https://twitter.com/DeMickyD/status/1756394964114608617
I reckon you could half the teamsize of every game company, split them into other companies, give the workers complete control over whatever they make and every single one of their games would be better for it.
The audiences would be smaller because the games they make would aim to be really really really good at one specific niche thing. But they'd be better games at what they try to be.
The curse of AAA gaming is the goal of trying to appeal to literally everyone simultaneously instead of specialising in a niche and serving that niche audience in highly advanced ways.
You'd get more games and they'd be better.
That was Yahtzee’s reasoning for Neon White being his GOTY. The gameplay loop is straightforward but it also knows what it is and what it’s not trying to be. Unlike the AAA industry where every marquee game tries to be an action/adventure/shooter/RPG/dating sim with online multiplayer and a few racing sections.
The curse of AAA gaming is the goal of trying to appeal to literally everyone simultaneously instead of specialising in a niche and serving that niche audience in highly advanced ways.
Note how they straight up abandoned most of the genres for AAA games, because the action games with vague adventure and rudimentary rpg elements are the lowest denominator played by the most audience. And even non AAA games cram everything inside.
For example go look the current demo festival on Steam - RPG and Strategy cathegories are nearly identical, easily 90% overlap, with most of that being the indie equivalent of lowest denominator that is card games.I too somewhat, but it would be nice if they weren't majority of what is being released, and they are getting old very fast after second or third. Finally, most of them are very, very far from the quality of let's say Slay the Spire
I really do not like deck building games. Cards as an aesthetic put me off more than anything.
Not without a reason, card game is basically as low on assets as you can even go in making a game and still have a game. At least the roguelite card games are still above the multiplayer CCG's now those are the shit.
they're mad about how most games will highlight climbable areas with yellow paint or similar visual cues for accessibility so you're not looking around an area for 30 minutes trying to find the ladder. The FF7 Rebirth demo has some climbable cliffs with it and the average
is upset about it despite the fact that the original FF7 had the select button toggle to show you exactly where every room exit/door was for basically the same reason lol.I'm sure it's due to worker laziness and not an extremely streamlined production process concerned with pumping out games as quickly as possible following a "safe" structure that takes no design chances to maximize appeal
Do these dumbasses not realize that the yellow paint is probably for idiots like them?
I wish normies a very go back to NASCAR.
That does look really lazily done tbh, visual edge highlights can be done way, WAY better.
"Laziness" was a... lazy choice of word lol, but yeah that was what I was going for.
it's a decent feature but it's a bit over-done and you start to wonder who is obsessively climbing all this weird shit to paint it when you're supposed to be the first person who's been somewhere in a 500+ years or you've broken into some facility etc.
wish suits would give level artists the time to make stuff where you don't need the play-design crutch
The highlights as a navigation aid are good, but ideally you do it in a way that actually fits the environment design. I posted a pic of Returnal showing how they used a fringe of little white plants growing on the edges of platforms.
Okay but the yellow paint is stupid and it's fine to point that its stupid.
talentless devs
decades of ruthless corporate consolidation, monetization, and exploitation of young talent
Definitely one of these two things
Most armchair designers are interested in design minutia because that’s what they’ve consumed video essays about and that’s what they think real developers spend most of their time doing. Content about bad working conditions is depressing and not nearly as eye catching as some of the other shortcomings of big game dev companies. So yeah, this checks out.
I'm really sick and tired of people that consume treats think that have any idea the work that goes into making them
Okay but the original post is fucking stupid though. The idea that you can't have problems with the aesthetics of a medium because of tbe exploitation of the workers is nonsense and should be fucking dunked on. Like nobody would call you a bad person for saying Marvel films have bad scores or poorly written dialogue no matter how shitty Disney is to their employees.
I mean op said in a reply that he straight up doesnt think yellow painted cliffs are bad at all and thats why he made this post and I agree with him. They get put there because people dont find that shit on their own and its also a "respecting the players time" thing not to force them to explore everywhere looking for the climbable portion.
Theres probably better ways to do it but. Im with twitter op.
They get put there because people dont find that shit on their own and its also a "respecting the players time" thing not to force them to explore everywhere looking for the climbable portion.
Yeah like in the Sands of Time trilogy. Those games had easily readable climbing elements that respected your paths because of yellow paint
Sands of Time was mostly a series of corridors of self contained puzzle rooms. With games being entirely unfocused experiences bow, you need the yellow paint. I'd prefer games just be shorter, more focused and cheaper, but here we are.
Yeah like Uncharted, which for the entire PS3 lifecycle was linear games with yellow paint... Or Horizon Zero Dawn, which has exclusively linear paths in story missions coated in yellow paint... or Far Cry 3, which has extremely linear radio towers as climing "challenges" covered in yellow paint....
You missed absolutely nothing, but they are all really big famous games with massive amounts of praise (somehow) from both players and media
The last big budget slop I've played that wasn't Zelda was new Vegas and I regret nothing at all
I genuinely feel.like this at work sometimes, I'll talk games with a dude 10 years younger than me who's frustrated with whatever some online shooter did and I'm like 'I unlocked the x cup in zero on the n64 and it was a white knuckle thrill. Got close to a personal best on Wild Guns and ran through the first Castlevanis.' I played 3 games and had a sick time and he seems to just get mad at one at a time. The NES was my first console and I've always been more on the retro side of things post childhood and I think I just approach vidya games different than the kids now. I'm still arcade brained a bit.
It's basically a shorthand for cinematic interact locations that otherwise get lost in the noise of otherwise-identical clutter surrounding them. Like "is that flattish rock a pretty scenery rock or a mantling-cutscene rock?" sort of stuff that gets solved by just splashing bright paint on the interactable stuff or otherwise making it stand out aesthetically even when that doesn't make sense diegetically.
Yes, really simple and shortcutty way to say to the player "OVER HERE DUMBASS, COME PRESS X A FEW TIMES". Thank you AAA games, such depth of gameplay...?
Even if you don't agree with the criticism "You shouldn't make this criticism because the industry is exploitative" is dumb. Like this is absolute onsense to write either way.
I mean fair. Just saying Mickey D thinks the criticism is dumb in the first place and shouldnt be made like, at all.
In many games it is used to direct the player where they can interact with terrain. Which ledges are climbable or not etc. Some people think this makes things too easy.
Really? Twitter users have too much free time
Why's the outrage now? Some new game has too much yellow paint or something?
Im so sure based off of intuition if you asked them why the industry deserves the layoffs then the answer wouldn't be because they exploit the workers too hard. I bet they need to retven to something
i agree but only in the sense that the AAA industry should die a quick death and all games should be published by Devolver
I'm a developer (currently studying for CS Master's SAT) and I have taken an interest in the game industry for long
Lemme tell ya something, IT'S FUCKING HORRIBLE, the working hours, conditions, wage and benefits are outright dog shit compared to other parts of the industry. Video game developers unironically need a union
Honestly, I kind of agree, but for different reasons. The industry needs to crash just to deprive them of treats and shut them up. They do not deserve the ability to speak let alone entertainment
Bonus points if the guy who replies is a programmer at a corporate job where most people work at a pretty glacial pace.
The other things G*mers whine about is "woke"
and not the layoffs/abuse of workers by the industry
