This article proffers the idea. http://www.gamesradar.com/32-bit-graphics-are-new-retro/ I love the style of the games by this indie developer, they really look in the style of Sega Model 1 hardware type games, early/mid 90s 3D if you will. Nevertheless, while I bet we will see some other indie games in this style, I don't see a significant shift in the indie scene away from 8/16 bit style sprites towards low polygon 3D. The main premise of this idea is that new indie developers who have nostalgic and formative memories of low poly 3D will soon take the place of indie developers who spent formative years playing 16 bit consoles, however, making NES level or 16 bit console style sprites is very approachable and easy imo compared to 3D modeling, and developing and fine tuning a 3D engine also drives up the complexity and development time a significant amount.
Maybe, but the costs and size of 3D development are really a hindrance to indie devs. The 16 bit was really the tail end of the "one guy can make an entire game himself" era of gaming, and even then it was much more common to see teams of a dozen or so people making it.
The thing is, all these so called 8bit style games look nothing like 8bit games. They uses too many colours, have effects 8bit systems couldn't do and look as blocky as shit which again doesn't look like any 8 bit system.
To have it truly look like a PS1 game you gotta get rid of the perspective correction for that shimmery effect. Do these "PS1-style" games get that detail down? It's impossible to tell from still pictures.
most of these sprite based indies look like shit, not 8 bit games. Just shite like the Atrai 2600 threw up a rainbow or something.
There are a few 2D indie games that stick to 8bit and 16bit standards, but Yeh, most cheat with the extra power available. Doesn't make them bad games though, not by a long shot. Ps1 style graphics isn't going to become popular by indie devs. it's too much work to actually get the graphics looking like that rather than 2D or unity for 3D for example. That's not to say it won't happen .. It's just not likely imo.
There are a bunch of retroish 3d games out already. Most of them use Unity. This isn't really new, but I think it won't take off like the 8-/16-bit trend took off. Not yet, at least.
I was thinking about making a game with ps1 style graphics, low poly assets are pretty easy to make and if you get the pipeline right it can go really fast.
It bothers me too when people call games "8-bit style" or something like that when they clearly don't look like the systems they are referencing. I think they could get away with calling them "retro style" or something less specific.
I get really annoyed by all the 2D indie games that have the kind of look you see in BroForce. It looks so small and ugly and generic yet so many people keep using that style. Then I come across really good retro console style games like Odallus the Dark Call or Castle in the Darkness and it restores my faith a little. Odallus at least tried to stick the NES color palette limit. I'd really like to see higher standards in 2D eventually evolve from these indie teams that are learning their craft. I honestly hope early 3D style doesn't become a fade. Most of those games looked horrible and played horribly. I always kind of disliked that era even at the time.
That car racer looks exactly like what a person in the 1980s thinks games SHOULD look like. The only 8bit games I've seen done successfully were all in Retro Game Challenge for the DS.
I agree with that. In terms of indie games that actually look NES 8bit I'd recommend a look at games such as Odallus and maybe even Shovel Knight (although Shovel Knight looks more like a SNES game that sort scaled down it's visuals a bit to look like a NES game. It's close, but not fully accurate). Odallus on the other hand did a good job to me. Spoiler: Click! Now to answer directly to the top poster I'm not sure if 32/64 bit era graphics may take off (although can't predict the future so who knows). All I can think of in terms of 5th gen era visuals from indies is a game called FreezeMe. In terms of visuals it has 128bit Gamecube look to it. But it seems to also have a setting to scale it back to N64 style visuals (sadly the video showing this feature is now removed from youtube. So all I have to back up my claim is nothing else besides memory. Feel free to disregard if you want.) And I think FreezeMe just released not too long ago.
Are you saying that hipsters still haven't made any PS4/XB1 games that (ironically) look like Tomb Raider? Maybe there is still hope, my friends.
8/16-bit/sprite graphics aren't always used just because of nostalgia. It is a lot easier, and some times a lot cheaper, to go with that style of graphics instead of 3D.
Yeah most indie devs don't have the funding that AAA devs have so they can't put a lot of budget on a games visuals. As each new console generation passes games then get bigger and bigger while also boosting in graphical quality. Which is why games tends to get more and more expensive. 8 and 16 bit visuals are cheaper and faster to produce (or so I've been told) so it's easier for indie devs to make 8-16 bit games. Usually to make up for this limitation you'll see devs who try to give their game a unique art style. Either that or the devs try to just make the 8-16 bit visuals look as appealing as possible. Which is probably why you have 8-16 bit that don't look like actual NES/SNES games. Although with that said I have seen indie games with some pretty cool visuals such as No Man's Sky and Ghost of a Tale.
