Braid 2009
Producer: Jonathan Blow
Super Meat Boy 2010
Producer: Macmillan (artist), Reffin (programming)
FEZ 2012
Producer: Phil Fish
Revelation 1: The earliest games are closest to the essence of games, and independent games are returning to the earliest games.
These independent game developers have an obvious common feature. They all grew up playing games on Nintendo's red and white consoles, such as Super Mario , The Legend of Zelda, Tetris and more. They usually despise today's so-called game masterpieces, and think that games at that time were really good games before the invention of the Internet (this is really to my taste, the current online games are scum).
They usually get the idea of making their own games at that point, and when they actually start making games now, it's no surprise that they're consciously going back to the earliest games. This can be seen from the picture engine they use. There are almost no exceptions. They all use the pixel engine (pixel engine), which is the kind that everyone first saw on the red and white machine. Of course, pixel games can’t be compared with those large-scale productions that are tens of millions in terms of special effects and fidelity, but the essence of games is to stimulate players’ imagination. Compared with 2048x2048 super-large textures, SSAO, bump textures, and pixels are better. Stimulate the imagination. This is like a landscape painting or oil painting that stimulates the viewer's imagination more than a photograph.
Revelation 2: Indie games are completely personal and flawed, but that's exactly what makes them so appealing
Jonathan Blow: Things that are personal… have flaws. They have vulnerabilities. If you don't see a vulnerability in somebody. You're probably not relating to them on a very personal level. Flaws. They have flaws. If you can't find flaws in someone, you probably won't have a personal relationship with them)
In Braid, Tim (the protagonist of the game) looks like an ordinary city White-collar workers can neither save the world, nor slay dragons, and go through a hail of bullets. This game is about discovering yourself, your own mistakes.
Super Meat Boy is just a mass of meat without skin protection, and even the smallest things can be deadly to him.
FEZ can only see one side of the 3D world at a time.
Revelation 3: Independent games pay great attention to the innovation and fun of
gameplay. The protagonist of FEZ lives in a 3D world, but every time he can only see a 2D surface, going back and forth between the 2D surface of a 3D object Explore, just imagine how fun and complex this can be.
Super Meat Boy's gameplay emphasizes fast jumps, and reflexes are everything. If you find that you often can't help falling the handle and pulling your hair while playing SMB, don't be nervous, you're just one of countless SMB victims.
Braid's rewinding time is definitely a great initiative. Although Prince of Persia can also rewind time through the sand of time, the number of times is very limited. In Braid, you can turn back time at any time, and this is not just a gameplay, time reversal and Braid's plot There are also deep connections.
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