Why are obscure old games so much more interesting than modern indies?

Why are obscure old games so much more interesting than modern indies?

I have never in my life felt intrigued by an indie game's world like I need to play it just to see what it's about, the only time indie games ever appeal to me is if they have seemingly good gameplay

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  1. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    because you're not looking hard enough

  2. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because some of the older titles were genuinely trying to push the envelope.

  3. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    because it's made by people good enough to get hired somewhere

  4. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    inhouse engines and limitation on graphics forced every to think more creatively to get their representation out as opposed to here's unreal muhrealism assets or some rpgmaker crap

  5. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    You're wrong because Noita exists. /Thread

  6. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    No one cares about your japanese country side walking simulator, weeb.
    I want GAMEPLAY.

  7. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    >I have never in my life felt intrigued by an indie game's world like I need to play it just to see what it's about
    I don't respect indie stories either and im not sure why. I think they get sorted into the fangame/hack/mod part of my brain and all the shit in there is fricking garbage

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      This is a big aspect for me too, the lack of restraint is really noticeable with how much they indulge themselves, which makes them feel cheap and not important, just like fanfiction and fangames.

  8. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    I've played a few indies that had genuinely intriguing worlds, premises, and stories. It's rare, but it's not impossible.
    But back then you got games with the same level of understanding of game design and similar (at absolute BEST) development resources available, but made by people who were actual professionals in other types of creation, like physical art or music.
    Now you have a bunch of people who genuinely specialize in games, and create/enforce this feeling of what games "should be like", so professional game development completely lacks this sort of... texture, I guess? And contemporary indies, like it or not, tend to be colored by that as well. Just less on average.

  9. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Indies do tend to lack all types of appeal except gameplay that AAAs won't bother, art, charm, intrigue, etc are foreign to most of them

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      It's funny how posts like this are always accompanied by games with the most dogshit gameplay imaginable.

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        Pedofreaks just want an anime girl to molest

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          if you see an anime girl and pedophilic thoughts jump into your brain you are definitely a pedophile sir

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        That is literally the whole point of the thread as well as something brought up directly in the post you quoted

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          >it's okay for the gameplay to be shit as long as it has a bunch of irrelevant shit
          maybe games just aren't the medium for you

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            NTA, but you are a moronic Black person monkey playing call of israelitety and fortslop. Games, like those in the webms in this thread, are infinitely more fun and interesting than anything you've ever played. Kys.

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            i hope you turn the music off when you play tetris you poser

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            >i'm a miserable c**t with no imagination or agency
            we know

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            What's your favorite game? Chances are the gameplay is only a small fraction of why you love it. Good gameplay is the foundation of any enjoyable game, but it's that "irrelevant shit" that turns a game from something good to truly exceptional

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      That is literally the whole point of the thread as well as something brought up directly in the post you quoted

      What games?

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        Milano no Arubaito and Three Dirty Dwarves

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          Thanks

  10. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    It’s hard enough for indie devs just to get the game working in the first place, let alone creating an interesting world

  11. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Old Good
    New FRICKING Bad

  12. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    modern aaa is all realism aesthetic
    realism is already outside and the norm
    old limitations encouraged tricks, ie. magic, to create an alternate reality youve never seen before but remains familiar enough to be intrigued by
    there is no artistic merit to games like spiderman, gta, tlou because they are based in the mundane urban reality with mary sue protagonists

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      ?si=epCHR8LoqoiuerVP

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        Do people misquote him for shits and giggles? You can't be this low IQ to misunderstand context

  13. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because a lot of old obscure games were made by well rounded people who had families and wives and shit. Indies are all made by turbovirgins with no life experience outside of video games.
    Zelda-likes aren't inspired by the whimsical nature of Shiggy's childhood, they are inspired exclusively by Zelda.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Video games should be made by people who like video games.
      Since everyone in the corporate world now fricking despises video games and the people who actually like video games, it falls to indies.
      Truly grim that we can't just have people who had lives outside of games and now want to make video games because they simply want to, not to chide "Da Gamers" on how evil they are.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      >see something you like and want to make something like it
      >this is bad
      Man, I don't know what to tell you. Creative movements start because one creator sees another doing something and wants to try it, not because half the creative types in an era happened to have the same life experiences.

