Why do all NEW adventure games need to be in 3D?
I'm not talking about the remake(s)... but it seems like every new adventure game, especially the ones that TT is making - they're all in 3D. Do they have to be? Can't they change it up a bit and do something like the secret of monkey island special edition art style? I'm not saying 3D is all that bad, it just seems to be a little more bland then the 2D style.
I miss when adventure games looked like Saturday morning cartoons. I don't know if there is a perception that it won't sell unless 3D, cause that can't be the case...
I miss when adventure games looked like Saturday morning cartoons. I don't know if there is a perception that it won't sell unless 3D, cause that can't be the case...
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But enough about that, the graphics on the older games tend to be more aesthetically pleasing to me than the new ones, I can't explain why but it's probably just Nostalgia.
Also I see what you mean by the games looking bland. Because when the S&M games came out I thought the excat same thing. The dull textures on super round 3D movies is not as exciting as a manic looking pixelated Lagomorph. The retouch for the Secret of Monkey Island looks fantastic. And I wish that was the style everyone went for.
But you're absolutly right, your game doesn't need to be 3D to sell it. In fact 3D technology is old, it may be better defined in this day and age, but it's still all the same.
That said, I'd love a 2D Telltale game but I don't see that ever happening.
http://the-whispered-world.com/
http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,767
http://www.machinarium.com/
Don't demonize the 3D developers because they make something in a way they prefer. There's plenty of room for both worlds.
Seriously though, 3D is cheaper and faster.
Episodic gaming has more pros then cons I think. Plus we get more adventures quicker and cheaper this way.
Bad example is Simon the Sorcerer 3D, which I never bought because of the hideous looks and controls (although now I reconsider it, after hearing that there's decent adventure under all that crap. And because it costs only few €).
Good example is Gabriel Knight 3, which despite being ten years old is still one of the greatest adventure games ever made. In that game 3D really served some purpose and you could freely move the camera (for example to look inside drawer or trash can) while you moved your character around in traditional point and click method.
And after playing first episode of Tales, I must say that I like it's graphic style.
p.s i love 2d graphics, but some people act senile over 2d graphics.
2D doesn't automatically make a game good, it has to actually be a decent game first. Some examples are, well, every crappy video game made before the N64. Some examples include PacMan for atari, ET, and well, you know the list.
wow, that machinarium game looks really fantastic, thanks for the tips, I'm really looking forward to that one
i will say on some areas the 3d has been improved like say in the Voodoo ladys house its looks quite amazing, almost as detailed as 2d, more of that wow.
But also in de singe house, so it can be done, we can only hope Telltale can afford and have the time for more of it. Less boring square shapes, more wacky shapes, houses that are bigger on the inside than outside and stuff like that
Hey, do you realize that South Park is 3D? I bring this up to point out that you can make 3D models look very 2D. It seems it would be possible to tweak the telltale tool to create 3D images that appeared two dimensional. So don't lose hope. They would just have to decide they actually wanted to do it first.
There. Go buy that. If you don't, the reason why they won't make them is in the mirror.
Simple... 3D is cheaper to make; and since the adventure genre didn't sell well the last decade they had to use the cheaper and easier way to revive the adventure genre.
In 2D, for a sprite like Guybrush an animator was drawing frames like crazy to make a decent animation. Back in those days there were low resolutions, but these days everything has to be in high resolution and for that even more animation frames are needed. Take a look at the MI remake of Lucasarts. The number of animation frames are still from the old game, but the graphics are drawn completely new... this looks a bit wierd: beatifull graphics but not fluent animation.
In 3D you make a model and you can do with this model almost anything you like. Also, in 3D you have the possibility to use cameraangles like the movies do to make some more dramatic effect. Of course this should be done properly!
A game like Grim Fandango (and the vampire game featured above this post) is 2.5D. The backgrounds are pre-rendered or hand drawn and the characters are 3D. A game like Tales of MI is fully 3D (exept for the inventory and the mousepointer though) and for me it seems to be THE solution and answer to modern games to say: the adventure genre is not dead!
So, if Telltale didn't make the games in 3D, they probably weren't able to deliver so much games in such a short time. The adventure genre wouldn't be were it is now and where it is going.
well all the telltale games had full 3d backgrounds. how else would they be able to position the camera freely during cutscenes? well, they could prerender every cutscene. but that would take a lot more time and also prerendered images take up a lot more disk space. the 2.5d thing was mostly used in games that were designed for consoles, like monkey island 4. on a console you can't change resolutions, so prerendered backgrounds work well.
anyway, i don't think i can prove anything here, but if you haven't played sam&max season 1 yet, you could get the free "abe lincoln must die" and see for yourself..looks pretty 3d to me.
Actually no it's not. They've just simply recreated the construction paper shapes and animate them digitally now. You could do the same using After Effects, Toon Boom or MOHO (now Anime Studio).
As for making 3D look like 2D, that can be accomplished with cell shading like Telltale used for SBCG4AP.
http://www.pendulostudios.com/
I'm really excited about it. I loved the the first two.
That's not entirely correct either. You're right about the characters themselves, but for a lot of scenes and for the easier effects and pipeline benefits they use Maya.
Oh yeah no I wasn't referring to all of it. I know they like to do 3D environments sometimes but my point was in general the characters are strictly 2D.