True, but that's exactly what "retro" games are right now. Most of them are nothing like the old games they claim to emulate. I still can't believe anyone fell for Strafe's "retro" marketing campaign. They just have crappy graphics and proceduraly generated levels - that's what the "retro" label stands for now. It's just marketing bullshit used to sell low-effort, unoriginal games.

Thanks for these, just read the RPS one but it sounds great (and looks better in motion than stills), I think I'll bump it up my wishlist.

You lost me at procedurally.

There is Diablo and Torchlight, but they are the exceptions, really. Maybe there are some more. Name yours. It can work, but more often, procedurally generated world = lazinesssssss of the developer.

How dare you talk about the actual game? :-)

But yes, the RPS review sounds great, and I have a lot of trust in RPS. The other ones range from ok to good. I've put it on my wishlist for now. Will wait for some more reviews from other players before I decide.

Edit: And I love the fact that by entering the same seed at the beginning you can play exactly the same world again if you want to.

Indeed. They strived to do more with less with the graphics and music, they were fun and in the vast majority they were not procedural, but had clever world design.

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Creation of the sophisticated algorithm also requires a lot of work. It can be equally interesting to navigate randomly generated environments, leading to some unexpected findings and encounters, as it is in well designed world. The most interesting thing is that you never know until you try.

Also, good level design follows distinct set of rules, which can be implemented in world generation algorithm. Check the analysis of the original Zelda (which this game "tries to emulate") level design, and you'll see those rules (lock and key concept, enemies placement, etc.) and how they are applied.

I'm not saying that this game has better level design than LoZ or any other "handmade" game, and I'm aware that results of procedural generation can be uninteresting, but it is definitely wrong to call software developer, who wrote the algorithm that creates something playable, lazy.

Are you a programmer? Because you sound like you are.

I work with database admins who are scared shitless of very simple sql. I've seen economists who can't follow a simple for loop.

While engines mostly dispose of the necessity of working with hardware, coding is still required. Even worse, "no coding required" game engines emphasize their idiotic interfaces to the detriment of having a good scripting language; the result is you can't mass-edit anything, you can't have a decent overview of your game, everything is hidden in a menu behind a button behind a checkbox in another menu behind an option that's only accessible when doing a fresh install.

(Yes, I see the sarcasm mark, but I assume it only applies to the last sentence.)

Well, more of a programmer than an artist, but not much of either really.

I didn't say that artists could make good games... it can just be easier to throw something together if you can make amazing art. I personally hate Unity because I feel like it's too restricting and as someone who can code it doesn't really provide a lot of advantage over something like libGDX (which still annoys me, but I prefer it).
Even UE4 feels too restrictive (I've never understood why people start with an FPS engine and then basically hack it to make a third person RPG...) from the times I've tried that.
But if you're only coding is copy and pasting stuff from the internet or things you buy through Unity's shop then you can still make a game (and probably have it released on Steam these days) if you can make your own decent art.

However if you have the talent to code a massive open world RPG engine from scratch by yourself but can't draw a 2D sprite or make a 3d model then you don't have much of a game... (admittedly if you are that talented you can probably find some people willing to work with you)

I'm not sure what your point is, but then again I never am. This is still the closest to being coherent you've been in years so I guess the new meds are working. Up the dosage and we might get somewhere.

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Well, maybe if GOG wasn't releasing what looks like the same game so often, I wouldn't make those posts so often. How is commenting on the game getting released derailing the release thread I haven't the foggiest idea. Anyway, no offense but you always annoy the hell out of me, so I don't feel very sorry for annoying you for a change.

this is so fucking rude and ignorant and insensitive, and so far beyond uncalled for

It's just a joke about her usual scrambled, unreadable writing. Anyway, if you're so angry with me you feel like attacking me some more, PM me. You don't need to derail more threads.

Well here you're just being an asshole. :P Oh ... wait your avatar title does say "full of shit" Okay but why constantly bitch about it on the forum if other people want to buy this game? The game is here, it's not going away. It'd be more worthwhile to complain on a game dev forum to prevent this art style getting made. I could understand if you want to complain about specific games not getting released here, but Hollow Knights is here, Wonder Boy is here, and Cuphead is coming. (Maybe Little Acre too.)

(Funny how some of the Stream reviews are praising the art; I guess those damn kids don't know a shit game when they see it.)

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I'll make this call out to anyone: what are some simple but pretty graphics you like? Graphics that look like even a low-budget game could handle? A Night in the Woods?