De-Makes

While surfing around, I spotted this. It’s a spoof of the Left 4 Dead game mechanic re-told in terms of Super Mario Brothers. The irony being that it helps you realise that the episodic content of Left 4 Dead is just Mario, regurgitated for your pleasure (and with zombies).

which reminded me of…

An 8 bit re-make of Little Big Planet. This is kinda what Minecraft already delivers (in pixelated 3D). But making it 2D could be a lot of fun as well. The joy, in terms of the player enjoyment, is not only the variety of backgrounds and scenarios but also the customisation of characters which would involve the player a lot more (because it’s theoretically easier to place pixels than to build 3D models). Games like Cordy or Paper Monsters deliver some of this but without the 2D charm.

You feel like you’re watching a Mario clone. The backgrounds are different but the object of the game is the same. Jump this, solve that and do it quickly before the time runs out.

So, if you had to make a 2D version of the rather brilliant Mirror’s Edge on iPad game, it would look like this. Not surprisingly similar to the iPad version, really, and miles better, IMO, than the First Person Shooter version that I have on PS3. The touch controls, especially, make this game a little bit special.

You can see more of this on 8-Bit Demakes..

What I’d like to do, probably this summer, with some of our university and college students, is have an 8-bit remake Game Jam. A couple of teams, a few great programmers, a selection of students and industry people and let’s make some 8-bit de-makes of classic (or just popular) games.