say the same thing, but OP got some solid examples. I wouldn't mind a slightly cleaner Megaman Legends style game.

 

[Haunted]

The real answer, of course, is that it'll happen when more of the current indie game scene is comprised of people who grew up in that era, with fond memories of that era.

If someone's going on 30 now, the best gaming childhood times have been with the SNES era. I'm sure it'll proliferate more as the PS1/N64 generation grows up and enters the indie game making business.

 

[Franchuzas87]

I totally disagree with the people who doesn't want them. I think the big problem with most games of that era wasn't the graphics themselves, but the performance. Nintendo 64 particularly had great games with really bad framerate (Perfect Dark, Turok 2, etc).

Today, we can easily have games like those running at 1080p, 60 fps and with more precise controls. I would be totally in.

 

[FunkyLounge]

For people who do NOT want this artstyle because how PS1 games looked:

It is all about resolution. It was so muddy and unclear because of the output resolution. With modern engines, lighting on those models and 1080p resolutions it can look absolutely amazing. Put some global illumination, ambient occlusion, shading, etc. and it wil look SUBLIME

 

[-MB-]

I hope it happens, and becomes widespread, even if it is just to piss of those who never want to see this happan and claim that generation was terrible.

 

[PdotMichael]

For people who do NOT want this artstyle because how PS1 games looked:

It is all about resolution. It was so muddy and unclear because of the output resolution. With modern engines, lighting on those models and 1080p resolutions it can look absolutely amazing. Put some global illumination, ambient occlusion, shading, etc. and it wil look SUBLIME

Yeah, it's not really a counter argument against low-polyong artstyles.

I mean we don't play all the 8/16bit style indie games in NTSC/PAL resolutions or forcing the devs to recreate the color palette, ram and sprite limitations of the old consoles.

 

[orioto]

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:

I love that, is Cinema4D hard to learn ?

 

[Cyrano]

Sky Rogue is a holy shit fun game. Also anything that reminds me of Daytona USA is great in my book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EkAVmBVmVE

 

[tiggerkiddo]

Why not both, I think there is demand for both types so it doesn't mean 2D has to go away for 3D to become a thing like 20 years ago.

Besides most indies stick to 2D because it's much easier to program than 3D which is more mathematically complex

Have not heard a huge clamor for these games. Maybe down the line but so far I haven't seen it.

 

[Burai]

He's doing the art and programming himself, just like your 4 guys in the garage would be. the fact that he raised money so he could work on it full time doesn't discount my point, that really almost anything is possible with today's tools if you have the talent and motivation.

And time. So much time. Which can only come with financial freedom. Talent and motivation don't pay the bills.

Notch didn't quit his job to work on Minecraft fulltime until the alpha money was steadily rolling in. Jonathan Blow was just assing about with a crude prototype until he took out a loan and turned it into Braid. Don't even get started on Fez.

The fact is that if you want something beyond 8-bit style graphics, you're looking at kickstarter or publisher investment or some sort of loan.

 

[Tetranet]

The examples provided in the OP convince me that this kind of graphics can be pulled of very well. There are bad ways to do it as there are with any graphics, past, present or future.


EDIT: Indie development doesn't have to "evolve", and abandon spire based graphics/ or w/e. Don't make the assumption that time will repeat itself and indie devs will move to more complex graphics. This is only a matter of pluralism in art styles.

 

[Majine]

I think early 3D has its charm, but it's easily the generation that aged the worst.

 

[boatie]

It seems super short-sighted/close-minded to just pop in with a "I hope never", especially when you never have to play another game again.

This is a real aesthetic that exists, and people can do awesome games with it. I couldn't, and a lot of people couldn't, but I'm excited about the possibility of someone taking the aesthetic and gameplay of early PSX and going somewhere with it that I could never have thought of. Like Spelunky did for 8bit/16 bit.

 

[biggersmaller]

What envokes the N64/PS1 era for me is not hi-resolution, nicely shaded 60 FPS games like these:

I love these, I want games to get away from the realistic look - but these games are simply not retro to me.

Blurry/warping textures, low-resolution, near draw distances, and inconsistent FPS is what I think of when I remember that kinda crappy (looking) era.

 

[boatie]

When I think of the NES, I think of as many bad, obfusticated, needlessly hidden, zero story, janky, broken games that you just have to play for hours and hours to beat, but the best bits can and have been used to make modern games that are amazing (as well as bad, janky, broken games, an amazing circle, innit)

 

[RedSwirl]

What we're really asking for here isn't PS1/N64 graphics, but an idea of them that in reality, bears little real similarity. I'd definitely like to see games using the kind of art we see in this thread. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=743650

As for actual games from that era to look back to, looking back makes it painfully obvious that most Japanese games looked much better than western games during that era. Probably because even back then western developers tried to make games look photorealistic. They looked acceptable or even impressive back then but look like shit today. The same happened for a lot of western PS2 games and even PS3/360 games at this point. Even Crysis will look like shit one day. Anime art on the other hand is a much better fit for low-poly graphics, or really any 3D graphics that don't match perfect photorealism. That's why games like Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, Wind Waker, and Mega Man Legends still look decent today. In many cases from that era, the developers adapted the art style specifically to fit their polygon budget (Cloud's hair being a prime example).

