Records are made to be broken. A couple of weeks ago Obsidian Entertainment, a role-playing video game developer, raised over four million dollars in funding via Kickstarter. ‘Project Eternity’ , dubbed as an ‘old school Infinity Engine style RPG with modern elements’ is now the most funded video game EVER on the popular crowd funding service. Obsidian originally sought 1.1 million, that goal was met in a little over 24 hours after they went live.

The people have spoken. It seems they want an experience tailored to their own tastes by a team of people who are tried and true over a massive AAA game from a large publisher that only goes for the lowest common denominator. Maybe I’m comparing apples to oranges by taking my favorite games from the past and comparing them to Dubstep, shooters, neon, war and you know the rest. Or maybe is it simply a need return to the old-style.

Back to a more ancient age, The 90’s. Where games were ambitious with the rise of 3D, valued interactivity, challenge and discovery. Where developers would emphasize less on over-the-top grandeur graphics, and focus more on gameplay. And a whole lot of fun.

It’s actually very simple. Intelligent thought and exploration are lacking in some modern games. That’s all. Old shooters used to COMPLETELY STOP the action to make you search for some key item or do some puzzle. Maybe it’s because of nostalgia; maybe it’s because design was actually much sharper ten or fifteen years ago. Kickstarter is another reflection that people are looking retro for something new. Call it 3D/FPS fatigue or whatever. It’s been great to see games like Wasteland 2 and Eternity funded and to see XCOM received so well by the masses.

However now, the powers that be have decided the following things are safe money fountains:


Heavily orchestrated Shooty McSpectacles
Multiplayer combat (usually Arena)

Social gaming
MMOs

All these heavily focused, trimmed, mostly directed experiences do indeed leave me hungering for games that actually let you play and don’t assume you’re a simpleton who needs your hand held every step of the way.

I’m not trying to be all ‘kids, get of my lawn’. 2012 has been fantastic. Fantastic, and super interesting. The parts of this gen that are AWSE to me are the increases in visuals, but mainly the work in creating intuitive UI, refined mechanics, and better tutorials. The bad parts grew over time with HD visuals getting developers to put more into presentation than mechanical depth and variety. The increase in linearity for AAA games that fights against player discovery, easier difficulty to reach a wider audience, and scripting that creates a controlled experience instead of a heavily interactive one.

Arcane Studios has a hit on their hands with the recently released first-person stealth action adventure game, Dishonored. In my opinion, this game was an older sub-genre remade, using the strengths that went towards mechanical complexity and player discovery (exploration). This all serves to refine not define the experience.

It’s taking the design philosophy of these older games, and bringing in the pedigree and better production values from this Gen. The result are games that are just as deep, but with wider appeal. Lets hope going into the next Gen THIS is the trend we get, instead of developers pushing more cinematic scripting and increased linearity. Lets get the ones that take “old-school” design ideals and make them work better, and smoother, than ever.

-Dagobot