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        They were made with a budget and an expert team of devs and artists, a modern indie game usually has just a bunch of dudes working on it without any professional artists helping them, all they can do is really focus on gameplay or content but generally not presentation, also the indie industry at this point is not that dissimiliar to AAA titles of some time ago in how unoriginal they are, every second game is a roguelite or generic action game of some kind. And if they focus on presentation or lots of "content" you often get meh games like Hades or Cuphead

        >life experience doesn't matter

        The main reason why current indie game music sucks about as much as AA/AAA music is because they were born after popular music went to shit. And for the same reasons i wouldn't expect someone that spent a lot of time playing keck like Morrowind to ever be a good game developer, they'll end up making trash like Kenshi or some shit like that.

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          >current indie game music sucks about as much as AA/AAA music
          Do you wanna try that again, or do you GENUINELY believe that? Maybe it's because I'm not impressed inherently by an epic orchestral suite, but I absolutely disagree. I've played indie games that relied heavily on royalty-free music that left me with ten times the impression a AAA score ever did.
          Then again, there's like, hundreds of indie games released per second or something, so maybe you're right on average. I'd bet on it in fact. But who makes an argument like that?

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            I was thinking about big budget indies vs all AA/AAA titles, they are about on the same level with indies having slightly better soundtracks, overall not impressive and nothing comparable to the output in the 90s or even early 00s.

            • 5 months ago
              Anonymous

              I agree as far as the overall reduced output, but don't understand why you're focusing so much on "big budget indies". My entire argument started with "some guy who saw a thing and wanted to make more of that thing", not "some mid-sized company that so happens to be considered indie relative the giants that make up most of the industry decided it was time to make a thing-like".
              Then again, we did also have one-man shows with great music in the 00s- yes, plural, both Cave Story and Touhou meet that mark- so yeah, it's still a step down, but come on. It's not as bad as you're implying.

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          I like them polygons.

          What game

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            is picrel real translation?

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          What games?

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            Second is PS1 Lucky Luke (the 2D one), third is Power Stone

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          What game

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        There are two aspects to a creative product, the inspiration essence, and the filter through which you execute it.

        For example Shigeru's childhood experience is the inspiration essence for Zelda, and the way he could've executed it creatively are various media like games, books, comics, genres within them etc, Nintendo happened to pioneer a filter by making the game genre.

        Ideally the creative moment this inspires should have other creators also put their own life experiences as the inspiration essence through a game filter, but they're not doing that, they're taking the already existing filtered result of the Zelda game and filtering it again over and over.

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I don't see the issue. It sounds like the worst that can happen is that some people got the wrong impression out of Zelda. If you received the emotional payload the game was made with, filtering it back through the process of game development shouldn't have any adverse results.

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            Just like food is processed into excrement that isn't supposed to be processed anymore, just like training AI on already AI-generated content causes model collapse, so does creativity require a constantly new and fresh source of inspiration in order to produce worthwhile results. Making games that are only inspired by other games just results in abstraction and a game of telephone that removes the human touch that gave the original their appeal in the first place.

            • 5 months ago
              Anonymous

              I can name very few games where the appeal rests entirely on "the human touch". It's always appreciated, mind you, but it's literally the last thing to worry about- or rather, it's IMPOSSIBLE to worry about. Either your game has it or it doesn't, you can't inject it deliberately at any point. But it doesn't make or break a game, it only ever elevates an already-good one.
              Besides that, a game made by someone passionate about other games is still a game made by a passionate person, to me. By implying that passion for games is not equivalent to any other passion, you are denigrating the works you try to elevate.

              • 5 months ago
                Anonymous

                Post your failed game so we can laugh at it

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          This is absolutely correct, modern media is creatively incestuous

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        I'm just saying that early games weren't derivative of other games in their entirety. Inspired or influenced sure, but not wholly sourced from other games.

  14. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  15. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    You're probably old and they feel more authentic to you, cause you played old shit and have a feel for what's possible. Dw I'm old too.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      No it's evident across all media, internet corrupted the creative drive in culture

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        You still sound old. There is plenty of creative shit going on in the world you likely have no clue about unless you're in those scenes. You just don't like the mainstream crap thats shoved in your face. You also sound like a fricking South Park sketch with those remember berries or everything sounds like shit or w.e. its just being fricking old, lol. People probably said it about the printing press, television, etc.