People doing that right now, in this thread.


I wouldn't mind a game that looks (and moves) like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXXjW_5gxCA

See, I don't know if that game looks great despite its low-poly graphics or because of them. I think it's just more a case of Yoshida's art being skillfully adapted into the environments and textures. Final Fantasy XII's cut scenes on the PS2 look similarly excellent, even running at high resolution.

What's this?

That's Chasm. It's supposed to come out this fall for PC and PS4. I think there's still an alpha demo at the website: http://chasmgame.com/

 

[Log4Girlz]

What we're really asking for here isn't PS1/N64 graphics, but an idea of them that in reality, bears little real similarity. I'd definitely like to see games using the kind of art we see in this thread. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=743650

As for actual games from that era to look back to, looking back makes it painfully obvious that most Japanese games looked much better than western games during that era. Probably because even back then western developers tried to make games look photorealistic. They looked acceptable or even impressive back then but look like shit today. The same happened for a lot of western PS2 games and even PS3/360 games at this point. Even Crysis will look like shit one day. Anime art on the other hand is a much better fit for low-poly graphics, or really any 3D graphics that don't match perfect photorealism. That's why games like Final Fantasy IX, Vagrant Story, Wind Waker, and Mega Man Legends still look decent today. In many cases from that era, the developers adapted the art style specifically to fit their polygon budget (Cloud's hair being a prime example).



See, I don't know if that game looks great despite its low-poly graphics or because of them. I think it's just more a case of Yoshida's art being skillfully adapted into the environments and textures. Final Fantasy XII's cut scenes on the PS2 look similarly excellent, even running at high resolution.



That's Chasm. It's supposed to come out this fall for PC and PS4. I think there's still an alpha demo at the website: http://chasmgame.com/

Yea the Japanese titles hold up much better. That said I still think there is room for 32/64 bit assets with modern rendering. Again like how most 2d indie titles are 8/16 bit assets with modern rendering (more sprites, colors, parallax scrolling than ever possible on any 2d platform ever released).

 

[sniperpon]

The thing I want to see a return to is FMV and digitized sprites.

And no, I'm not talking about a return to Sewer Shark or any of that nonsense; rather, I think you could use both of these techniques selectively and tastefully, in spots in various scenes in certain games, and come up with some amazing things. Like, two more tools in the toolbox.

Specifically, in sports or racing games-- which try to emulate reality anyway-- why not just use real assets from real life in spots where appropriate, versus trying to model everything under the sun with polygons?

But both branches have seemingly been completely abandoned.

 

[Scoot2005]

Just saw this thread and I have to say..... SOON....... I HOPE.

 

[Wools]

Pixel art is a design choice. Low-polygon 3D games are simply the result of graphical limitations.

One could argue that 2D Sprites & Pixels were a limitation of the early era. It wasn't a design choice, it was all that was technically possible at the time.

I adore the abstract, clean, refined lines along with the simple, rough textured environments of more graphically intensive, 1990's technology. I don't see why people are so hung up about it, the more art designs, the better!

 

[Log4Girlz]

N64 assets with better rendering and lighting would look like this:

Omg

 

[SonyToo!™]

Have not heard a huge clamor for these games. Maybe down the line but so far I haven't seen it.

You might be right, but then again I've yet to see an indie game that sells itself on PS1 era nostalgia like we have with 2D especially NES.

It might also be that most of the playerbase who started gaming in the 32bit era are only in their 20's atm and we need another 2-5 years for that age group to reach their 30's and become nostalgic for games they played as kids.

 

[Scoot2005]

Logz..... HRRNNNNNNGGGGG THAT's SOME GOOD SHIT SON.

Edit - I wanna see that in motion. It would be so gorgeous. Nobody could deny that games are art after seeing that except the most butthurt, fedora tipping and politically correct people alive. It's like.... origami. Mmmmmm;

 

[Log4Girlz]

Logz..... HRRNNNNNNGGGGG THAT's SOME GOOD SHIT SON.

Edit - I wanna see that in motion. It would be so gorgeous. Nobody could deny that games are art after seeing that except the most butthurt, fedora tipping and politically correct people alive. It's like.... origami. Mmmmmm;

It would look like this somewhat

That is a 3D model.

No not computer generated. Its a stop motion of several 3D modeled sculptures. Ok so kind of computer generated.

 

[Android18a]

If indie developers ever decide to move onto retro-style 3D graphics, they should aim for the "Dreamcast-look".

Games with somewhat simple geometry and a very clean, colorful look.

This is how I want videogames to look, what is this beauty?

 

[inm8num2]

Probably never.

 

[dark10x]

One thing I wouldn't mind seeing more of are games using more simplistic overall visuals with extremely high quality lighting. Achieving a high quality ray traced real-time scene using simplistic designs could prove quite attractive.

I suppose The Tomorrow Children and its voxel cone method is not unlike what I'm talking about but I think it could go even further.

 

[chadderbox77]

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

Exactly. I for one hope it happens at some point. All these NES looking inspired indies could stand to have some low poly brethren.