@justin258: Yeah I don't disagree at all. At some point IMO as a dev you should be happy with your game being finite and crafted but I just think that is why developers do that right now. It's trendy and they are swinging for what's hot.
I have amateur experience in programming games myself and you can see pretty quickly the appeal of creating systems that generate content. It's all a matter of execution as to how good it is, but it is different.
I can think of different games where I totally agree with your thinking. Usually it can make a lot of experiences more shallow and so I don't want to keep playing your game at all lol.
It's a random example and a niche game, but Black Closet is a game that generates the cases you get and it makes them unpredictable but also not that interesting, with cool hooks you would write if you were hand crafting more things. It just comes to mind because you can really see how it is generating things (and I like that genre) and I can't help but feel like you can make way better mystery/detective cases if you sit down and write them.
Deus Ex is my favorite game because of the level design so I am with you on that.
I do think though it will keep getting better as a technique and that will be really interesting to watch.
EDIT: also one more example: the Witcher 3 was actually a game with generated content. They did that because of the scale. But at some point CDProjekt sat down and said none of this is good enough, so they took all the time to hand craft that content (which took a lot of effort over years). Sometimes you can't beat the hard work.
Is anyone else kind of getting the feeling that people are making these "rogue-lite" games as a way to make shorter games without specific level designs?
I don't think because of it. I think the main appeal to developers is if people like your game a lot it can always keep being played again and again (and thus provide consistent income and build a fanbase). And for programmers and devs, it can actually be less work over time. It is very time consuming to hand craft things vs figure out how to develop systems that generate content. It's quite time consuming, and difficult, to do generation well also but I think that's the main reasoning.
Also, putting a Metroidvania of any variety out right next to an actual Metroid game sounds like a really bad idea, though I guess there are more people with PC's that can run something like this than people with 3DS's.
"Didn't like that Samus was a girl". C'mon Vinny. I don't think it looks good either but that's lame to say. It just looks like any number of SNES or Genesis games like Alien Storm or Splatterhouse or even Contra or Shinobi III had that going on in parts.
"The Thing" type aesthetic was big back then, I feel like particularly on the Genesis. Even Altered Beast, the first boss is a big mound of flesh that rips off his face and throws it at you.
LOL. GOTY becoming about what is the zeitgeist game in addition to the other arguments... it's gonna be rough. That really is awful reasoning. If he didn't say he liked Zelda that much I would get it.
I mean, I think Hitman kind of had that last year too though. They say that wasn't a factor (them all playing it all year long on the site) but I find it extremely hard to believe it wasn't (and it SHOULD be a factor).
Yeah, I too found their denial to be suspiciously specific. While playing a game all year definitely should come into consideration, I personally don't think it should be the major factor. Otherwise GOTY just devolves into whatever the popular online multiplayer experience is that year, or other relevant long-runner.
I agree with your thinking overall. I do put a lot of weight on returning to something but when it comes to leaving your second favorite game ever off you've gone too far.
For a guy who says this stuff doesn't matter, Jeff does get oddly pedantic about his own made-up rules sometimes.
All this kind of stuff matters to him and always has, he just says it doesn't. He got very worked up during GOTY last year lol.
Last year honestly it seemed like an easy way out of tougher discussions when it was happening. I don't think you can avoid early access so much anymore and act like you are representing the games market. I bet it comes out this year anyways.
As far as what Dan meant, I think he meant it was a group thing (them all playing and counting everything bigger going on with the game. The fact that a weird tactical shooter with a different set up won them all over. That is fine to me but if you like Zelda THAT much it is why it's something to scratch your head about.
Dan doesn't break when people are saying, it's really at 1:32:00 or so when the camera sucks, he is struggling with the controls, and he says he must have "put on some They Live glasses? I'm getting mad and feel like this game is bad at times. That can't be right"
Coming to America absolutely holds up. John Landis used to be so damn good. I love Trading Places (thats got some corny shit, like a little Dan Akroyd blackface), but Coming to America is still really fucking good.
Yep, it's still a funny movie.
It's so annoying to hear GB talk about any old media basically at this point. If it feels older (cause you know, it is) it "doesn't hold up" and that's all the discussion is. It's become a big pet peeve of mine because the people who do it think they are being heady when they say it or perceptive and they are saying nothing. Older movies have different pacing, we know.
Dan's argument about why PUBG is his GOTY even though Zelda might be his favorite game of all time makes zero fucking sense and will infuriate me up to and including when he tries to explain it on the GOTY Podcasts
LOL. GOTY becoming about what is the zeitgeist game in addition to the other arguments... it's gonna be rough. That really is awful reasoning. If he didn't say he liked Zelda that much I would get it.
I mean, I think Hitman kind of had that last year too though. They say that wasn't a factor (them all playing it all year long on the site) but I find it extremely hard to believe it wasn't (and it SHOULD be a factor).
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