Was being a video game designer easier in the 90's?
No. The standards where pretty high, and learning coding was fucking hard.
Look at the early 3D games: Almost nobody had any idea wtf they where doing.
no it was harder because you actually had to use your imagination rather than load up game engine 2000, turn on bloom and add in iron sights
>>268263379
>Nobody knows how this genre will work in 3D
>You need to figure it out
And that's how Bubsy 3D happened
>>268263570
This. Image getting a devkit in 1994. Playstation is going to reach the western marked in 1995, and you have 2 years to mash together games and figure out how to do 3D.
The N64 launched in the west in 1996, with Mario.
Mario did a lot of things right, at which point any games after Mario is going to try to copy what Mario did right.
You have the same for a lot of Playstation games as well. Wipeout is fairly simple, but it set a benchmark.
>>268263572
I done well, every game genre is more intense in 3D
Technical limitations were higher, but there were no expectations of realism, cinematic bullshit, or having to structure games around business models. They could just focus on making things fun.
Nowadays, unless you're indie or Japanese, you can't do arcadey gameplay.
>>268263570
Dont act like there werent tons of simple Mario copycat platformers in the 90s. Once someone found something that sold back then, lots of people tried to copy it same as today.
>>268263379
Yes. You didn't have to pander to every single subculture.
>>268263379
I never realized how blue Gex was on the back. I only played the first and third games.
>>268263379
gex 2 is an underrated gem
>>268263379
What makes games need WAY more people to make than before? I assume graphics? give me good games with shit graphics consoles goddammit
>>268265012
>give me good games with shit graphics consoles
they already do ;^)
>>268264856
Mario was 2 years after the playstation was out. That means that copycats only started getting around in 1997.
And the Playstation could not do 3D as well, so there was lots of issues.
>dat drawdistance
So this is the power of the PS1....
>>268263379
Based gex 3d
>So this is never-neverland. You'd never guess it from the outside
>>268265223
>tfw merifats had to listen to that shitty murrikan voice acting
The supreme British James Bond voice made Gex 100% better
>>268265068
Nah, maybe 720p is shit for you kiddies. Of course I don't WANT terrible graphics by themselves, but if it means 80% of the budget is directed towards making better art/gameplay/content then yes
>>268265265
?
I know the voice actors for 3d and deep cover were different but I didnt know different regions had different voices
Game developers aren't suddenly gonna make god tier games just if don't have to make better graphics anymore. Most games will still be mediocre/below average.
>>268265089
I mean back even further, like on the SNES. How many platformers did that system have? Every franchise seemed to get one.
>>268263379
Nope, smaller teams for a starter. AAA games for example would have somewhere around 30 people working on them (only exeption I can think of is Ocarina of time) So that meant most jobs consisted of programming stuff where nowadays you can have a person on your 300 people team doing textures in photoshop.
Which is also why 90's games are considered the golden age of gaming, because smaller teams meant people worked closer together.
Add to that that 90's consoles were notoriously hard to program for, rather then copypasting some stuff in Unity.
>>268265265
This. Goddamn, I lost my disc so I decided to emulate it instead. I stopped playing when I realized it had a shitty american voice actor. Damn, why did they pick such a weak sounding faggot?
>>268265413
The 3rd game adopted the shitty murrika voice actor has his main voice.
>>268265490
Every cartoon
Every movie
Every Disney series
>>268265490
I miss all those 2D platformers
Not saying they weren't simple to make IDK but they were FUN
Now you can get one every now and then on PC but it's just not the same
>>268265639
Most of them are below average. Just a clone of a clone.
>limited hardware power requiring lots of optimization(even on PC)
>usually have to write your own engine from scratch
>sound/graphic/animation tools not as advanced and easy to use as today
>lower overall amount of gamers
Seems much harder to me.
>>268265487
>just if don't have to make better graphics anymore
>>268265265
I'm Brit and I am quite sure I remember an American accent. Will need to go replay anyway.
side question.
why did DK64 have that weird power pack thing you had to switch out that was impossible to remove
>>268265892
A bug in the game's code caused the game to crash at random intervals without the expension pack inserted in the n64. Which is why they shipped the game with the expension pack.
>>268265892
More ram.
>>268265674
3D tools didn't get good until somewhere after 2002. Creating exporters, and using them is still a pain.
>>268265810
My bad.
