How Viewfinder Is (Almost) Picture Perfect
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- Опубліковано 8 вер 2024
- 2023’s Viewfinder features one of the coolest game mechanics I’ve ever experienced. However, it’s shy of reaching the masterpiece status of its most obvious inspiration.
🥁 Music taken from the Viewfinder OST
📖 Script Editing by @iamerror
🖼 Thumbnail by @hotcyder
💰 Supported by / hotcyder
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Ah yes, the "first person confusion" genre
I've been following viewfinder all the way back since that original tweet the developer made showing off the mechanic. First time playing, I was ecstatic just to finally have my hands on it and be able to test its limits. After some time with it, I definitely see its flaws, and wish a few things could have been shored up with more testing. Still one of my favorites this year though.
On Portal-likes, I must suggest Quantum Conundrum! You must navigate a mansion, with your uncle as omniscient narrator, playing with gravity, weights, buttons, conveyor belts and such. I's one of my favourite games ever.
Oh I really enjoyed Qauntumn Conundrum back in the day. A lot of the staff who worked on Portal 1 worked on it too!
I absolutely did not click with subliminal so I'm glad to hear your critique of it. From the story it kinda feels like they wanted munch on the Stanley parable but didn't really have the writing chops to do so.
Ya know I didnt piece that together but yeah, Stanley Parable was probbaly the closest inspiration for how wordy this is (if not quite the tone).
It's a shame I've seen a lot of people online saying they're gonna avoid this game just because they saw some clips of awkward MCU style dialogue, from what I've seen and heard the game has very interesting mechanics and well designed puzzles.
the transitions through the circular orange viewfinder things are so seamless (as are all of the rest of them)
i'm not sure I agree that it's as simple as more budget = more polish with things like this, because we are seeing many games with a budget far bigger than anything mentioned in this video still come out as slop, but it's interesting to think about what really can create that level of polish. I honestly don't know what it is but I'm certain its not just money
No I agree - I was grasping at the idea that Valve was able to polish Portal 1 to a mirror sheen likely because of the oppertunities they could afford, brought on by the success of the Half-Life games.
They're a very special case developer wise because, as you noted, a lot of newer titles with larger budgets and technological advancements have missed the mark in recent years.
I wouldn't want to pin it to any one thing, but I imagine being less at the behest of investors who want big short term profits, as has been the case with every recent big budget flop, helps.
I heard of the demo of this. Seemed neat.
Wow this looks really cool! These games are usually pretty hit or miss for me but think I'll have to give this one a shot
Narration in games is really hard to do right without being cringe or annoying. Personally I think it’s the worst when the narrator or a character tells you the answer to a puzzle. I understand devs fear that people will give up because their game is too hard but many players will give up cause their game holds the player’s hand. One of the most hated characters in gaming was Navi from OoT and she’s relatively tame compared to some games these days.
Btw I’m not trashing on viewfinder at all. I haven’t even played it.
God Of War Ragnarok in a nutshell.
Good game but it actively refuses to allow it's own puzzles have any actual pupose by outright telling you what to do every single time you find one.
It's fortunate at least that they don't give you solutions in the dialogue of Viewfinder, it's all world building
0:17
_What the...?_
This is not a game mechanic, this is witchcraft! Quick, throw the game in the water to see if it floats!
I was gonna make a video about this game, but the story is way too confusing, and took me out of the experience many times. It's an incredible achievement in game development, but they really didn't put as much effort into the story.
Whoah! That looks awesome 😎 You have a knack for introducing me to cool little games that would otherwise pass me by. Thanks for this, mate 🧉