what happened to 2D games?

[bobtheguy]

Why aren't many 2-d games made that much anymore? I actually think there better then 3-d games, in most cases....

[Nate]

Go play World of Goo, Braid and LittleBigPlanet, then follow it up by posting in the right subforum.

[Laser]

LittleBigPlanet.

LBP is more 2.5D than actual 2D though

[ArtemisPanthar]

People like technology and much of the time consider games that don't use the latest engine as old news ("people" in this case are the demographic developers aim for). Its a bit of a financial risk to invest in games that aren't 3D (kind of like its a risk to invest in movies that aren't 3D), so most games are made in 3D. There's also the fact that a lot of older games would've been made in 3D if the technology were available, as 3D allows for the use of depth and height.

However, 2D games are still made, and actually they're more common now than they were a few years ago. DS games tend to be 2D, as well as WiiWare and XboxLive Arcade games.

[Mac Sirloin]

And Freeware, and games within games (Banjo 3) and, as you said, portable games.

Seriously, there is not a lack of 2D gaming at all.

[bobtheguy]

well I guess there's still some 2D gaming, but you definately don't see it as much as 3d gaming... also Nate I've played World of Goo before...

[Crashpunk]

Warioland The shake dimention, Super Paper Mario and the new NES styled Megaman 9
Theres lodes of new ones

And its now 3-d beacuse most people want Newer 3-d games with amazing graphics.
Times have changed, but some companeys still want and prefer that retro feel. (eg Nintendo)

[joshkrz]

wasnt oddworld abe games classed as 2.5D because everything was prerendered in 3D and then made 2D?

[Nate]

It was sometimes described as such but that's not the correct terminology. In proper engineering usage, X.Y dimensions means that the character/machine has full motion in X dimensions and in one other dimension has Y possible positions. For instance, the cranes in MO were 2.2d because they could move anywhere left-right and forward-back within the map but the grasper could only be up or down*.

By this logic, LBP is 2.3d and AO is 2.2d (if you count the bits where a screen has a foreground and background).


*I have to admit I'm working from my fallible memory about how the cranes were in MO. Possibly a bad example but it's the first I thought of.