"Sometimes a more enthusiastic (some might say naïve) approach works well because when people aren’t aware of limitations they aren’t bound by them." - excellent, corresponds with Orson Well's self-professed 'ignorance' that he embraced when producing Citizen Kane.
Thanks. I think I'd seen that Orson Welles comment before but I'd forgotten about it if so, and it rings true for many fields. (Of course sometimes ignorant ambitious efforts crash and burn as well!)
Great writeup. I think a deeper dive in their use of Unreal Engine 5 vs other studios use of UE5 would be interesting. From what I have seen a lot of teams are trying use UE5 to make games that look like the early tech demos Epic released, where E33 is a great example of using the engine to your own vision and not pushing a trillion nanites or crazy lumen to check off boxes that The Gamers(tm) expect but in the end will tank performance and make your game very samey with most other UE5 games.
Sandfall used UE5 as a canvas where a lot of other devs seemingly use it as a check the boxes of features needed to be a "real" UE5 game.
This was a nice in-depth discussion that avoided boiling it down to stuff like, "Just make good games", etc. However, there is one point that I don't entirely agree on, particularly when it comes to the section on graphics and the nagging feeling of similar aesthetics/art styles. Expedition 33's graphics present itself with an unknown quantity, yes. However, let's say a game does have an art style that is in familiar territory, such as an anime-esque one. If said game writers/developers really want to tell a good story in such a game. Then it should be clear from the from the beginning, that you are in a world with characters and or settings you the player will want to see more of and learn more about, etc. Because good writing eliminates feelings of "been there done that", by breaking tropes, putting interesting spins on existing ones, etc.
This is great. Feels fresh, sincere, multi-vector in its approach and conclusions. Subscribed!
"Sometimes a more enthusiastic (some might say naïve) approach works well because when people aren’t aware of limitations they aren’t bound by them." - excellent, corresponds with Orson Well's self-professed 'ignorance' that he embraced when producing Citizen Kane.
Thanks. I think I'd seen that Orson Welles comment before but I'd forgotten about it if so, and it rings true for many fields. (Of course sometimes ignorant ambitious efforts crash and burn as well!)
Great writeup. I think a deeper dive in their use of Unreal Engine 5 vs other studios use of UE5 would be interesting. From what I have seen a lot of teams are trying use UE5 to make games that look like the early tech demos Epic released, where E33 is a great example of using the engine to your own vision and not pushing a trillion nanites or crazy lumen to check off boxes that The Gamers(tm) expect but in the end will tank performance and make your game very samey with most other UE5 games.
Sandfall used UE5 as a canvas where a lot of other devs seemingly use it as a check the boxes of features needed to be a "real" UE5 game.
Great read, I just wrote an article about E33 as well. One of the most well rounded games I have played in years.
Thanks, I'll check out your post
This was a nice in-depth discussion that avoided boiling it down to stuff like, "Just make good games", etc. However, there is one point that I don't entirely agree on, particularly when it comes to the section on graphics and the nagging feeling of similar aesthetics/art styles. Expedition 33's graphics present itself with an unknown quantity, yes. However, let's say a game does have an art style that is in familiar territory, such as an anime-esque one. If said game writers/developers really want to tell a good story in such a game. Then it should be clear from the from the beginning, that you are in a world with characters and or settings you the player will want to see more of and learn more about, etc. Because good writing eliminates feelings of "been there done that", by breaking tropes, putting interesting spins on existing ones, etc.