Fun games can certainly be made with this approach. It happens a lot. This is the model preferred by frugal publishers. It's cheaper, less risky, and can still end with a decent profit.
Great games though are never made this way. They start with the design, the genre will inevitably come after the game is finished.
-Shadow of the Colossus (Action/Adventure)
-Rez (Shooter-on-rails)
-Meteos (Puzzle)
-Gran Turismo (Racing)
-Metroid Prime (???)
Rez is hardly just a shooter-on-rails. People still squabble over exactly what Metroid Prime is. At the end of the day though it doesn't matter because they completely nailed a fun and interesting design.
Here's the question:
-What are some more examples of great games that disregard genre?
Posts
Fallout 3 is a great game that disregard's genre (I know, I talk about that game so much). Its an RPG in terms of the systems in play, but it can be played as a shooter, or a stealth action game. Its very diverse.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't agree that its always a good thing. I wasn't a big fan of Metroid Prime, in fact I didn't like it at all. I wanted it to be a shooter, but it just wasn't. The platforming elements would have been better in third person, and I just couldn't find myself enjoying it. I wanted it to be one thing or another, but it's undercommitment to both turned me off.
Sure - I didn't mean to imply this is a surefire way to success. Nothing ever is. The more pertinent point I'm trying to make is if you let the genre guide the design, you'll almost assuredly hit mediocrity. If you let the design guide the genre, you'll at least have a chance at something great.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated a lot of things about Metroid, and when I think back on it now few of my favorite portions had anything to do with platforming or shooting. That game to me was much more about complete isolation and detective work, exploration, and pacing. The pacing between frantic fight and calm exploration is some of the best I've ever seen in a game.
I understand the turn-offs though. That's exactly the risk publishers hate taking because it doesn't please everyone.
Im not sure I would put it in the "great game" Catagory, but it certinly tried to disregard genre.
ReplyDeleteSpore is a great example of what happens when you try to do to much with one game. You end up with something that feels like it SHOULD be something great but ultimatly feels un polished and slightly clunky examples of games that did the same gameplay element better.
Yeah you can tell they had the correct approach, but I would argue they failed in many other aspects of the game's design. The most important one being restraint. They neglected to use appropriate restraint which is one of the most difficult things to do in any kind of software development. It results in "slightly clunky examples" of whatever it is they were TRYING to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteone could almost argue that "disregaring" genre in general could be seen as a lack of restraint. The whole concept implys putting together several..or in some cases many, Ideas and concepts in to one project.
ReplyDeleteyou might even argue, that while Genre blending (Aka action game with RPG elements ext ext) may not often lead in "great games". It hits the mark of "good games" more often then that of disregarding genre rules all together...which while can lead to great projects, often leads to ones I would rather not play.
If you design by genre first, a lot of the restraint has already been done for you by years of hard work by other designers. In some cases this should certainly be taken advantage of, but not if you're trying to make something remarkable.
ReplyDeleteThe more people that don't pigeon-hole themselves into a genre means we'll have more of the great games like SotC etc. (and yes more of the incredibly bad, disjointed games like Spore). I believe that's healthier for the industry than just having a sea of (not)Halo-killers and (not)GTA-killers.
I do think though it's important for companies to recognize when this is a risk they can afford and when it's a risk they can't. The two often get it backwards.
Good point.
ReplyDeleteone of the most common complaints among gamers is lack of innovation. which is often expressed with an opinion that big game developers often don't want to try anything that has any level of "risk" to it.
The Halo 5s
the Call of Duty 6s
it seems 75% of the major titles out in a holiday season are sequels or expansions (in a similar design direction) on current IPs
That's true. This speaks more to the publishing and raw business side of things which I know ends up guiding everything in the end. It's a necessary evil in many cases, but the industry still relies on sequelitis way too heavily.
ReplyDelete@MTMosher: Fallout 3 is an awesome example of a game that lets you truly play in the style that you want. There's nothing more satisfying than a successful sneak attack critical.
ReplyDeleteFrom the conversation already taking place, it would seem we need more developers to pioneer completely new genres, but that's not really something you can set out to do. Game design should come first, then genre can be determined second-hand by critics and others in order to help classify a game. That's in a perfect world, though. Any game/movie/book/media is going to use what has come before it as inspiration and build on top of that. What needs to be avoided, though, is the crystallization of any particular genre. When something is instantly recognizable as X or Y, originality goes out the window.
I've never understood the "adventure" genre. Is it an action game with more story? An rpg with action elements? Apparently The Legend of Zelda fits into this genre exclusively, but as a game, I still have a hard time classifying it.
"What's an adventure game?" just went down on to my post idea list. :)
ReplyDeleteI think you hit the key too, it's more than reasonable and even desirable to learn and borrow from past examples. I think a lot of people have a hard time generalizing the specific lesson and can only see a design element within its original context. That's when the problems begin to occur, and as you say originality flies out the window.
Spore is example of great games that disregard genre, the game lets you travel the galaxy. There are over 500,000 unique planets to explore! That's just unbelievable! Also you can create any type of creature and all the creatures you run into are from other players. No other game can claim this.. The best part of this game is the space phase, you could spend a lifetime exploring all the planets and meeting new creatures.. This game is limitless, there is no other game that comes close to this one.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, if you have time, take a visit to my Download Games website.