2 inspiring articles about underused game genres

The first article discusses classic, unjustly forgotten game genres, the second one rare new concepts.

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/art ... -cms-23172

http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/art ... -cms-23171

I found them quite inspiring. I learned also about some games I wasn't aware of.

What do you think of these concepts? What genres should be explored more? What abandoned?

I think there are always possibilities to get out more of the tactical genres like the real time tactics and the new heist genre. There should be more of these - especially with non-violent, clever ways to solve the missions. I also miss good flight simulations like my all time favorite Pilotwings 64.

And I will avoid railshooters like the plague! They are as bad as quick time events.

So, what is your opinion?

The second article mentions the space Rogue-like game. Back in the 80's TSR had a space based RPG (think Rogue-like without the computers ; - ) and it never caught on. For some reason, space Rogue-like games never seem to gain big followings, and I've never figured out why.

Rail shooters can be done right, actually most (if not all) of those game genres can be done right, but some can be trickier than others, or simply are too simple for people to actually take a risk (the parachute one seems just..... empty as I see it)

Games with any sort of time travelling concepts (light or not) are not the rarest thing in the world when we look back (Braid of course, but also oracle of ages (which also had a dungeon you had to explore both in the past and the present to finish) and ocarina of time, the sand of time quadrilogy (with the rewind but also warrior within had a Past and Present mechanism, but it added nothing) just to name a few).

It may be that I am kind of out of sync with gaming (games are harder to enjoy without any nostalgia to back it up, I mean look at a link to the past, I simply can't find it interesting while I can play the game boy zeldas without any sensation of boredom) but I think there is not an actual lack of any game genres.

I wonder however, weren't for some of them somekind of copyrighted mechanism (that exists) that may have prevented the fact others could've shown up easily in the past?

terrancd One theory on roguelikes could be that people identify with the player character only on the condition that they can launch into adventure with an unprepared, badly equipped novice. While adventuring he will be formed by the dungeon he fights his way through. A concept that makes the outcome of said adventure and the development of the player character dependent on luck - this is the reason why roguelikes have to use procedurally generated dungeons.

This feeling of rushing into adventure is hampered if you are in space and reliant upon a vessel. You have to prepare yourself well, you have to upgrade your ship, choose a crew, etc. This could be a reason why space roguelikes never gain the attention of fantasy themed ones.

What was the name of the TSR game? I'd like to look into it.

Aphrodite My problem with railshooters is that I can't figure out why we would need them at all! I don't get why an essential means to create a believable world - to walk where you want to walk - is eradicated! Dont't get me wrong: I accept them as a mini game or as a short sequence within a larger concept. But in itself it falls flat. It makes out of videogames a shooting gallery - the original idea behind videogames was to evolve from shooting galleries to something better. So the whole concept of railshooters is a giant step back to the point where it all startet.

As far as I'm informed the parachute idea was originally a minigame in pilotwings 64. It had its purpose as one of many disciplines. As standalone it is just a game of skill. I wouldn't call it a genre at all.

Yes, maybe you are out of sync: The zelda series has done a lot for the time travel genre. There is also chronotrigger, so back in the 90s I wouldn't call it a rare genre at all. It should be on the unjustly forgotten list. Back in the 90s you had a lot of ideas that are now rare! Every studio tried to implement something new. It's like they had an aversion to resemble each other. I mean you had a discussion that Sonic is just a faster Mario because of the rings! Nowadays this seems unbelievable.

Link to the past is older than the gamboy zeldas. Or do you mean the 3DS remake "A link between worlds"?

liquidmetal I know a link to the past is older, but I think it is not too far from link's awakening (could be wrong) and so the comparison seemed fair to me, but the point was I did not have any nostalgia for a link to the past, and I dislike it, while I love mink's awakening, but both games are actually similar when I try to look at them.

As for railshooters, they may be a step backwards but it can still be fun, which is the goal of most games I saw.

However the "something new" I can agree on, each memorable game seemed to have a little something for it, but it may be because the ones who did not were forgettable, I am unsure.

liquidmetal: The problem with rail shooters currently is "the medium".

Original rail shooters like Virtua Cop or House of the dead were arcade cabinets in which you held a plastic pistol as controller.

In that setting, it actually does make sense to remove the player's ability to walk since physically, the player is standing in front of a screen and genuinely aiming at the screen with a dedicated controller.

The pace of the action is decided through the level design. You need to "learn by heart" where the enemies will come from and aim accurately at this portion of the screen on the various movements phase.

There were rail shooters also back in the SNES days where you had a sort of bazooka acting as a controller. Scrolling/movement was also taken out of your hands since the basic gameplay was about aiming.

On actual PC and consoles it is harder to give back that physical aiming feeling (aiming with a cursor that is dependent on your mouse or thumbstick just doesn't give back the same feeling and reward of physical aim).

What was the name of the TSR game? I'd like to look into it.

Star Frontiers was the one I was thinking of. I used to play it back in the 80s.

Great, now i got even more ideas of games i wanna make. I only wish days hade more hours, or I had enough money so i could hire staff to help me finish them... .. *sigh*

Aphrodite I'd actually go so far to call Links awakening the better game. It had more ideas presented more clever. The step by step exploration was carefully designed and you had to put more thought into what to do next. What nostalgia goes: I had played them both as a kid. But to an adult gamer who had no Nintendo games as a child I would recommend Links awakening.

The point is, that there where more memorable games in terms of units. Of course they used to sell a lot of cheaply produced crap. Also not everything that looked good on paper actually worked in practice. But nowadays almost every game seems forgettable. After the induced hype fades away modern games are justly cast into oblivion. I don't think there will be much left what will be called "an instant classic" in 20 years... Since we have nowadays so many possibilities to become creative I'm irritated over the lack of innovation.

Kyatric It seems reasonable to me that aiming with a plastic gun makes much more sense than with a mouse. Also those old arcade cabins where great fun! But according to wikipedia lightguns are incompatible with newer HDTV. Also the whole genre became unpopular after 2000. Hence I wonder why they introduce it now with the mouse/keyboard functions when everybody is lamenting about the down dumbing of the whole shooter genre. It doesn't make sense to me to obstruct the interaction with the game further.