Perfectly Peculiar Pixels [#7]

Although marginally passive-aggressive, the phrase used in the subject of this newsletter has never actually been more true in any medium than it is in video games. As the cost of entry into the gaming market has plummeted over the years, at least in terms of upfront costs, it has never been a better time to design and develop the game you wished your not-quite-favourite game could be.

The games covered today all have origins with now legendary designers of the early video game industry. It’s a great reminder that there’s little new under the Sun, but fresh takes are always welcome, particularly when they lack large corporations’ less-than-consumer-friendly practices. Remember, up until Half-Life, every FPS post-Doom, was a “Doom clone”, so… send in the clones!

Sim City originally came out in 1989. The brain-child of game designer Will Wright who would later go on to create The Sims and Spore. You probably know at least one iteration of it, and a lot has been said about it, some by Errant Signal. But, after being assimilated bought by EA, the 2013 edition was a long-awaited and ultimately underwhelming sequel with such brilliant features as requiring the user to have a constant internet connection even for single-player playthroughs. Having been long awaited already, Cities Skylines would sweep the player base off their feet, just two years later with a completely fresh take on the genre, and with the benefit of the sour taste EA left, make a killing off it.

Bulfrog Productions is a studio I could dedicate at least a whole lecture to, but suffice it to say they were the quintessential 90s video game company - they made creative, highly enjoyable titles of various tones and genres. One of those was Theme Hospital, a quirky hospital management game, if you could imagine such a thing. Well, Peter Molyneux and James Leach did, and for a time, it was glorious. As was typical of great 90s companies, they were absorbed into EA, their ideas left to fester, only to come back as cash grabs on mobile years alter. Enter Two Point Hospital in 2018, propped by some of the original creators of the original. While modest by the likes of AAA, the game sold a million units on PC alone.

Lemmings is a puzzle-strategy game made by DMA design and published originally for the Amiga in 1991. Currently abandonware, it was another reflection of the scope video games can achieve in mechanical storytelling. To drive that point home, pun intended David Jones, the lead game designer would later work on the design of a little-known title called GTA. Since they become Rockstar(s), and spend so much time programming equine testicle shrinkage, the franchise has been dormant for years. Luckily, Enhance Games stepped in, in 2023, creating an interesting take on the idea, with all the modern conveniences and graphic wonders available to us. It’s the perfect example of evolution in video games, building on what worked but framed for modern systems.

I am a huge fan of SubNautica’s atmospheric UX storytelling, mood, expressive art style, and the epic proportions of its alien world. So Beyond Blue’s more realistic, narrative-driven take on underwater exploration didn’t quite appeal to me off the bat, despite featuring the voice acting of a Croatian-American SF legend. That said, a lot more chill experience at 0€ shouldn’t be discarded a priori. Civilization was one of the earliest games I’ve played. A 1991 creation of Sid Meier, it remains a top download on myabandonware.com to this day. It’s been 9 years since the last Civilization game came out, and so this is a perfect opportunity to try the original, and Humankind’s take on the genre, before the release of Civ VII next week.

‘Pokemon’, with machine guns… need I say more?