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[MomoPufflet]

I love the look (PSone is my favorite system) but I don't know if I love the decision to emulate the low framerate. Maybe he tried it at 60fps and it looked weird, who knows. I also wonder how "retro" he's going to go with the menus and controls. Is it going to be full-on 90's wonkiness or will it have some modern sensibilities? Definitely an interesting project. I'm curious how it turns out.

 

[Stilton Disco]

That's ridiculous, but I still adore 5th gen games, and buy 'new' ones regularly, so I actually think it looks ace, and I hope it's the start of a trend.

Really though, I just want some Indies to start making games with prerendered backgrounds. Give me games that look like Resi, FF etc, and I'll throw money at you.

 

[plasmawave]

The only thing I don't like is the camera.
It should be fixed camera like the first Silent Hill.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I think it depends on the game. Aesthetically, a good couple 3D games were and are still really nice looking. Especially once you throw on some AA / AF... I think they look really great still.
Turok 2 for example:

Adding texture filtering and antialiasing destroys a large part of the "PS1 retro" look, though. A big chunk of reason N64 and PS1 games looked as crappy as they did was because they had terrible IQ and low rendering resolution. You mention the crappy performance, too. Low poly models, awful textures, dithering and horrid aliasing. A dark time we should never harken back to!

 

[Pegasus Actual]

I'm not sure why Alone in the Dark keeps coming up. Yeah this thing looks like a janky early PS1 game. Alone in the Dark with the static backgrounds and mostly flat shaded look is a lot different. If you want to go hipster on your indie 3D game I think going hi-res with all flat-shaded polygons is probably a good way to go. It's an interesting aesthetic to play with. These graphics on the other hand are just vomit.

 

[Xpliskin]

Game is literally called "back in 1995", the first page has comments on framerate and graphics.
Never change GAF.

I will keep a close eye on this.

 

[Dictator93]

Adding texture filtering and antialiasing destroys a large part of the "PS1 retro" look, though. A big chunk of reason N64 and PS1 games looked as crappy as they did was because they had terrible IQ and low rendering resolution. You mention the crappy performance, too. Low poly models, awful textures, dithering and horrid aliasing. A dark time we should never harken back to!

I dont have a problem with those things really: i love the way a game like quake looks for example. The IQ and performance though are the big reasons why that era was so bad. Emulating the polygonal and texture constraints is fine by me. Unfiltered textures also look really great (so long as you have 8XSGSAA to clean up their unfiltered shimmering though).

Long story short: i enjoy the aesthetics of the era, but not the IQ and performance.

 

[MrCunningham]

I get that he's trying to recreate the look of early 3D games, but that looks really bad even by 1995 PSX game standards.

In fact, it looks more on par with Alone in the Dark, from 1992.

The polygon models are a little too high to be comparable to the original Alone in the Dark. I think it looks more like a cross between Clock Tower on the PS1 and Fade to Black:

Though the small video that the creator shows lacks any lighting.

Game is literally called "back in 1995", the first page has comments on framerate and graphics.
Never change GAF.

I will keep a close eye on this.

That's true. Even the name suggests that this is suppose to look like some sort of first generation PS1 game.

Adding texture filtering and antialiasing destroys a large part of the "PS1 retro" look, though. A big chunk of reason N64 and PS1 games looked as crappy as they did was because they had terrible IQ and low rendering resolution. You mention the crappy performance, too. Low poly models, awful textures, dithering and horrid aliasing. A dark time we should never harken back to!

N64 games: Low resolution, bad frame rates and a Vaseline filter.
PS1/ Saturn: pixalation, shaky juddering polygons, warping textures and bad framerates (for the most part)

 

[Corpekata]

Game is literally called "back in 1995", the first page has comments on framerate and graphics.
Never change GAF.

I will keep a close eye on this.

How weird that a game selling itself on its' graphics style would have comments about it.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

needs to hire a texture artist. There is no reason they have to look that bad even using ps1 texture limitations.

 

[Oneself]

As much as I like the idea behind it, I just can't stand the graphics. In fact, "retro graphics" aren't cool IMO, if I ever want to play games that are visually limited by some old hardware specs, I'll play old games.

Same goes for Mega Man and other games./rant

Axiom Verge makes sense though.

 

[-MD-]

Really need to see more but I'm on board for now.

