Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Background images
: Hypnotic, moving background images fill void space that once
existed in retro games.
Particle effects
: Massive particle effects are often present. They do not add much to
gameplay but add a kinetic and chaotic feel that did not necessarily exists in games from
the classic era.
No nostalgia for nostalgia's sake
: While these games might elicit a nostalgic feeling
in certain gamers, they are designed as new experiences using (in part) a retro or
nostalgic aesthetic.
No remakes
: This genre does not include straight retro remakes. If a post-retro game is
a version if an older game, the gameplay has been changed significantly so that it is
recognizable as part of this genre.
Emerging post-retro game features
Here are some emerging, but currently less widespread, features of post-retro games:
Automatic shooting or movement
: These features are fairly new, and they remove
some of the classic gameplay burden from players so they can concentrate on the
modern features.
Retro as the starting point
: This is another fairly new concept and refers to using the
concept of retro games as the platform to create an entirely new game. We don't want to
sound elitist here, but in some cases, there is a literary or artistic feel to the games. This
feeling can occur as a deconstruction where the whole idea of certain games are torn
apart and turned around or given multiple meanings. The game might serve as a
metaphor, where it takes on completely different meaning than what is presented, or
even be transcendent, where games are taken to a place beyond what they were initially
created to do. (Note that obviously this area is up for debate.)
Tracing the history of post-retro games
While the history of post-retro has not been fully examined yet, most of the features of post-retro
games can be found in Jeff Minter's Tempest 2000 for the Atari Jaguar from 1993.
Seeing this game in action is like viewing a time capsule into the future from 1993. Minter's game
includes nearly all aspects of the post-retro genre. While the gameplay is very much like the
classic Tempest, new elements are added as well. While still a bit basic, this game was a
template for what post-retro would became 15 years later.
Still, while this game might be the spiritual forerunner of the post-retro aesthetic, it's difficult to
trace all of this genre directly back to that game because not much else happened in between its
release in 1993 and the appearance of these types of games
en masse
in about 2007.
Instead of going the route of Tempest 2000, retro games took some different turns in the
ensuing years. When Hasbro bought the Atari assets in 1998, it started to create modern
versions of Atari classics like Missile Command, Pong, Breakout, and Centipede. At the same
time, Activision took up the idea to do the same thing with Battlezone and Asteroids. While
