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Comment by z3phyr | Hacker News Reader

Off Topic: Some people say that Game Development is Saturated, but I believe that there is still a lot to accomplish and still tons of ground braking innovations in every sphere of Game Development are waiting for many more generations of prodigy. Some people say that the Graphics are solved but I believe, we still have miles to go for true realism. Please carry on with the innovations in game dev :)

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As an example, Papers Please is a game which has been technologically possible for... maybe even decades. Still a wonderful, fresh game.

Graphics is important and I believe we will continue to see further innovations in this space.

However, I believe that we still need to achieve a lot in "story-telling" in games. The Mass Effect series is probably one of the best out there - the setting, characters, interactions, morality and gameplay.

If you think ME is the epitome of storytelling in digital gaming, I highly suggest you grab Planescape:Torment from Good Old Games[0]. And grab a few mods to modernize the experience[1].

0. http://www.gog.com/game/planescape_torment

1. http://www.gog.com/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mod...

So true! I still have the game box sitting on the shelf for this! It's been ages since I played it through, but it is still the game I look back at the most fondly!

Never realized there was a push to mod the game so extensively. Gonna have to give these mods a try and replay this one!

If you enjoy ME, be sure to try Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I & II, which easily measure up. I'd say even better, but that might be my fondness for that particular universe (the universe of KotOR is much richer than that of the movies).

I feel exactly the opposite. To hell with graphics and story-telling - I want to play a GAME with good GAMEPLAY

What exactly does that mean?

Maybe he means that, when he wants to be told a story, he reads a book or watches a movie, and when he wants to play a game, he plays a game. I feel mostly this way myself: when I want to do something interactive, I want to do something interactive, not watch cutscenes or listen to or read dialogue. I guess this is why singleplayer story-driven games have never interested me very much, and why I prefer multiplayer games or open-ended singleplayer games (like sports or flight sims back before online games). Sometimes playing singleplayer, story/exploration-driven games feels like more work than play to me. There's 5 different branches in this dialogue tree; if I skip some, what if I miss some important detail, or something amusing? Better sit through all of them...then maybe I can get back to playing the game.

This makes sense from the narrow perspective that a compelling story has to be told through cutscenes or dialogue.

I don't see any reason there can't be interactive story-driven games. I agree though, games with a pre-defined story, and a path you have to follow, tend to lose a lot of the interactivity one would like in a game.

Extremely late to respond but the most simple example that comes to mind is Chess. Chess is all gameplay and does not rely on fancy graphics/art and there is no real story. It's pure gameplay.

I like games with great core mechanics, balance, etc. Hell I actually value soundtracks over graphics or story.

For-Profit Game Development is completely saturated. Especially for salaried workers.

For-Hobby game development, or entrepreneurial game development (low probability of pay-off) is a blooming field.

People like MAKING GAMES.

And don't forget non-realism, there's still lots to explore in that area too.

While I see the appeal in realism, I'm in this camp. I don't really play any games with "realistic" graphics. I'm sure they'd be fun, but I've just never gotten into them.

I play old games, or "casual" games on my phone, neither type of games where realism is much of a factor.

I have a game idea I hope I get time to do one day, but if I ever do, it will be 2d - on purpose - and somewhat pixelated, also on purpose. In part because I love some of the visual effects of pixel art. And realism would not even remotely be a priority for the graphics.

For me, video games not only serve as an entertainment package. They are a whole different worlds to me. I dream of a game which could bring me into alternate reality, with near perfect settings from the real world, with my own twist, and a game in which I will not respawn again, much like Rouglikes in UHD 3d.

I am trying to make such a game, but its too hard to complete by myself in such a short lifetime :/

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