So I had me an idea today at work. While debating what to do next on one of my bigger projects, I ran across about a dozen posts about some game jam that just happened this weekend (I assume). Everyone was talking about the little games they cranked out as part of it, and it got the gears in my brain turning.
I started to think about making a quick game “inspired by” X-Men Arcade, TMNT Arcade, NARC, Final Fight, the Aliens game where you played Ripley with her duct tape special from the end of the movie, Alien vs Predator, and a dozen other, similar games. Using a 3D engine, it would be easy. Just tweak it so the various players and NPCs can only face left or right and the Z axis makes them sidestep toward or away from the camera, and you’re pretty much good to go. It’s a great engine for mindless action, whether beat ’em up or full-on violence, and since you only really have one camera angle you don’t have to worry as much about making your scenery fully detailed from every angle.
It was really looking like a great little project to break things up while also at least peripherally working on “real” projects.
- Since I’d be working in 3D, I’d be able to use assets I’ve already made as well as use any I made for this project in other projects. There’s a reason I keep almost all my game assets in 1 unit to 1 meter scale.
- Because the engine really lends itself to mindless violence, I could also test new threat forces at least in theory. The AI wouldn’t carry over because of differences in gameplay and how things would be executed under the hood, but that’s no big deal.
- I could focus on weird little areas rather than having to make everything big and important.
- As a glorified side-scroller, one could at least in theory also be “inspired” by games like Castlevania, Metroid, the Mega Man series, Super Mario, and dozens of others. So even more fun stuff.
Sounds awesome, right? Yeah, I thought so too.
Here’s the problem. Those games all worked like they did for one simple reason. That wasn’t exactly the bleeding edge of tech in the ’90s, but it was pretty high-end. DOOM was still unbelievably newfangled and impressive, Diablo probably wasn’t even in development, and true 3D graphics were a rarity that looked like absolute dung. Yes, even I feel qualified to call the 3D graphics of the day gorram awful, and you’ve seen my work. They may not have been able to do proper 3D, but they could sure fake it with overlapping to give false depth. Hence all those games with false 3D and really nice sprite graphics.
So at the end of the day, I’d really have been better off just using a Diablo-style engine and getting better results. Which is one of the big projects I’m working on…
Have I mentioned I used to ride the short bus?