Two examples of this are :
Penny’s big breakaway and DUSK from the top of my head.
I’m not sure about you but I think the rise of indie games going with the PS1 aesthetic and other low gfx easy to run games is that the past, despite its flaws, was much better.
I also think there’s a charm with low polygon games and spritework ones, it’s your imagination that fills in the gaps.
And lastly, I think of the simpler times when you play modern indie “retro” games, no bullshit, you pay the devs, you get your game, everyone is happy.
What are your thoughts on indie games going for that nostalgia feel? Any examples to cite?
A recent Digital Foundry video about the new perfect dark trailer showed a snippet of some game called “Agent 64”. I wishlisted it immediately.
I enjoy games that go for retro graphics, because with today’s technology they can do so much more with less.
As far as suggestions: any boomer shooter (Selaco, Supplice, Incision), others people have already mentioned in this thread like Signalis and Dread Delusion, and more like Tenebris Somnia which mixes 8-bit pixel graphics with live-action cutscenes.
It also means more people can play on more hardware, it typically focuses the experience, it makes the interactive elements more visually distinguishable from the background graphics, it’s cheaper/faster to produce so less incentive to bloat with MTX to recoup massive investments, the scope is smaller so can be better aligned with a singular cohesive artistic vision, and the limited graphics encourages stylisation and artistic decisions when ‘photo real’ becomes not an option to target.
Also you don’t need to wait 10+ years for a game, just to receive a bloated mess where you only engage with 20% of the content yet had to wait for 100% of the development time, since at that point the investment demands it has to appeal to every possible consumer, only to still get a buggy unfinished release due to the massive scope. /rant. Anyway, indies are great and i love short games too.
Signalis. you can get the game from humble store and steam.
Signalis is awesome
I’m playing through Turbo Overkill right now which has the high-poly model and smooth animations but gritty low-res texture thing going on, and I like it. I’d take stylized textures that are visually interesting over boring photorealistic textures in most cases.
Nightdive’s System Shock remake is probably my favorite example of that same aesthetic.
I did see a few low-poly, very PS1 or N64-looking indies recently, even going as far as mimicking the weird texture wobbling from the PS1.
But Penny’s big breakaway is not really low-poly, or something that looks like 5th gen/PS1. Not graphically anyway.
Though it’s mechanically rather retro, with the focus on move combos, scoring and speedrunning. It’s almost more of a linear kind of skate or jet set radio-like game than a platformer.
There’s a game with pre-rendered backgrounds called Alisa. I always really enjoyed the pre-render look. The excitement of reaching a “cinematic FMV” that moves the story in a PS1 game is very different from standard cutscenes.
I think games with sprites are great, but I can’t say the same for low poly 3d games. Not every 3d game needs to have super high fidelity with millions of polygons making up each character’s face, but I think games using n64/ps1-style models is a bit too far in the opposite direction.
Noita, a precedurally-generated fully destructible, with physics, pixel-graphics action rogue-like game where you play as a mage going through the various layers of a dungeon with the use of your spells that one can spell mix and match with a wand system that can provide the player with interesting and wacky spell combinations.
I need to mention the Enigma Trilogy here. It uses the retro graphics so well to its advantage to create a strong horror atmosphere that I don’t think could have been done anywhere near as well with high fidelity graphics.
And it has a very small audience and definitely deserves a lot more so go check these games out! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41914/THE_ENIGMA_TRILOGY/
Out of the new stuff, Dread Delusion comes to mind. Kinda comparable to Morrowind, it’s a quirky first-person RPG. And in terms of graphics, it even has an option to enable-disable wiggly pixels at the edges of textures!
New update: I’m like 4 hours in and so far loving this game. It is clearly early elder scrolls inspired but it stands on its own. Very happy to be playing it
Oh nice, glad you like it! I myself don’t have the patience for such games nowadays, but cool beans
I see it has big mushrooms, I’m sold downloading now
I got 30hrs out of Animal Well and enjoyed every moment of it :)
Pseudoregalia is a PS1-eta low-poly aesthetic 3D metroidvania with really, really slick movement mechanics. It’s the kind of game that really could’ve existed back then, had developers just known all the little quality of life design choices we have these days.
It is also nortorious for blessing us with goat cheeks.
Personally, I consider “retro graphics” to specifically mean the graphics evoke the look of an old game system, as opposed to just having “lo-fi” art. So I’d say that Celeste has great pixel art, but it’s not retro graphics, since it doesn’t remind me of any old console’s look. In addition to the games others have mentioned, I’ll point out these ones.
- Nintendo 64 — Corn Kidz 64
- Game Boy Color — Mina the Hollower
- Game Boy Advance — Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo
- Commodore 64 — VVVVVV
- Mid-late 90s PC — Hypnospace Outlaw
Indie games using retro graphics is nothing new. The ratio of effort vs looks is pretty good. The solo dev of Cave Story (released 2004) said that was why he went for that aesthetic.
Not sure if it fits your description but the first one that pops up in my mind is Starbound
