Why is it so hard to make an original two-dimensional game?

M

minx

CAGiversary!
I was looking over my IGN collection in an effort to put together my top five GBA games during another topic, and I realized that most of them are direct ports from other systems, or indirect ports of gameplay style originating on other systems. It makes me sad to think that innovation in two-dimensional gameplay is dead, so can anyone think of games that have innovative game design exclusive to portable systems ?
 
[quote name='minx']I was looking over my IGN collection in an effort to put together my top five GBA games during another topic, and I realized that most of them are direct ports from other systems, or indirect ports of gameplay style originating on other systems. It makes me sad to think that innovation in two-dimensional gameplay is dead, so can anyone think of games that have innovative game design exclusive to portable systems ?[/quote]

the original topic wouldnt have been at DCR now would it ;)
 
This is where I'm supposed bat my eyelashes and look innocent, right?

Let me go get my mascara and get back to you on that ;-)
 
[quote name='minx']This is where I'm supposed bat my eyelashes and look innocent, right?

Let me go get my mascara and get back to you on that ;-)[/quote]

SWEET!!!

I think hand helds that most games that played on a snes worked fine for hand helds also so why create something new when you can port the old and make more money. The only difference I've seen with handheld games is that its normally a lot easier to save since its assumed you wont be playing for a long time in a row.
 
It's also a pain in the ass to draw everything by hand and then animate it. *sarcasm

nah the reason is because everyone wants everything in 3D with bells and whistles and stuff. Thats why SCEA usually doesn't allow 2D ports onto the PS2; because 2Ds don't rake in remotely as much profit as 3D. I also think SCEA thinks 2D games may make PS2's look bad or something wack. It's a real shame to see casual gamers look past 2D all the time. Some of the best games I ever played were 2D. Some of the best games came way before a time where it took 2 hours to actually play the damn thing.
 
Not to belittle your idea but what 3-d games have been innovative? Every game today seems to be the same as the last one with more eye candy.
 
Innovation in general has always been difficult. Original ideas just don't come around that often. Some very popular games in recent years have been without a shred of originality but they was strikingly good implementations of the ideas they embodied. The same can be said for most films.

2D games especially in the first fifteen years from the Atari VCS to the Sega and nintendo 16-bit systems may seem highly innovative but when you're starting from zero that isn't saying much. Halfway through, in the NES era, truly new ideas were already rare. How many NES games are just Double Dragon variants, Castlevania variants, Super Mario variants, etc.?

The market remains for original ideas and you're welcome to try designing a product if you think you have an idea. It may be hard to get a major publisher's attention but a lot can be done with Flash these days to create a working demo.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']Not to belittle your idea but what 3-d games have been innovative? Every game today seems to be the same as the last one with more eye candy.[/quote]

some innovative 3-D games from my personal collection, in the context of the time they were re-leased anyway. Some of these innovations are now considered commonplace.

Katamari Damacy
Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color
Stretch Panic
Otogi: Myth of Demons
GUNVALKYRIE
Steel Battalion
Floigan Brothers
Seaman
Tomb Raider
NiGHTS into Dreams
Crazy Taxi
Tecmo's Deception
Jumping Flash
Cubivore
 
I thought Mario and Luigi had a decent amount of innovation in it. Though the concept of timed attacks was already in SMPRG and Paper Mario, they really took it to a new level with the Bros. Combos and the field commands.
 
There's less people in the industry who work with 2d so it's hard to make 2d games. IGN had an article on it a while back when Aria of Sorrow was released. Something about how long and hard it is to work with the sprites has drived people to shift to 3d (even if it's 2.5d).
 
I'd ahve to agree with rockhero, there's been a lot of time with many different people making 2D and it's ahrder to amke something new then. As for creatvie 2D games, I've heard Alien Hominid is creative, but I've never played.
 
First of all look at the platform, a GBA. It's not made to be the most powerful thing out there it was made to be a idle time device, something to do when you cant do anything else. As such the games have to be simple yet engaging. Ports of old games are cheap and dont require an excess of interaction, can be jumped in and out of quickly and with little fuss.

As for innovation is 2D, the problem I see is in interaction. in a 2d game you can only go up down left or right. after that you have to come up with something to DO once you go there. So you have to have a player character or Avatar of some sort and give it actions based on it's design and the world around it as well as restrictions on those actions.

after awhile you;re going to run out of fresh ideas for actions and restrictions unless you come up with new player avatars which can innitiate new ideas for actions but even THEN you're going to run out of fresh ideas eventually... and the video game industry's already been at it for more than 20 years is 2 Dimensions. They're lucky to have 3D at this point! unfortunatly sometimes they arnt trying hard enough at using the extra D to their advantage or dont even know HOW to. (granted there are some great exceptions to that or we wouldnt be HERE would we?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top