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          Actually it's very apparent, if you don't notice it you might lack a soul yourself

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          [...]

          I'm a borderline zoomer/millennial and even I know gaming is mostly dogshit now because I play a lot of games from every era

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            So.. you're old. Lol. I was born in 1991. Isn't that about that time? Whats the zoomie start date? 95?

            Actually it's very apparent, if you don't notice it you might lack a soul yourself

            Well, better to lack a soul than cry about everything and be in a funk cause the world now sucks, I guess.

            • 5 months ago
              Anonymous

              I'm 24 gramps

              • 5 months ago
                Anonymous

                Das kewl. Enjoy your 6 more years of youth. Enjoy it.

              • 5 months ago
                Anonymous

                I disagree frendo. You don't magically stop being young at 30. This is a total meme. I'm reading a book set in 1910s Austria and the main character is constantly alluded to being quite young by various characters. He's 32. Maybe at 40 you'd have a point.

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          Imagine having such an astounding lack of self-awareness and yet being proud of it

          • 5 months ago
            Anonymous

            Plz elaborate.

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        >post 2010's internet corrupted the creative drive in culture

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          Really it was the smartphones and the influx of normalgays

  16. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because most indie devs are just as creatively bankrupt as AAA devs. But you knew that already.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      For many indie devs being "creatively bankrupt" aka making the exact same game over and over is a necessity since they'll go bankrupt otherwise, AAA devs don't have such an excuse and manage to make games that are even more copy and pasted.

  17. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    A lot of old devs were taking influences from random places and their own lives while thinking of how they could replicate or improve on them with the limitations of the time. Most indie games now are inspired by other games made by devs whose life experience amounts to having played games.
    I will say that in some cases finding some old japanese game with little info online adds to the mystery, you never know what you'll find next.

  18. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      >elemental words words words
      Black person don't try to bullshit me, it's egg

  19. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    What game?

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Inaka Gurashi - Minami no Shima no Monogatari

  20. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Let's consider three games and how they each use a simple linear corridor.

    Game A makes a simple bounding box checking for collision, in other words an invisible wall, and then dots the landscape with all manner of trinkets and things to gaze at. You have a straight line, but it's hard not to just stop and admire everything about that scene. Maybe there is a collectable, perhaps a combat encounter, but otherwise it's just there in space for you to enjoy and admire.

    Game B acknowledges that its mechanics preclude its atmosphere and fills an otherwise boring-looking hallway with boatloads of enemies, challenges, items and so on. The visual are simple and so is the structure, in an effort to put all of the player's attention on what their immediate challenge is. So while you see nothing but a hollowed-out rectangular prism, you never know what to expect inside of it.

    Game C wants to get the player from point A to point B, and because it can only have so many places with a scale like Game A and is not deep enough to even approach Game B in terms of scope, it uses the corridor as a means to an end. You see rock formations, walled paintings, suits of armor and so on as just assets, things to help make your journey less boring before the next set piece eventually arrives. It's not filler, there's usually some nebulous reason why the hallway feels so inert and lifeless, but it's not communicated and all you want is to move on.

    Guess which game modern devs end up making most of the time?

  21. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because 90s lowpoly was designed by teams of professional artists and modern lowpoly ranges from troony garbage to untextured memepoly

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      >lowpoly this
      >lowpoly that
      Stop with the pointless modern buzzwords, Timmy.

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        >pointless
        It has a clear meaning

  22. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because they were cheaper to make, so they were allowed to take risks and try things out.
    The devs didn't have publishers and consultants enforcing bullshit on them like they do today.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      All old games had publishers, otherwise they wouldn't have released to the public.

      The few who self-published in the 90s like Spiderweb Software relied on the dotcom boom and shareware market to spread word of mouth.

      Games are also cheaper to make nowadays, don't believe the fidelity hype. Those new Atelier games? Probably a budget of a few million... Yen.

  23. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because you want to appear cultured as a gamer, no other reason.

  24. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    What gaem is this?

