Comment on Kotaku Asks: How Soon Is Too Soon For A Video Game Remaster Or Remake?
520@kbin.social 9 months agoI mean, indie games do exist that scratch that itch, so you do still have options
Comment on Kotaku Asks: How Soon Is Too Soon For A Video Game Remaster Or Remake?
520@kbin.social 9 months agoI mean, indie games do exist that scratch that itch, so you do still have options
insomniac_lemon@kbin.social 9 months ago
Well I have a lot of problems with how people design games so I don't really buy stuff anymore, plus I haven't really seen a lot of stuff that focuses on vector (esp textureless). In other words it's pretty niche even for indie, and discoverability generally isn't great even on the best day.
I'd probably have more luck doing it myself, I've done a few things (meme made with Godot 3.X, 4.0 eye animation, not-yet-in-4.X test of someone elses' PR) but I'm not a dev and I don't have much energy or many ideas.
520@kbin.social 9 months ago
Ah. I think the problem there is that pure vectors can be much harder to work with. it's hard to make something that looks good with purely vector based approaches, especially as your scenes get more complex.
insomniac_lemon@kbin.social 9 months ago
I don't think that's it. For 3D the workflow is already there and vertex colors are powerful (though usually used for shaders or other effects like terrain-based sounds). Even going for Spyro's approach (esp. grayscale textures that disappear with LoD so it's just color) wouldn't be too bad as I imagine its music/voice is actually what takes up the most space (newer audio compression or MIDI-like music would reduce that), though a more minimal/stylized look could make it a lot easier. Certainly some things are more suited for it than others.
I could say a lot of technical reasons for or against this workflow, but I think the biggest is just that it's something that people don't think about or would rather have photorealism or blocky pixels instead (or at least that's a large chunk of the market). Vertex lighting is cool but doesn't have much use over modern lighting (if it did, it'd be very niche) and developers often don't really care about optimization much, instead telling players 'upgrade your PC'.
(admittedly my experience with 2D vector seems less supported as far as editors and AA, though I'm not sure if Godot's clip children feature has an equivalent in 3D or if you'd just need to use meshes/rigging more cleverly... which is fair, I'm not aware of non-skeleton rigging tools in Godot's 2D either)
520@kbin.social 9 months ago
3D vectors can work well, but as an artist you are better suited by going with the N64 approach. Due to technical limitations, textures were often used quite sparsely, with vertex shading providing the main colour and textures providing details. It was especially prevalent in games with cartoon art styles such as Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie, but even games like GoldenEye used this trick to a degree.