Experimental Games and Y2K Optimism

[Anonymous No.6742329]

This thread is gonna come off as soi-pretentious, but rather than being annoyed by the usual console-war shilling on /v/, I stepped back and thought that with all these new consoles one-upping each other with hauling graphical and processing power, there hasn't been really any boundary-pushing ideas in video games these days. What kind of grounds made it possible to make strange, one-off and experimental titles on the PSX and Dreamcast like Sheep, LSD Dream Simulator, L.O.L. (Lack of Love), Shenmue, and so on?

I know these games are mostly Japanese, but it seems as though the 90s was fertile with pushing boundaries of 2D titles in previous gens attempted to enter 3rd dimension gaming, anticipating the millennium, and the excitement of the move to 3D hardware. But now the video game industry has killed off any allowance of experimenting through business-centric practices, as well as a greater control and standard of how 3D games should present themselves.

Here's Ryuichi Sakamoto playing a concert in 1995 about the wonders of the Internet mixed with electronic and South American, bossanova music.
https://youtu.be/r0bCeuuzfeg?t=2063

[Anonymous No.6742393]

>>6742329
>What kind of grounds made it possible
The ones marked GND or VSS. It's not possible to make any games run without hooking those up. And yes, you come off as a supersoi so right back atcha.

[Anonymous No.6742398]

I'm all for a thread about such games, but to say
>there hasn't been really any boundary-pushing ideas
is pretty silly when there are more games than ever before by factors of tens or hundreds. It's impossible for you to have played everything on itch.io or gamesDL, and so on.

[Anonymous No.6742402]

A lot of them were pet projects, devs with that kind of creative freedom and money to spend are very rare nowadays

[Anonymous No.6742453]

>>6742329
The reason 3D gaming is samey and homogenized is because they are made around the user interface, and since almost all games are made as "consoles first" that means a console gamepad.

Gamepads are great for 2D but are slow, clunky and imprecise for navigating a 3D world space, this is why "corridor shooters" is a thing and why aim-assist is in EVERY 3D game now in effect lessening the input and interaction of the player.

I clearly remember seeing this happening when going from Deus Ex to Deus Ex IW, I thought "wow, so all games will be like this now because console limitations".

This isn't a "PC-MustardRace" post, since there is nothing holding back today's consoles also using KB & Mouse, it's rather that they elect not to and design 3D games around a much more cumbersome input device reliant on artificial gameplay assistance for some reason.

There is of course VR/HMD, but it's just not there yet and comes with it's own set of limitations like the need for static teleportation to stop a large amount of people from puking, pissing and shitting themselves apparently.

Speaking of Sakamoto, YMO is kinda like The Beatles, once they split up they kinda individually became meh and Takahashi is kinda like McCartney in that he's the only one that made music you'd actually listen to afterwards.

[Anonymous No.6742464]

When I think of these kinds of games a few come to mind. Aquanauts Holiday and a lot of the other stuff Artdink made at the time were really interesting. It seems like they either made avant garde works or simulation games. Also I'm not sure if it fits but the game Germs on the PS1 is also very interesting and bizarre. It also has some of the strangest cover art ever made. Great thread OP. Much more interesting than 99% of the board.

[Anonymous No.6742486]

Relatively cheap game development costs at the time fostered it, the same experimental streak is now in the indie sector since development costs are almost zero if you've got the vision and are willing to make the sacrifice.
Of course what you're saying about the early 3D excitement is 100% true as well, games like kaze no notam were clearly made by people who were excited to see what they could do with 3D space.
Funnily enough though LOL is almost entirely 2D, as is sheep, they're not really that innovative either. Shenmue was a natural progression from FMV adventures that were fucking HUGE on the saturn, cosmic smash (a personal favorite of mine) is simply breakout via virtua tennis with a cool aesthetic.
>>6742464
artdink are responsible for at least 1/3rd of what people think about when they think about these games

[Anonymous No.6742497]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6TtSX8tBEQ
JOENTE escutem uma musiquinha bela

[Anonymous No.6745573]

good talk

[Anonymous No.6745578]

>>6745573
And that's literally over half that album too lol.

[Anonymous No.6745586]

>>6742329
Was hoping for a hidden gem good time when the translation for this dropped. Way too dull for me aesthetically/aurally for me to care about the obtuse gameplay. When does it get good, if ever?

[Anonymous No.6747798]

>>6742329
Globalism.
You can't make weird niche games that only the people around you would get because cost of development has gone up so you have to make for as big an audience as possible and specifically it has to appeal to an obnoxious 30 year old American manchild who will try and get you and your colleagues fired or otherwise undermined if you offend their cultural sensitivities.

[Anonymous No.6747807]

>>6742329
BOSSANOVA SUCKS

[Anonymous No.6748095]

>>6742329
Japs be f**king weird bro

[Anonymous No.6748096]

>>6742329
Shenmue and seaman are chill as fuck

[Anonymous No.6748405]

Because 3D itself was still a selling point at the time, so it was way easier to talk a studio into letting you make some crazy niche shit. Nowadays you basically have to go indie, which means 2D games are more efficient (so weird off-beat shit like Papers Please ends up being a minimal 2D game).

[Anonymous No.6748568]

>>6742329
bump

[Anonymous No.6748580]

>>6742329
>But now the video game industry has killed off any allowance of experimenting through business-centric practices, as well as a greater control and standard of how 3D games should present themselves.
you pretty much hit the nail on the head. cheaper games always meant more creative titles, but it did seem like sega was pushing for creative games on the dreamcast.