SE5 screenshots ugly?

[Graeme Dice]

Imperator Fyron said:
The textures and sounds and even models can be made by non-programmers, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to design and program a smooth 3d engine; orders of magnitude more than a 2d engine.

And yet, if you actually talk to developers they will tell you that it's easier to make a 3D game than a 2D one. The art is that much simpler to generate, and nobody needs to develop a 3D engine from scratch.

And as you said Graeme, you can't just keep throwing more programmers at the task and get increased productivity. While you can certainly benefit from more if you only have 1 or 2 (1 person doesn't have to make the entire game engine and graphics engine), productivity comes with an inverted parabolic curve.

While it's true that you can't put an unlimited number of people on a project, the actual design of the game requires creativity, while things like the graphic engine generally only require competency. That means that you reach the point of diminishing returns far faster.

I see people complaining that developers sacrifice gameplay for graphics, which completely misses the point. If a game doesn't have good gameplay, then blame the lead designer, not the graphics, because spending less time on the graphics won't change anything if your designer can't make a fun game in the first place.