>If they suddenly don't have to make better graphics anymore.
Most game developers don't know how to make fun engaging games. Most never did.
>>268266594
Hey kid.
>>268265413
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0680587/
>>268263379
from what i heard
you had to deal with file sizes and compression
one reason why people went for the ps1 is because CDs had better storage and were cheaper
>>268268292
>you had to deal with file sizes and compression
this is just one out of 1000 things you have to do to be able to make a game on a console
>>268265576
No, that was an entirely different actor. The US has the same VA for all three games.
The first game share the same VA for both US and UK. Then, the second game has James Bond guy for the UK, and then the third has some balck guy doing it for UK.
>>268268292
Also more complete technical documentation(Rare had to fucking reverse engineer N64 to do what they've did), no cache-related texture issues(that's the real reason why textures on N64 looked like shit) and more friendly 3rd party policy.
Nintendo thought they were gods when they've released N64, see how it turned out.
>>268264841
>or having to structure games around business models
This is an expectation exclusive to the publishers. Customers expect none of this. Good proof that the publishers are not acting in the interest of their customers, and should as such be boycotted
Developers should only be able to use low poly graphics until the engine and levels are finished, that way they won't be blinded by the graphics.
>>268265674
>lots of optimization
Don't do that, that phrase is meaningless.
Thanks, doc.
>>268269414
Well, id had to employ assembler programmer for optimising Quake so I wouldn't say that it's that meaningless.
>>268268292
>CDs had better storage
Look at the size of the data tracks on your old PSX games. Developers had no idea what to do with all that space, pissed it away on CDDA and FMV instead. The actual game data is often in the range of 5 - 50MB
>>268269336
You do realize that's what 99% of the level designers do?
>>268265674
Game Designer =|= Game Coder.
Protip: There's multiple roles in the game development industry.
>>268269527
true but the cds were still cheaper than carts
>>268264841
Most 3D games were locked at 30fps and below though, I know it was an early thing, that's why the ps2/gcn era had all those fantastic looking games at 60fps, but still some were 30fps solely to increase graphical power.
>>268263379
All they had to do was make it fun. There wasn't some silent demand for cutting edge cinematics with lifelike graphics. You would run around a tiny, brightly coloured area killing simple enemies and collecting random shit that made no difference to anything.
I wish we could go back.
>>268269516
The phrase is meaningless because there's no such thing as general optimization. There are conflicting targets of optimization. You can lower memory usage by increasing CPU usage (just in time computations), for example. Optimizations does not mean "does more" in any meaningful way.
Assembly is still used if you need fine grained control, just like scripting languages are used when you need to ... get this, optimize for flexibility. Yes, using a slow as molasses scripting language on the upper layer of your game is an optimization.
Just a little back I saw a presentation on memory structures on the PS3. Rearranging the world transform basically quadrupled the computation speed of that particular function. That's optimization, and you'd never even see it, because it's "expected"
So, "lots of optimization" means nothing. It's still there, it shifted. Oh, and asm is not a magic bullet. In many cases it's far more efficient to rely on the compiler. The PS3 example up there was resolved entirely by changing the involved algorithm, no asm needed at all.
Oh fuck, Gex 3D: Enter The Gecko. I have that. Never knew there was anything but the "oh hello" James Bond voice, but ... it grates after a bit. It's also quite annoying as a game.
And I don't think design is really any harder or easier. Programming is both easier and harder, because there's more stuff to do it with, but more complex assets and crap to actually throw around and expectations are much higher, which is why you get the retro indie pixel art thing.
>>268263379
It was fucking hard as shit.
And this is someone who's dad tried to get into the shareware games market back in the early 90s.
I had to spend weekends driving around with my dad buying floppy disks and helping him load, pack and ship each game to it's respective customer.
He used to have to call computer magazines walk into computer stores and beg them to put his games in their back catalogs.
And don't get me started on when customers would demand patches.
It was fucking ridiculous amount of work to get off the ground compared to nowadays.
>>268269743
Production cost, yes. It's questionable though if we got a better deal out of it. We "paid" for CDs in the form of extremely high loading times, of highly fragile media. The price of the games was largely the same. The industry pocketed the difference.
>>268269414
Don't do that, you don't know what you're talking about.
>>268269414
You are fucking retarded.
>>268263379
At least we can be sure that fucking game devs were actually developing shit. Nowadays it seems all the big names spend all day on social media, arguing with their customers and making an ass out of themselves.