 

[Xpliskin]

How weird that a game selling itself on its' graphics style would have comments about it.

This genuinely made me laugh at my screen.

I think you don't get the "Back in 1995" part.

 

[Lijik]

Id be interested to know how far the creator is taking the limitations even if I dont really care for how its looking. I dunno if its the lack of lighting or overall texture work but something like the Fade to Black screenshot looks appealing to me in a way Back in 1995 doesnt.

I do enjoy the low poly aesthetic so its nice to see more games aim for it.

 

[Endo Punk]

Definitely on board, I adore the early 3D look.

 

[arhra]

I'm cool with the low-poly/low texture res/no filtering aesthetic, and don't even really mind the resolution, but what's killing it for me is the complete lack of lighting.

Just compare to an interior scene from Silent Hill, which is definitely the kind of look it seems to be aiming at:

Fix that, maybe hire some artists to improve the texture work, and maybe add some full screen effects so it better matches what those games actually looked like on a CRT back in the '90s, and I'll definitely be interested in the final product.

 

[Y2Kev]

I love the PS1 aesthetic if they try that but this looks worse than SH1.

 

[Head.spawn]

I didn't realize I had a limit as far as retro graphics go, but damn, I guess this is my limit, LoL.

I can't do it.

8-bit and 16-bit are still okay in my book, but some of the early 3d games just lost their appeal to me about five seconds after the next console came out. Very few have aged well.

 

[hateradio]

I get it, but it looks like a really early PS title.

Really early.

 

[br3wnor]

I'm a big fan of the PS1 style so look forward to more indies doing stuff like this. When I play PS1 games on my vita I turn off the bilenial filtering, rather have the sharp Jaggies

 

[SmokedMeat]

No, just no. There's nothing charming about shitty looking Saturn graphics.

At least give us Model 1 or Model 2 looking graphics.

 

[dhlt25]

I'm sorry but that just looks like crap. Was hoping for emulated ps1 look.

 

[The Silver]

Hey can we skip this indie nostalgia phase and go straight to PS2 era?

 

[Tapejara]

I love PSOne era graphics, but this looks bad. Resolution and framerate look terrible.

I get it, but it looks like a really early PS title.

Really early.

Yup. I've been playing through Dino Crisis and that game looks (relatively) good. This? Not so much.

 

[rjc571]

The polygon models are a little too high to be comparable to the original Alone in the Dark. I think it looks more like a cross between Clock Tower on the PS1 and Fade to Black:

Though the small video that the creator shows lacks any lighting.

I'm not really familiar with Fade to Black but Clock Tower looks a lot cleaner, a lot smoother, and a lot more detailed to me than this game does.

 

[Corpekata]

This genuinely made me laugh at my screen.

I think you don't get the "Back in 1995" part.

Because it is intentionally emulating something, it is free from discussion?

I don't think you get that everyone understands this. It doesn't make it good by default.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I appreciate their intentions and I hope more smaller devs have similar ones, but to me you have to strike a balance between the novelty of dated game visuals and modern game design and mechanics. Intentionally giving a game a bad framerate or bad controls just seems sorta dumb to me. It would be like if the developers of Axiom Verge purposely put slowdown in the game during crazy boss battles because that's what would have happened on the NES. Axiom Verge is a good example to me. If you just look at a static screen shot you would think it was an NES or TurboGraphix game, but in motion there are little animated touches and graphical effects that really blow out anything the NES could have done out of the water and the game plays like a dream.

 

[rjc571]

This genuinely made me laugh at my screen.

I think you don't get the "Back in 1995" part.

I think you don't get that back in 1995, we were playing games that looked significantly better than this.

 

[Fury451]

Honestly, this is a really cool idea from a design standpoint, but I'm far more worried about the execution and the reception. Things have moved on for a reason, and the PS1 era is arguably the worst aging in terms of graphics.

If this were an optional filter, and there is more of a modern option as well, that would be super cool. Besides that, it definitely seems like an intriguing game. I also really dig the name.

 

[DarkConfidant]

I know it's meant to serve a thematic purpose but, while I'm okay with a low poly mid-90s aesthetic, I'm not down to play something at a mid-90s resolution. Yikes.

(But it serves a purpose so I respect it and I'd try it.)

I've been wanting something like this for a while. A higher res might save our eyes some hurt, but could make the game less retro feeling.
I'm willing to try it.

