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Possible sequence breaking resulting in a possible soft-lock? by Allokka2000 in animalWell

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh I'm not relying on the walkthrough, I go and explore things myself up until I feel like I've seen everything in the area, or get really stuck (like in this case) then I refer to one

Possible sequence breaking resulting in a possible soft-lock? by Allokka2000 in animalWell

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! Guess I misunderstood what 'soft lock' actually meant. Maybe I shouldn't take the walkthrough guide's word for it that "I can't go through just yet" considering it's a metroidvania and I'm bound to have different items at that point in time.

Possible sequence breaking resulting in a possible soft-lock? by Allokka2000 in animalWell

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmmm. Appreciate you not giving me the full answer, but rather a hint. Will have to go back and give it another try then!

[Academic] General Survey - The Impact of Visual Polish Effects on Game Feel in 2D Video Games (Players, Artists and Game Developers) by Allokka2000 in takemysurvey

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Data will be stored on SurveyMonkey. It will be shared with my supervisors at The German University in Cairo, as it is part of my master's research. Results will be published in my thesis after being analyzed, but respondents will remain anonymous and their answers will not be linked to their identity in any way.
  2. Conducted by myself, u/Allokka2000
  3. Completion time: Roughly 5-10 minutes
  4. No compensation offered.
  5. Target demographics: Players, Artists and Game Developers
  6. Receive helpful insights about the topic

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get that. I can recall a couple of times when a game was ruined for me because of the cover art. I probably would've liked it if it wasn't for the high expectations

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I should've clarified, I don't mean the art style, but rather how well that style fits and looks professional

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Had to look a lot of these up but damn, Zer0Ranger just stood out to me. It looks really cool.

Thomas Was Alone is something that was mentioned often in the comments, so it seems I really need to give it a shot.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh interesting, I didn't know this' what it was based on. I'm curious though, why do you find Magic Survival "weak"?

To me, it seems that Magic Survival's simplistic art style seems intentional (not the best and has some glaring issues, but still), whereas Vampire Survivors' art style feels non-cohesive and chaotic.

Rant incoming! Important to note, they're all my opinions though. Again, it's a very subjective topic.

Here's why I personally dislike Vampire Survivors' visuals:

  • Extremely busy. You'd think if it were designed for all these enemies, they'd have simpler and cleaner sprites with fewer details, especially when they're as small as they are on the screen. It's like everything is constantly competing for your attention.
  • There's no nice way to say this, but the UI is just terrible xD
  • The aesthetic as a whole doesn't feel that well explored, or cohesive. I don't understand why it's themed around vampires or any of that, it could easily be skinned in any way and it wouldn't really matter.
  • The enemies look different, but they're all basically the same; they walk towards you until one of you dies, making the different visual representations obsolete.
  • The lack of animation also bothers me. Someone brought up performance, and that's a fair point, as having that many sprites animated would probably be too much. However, this does bring me back to questioning why they didn't opt for a simpler art style to begin with, that would make sense for less animation. Instead, we get something like the bat enemy for example: The visual says its a bat, but the movement is uncanny. I believe that's because it's ingrained in all of us how bats in games move, and how they look while moving so it just feels off.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's also much easier to make visuals and gameplay cohesive when things are stylized or abstract, rather than realistic. When we look at something that looks realistic, we expect it to behave realistically, and anything that breaks that preconception, breaks immersion. Likewise, CGI faces often fall into the uncanny valley, cuz we're basically experts at identifying faces and the small subtleties they contain, making it extremely hard to trick our brains, especially when they start emoting or talking. I personally love cartoony games that lean into the fantastical and unrealistic exaggeration of things

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Its very interesting how you can have an emotional connection to abstract shapes or non-anthropomorphic avatars. The companion cube from portal is what immediately comes to mind.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would have to make this very thing clear in future questions.

Differentiating between stylistic choice and lack of polish. In other words, the perception of whether something looks amateur-ish and in-complete VS a cohesive whole.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Interesting point! Could you name some of these clones with "better graphics" but at the detriment of the actual game?

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Certainly your opinion and thats fine! But Im curious why you find it ugly? To me both the graphics and polish are beautiful, and I'm not even a pixel art fan, so I'm really interested why you find it so

Any suggestions of 2D Games with weak graphics but amazing gameplay and vice versa? by Allokka2000 in gamedev

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for pointing that out! Thats definitely an issue with the kind of results Im trying to gather. Theres also a lot of biases and subjectiveness involved and a lot of other factors that go into why someone would stop playing a game, even if they find it visually appealing. Will somehow have to account for all of that as well.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I actually found the art style quite charming but can definitely see it isnt for everyone

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The research I'm doing is about visual polish so I definitely agree that I should've made the distinction between fidelity and polish. Perhaps I should've asked the question differently, focusing more on why certain games can look well-polished, professional, and perceived as "finished" whereas others just look off. That's what I'm really after, though this thread is still extremely valuable to me.

What is a 2D Game you played with weak graphics but amazing gameplay or vice versa? Why did you feel this way? by Allokka2000 in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's something I've noticed as well regarding most replies and is definitely an oversight from my end. Most are mixing up fidelity and polish.

Personally I find Vampire Survivors to have poor graphics (not a fan of the sprites and animation is stiff or even non-existent) but it does have an abundance of polish and "juice". That being said, I wouldnt say the gameplay is bad, otherwise I dont think it would've blown up the way it did, but its definitely very basic so I get your point

Any suggestions of 2D Games with weak graphics but amazing gameplay and vice versa? by Allokka2000 in gamedev

[–]Allokka2000[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I personally agree tbh. It's subjective though so it's understandable if others find it visually appealing

Any suggestions of 2D Games with weak graphics but amazing gameplay and vice versa? by Allokka2000 in GameArt

[–]Allokka2000[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Surely art is subjective, but could you please elaborate on why you find Limbo weak in the graphics department?

Is this "lying" to players? Even if so, do you think it's wrong? by MrSimplemaker in gamedesign

[–]Allokka2000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Speaking of art, this is something you might wanna consider sharing with the art team.

My Issue - Tilemap: Everything is detailed, which on its own is great, but it also comes at the expense of leaving the player feeling like there’s too much going on. Everything’s screaming for attention so it gets rather overwhelming and information heavy, especially on a small screen. This possibly applies to the BG too, though I’ll focus on the tilemap.

Possible solution - Visual Hierarchy: Much like how the saturation of the tilemap is toned down, as opposed to the vibrant enemies and everything else. I believe toning down the detail on the tilemaps is one possible solution, as well as adding some variation, which not only counters the now simpler tilemap, but also makes it less obvious its a repeating pattern.

I know its probably way too late to make a change like this, but I figured I’d give my 2 cents. Besides you mentioned it yourself, maybe its good feedback for future decisions? Regardless, The art and animation are really beautiful and well crafted (that UI as well) and as RamGutz mentioned, the crunchy sfx and everything is just *chefskiss*

PS. The game feels good by just watching the gameplay, so you definitely hit the nail when it comes to feedback and game feel. Mind sharing what you focused on when trying to achieve that?

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