>>268269952
No, 15/12.5 was way more common, and holy crap all that graphics RAM you didn't have.
>>268263572
There are no good Bubsy games. I have the Atari Jaguar one, Bubsy: Fractured Furry Tales, and it's... well, it's everything the Atari Jaguar is famous for, I'm afraid.
(At least the Jag has some good games. Tempest 2000, Alien vs. Predator, Iron Soldier... eh, that's about it actually.)
>>268270036
Game design =|= Distribution of games
Game design =|= Publishing of games
Your post has nothing to do with OPs question, which was about game designers.
Holy fuck does no one around here understand the difference between the job roles in this industry.
>>268270262
>No, 15/12.5 was way more common, and holy crap all that graphics RAM you didn't have.
That was the PC. The 2D consoles had 60fps hardlocked and the 3D consoles went with 30 or 60fps
>>268270561
Most of my N64 games run at like 25 fps, not sure if its my N64 or what, seems like an odd number to be locked at
>>268269971
I'd just like to interject for a moment.
What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
>>268270301
he coded, designed and distributed the fucking games himself you retard.
that's the point i was trying to make.
independent developers have amazingly easier distribution avenues thanks to the internet compared to the 90s, so it was technically harder if you wanted to be an independent game designer back then.
>>268270746
PAL has a 50Hz refresh rate. 25fps is half of that. The European 30fps, so to say.
I liked Gex.
>>268270859
Which probably makes up for better games since only dedicated people get to make them
>>268269516
Abrash was half the driving force behind Quake's design, not just someone there to squeeze 5% performance gains out of nearly-finished code.
>>268264856
Mario copycat platformers still require someone to program the physics engine, manually set up the platforms and stage layout, and manually create the character art designs. Today, you have video game engines which handle all the physics work and modeling software to help with producing visuals, to say nothing about the pre-made assets available. It is far easier today for someone to put together a game than it was when they needed to literally do everything themselves from scratch.
>>268270962
Keep in mind, these dedicated people still exist, and still produce quality games. Next to them though are a couple thousand get-rich-quick retards and AAA publishers, that pollute the market. That makes it harder to find the quality made by the dedicated folks. It's not gone though
>>268269952
>Most 3D games were locked at 30fps and below though
They weren't capped.
>>268264983
>>268265223
I have the N64 version. I remember liking it but I played it recently and it runs at about 5fps making it very hard to play.
>>268271041
they don't get it. The kind of people that scream "optimization" are oblivous to what's done, and what impact it has (and doesn't have)
>>268270869
Hm... so that's why my cousin sold me his n64
>>268270962
I'd say the amount of quality has stayed the same.
People here look at 90s gaming with nostalgia glasses and forget how much shovelware shit came out on a daily basis back then.
Packs like this were everywhere, and about 90% of the games on them were absolute shit.
If anything, these days its better because we have much more resources to smell out the bullshit before buying something.
Back then you basically just crossed your fingers and hoped you liked it.
>>268270036
Yeah all you have to do now is either:
a) already be an industry giant
b) build a Twitter persona where you pander to awful people screaming and harassing due to the latest trendy moral outrage
c) both of the above
>>268270262
There's also Rayman, which was planned to be a Jaguar exclusive and it looks great.
>>268265265
He was fine, you pakishit
His goofy voice fits gex
>>268271392
>If anything, these days its better because we have much more resources to smell out the bullshit before buying something.
And at the same time worse, because instead of sifting through 250 games on a CD, you now need to sift through 25000 games on a games site/online store. We end up relying on third party info, like "ratings", to pre-filter the mess. That leaves the chance though that we miss out on unrated gems
>>268271481
except that's not true at all. stop drinking the /v/ paranoia koolaid.
All you need a a well-developed product and a distribution service like Steam.
There are tons of independent success stories these days, except you don't see them because they don't create drama on this board.
the tools for creating assets were much more primitive back then, not to mention the jump from 2D to 3D being hard to grasp gameplay wise
>>268271551
Jaguar was the native platform? Can it be reliably emulated? I tried to play the PSX version, but it felt cheap and incomplete. The DOS version thoroughly clashes with DOSBox, since they still can't framelock their emulated GPU
>>268269971
The right answer.
