Tag Archives: traditional

A History of Pseudo-3D Games – Using 2D Animation With 3D Gameplay (as of 2018)

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In 2014, “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth” was released, and was hailed as a revolutionary title for being the first successful case of utilizing 2D animation in a fully 3D game.

… well, not really. It’s been quickly overlooked. But years later, I took some time to look up the idea to see if any other games were using a similar visual concept. Over 7,000 games were released on Steam in 2017 alone, by now there are tens of thousands of indie games across Steam and itch.io to choose from: surely, not all of them are using sub-par 3D models or 2D pixel art?

I’m surprised I haven’t really written a more formal article like this before. It should act as a good resource of existing games (both past commercial and more recent indie titles) that tackle the animation concept. I won’t be including purely 2D games that use 2D animation: while there are several excellent examples (2017’s “Cuphead” and 2018’s “Gris” come to mind), high-quality animation in these genres have existed for over a decade now, with far too many to count. We’re looking at “pseudo-3D” here, from over 30 years of history.

Latest Screenshot for “Unfinished – An Artist’s Lament”

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Are Video Games Really Art?

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It’s silly that I felt the compulsion to write my own opinion on whether or not video games can qualify as forms of art. Even after almost two decades of convincing arguments in favor of it, one can still find new articles written by seemingly everyone online bringing up the argument; few people are still against classifying games as art, so these arguments are likely brought on by people wanting to make a point, even if it means making the point to an inanimate brick wall. The reason I bring up the subject now (in 2018) is because, by chance, I was able to attend a local academic symposium dedicated to whether or not games are art, and examples of their role in society. While I thoroughly enjoyed the event and learned a lot from viewpoints I typically don’t get a chance to converse with, the conference actually took me a step backwards in my thinking rather than forwards towards their thesis.

Should games be shown alongside paintings?

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My Games During Black Friday + Unity3D Files For 3D Cel Animation

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It’s that time of year. Black Friday eve, when North American shoppers all eagerly seek the best value for their dollar. Also, American Thanksgiving.

As expected, my two games “Unfinished – An Artist’s Lament” and “Drew and the Floating Labyrinth” are both on sale this year at only $1.94 on Steam. This sale lasts until December 1, although you can expect a certain “winter sale” to repeat these prices soon. If you don’t like Steam, both IndieGameStand and MacGameStore should have similar prices at similar times in the next week or so. This is my first time having games available on Steam during the infamous Winter Sale, I hope “Unfinished” will break its first milestone of 1,000 copies by next week.

More importantly, I’ve posted tutorial videos and given talks about my unusual technique of using 2D animation in 3D space, which I like to call “3D Cel Animation.” Many people have asked directly for the Unity3D files, and I finally got around to uploading them. You can find them on my GitHub account, which I now hope to update more often in the coming years. These files should work with Unity3D personal addition, v5.0 and higher, and contains the complex layout of perspective planes around an object with a script for the camera to determine which plane to make visible. You’ll have to do the drawings yourself, and I hope to see what other people come up with soon.

Look below to watch some of the old videos I put up to remind you of the process.

 

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