Re-using graphics engine

[Phil Steinmeyer]

RealArcade has a new game in their top 10 (8th or 9th spot or so) - 10 Talismans. It's apparently made by the same folks who made Wonderlines (which I really enjoyed).

Wonderlines was a fresh kind of Match-3, whereas the new game is a pretty conventional Match-3 in the Bejewelled/JewelQuest/BKR style.

Wonderlines also introduced (I guess, unless they used it before) a really nice graphics engine, with a lot of nice FX clearly utilizing the abilities of the 3D card, albeit for 2D FX. Particularly nice were the backgrounds, with nice animating water and trees and such.

10 Talismans gives this a quick coat of paint (more Japanese/Thai rather than Polynesian), but otherwise uses the same graphics (or at least very similar techniques).

This reminds me of Big Kahuna Reef/Words, which also took a nice innovative graphics engine and built a new game on it.

I wonder how the typical consumer will react to this. Will they even likely be familiar with the predecessor game? Will they give props to the newer game (because both BKW and 10 Talismans have better backgrounds than most casual games), or penalize them for rehashing graphics they've already seen before?

Personally, seeing the same graphics in these games is a bit of a turnoff to me as a consumer. But I'm likely atypical.

Thoughts?

[Fabio]

I think that you opinion of the average consumer may be too high.

Your fears may be founded in a hardcore players market, but not here.

IMHO of course.

[impossible]

I agree with Fabio. When it comes to casual games, I don't think graphics changes matter too much as long as people liked the original. BKW interests me a lot more that BKR simply because I like word games, I could care less if they have very similar graphics.

This is even not unheard of with hardcore games. The sales of Diablo 2 and Doom 2 were not hurt by having the same (basically) the same graphics as the originals.

[princec]

Hm, the graphics in Diablo 2 were an order of magnitude cleverer than those in Diablo 1....

Cas :)

[impossible]

Hm, the graphics in Diablo 2 were an order of magnitude cleverer than those in Diablo 1....I know they made improvements to the engine, but visually it wasn't really much different, at least imo.

[Teq]

So rather than reusing the graphics engine, this topic is actually about reusing the graphics? I think that there is nothing wrong with this, as developers we are investing (be it time, or money) in our artwork and so trying to get a little more out of it so the gameplay can be worked on over a greater period of time.

[HairyTroll]

This reminds me of Big Kahuna Reef/Words, which also took a nice innovative graphics engine and built a new game on it.

I wonder how the typical consumer will react to this.

Does the average consumer care that the VW Bug is built on the Jetta chassis? I'm guessing not, and this is for a several thousand dollar purchase.

[jefferytitan]

If they don't care, it would be nice to see a high-quality graphics collection that indie developers can use for a small fee. I'm sure the art is a huge pain for many developers.

[spellcaster]

I know they made improvements to the engine, but visually it wasn't really much different, at least imo.

Then you should start up diablo and diablo 2 again. D2 had a pseudo 3d effect, better graphical effects, avatars showing their equipment, better lightning, transparencies, etc.

Both games use an isometric engine, but besides that they are pretty different.

But anyway, the main reason d2 was such a big hit was that they added a lot more content and provided even more content over the years.

[James C. Smith]

My rational with BKR2 using BKW art was that most people never saw BKW because they hate word games and ignored it. If BKW had been a successful and wide spread game I never would have recycled so much of the art in BKR2.

[zoombapup]

I think we can basically say that on average, casual gamers are "stateless", in that they dont have a history of games playing.

So essentially anything we put out is "new". Hence the success of the clones, casual gamers accept clones because they dont understand the history of games and see one or two games much like FPS players accept Doom and Duke Nukem 3D, even though they are very similar. Its "more of what I like" so its acceptable.

I dont think there's much of a problem recycling anything actually. Its pretty rational as indies to do that.