Now when 12 hour open world games have become the standard, how plausible is it for one person to recreate small simple games like Crash 1 per say? If so how long? Over a year? It took Naughty Dog a whole year, so wouldn’t recreating that game single handedly now be an incredible leap!? But why hasn’t any one done that then?
I just wanna know where we are now as indies and why it took so long to make something as basic as crash. I know It was one of the first games to feature full 3D roaming in third person but what were the hurdles with doing that then apposed to now?
I’m sorry for so many questions but I have looked all over the internet and nothing is comparing the current capabilities to old classics and I’m fascinated of the idea of making a game like the ones you played when you were a kid. Not retro games as I’m pretty young and only played Spyro like games as a kid.
It mainly took a long time back then to make games like this because of lack of tools.
yes there were tools, but nothing like Unity is today. Back then, everything was done very differently than it is today. Things like Unity didn’t exist. They had their primary engine (that most likely they created) specific to the needs they were going after. That’s the only primary thing I can think of. Aside from Aesthetics that they tried to mash into it to make the environment seem proper, memory management, texture sizes, and so on.
Today we still have to worry about all the above, however - we aren’t limited into what we can and can’t do really, unless you’re doing better quality graphics than AAA games today, then you have to really worry about the limitations, but also depends what you target your games for as well, pretty much working with Android, etc. Would be almost equivilent to the old PS1 games in terms of graphical fidelity, texture sizes, etc. Not saying they are the same, but it’s a good comparison I think to work with. But in todays world, we have pretty much free tools for everything you need, and they work pretty well, so time is your biggest enemy in this field - but yes I can make a game (lets say a single level) like crash in less than a week. (Custom Art, Scripts, Animations, SFX, Music, etc).
Can a super talented individual make a polished game with gameplay, art, level design, etc? Probably.
Can a single person make a game like crash? If you used the same tech they did, probably not. If you use unity and keep the scale of the project low, then sure.
That is so cool tho and inspiring! I wounder why no indie companies are targeting platformers. I wish I could just start now! But doing something like that takes dedication and most comfortably a basic team.
Rebuilding crash now would be more constrained by content creation then by engine abilities. The actual engine in crash is pretty trivial by today’s standards. A competent unity coder could put the core together in less then a month. (Possibly quicker, it’s been a while since I dug into it.)
But you would still be waiting on level design and artwork.
There actually are indies working on platformers. I’ve played at least three at recent IGDA meet ups. And if there are three in the playtest stage locally, then there are probably hindereds in various stages of development worldwide.
Started reading this, I had forgotten but they got help from Mark Cerny. When you get help from Mark Cerny you can expect the full on Mark Cerny treatment where boundaries have no meaning.
Beyond engine, content, etc., is design and QA. One of those awesome levels which flows so well might have been built and played, tweaked and replayed, by multiple people for hundreds of iterations.
Sit down with your self and plan how you would create this game. Think of what your game would be about, what are your strengths & weaknesses are. Figure out what you can do by yourself, and when you would need help with others, Figure out the time frame that you would like to release your game. Once you figure all of these out and the game looks feasible, then your good to go. If not, then scrap the idea. Oh and make sure you properly document your game scene by scene.
It’d be great to have such a game available. One that is mainly focusing on the kind of excellent gameplay found in the ps2 era of 3D games. Lots of good stuff made back then and one of the reasons I still have my PS2 sitting beneath my tv.
Sorry, not an English speaker, but what do you mean by documenting the game scene by scene? Is that like writing down what I’m trying to do with every scene and what I want them to represent? or something less deeper than that perhaps.
Yes just like that. For instance i write in my notebook:
Game idea - Create game in which you collect balls to advance to other scenes.
Scene will have 5 levels for eg
1-First scene will have me collect 10 balls, after doing so a cutscene will play showing that i accomplished this while also preparing me for the next scene.
2-Second scene will have me do the same thing except with twice as more balls as before and a tiny amount of obstacle.
3-Third scene is the same as the second but with more balls and the bit of intermediate enemies to prevent you from advancing.
4-Fourth scene is a lot more balls and even harder obstacles and enemies.
5- Fifth scene is crazy amount of balls, hard-ass enemies, tricky obstacles, and after completing this scene you will be taken to a secret scene ( scene 5.5) where you have to battle a boss object while collecting the rest of the balls all without time running out and the boss depleting your life force.
After documenting my idea i can decide how to build my scene’s, what music to include, and a whole lot more intresting stuff that if i sit here and explain i might have to write a dang book about it lol.
But it will take alot of patience and hard work too.
I suggest that you should plan out, what you want to do, on paper etc.
My other suggestion would be, to take your time when making your platformer game. Alot of patience will be needed especially when Scripting stuff etc.
Same goes for 3d modelling, and music making for your game etc.
Don’t understand, but also people tend to think “how hard can it be?” and mock anyone who insists that it will take longer than a few minutes in the editor. You can basically gauge someone’s actual experience with game development vs. their time spent talking about it and watching EC videos by their level design knowledge and ability. Anyone can slap assets together and call it “a level”, but a good level results from experimentation and discovery. Anyway, to the shadows.
There will be legal issues. It doesn’t matter if you don’t make any money. Or if the game is no longer produced. Or anything like that. By the time a property becomes public domain, anyone who played the original will likely be dead.
But why hasn’t any one done that then?
Not retro games as I’m pretty young and only played Spyro like games as a kid.
where boundaries have no meaning.
