Quoting: tuubiModern pixel games aren't automatically "retro",

Bingo. Modern pixel art games often have an aesthetic that does not really resemble anything from ye good olde days. Games in the 8 and 16 bit era did not aspire to be "pixel art" - it was just graphics and they worked to make em look as good as they could within the limitations. Modern pixel art tends to rub the pixelness in quite a bit.

Flink (1995):


On a CRT screen the individual pixels would have been barely discernible.

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: nllaIt's just that pixels were always meant to be accompanied by scanlines. They were designed with CRTs in mind, which are a perfect complement to them. Scanlines were the things that turned ugly, low-res blocks into beautiful works of art. (As well as chiptunes, off course.)

Pixels weren't designed with anything in mind. The hardware had low resolution, which meant visible pixels. Same goes with scanlines. They're an ugly (IMHO) artifact of an inferior display technology, and I don't get the nostalgia. I love me some pretty pixel art, but I don't see what blurring and distortion adds to the experience.

EDIT: These are my purely subjective opinions, not trying to put down anyone's personal feelings on the subject.

You are both correct. And both wrong too. :)

On CRT monitors, the pixels were not "square" as with crisper monitors, mainly due to the dots on screen consisting of seperate RGB guns, arranged a certain way. On most, these were in a triangle shape, and on Trinitron screens, these were arranged next to each other. The result is that even on these two types of CRT screens, a pixel would look subtly different to the another, and a LOT different to how it looks on a crisp screen.

So designers definitely designed for graphics to look good on these screens specifically (usually televisions). Colours also came out differently: A precise mix of R, G and B would look different based on screen type.

Older games were specifically designed for thee screens, but emulating the effect on modern screens is also not as simple as adding scanlines.

See this comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3SZkjF1RDI [External Link]

Also, read this detailed description by Kyle Pittman http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KylePittman/20150420/241442/CRT_Simulation_in_Super_Win_the_Game.php [External Link]

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One thing concerns me somewhat. Linux support from/at Unity is largely due to Na'Tosha and Levi championing for it and taking development/support into their own hands. I'm worried about what might happen if they leave the company, since they more or less seem to come as a pair (being life-mates and all).

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Quoting: mcphailHa! Reminds me of one of my favourite games [External Link].

Yes!

Also, Ballblazer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tkwWD_BWWQ [External Link]

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Quoting: paasisti

Quoting: rustybroomhandleNone of these are unanswered questions, but they are answered in games that are specifically designed to accommodate multiplayer. Morrowind is not one of these. It would need specific multiplayer content created for it.

I think the easiest way to implement a multiplayer element into a single player experience would be the way that the Fable games (at least Fable 2) handled it. In it, the other player(s) are just "henchmen" that are there just to help the "main" player and explore the world with them, rather than complete the quests for themselves. I could see this model working well with TES games: you would just invite a friend to play - with their character about the same level as you - and then you could go on playing as normal, with the exception that you have a friend there to help you.

Yus, that can work. Would work best with content like the Siege at Firemoth expansion.

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Quoting: Guest

Quoting: rustybroomhandle

Quoting: SnowdrakeThis game was so awesome (superior by many aspect to its sequels). Hope openmw will finally implement a proper multiplayer for this game !

I see this requested often. What exactly would one do in a multiplayer version of this? How would questing work, for example?

I think, when people say they want an Elder Scrolls multiplayer experience, they are saying they want to explore the world with a few friends, like a co-op game. NOT like Elder Scrolls Online, which is a MMORPG.

Issue is quest structure. The way they are in these games do not lend themselves well to multiplayer. Let's say you have two players co-opping - do both players get Fargoth's ring? If one player completes a quest to kill an NPC, does this quest become unavailable to the other player, or does the other player just get rewarded when player 1 completes the quest?

If said quest has multiple steps, each with dialogue options that might affect the outcome and is also determined by the player's stats, must both players have the same conversation, with different outcome? What if this causes the quest line to diverge?

None of these are unanswered questions, but they are answered in games that are specifically designed to accommodate multiplayer. Morrowind is not one of these. It would need specific multiplayer content created for it.

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Quoting: SnowdrakeThis game was so awesome (superior by many aspect to its sequels). Hope openmw will finally implement a proper multiplayer for this game !

I see this requested often. What exactly would one do in a multiplayer version of this? How would questing work, for example?

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I've developing with Unity on Linux exclusively for a while now, and it has just been getting better and better.

And some spam for you :) - this [External Link] is my entry for last weekend's Ludum Dare A bit rough (I had a major case of the lazies), but 100% made on Linux.

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Quoting: lucifertdarkActually from what I've seen for some games using Unity it IS as simple as pressing a button to port it to Linux, but I'm willing to haggle the point.

Ordinarily yes. The engine itself is definitely a one-click-all-platforms type deal, but this falls apart when you start adding in third party libraries that are not so cross-platform and you have no control over. There's also a fair amount of rope to hang yourself with with your own code.

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Quoting: edoI tried this game and it was boring, yet people always keep saying than its a great game

Because different people have different tastes. Words like "good", "bad", "boring", "badass" are completely subjective. There's nothing wrong with liking or disliking something that others have an opposite opinion of.

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