You may have heard me talk about it, or you may have read it on the front page, but I often said that Seed of Life is a game intended to feel retro, while using modern technologies, and retaining today’s standards. In this article, I’m going to dive a little bit deeper into this concept, and detail exactly what I mean by “feel retro”, and what exactly did I chose to keep “modern”. First, we’re going to take a quick look at the evolution of game design and video games in general. After that, I’ll explain the decisions I made for Seed of Life, and how they serve the goal of having a game that feels retro.

A brief history

In this part, we will attempt to take a look at the technological and philosophical evolution of video games. For the purpose of this article, I am going to skip over the first two generations of consoles, which include microcomputers and early devices, and move directly to the third, also known as the 8-bits era.

From the early 80s to the mid 2000s

One of the most well-known aspect of retro-gaming, is that the developers had very limited technology to work with. Because of that, they needed to be clever. During the 8-bits era, the low resolution, the limited amount of colors to work with, and the rudimentary sound chip, imposed the games to only use very basic sprites and sound effects. These limitations gave birth to the so-called 8-bits graphics and 8-bits soundtracks that radiate with nostalgia. In fact, they had such an impact on popular culture, that a lot of indie games that came out in the early 2010s were reverting back to those graphics.

Then came the fourth generation of consoles, or the 16-bits era, with the Super Nintendo and the Megadrive among others. The new technologies allowed for a much greater amount of colors, more sprites, and also the use of sound samples that marked a big evolutionary step in the domain of music trackers. At this time, we also had a better understanding of game design; until now, every game was experimenting. That was because video-games were still pretty fresh. But by the beginning of this new era, we began to put everything we learned in practice, which is why a lot of people find these games to be easier to get back to than the games from the previous generation.

Technological evolution didn’t stop there, and went even further with the fifth generation. We were entering the age of true 3D games. This period of time is infamous for introducing clunky controls, and terrible cameras. Some games managed to transition to 3D with great success, like Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, which are still today considered pillars in the industry.

After that, we saw the arrival of the sixth and the seventh generations, which of course introduced their lot of new technologies (including motion controls, for better or worse). But it’s also at this time that we began to be more comfortable with game design, with better understanding of user experience, and the establishment of rules and guidelines to follow.

From the early 2010s to the present

The arrival of the seventh generation of consoles overlaps with what we could call the modern days of video-games. The main studios and editors are now fairly experienced in the area, and the public is now more accustomed to the concept. Which is why we now have rules, guidelines, and theories about game design. It became a true discipline.

And as for technological evolution, it is still ongoing and will always be. Even today, astonishing new technologies are seeing the light of day.

How is Seed of Life “retro”

If you go one day on a forum dedicated to retro-gaming, you’ll very quickly notice that not everyone has the same definition of the term “retro”. More than that, people don’t always qualify the same games of being retro, it almost always depends on what games the person had as a child. For this reason, I’m going to make things clear straight away: Seed of Life mostly takes inspiration from games that came out by the end of the 90s and in the early 2000s. In other words, it takes inspiration from the fourth generation of consoles.

My intention with this game, is not to create a retro game, or an imitation of a retro game. What I’m trying to do, is put myself in the shoes of a developer from then, but with all of today’s technology and knowledge base at my disposal. This mostly translates in game design choices, level design, storytelling, and to a lesser extent, art direction.

Game design

Game design philosophy, just like technology, has evolved a lot. Nowadays, if you take a look at a modern AAA game, you will tend to see it as a set of different features that offer a certain degree of freedom to the player. The more the features, the more freedom the player has. In a sense, this philosophy is very close to an actual game, as in, something you can play with. When you’re making a game today, you’re making a product destined to be entertaining.

During the era I am targeting, namely the late 90s early 2000s, the philosophy was a bit different. It was easier then to see a game as a work of art: the player was experiencing the game rather than playing it. This can also explain why so many games at the time were very linear, because of technical limitations of course, but also because that was the point. This is of course debatable, and not every game even at this time was meant to be this way, but this philosophy is what I am trying to achieve with Seed of Life. In my opinion, it is easier to convey a message, or to pass on emotions, when you see a game as a work of art.

Level design

Sometimes, because it was still pretty fresh at the time, early 3D games were trying to simply translate the design philosophy from 2D to 3D. This was mostly the case with platformers. If there is one thing that I really admire in platformers, both in 2D and early 3D, it’s the mastery of level design. Every element has its importance, everything is set up in a way that makes sense, and that also means that every level was filled with things to do. Again, this is the kind of design that I’m trying to implement in my game.

Conclusion

I hope I was able to better explain the vision I have with Seed of Life. My intention is not to create an oldschool game out of nostalgia, but rather to look into them as a source of inspiration in order to create something different. Obviously, I won’t lie that I’m using this philosophy as a marketing strategy as well, this is why you will often read that this game is meant to feel retro. But the final goal is to try and prove that games are not just a collection of features sold as a product, they can be artistic and meaningful as well.