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The Art of 2.5D: How It’s Redefining Game Design 

iXie gaming

From indie studios to AAA developers, 2.5D This makes it ideal for fighting games, Metroidvanias, and RPGs. Fighting Games: Clarity & Competitive Balance Street Fighter IV and Guilty Gear Strive use 3D character models but restrict movement to a 2D plane, ensuring precise hitboxes and predictable spacing.

Art 52
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Design review of Redfall by Arkane Studios Austin

Radiator Blog

You're fighting not only the privatization of public health but also reckless climate engineering! Three safehouse skulls + main quest macguffin = boss fight. that a bigger US AAA or a non-US indie would've failed to capture. But not really. The player never quite experiences these ideas in the game itself.

Studios 246
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Deathloop deconstruction / design thoughts

Radiator Blog

unlike Outer Wilds, golden loop here is heavily hard-gated by quest progression, not a "true" information game, compromise with AAA market? This fighting game health mechanic is too fussy and unreliable for a busy shooter. I think the intention is to make you scrounge around for ammo during a fight and/or swap weapons more often.

Fighting 130
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The Rise of Hybridization in Mobile Games: How Developers are Genre Mashing Their Way to Success

Game Refinery

The game is an almighty genre mishmash almost reminiscent of a AAA console game, carefully combining heavy story and character-driven RPG elements with hectic shooter gameplay. The narrative is a vital part of the drive toward in-game progression. Genshin Impact’s turn-based TCG minigame, Genius Invocation.

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Several genres have gone extinct in the AAA space. Point and click adventure games, plastic instrument rythme games, and others are on life support like RTSes. What other genres do you think are next of being unprofitable at AAA production values?

Ask a Game Dev

For example, I think fighting games that aren't Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat have little chance of AAA success nowadays. Basically, AAA budgets can't exist if enough people aren't actively interested in the type of game and willing to keep playing it for a long time. UFC/MMA, PGA golf, WWE wrestling, skateboarding, etc.).

AAA 40
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How much freedom does a game designer have at a non-indie studio? Are they able to pitch and create their own ideas or are they basically project leads that get assigned games to make/design (ie that time everyone was making a WW2 shooter)?

Ask a Game Dev

We're not project leads that pitch entire games, we're [ content creators ] that build the bits of specific content in games - the spells, the monsters, the fights, the classes, the races, the quests, the environments, the stats, the companions, and so on.

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The Forgotten City (2021) revisited

Radiator Blog

The final boss fight is a conversation, and the ultimate weapon is. Planescape Torment's final boss fight conversation works because the god stuff is a metaphor for the protagonist's personal arc -- the final boss isn't god! Even AAA has given up on immersive sim RPGs , so any dev deserves praise just for attempting this genre I think.

NPC 130