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I’m only making business card sized games now

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Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#71

Post by ToFab123 »

ehnto wrote: post #56
ToFab123 wrote: post #54

When I was a kid in the 1970's games came in a credit card sized form factor. Pacman, donkey Kong, (MAME types of games). We all had a bunch of these games with us in our bags. Each device could play one specific game.

I remember the orange coloured casing for the donkey kong game we had in the house. It was my mothers, and I eventually grew up with the original Game Boy. But it was my first game device and I played it religiously.

yeah, me too ))

Here is how it looked like. Donkey Kong has dual screens. Most other games only one.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Ni...

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#72

Post by jniedrauer »

meditate wrote: post #14
jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

I personally reject "hours of enjoyment" as a metric for value and depth of a purchased game. It's good to hear that you've had positive experiences, but the dark side is that for many it drifts towards being an addictive time-suck that eats money for nothing in return.

> an addictive time-suck that eats money for nothing in return.

You just described mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing, running a marathon, skydiving, surfing, scuba diving, and just about every other amateur athletic pursuit.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#73

Post by Scarbutt »

ToFab123 wrote: post #70
munificent wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why play videogames at all? What does that accomplish?

Does it have to accomplish anything? Isn't it OK with you to do something for no other reason than is fun?

Isn't it OK with you to do something for no other reason than is fun?

That was his point.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#74

Post by munificent »

Scarbutt wrote: post #73
ToFab123 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it have to accomplish anything? Isn't it OK with you to do something for no other reason than is fun?

Isn't it OK with you to do something for no other reason than is fun? That was his point.

Ding ding ding!

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#75

Post by meditate »

jniedrauer wrote: post #72
meditate wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally reject "hours of enjoyment" as a metric for value and depth of a purchased game. It's good to hear that you've had positive experiences, but the dark side is that for many it drifts towards being an addictive time-suck that eats money for nothing in return.

> an addictive time-suck that eats money for nothing in return. You just described mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing, running a marathon, skydiving, surfing, scuba diving, and just about every other amateur athletic pursuit.

I won't deny that. With the exception of long-distance running, all of those are cost-prohibitive luxury activities, just like gaming.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#76

Post by Tarean »

dymk wrote: post #66
m463 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some games do have a dark side, crafted by the creators to hook into the psyche of the players. I talked to a developer of a popular free-to-play game, and he told me of many of the psychological hooks they use in their game. Exploitation of hoarding behavior, community fame for specific players, random occurrences that are carefully scripted, etc. Nowadays it's hard to find games free of ulterior motives. Ye…

Videogames have always had "money mixed in", profitable videogame studios are as old as videogames themselves, and your glasses are just rose tinted. I'm not even sure what kind of "old" game you're picturing that you think didn't have "money mixed in" - tetris? pong? goldeneye?

There is money in getting players addicted to increase revenue. The oldest example of that might be WoW but that was far less manipulative nor focused kn whales like many mobile games nowadays are.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#77

Post by Zeebrommer »

dymk wrote: post #66
m463 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some games do have a dark side, crafted by the creators to hook into the psyche of the players. I talked to a developer of a popular free-to-play game, and he told me of many of the psychological hooks they use in their game. Exploitation of hoarding behavior, community fame for specific players, random occurrences that are carefully scripted, etc. Nowadays it's hard to find games free of ulterior motives. Ye…

Videogames have always had "money mixed in", profitable videogame studios are as old as videogames themselves, and your glasses are just rose tinted. I'm not even sure what kind of "old" game you're picturing that you think didn't have "money mixed in" - tetris? pong? goldeneye?

I guess the difference is that classic videogames make their money by a single purchase upfront. Modern MMO/F2P games need the player to get hooked and spend their money on loot boxes and outfits.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#78

Post by nearbuy »

bitwize wrote: post #58
jrockway wrote: post #3

> We all know that modern games have become bloated, weighed down by useless features, achievements, anti piracy measures, piles of assets, and other junk. Not only that but developers are constantly taken advantage of, made to crunch for no pay, mass layoffs, etc. Lives have been ruined, and for what? So you could watch your horse poop or play dominoes in an open world game? I am not sure that it's fair to compare a…

> I've played something like 1500 hours of Overwatch that I bought for $30. The depth of the game is just spectacular, and it keeps you coming back to play more. They add new heroes and new maps regularly. The core game itself is fun. I've made many friends. I met my girlfriend in that game. A lot of people could say many of the same things about Nethack -- or MUDs. Neither of which are business-card-sized, but they'…

Currently at about 200,000 lines of code, I'd say Nethack is much closer in size to the AAA games. Doom 3 was only about 360,000 including the engine.

Re: I’m only making business card sized games now

#79

Post by pushpop »

Zeebrommer wrote: post #77
dymk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Videogames have always had "money mixed in", profitable videogame studios are as old as videogames themselves, and your glasses are just rose tinted. I'm not even sure what kind of "old" game you're picturing that you think didn't have "money mixed in" - tetris? pong? goldeneye?

I guess the difference is that classic videogames make their money by a single purchase upfront. Modern MMO/F2P games need the player to get hooked and spend their money on loot boxes and outfits.

Arcades were a thing before home consoles. The entire premise of an arcade is to get people hooked on short tasks of intermediate reward so they keep churning their coins into the machine.
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