Indie games using retro graphics (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by Tekkip20@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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Two examples of this are :

Penny's big breakaway and DUSK from the top of my head.

I'm not sure about you but I think the rise of indie games going with the PS1 aesthetic and other low gfx easy to run games is that the past, despite its flaws, was much better.

I also think there's a charm with low polygon games and spritework ones, it's your imagination that fills in the gaps.

And lastly, I think of the simpler times when you play modern indie "retro" games, no bullshit, you pay the devs, you get your game, everyone is happy.

What are your thoughts on indie games going for that nostalgia feel? Any examples to cite?

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[-] Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I have a few in my library:

Signalis (low-poly (not that you can notice), low-res, CRT effect)
CrossCode (2D, low-res)
Valheim (low-poly, low-res, still graphically intensive due to lighting)
Lethal Company (low-res, bitcoin miner levels of GPU load)
Super Alloy Ranger (2D, low-res)
Terraria (you know Terraria, don't lie)
Iconoclasts (2D, low-res)
Starbound (Terraria, but a bit worse and in space)

I don't think these games aim for nostalgia, nostalgia alone is not a good reason to choose low-poly or low-res graphics.

Low-res textures and sprites have the advantage of being much easier for artists not only to hand draw, but to explicitly choose what details to give to a certain surface.
3D games with low-res rendering also have their own appeal, like you say: they tell you what you're looking at but still leaves your imagination the burden of filling in the details.

To me low-poly models don't really have their own appeal, unlike pixelated visuals, however I also don't mind them at all.
I still occasionally play games like Perfect Dark and TLoZ: OoT on their recompiled PC ports, they look good despite their low-poly nature because they don't need high-poly models and their animations would look uncanny if they did (goofy ahh textures though).

However, there are some retro effects that I find to be straight up ugly: Signalis applies a CRT effect occasionally, which I can't say I'm fond of.