Post #1036512
2026-04-09 08:16 UTC
Replies (6)
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@alienmelon@mastodon.social 2026-04-09 08:17
movement was also novel because the games were so new. i think there’s something special about how games let you occupy a body and use that to move through strange spaces. the way that’s done, even the awkwardness of learning how, really sets the tone.
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@Alejandro_P@mathstodon.xyz 2026-04-09 08:34
@alienmelon I kind of disagree, bad controls are just annoying to me I see what you mean, but just not for me
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@drj@typo.social 2026-04-09 09:05
@alienmelon did you every play Descent (1995, Parallax Software)? It had "bad" gameplay controls in an opposite sense: 6-degrees of freedom (rotate in all 3 axes, and also "heave" in all 3 axes (up-down, sideways, forwards-back)). It was really up to you to map those to controls you liked and decide how to fly your spaceship. But also the level design was "truly" 3D, and often there didn't seem to be any natural way to choose what was "up".
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@Tijn@dosgame.club 2026-04-09 09:12
@alienmelon yessss I feel this too! Little Big Adventure may seem like a cutesy sort of thing, but it's really quite scary as it's about being on the run from the law while living under an oppressive regime. But what makes it really scary is the way controls are weirdly laggy, so if you want to run away it takes a while to get up to speed. And then when you're running it's scary because hitting a wall will cost you health. It's brutal af, but it really fits with the theme of being helpless!
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@lunarloony@dosgame.club 2026-04-09 10:32
@alienmelon I have an obscure PS1 game called Tunguska. Bounced off it as a kid partly because the controls were... questionable, but I may have to revisit it with fresh eyes. It's AITD-style with the pre-rendered backgrounds, but seemed to have a bit more action to it - I recall there being a big spinning blade I couldn't get past.
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@luc0x61@mastodon.gamedev.place 2026-04-09 11:24
@alienmelon Ooh, you're right! The first Alone in the Dark was a great promise to 3D gaming, to me. Until I *tried* playing and died one million times on the very first fight! I put that aside and feel very disappointed.