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      read the thread moron

  25. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  26. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  27. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Why is her head squished?

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        It was the style at the time

  28. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because games use to be art. Now they are live service garbage meant to siphon all your time and money

  29. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  30. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  31. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Simple.
    Every single indie game is made to resemble something that was already made but never had a sequel or a normal genre that is already popular.
    Obscure games during the ps1-ps2 era were allowed to experiment and do whatever they wanted to see what sticks, a lot of times even encouraged.
    This and the fact that a lot of game devs at the time were influenced by things that had nothing to do with videogames, movies, life experiences, family, travels, music, feelings they had during some moments in their life.
    For comparison every single indie game nowadays is inspired by another popular videogame that we all already know because of that it doesn't feel as personal as older games.
    Every game now is trying to be Undertale or Rougelike, or Metroidvania, etc etc.
    Everything is trying to be something else, not the NEW thing. Just the NEXT thing by copying what came before.

    >TLDR: Old games were made with influence from different things, new indie games are made with inspiration from already popular games creating an inspiration loop making every game feel the same.

  32. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    It's kind of funny how the same type of person was into art and game development 20 years ago and today, but the nature of life back then meant you'll simply be spending more time outside or doing other shit because there wasn't infinite content to gouge on, creative types today never need to leave the house and get all their inspirational from existing media they're bombarded with online

  33. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Why would anyone post a screenshot of an obscure game without giving the title? If it's a scheme to get me to deign myself to ask, forget it. You're not getting a single (You) from me.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      its already been posted in the thread you illiterate monkey.

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      God I hate you morons that post without reading the thread. Drop dead you stupid Black person

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        what got your panties in a bunch? plenty of games without their titles. another poster above even asked.
        you lashing at me like a little incontinent b***h won't chamge the facts

        • 5 months ago
          Anonymous

          >wahh wahh calling people out for being moronic is BAD!!
          The fact it was even asked before you asked makes it even worse. "Lashing out" at you (aka justifiably reprimanding you for being moronic) will make sure you don't shit up future threads

  34. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  35. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      The light in this scene is something else, and yet it's still crisp and readable, what a concept

  36. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Looks AI

  37. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    limitations bring out creativity
    also, most indie devs are pozzed homosexuals who pander to (p)redditors so they naturally create shit games with no soul

  38. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    name 5

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      There's more than 5 posted ITT

  39. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because things weren't as standardized and you could play something potentially fun and interesting with a cohesive artistic vision made by a bunch of talented nerds. There was also a chance the game would be shit, but you had a decent shot of finding something great. That happens sometimes with indies now, but not that often.

  40. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Indie games have the issue that they are largely limited to 2d, they can't make games like pic related, not enough of them anyway, the tech is not there to allow si gke devs to do that realistically.

  41. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  42. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  43. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  44. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Popolocroix?

  45. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Modern games are bad because there's 0 talent or creatives and those who value game design of ye olde are nothing but moronic manchildren who shit themselves over a 1:1 copy of a old game but with worse music

  46. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      This is ugly-aesthetic in a way that reminds me of Middens, only more authentic

  47. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    > OLD GOOD NEW BAD

    frick off boomers

    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Was like this from the beginning of the era, idiot. One generation builds, 3 generations stagnate, 1 generation ruins. There is a small chance that totally new people start building again.

  48. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    Because those games were made by a real passionate dev team the believed in what the do. Indieslop it's usually a game made by 1 arrogant person who rehashes some old game with modern tricks aka roguelite or some activities with the community

  49. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      Whats the left game?

      • 5 months ago
        Anonymous

        Left alundra
        Right alundra 2

  50. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    older games tried to be games. indie games try to be "art" or "experiences" which does not merit me paying money for that gay shit

  51. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    >no one posts game titles with their pics anymore
    my mission is complete.

  52. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  53. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  54. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    what are some old games like the old harry potter pc games? games with those clunky graphics and the earlier attempts at third person m+kb controlling. Not looking for any sweatlord games trying to nostalgia bait like overkill

  55. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  56. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  57. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
  58. 5 months ago
    Anonymous

    For me, it's Mega Man Legends

  59. 5 months ago
    Anonymous
    • 5 months ago
      Anonymous

      >sickos

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