Will we see a new era of big games for the amiga ?

[demether]

A question I'm asking myself...


Last big games for amiga, I mean the aga games, like AB3D2, TFX, Virtual GP....


On the ECS machines, great games also (even if they often need accelerators) : Genesia, Frontier Elite 2, Midwinter 2...Universe, lucasarts games...



These days we see a lot of arcade ports, or games wich reminds me the golden age od DP....but not great games anymore.



Do you think we'll see them again on our beloved plateform ?

[CaptainNow]

I know of several people who are working on big games at the moment.

Metro Seige
Reshoot R
Grind

There are others too. I am not sure about AGA though, I think a lot of the newer developers are targeting the OCS platform because it's their favourite. I'd love to have a go at making an AGA-specific game one day (actually, I'd love to make something AGA for CD32, just to show what that machine was actually capable of!).

We're living in an Amiga-rennaisance period, there'll be more to come I am sure.

[Reynolds]

I'd also count in the ports of other platforms' titles, which came recently or will come anytime in the future. I mean, Dark Forces, Wipeout, Blood, etc, are also came recently, which is really good. Looking forward for having some good racing title(s) too.

Otherwise yes, it is really good to see quality titles are coming.

[demether]

I'd really like to see a midwinter 2 vga port, for instance. Now most of us are using maxed amigas (030 seems to be the lowest standard), I believe we could have a lot of great games on this basis.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by demether

A question I'm asking myself...
Last big games for amiga, I mean the aga games, like AB3D2, TFX, Virtual GP....

On the ECS machines, great games also (even if they often need accelerators) : Genesia, Frontier Elite 2, Midwinter 2...Universe, lucasarts games...

These days we see a lot of arcade ports, or games wich reminds me the golden age od DP....but not great games anymore.

Do you think we'll see them again on our beloved plateform ?

I think I know what you mean, but the sad truth is that games of this complexity and quality require experienced teams with a lot of resources and full time employment. Not something you will easily find in the hobbyist world of modern-dev.

Grind is a "big" game for sure, and this has been in-dev for quite some time now, starting with a lone genius dev laying the groundwork and now an entire team finishing it.

Aquabyss is the only "big" one I can think of in the style of games you mention (strategy/rpg mix).

[kremiso]

i would like to see a Magic Carpet port poppin up at some point

a cd32 version was just rumored back then

[Pyromania]

Aquabyss is a cool looking game and it's amazing what the team has achieved.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

I think I know what you mean, but the sad truth is that games of this complexity and quality require experienced teams with a lot of resources and full time employment. Not something you will easily find in the hobbyist world of modern-dev.

Grind is a "big" game for sure, and this has been in-dev for quite some time now, starting with a lone genius dev laying the groundwork and now an entire team finishing it.

Aquabyss is the only "big" one I can think of in the style of games you mention (strategy/rpg mix).

Settle the World maybe ?

Also, the AGA version of Dune, it seems that they plan to do a lot of improvements.

[balrogsoft]

Originally Posted by demether

Do you think we'll see them again on our beloved plateform ?

No.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by sokolovic

Settle the World maybe ?

Right, that's also hugely impressive (though MP only...)


Farmiga started as a bit of a joke, then started growing into something bigger, but seems abandoned now?

[Gzegzolka]

Yes, if people who work on their projects will finish them and if we receive more ports of "big" games from pc. But I would not call that "era" those are single new games and ports.

[Pyromania]

To fulfill the quest for better graphics and sound when coding games, the Vampire V4 technology should be supported more on A500/600/1000/1200 & Vampire V4SA and then the era of big games can return to the Amiga.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by demether

Do you think we'll see them again on our beloved plateform ?

Ports of 'big' games maybe. But original 'big' games most likely not. That being said 'Settle The World' and 'Aquabyss' are very impressive.

[saimon69]

Originally Posted by demether

Do you think we'll see them again on our beloved plateform ?

Unless someone codes the Scropion Engine for 3D games, is very hard to; i however remember experiments like a flight simulator from Magnus, same guy of the new Flying Shark port

[ Show youtube player ]

[Rob68K]

If I had money to burn, I'd love to assemble a team and pay them to make something cool for unexpanded OCS. I honestly think the best games for the likes of an unexpanded A500 were never written and it would be amazing to effectively retcon history by manifesting a classic that never was.

[sokolovic]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

If I had money to burn, I'd love to assemble a team and pay them to make something cool for unexpanded OCS. I honestly think the best games for the likes of an unexpanded A500 were never written and it would be amazing to effectively retcon history by manifesting a classic that never was.

Settlers, Lionheart, Ambermoon, Dune 2, Frontier... The OCS was very well exploited back then, to its limits IMO.
On the contrary, the AGA wasn't. It's nice to sée something like reshoot Proxima 3 by now.

[balrogsoft]

Originally Posted by Rob68K

If I had money to burn, I'd love to assemble a team and pay them to make something cool for unexpanded OCS. I honestly think the best games for the likes of an unexpanded A500 were never written and it would be amazing to effectively retcon history by manifesting a classic that never was.

It's not as simple as paying a couple of people to do the work, because the people who can do this today are people of the time who have moved on in most cases, or people who have grown up with the Amiga, and at 40 years old, as a professional programmer I am not going to leave my job to develop a video game that can last months or more than a year in a full-day job.


But let's say I have some free time to program, it would take me years to make a 16-bit video game as optimized as in the golden age of the Amiga using all my free time, if making a demo for months is exhausting, making a video game is even more.


I'm not saying you can find people to do a task like that, but it's really complicated.

[PortuguesePilot]

Well, I wish that the Scorpion Engine could be for the Amiga what AGD was for the Spectrum and increase game production 300% but somehow I feel I'm being overly-optimistic...

[Megalomaniac]

I'm not a programmer, however - I'm sure it's simpler to make games for a 512+512 OCS 68000 than for a 16Mb Vampire-Enhanced 060. Also, it's a lot easier to make a platformer or shoot 'em up (especially if it's a remake of an existing game design) than develop a strategy game, flight sim or other 3D game from scratch. Look at how those games always cost more and often had huge manuals - even if you don't make a 100 page manual to go with the game, you're making a game big enough to justify one.

Also, it takes a lot more time and effort for players to get into those bigger, complex types of games - especially without a printed manual to hand. Very few of us have as much free time for playing games as we did 30 years ago. You've only got to look at vote counts on LemonAmiga to see that almost no flight sims or 'immersive world' 3D titles have as many votes as many 2D games, including ones they outsold at the time - even a relative sales flop like Lionheart has over 200 votes, when games as iconic as Frontier or Dungeon Master don't, and innovative legends like Carrier Command and F19 have less than 100, and Midwinter II less than 50. Not because they're bad games, but because they're less mainstream, especially now.

Hence, you can see why modern homebrew development (on all systems) is mostly 2D action games. Aquabyss and Settle the World are rare exceptions.

[AestheticDebris]

Originally Posted by PortuguesePilot

Well, I wish that the Scorpion Engine could be for the Amiga what AGD was for the Spectrum and increase game production 300% but somehow I feel I'm being overly-optimistic...

AGD is a great tool, but the games do come out rather samey. It's the struggle between making a tool which is very easy to use and making one that is flexible. The more you allow it to do, the higher the "programmer" skillset to really use it effectively.