Limitations improve games

Viewing single post

Started by Legend, Mar 31, 2020, 06:48 AM

previous topic - next topic

Legend

The developer behind Spelunky put out this great post INDIE GAME DEV: DEATH LOOPS

The TLDR of it is that a scaled back finished game is better than a game that never releases.

It's really great and does a good job showing what I went through with VizionEck back then.


I'd take this a step further and say that specific limitations can actually improve games.

There are many examples from old games, such as Mario having a mustache to make his nose visible in pixelart. They're harder to find in modern games however because talking about limitations tends to be bad PR. One exception I can think of is the continuous camera in 2018's God of War. The entire game had to be designed around this new rule set and at least imo it paid off. With The Forged Kingdoms an easy example is my flat world. It was nothing more than a time saving measure at first yet it has made the game significantly more iconic.

Are there any examples you can think of? I don't think it's a super controversial statement to make yet I've had a hard time finding anything specific to it and video games on googl.e