>>268271710
>the jump from 2D to 3D being hard to grasp gameplay wise
Ironically the most successful "solutions" were 2D again. The common movement technique nowadays is a camera control stick, and another stick to move the character in screen space, instead of full 3D
You guys should look up Yoshiaki Koizumi's lecture about game design on Youtube. He goes into detail about how he and Miyamoto figured out some early problems with 3D, camera, etc. in Mario 64 and OoT that still influence games to this day.
>>268271902
What the heck. I'll post pt.1:
http://youtu.be/zdUCJlfa-hE
>>268271753
Nope, I'm afraid not. Haven't found a decent Jaguar emulator to this day. The hardware is just a mess to try to emulate I'm afraid.
>>268271902
Mind giving a quick rundown on some of the problems?
>>268271902
>OoT
This was a good game.
>>268265012
I remember reading an interview of a guy working in a large game development team and he said that he didn't even know what some of the other guys were actually doing or why the fuck they were employed in the first place.
You really don't need a huge amount of people to throw out a decent looking game.
Just look at Croteam, Flying Wild Hog or ACE Team - all of them made games that only have a fraction of the man power and budget of AAA titles behind them and still look freaking good and/or creative.
>>268271657
>All you need a a well-developed product and a distribution service like Steam.
And luck and social media relations. If the product goes viral it will provide income for between a month and several years. If it does not go viral it will stay in pretty much absolute obscurity.
>There are tons of independent success stories these days
Do you know of any that didn't involve PR on Twitter and other places?
>stop drinking the /v/ paranoia koolaid.
Just going by my own experience.
>>268271597
>And at the same time worse, because instead of sifting through 250 games on a CD, you now need to sift through 25000 games on a games site/online store.
If you can't pair down your own taste, cannot understand what you enjoy in games these days and look for that, and cannot look up gameplay for a video game your interested in on youtube, maybe you shouldn't be playing games in the first place.
>That leaves the chance though that we miss out on unrated gems
Newsflash anon: you're always going to miss out on gems. You're not omnipotent. But they aren't going anywhere. So what if you discover it year later? your still going to be able to play it.
>>268272169
>And luck and social media relations
just like before.
>If it does not go viral it will stay in pretty much absolute obscurity.
You don't have a shelf life, so it can get out of obscurity at any time.
>Do you know of any that didn't involve PR on Twitter and other places?
Why? Twitter is like a private broadcast. It's a highly effective mechanism to get the word out, with extremely low costs. Just like the internet enabled "free" distribution, albeit with limits, Twitter allows "free" marketing, albeit with limits. These are means to bring your product to a wider audience, at lower costs. Of course this means higher competition, thanks to everybody else being in the same position. But it's an opportunity
>>268272339
>If you can't pair down your own taste
You say that like it's a necessity, and exactly that's the problem. Self created "taste bubbles" make us ignorant to stuff that we might enjoy but will never find.
>cannot understand what you enjoy in games
I can. I still need to evaluate thousands of games whether they fit what I like, unless someone else does the pre-filtering for me.
>and cannot look up gameplay for a video game your interested in
That's again more research and time "wasted" on what is orders of magnitude more games, good, bad and very bad, compared to the old CDs
>So what if you discover it year later?
What if I won't? Because next year another 10000 games came out, requiring me to sift through them. Maybe that gem is already prefiltered by my perceived "taste"?
I don't think you understood the problem. You implicitely perform all the filtering, you even mentioned it, without realizing it. That filtering is necessary because of the sheer volume, and it makes it harder to be open, and drowns out the quality
>>268272035
I haven't watched it in a while, but he discusses how they figured out to put the shadow directly under Mario to help the player platform more accurately in 3D space.
He explains how he came up with Z-targetting.
There's stuff about camera too and other things I can't remember. I'll probably watch it again right now.
>>268272169
Do you fucking honestly believe that the only way to survive in this industry is having to go "viral" and drudging up internet drama?
Am I reading this correctly?
>>268272758
the shadow is indeed a necessary cue that was developed at the time. It's why we still don't have, or hardly have any, pure 3D games, where the perception of depth is necessary. Our 2D output makes it a real pain in the arse. Even on the 3D output of the 3DS I'm not aware of games actually using the depth as gameplay element
>>268272848
Yes, either of those two.
I dunno games are easier to make nowadays.
but people are snootier than ever.
you could make a great game and have one word misspelled in the dialogue and someone would say the entire game was shit.