 

[Reebot]

Wonderful idea but the execution is not there. Its nostalgia taken too far; there's a reason games aren't actually made to look like that any more. You can update and reference the aesthetic but replicating it wholesale is very risky. Doesn't look like that risk paid off.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Talk about cashing in on nostalgia.

I think the survival horror genre would be better served by taking the core aspects and doing interesting things with them instead of trying to emulate 20-year old games and committing to antiquated design in an effort to come across as "scary" and "challenging" without being either.

I love the PS1 aesthetic if they try that but this looks worse than SH1.

I'm struggling to think of a 1995 game that looks this bad. People keep bringing up Alone in the Dark, but even that looks better than this.

 

[evilromero]

Fucking finally. Always bugged me how shortsighted people were who didn't think low poly retro games would ever be relevant like 8/16-bit was. I remember wanting low poly N64 style games built within those limitations.

 

[L95]

I... kinda like the way it looks, though I can understand why people think it looks really bad too.

 

[PensivePen]

I am totally down with and even excited about people trying to recapture PS1/N64 era visuals but this doesn't even look as good as many PS1 games, especially not classics like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. And I really don't think people should be trying to replicate the faults of the PS1 like juddering and low framerate.

 

[Raonak]

It looks alright to me, but yeah, likely nostalgia talking.

Higher resolution would be good, since I think high res + low poly/texture looks fucking great

 

[Icelandic_Jazz]

I'm a fan of PS1 era low-poly graphics but the execution isn't quite there on this one.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

It's pretty apparent who was born when based on the comments in this thread. I've been anticipating more games that look like this for years.

To people who think this game's style looks unplayable and bad, there is a whole generation of gamers who feels the same way about 8-Bit.

Not really, there were early 3d games that looked and ran like shit and then there were games like Mario 64 that looked visually appealing and ran smoothly. I'm not sure why they are attempting to emulate the former when they could easily do the later if they were looking to do a PS1/N64 era nostalgia fest.

It's more like trying to recreate a game in the style of Total Recall then a good NES game.

 

[KalBalboa]

I love this idea. Hope it delivers.

 

[joezombie]

PSX 3D graphics did not even look good at the time, despite the novelty. I won't go back, you can't make me

 

[SerTapTap]

Love what they're trying to do, shame they couldn't keep the wobbly textures of the PS1 and it's lack of z buffer

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Awesome. More games need to emulate the PS1/N64 low poly graphics. I can understand people not liking the style, but it's silly for some people to suggest that these types of games should not be made for the people that want to experience them.

 

[CHC]

Not gonna lie....

A) he nailed the aesthetic and the sound big time

B) that was somehow terrifying in its sparse weirdness.

I really do NOT want this to become a trend because it could get out of control really quick, but I'm curious about this one. It's going for something specific and I can respect that.

 

[kitschbeam]

Not a huge fan survival horror games but they sure nailed the PSX aesthetics. I'll be at Tokyo Indie Fest 2015 later this may and hopefully I'll be able to see/try the game and share more info about the game with you guys.

 

[FrenchToastDisciple]

If it works in the game, it works in the game. I'm of the opinion that, as long as something is responsive and not so incredibly alienating to play that it completely overrides any other compelling considerations, my evaluation of a game's aesthetics (including considerations like framerate) is entirely dependent on how they reinforce a coherent, compelling, artistic direction.

We need to allow developers the freedom to do weird, seemingly nonsensical, shit like this, or else we'll never arrive at those moments of unique artistic genius that we need so badly as a medium.

 

[fritolay]

Alone in the dark it looks like

 

[Tain]

As said above, it looks pretty sparse compared to Clock Tower (let alone larger-scale PSX games).

Tech can't make up for budget, in this case. Curious to see more, though.

 

[Fusebox]

I'm down with this, I have no probs playing psx games these days. My nostalgia has hit critical mass and graphics don't register in that way anymore.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

This genuinely made me laugh at my screen.

I think you don't get the "Back in 1995" part.

Just because he's accurately depicting the game doesn't mean that people can't think it looks like shit. There are games from 1995 that looked like shit. This game can look like shit too.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

8-bit/16-bit aren't some sacred cut off point for throwbacks. The whole pixel revival created a mound of trash with a few clear winners and now it's pretty damn overdone, just like every other era of gaming. Bring on the low poly games!