

Crytek: Graphics Are “60% Of The Game” - danso
http://www.x360magazine.com/general/crytek-graphics-are-60-of-the-game/

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Ogre
To claim that graphics don't matter to games would be like claiming
cinematography doesn't matter to movies. On the other hand, making a
generalization that graphics are "60%" of all games would be just as silly as
making a percentage claim for movies.

That 60% of Crytek's development resources are spent on graphics seems
plausible, and it's working for them. But that's just their games. FTL,
Binding of Isaac, Minecraft, or lots of other smaller games are almost
certainly not spending 60% of their time on graphics, and most of what they do
spend is more likely art direction than technology (The quote in the article
did include art direction in "graphics"). That works for them too. "The Game"
is a very broad term if you take that statement at face value. We should take
it as a statement only about Crytek's games.

~~~
coldtea
> _To claim that graphics don't matter to games would be like claiming
> cinematography doesn't matter to movies._

Cinematography (camera work) is not graphics though. It's as essential to
cinema as the plot and acting is.

Graphics in relation to games not so much. You can make a great game with very
simple graphics, even today (from Tetris and Pacman to Leterpress). You can
even make a great game with no graphics at all (all the much loved text
adventure games, MUDs, etc) -- whereas you cannot make a movie at all without
any cinematography.

If you want to make a movie comparison, visual effects and/or fancy sets would
be a better one.

~~~
jpxxx
Tetris requires a properly sized view and clear, effortlessly distinguishable
artwork.

MUDs require a quality typeface, proper layout, and appropriate coloring.

Pacman would be nothing without its remarkable low-fi charm.

Letterpress wouldn't have gathered a moment's attention if the tiles weren't
immaculate and well rendered.

Graphical quality matters in everything, everything, everything visual. And
it's a reasonably reliable proxy for how much effort has been put into the
rest of the game.

~~~
coldtea
> _Graphical quality matters in everything, everything, everything visual. And
> it's a reasonably reliable proxy for how much effort has been put into the
> rest of the game._

You sidestepped the whole "text only adventure games" thing with the "visual"
word. We were talking about computer games in general.

As for all the above examples, I don't think they show at all how graphics
matter. They show that great addictive gameplay trumps flashy graphics any day
of the week.

I mean "properly sized view and clear, effortlessly distinguishable artwork"?

Those goes without saying. Of course graphics should not obscure the game's
goals.

That doesn't mean that the graphics are "60% of Tetris" -- in the same way the
fact that Tetris would be totally unplayable if the background was all black
and the tiles dark gray --doesn't mean that graphics are "100% of Tetris".

As for "MUDs require a quality typeface, proper layout, and appropriate
coloring", yet people have played them in bad typefaces --heck, even not
typeface at all, just bitmap graphic card fonts-- and black and white. Matter
of fact, in the eighties lots of people on DOS PCs played color games in black
and white monitors, and enjoyed them too.

~~~
socillion
> Of course graphics should not obscure the game's goals.

Indeed, you might say in that case the graphics are of high quality! Low
quality graphics can easily detract from gameplay.

I think there are two definitions for "graphics quality" commonly used.

\- Realism, as used in this article.

\- Aesthetics, an example of which would be Team Fortress 2. By any definition
it is not a very realistic game, but it still has very well-made/high quality
graphics (before hats, anyway.)

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lfuller
In my opinion, far too much time is wasted these days discussing which
elements of game design are most "important".

For Crysis, the graphics are absolutely the focus. For a game like Minecraft,
graphics take a backseat to the innovative game mechanics. For Team Fortress
2, game mechanics and graphics both take a backseat to unique team-based
multiplayer.

Games are a type of art, and art can take many forms. Are Michelangelo's
sculptures "worse" than Picaso's masterpieces simply because they are far more
life-like? Are modern movies worse than early 1900s films simply because they
use high end special effects?

Take a step back and judge a game by its own merits - any individual element
of a game's design is dependant on it's genre, art direction, platform, and
specific goals. The question should not be "are graphics the most important
part of video games?", but rather "are graphics the most important part of
THIS game?".

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andybak
First thought: "Necessary but not sufficient"

Second thought: "Minecraft rather undermines the 'necessary' part."

Flippancy aside - there is a place for incredible graphics and I'd be the last
person to want progress to halt in that direction but many games wade through
the uncanny valley and the immersiveness(?) suffers. Others refuse to even
play that game and seem no poorer because of it.

I rate Doom (original), Journey on the PS3 and of course Minecraft as amongst
the most captivating gaming experiences I've had. Food for thought.

~~~
vacri
Minecraft doesn't really undermine it. Minecraft's inspiration was Dwarf
Fortress, which is an ANSI game. Minecraft's most significant contribution
which made the game feasible was the addition of graphics. All the non-graphic
'cool elements' of Minecraft are found in abundance in Dwarf Fortress, (and
then some (and then some)). Graphics made that style of game accessible to the
masses.

~~~
lutze
I thought Minecraft's inspiration was Infiniminer?

~~~
speeder
More or less.

When creative mode was made, the intention was emulate infiniminer and grab
the fans of the abandoned game, but the survival mode, that is mostly a copy
of dwarf fortress, was planned from start.

Minecraft is dwarf fortress with infiniminer interface.

------
Semaphor
Good thing there are still developers seeing things differently. I'll take
story and mechanics over graphics every day.

~~~
colmvp
Good thing it's not a zero sum game. I'll take graphics/story/mechanics
anyday. And graphics don't necessarily need to be intensive, it could be
chalked up to creative art direction, like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or Team
Fortress 2.

~~~
angersock
"Good thing it's not a zero sum game."

Unfortunately, costs for creating content of high graphical fidelity and for
reworking it and whatnot very much mean that it is not a zero sum game.

You cannot take story and mechanical risks if you spend millions and millions
on the engine licensing, art talent, and man hours required to perfectly
render every shade of grass.

This is, incidentally, what is driving the AAA bubble and the slow implosion
of studios we see today.

------
tuxidomasx
"And immersion is effectively the number one thing we can use to help you buy
into the world."

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement. However, the devil is in the
details. There are a plethora of ways to ruin immersion in video games, and
the list is different for each player.

One of my personal immersion breakers is the appearance of the characters. As
someone with brown skin, it gets hard to immerse myself in a game where the
main acting character looks and sounds so different than I would imagine them
myself. And in the rare event that a game has a minority main character, it's
common for them to be laden with negative stereotypes.

The reason I can become immersed in a _book_ has a great deal to do with the
freedom to envision characters a certain way. For _games_, this counts even
more because we are often asked assume control of a character's actions, but
have little control over much else.

For the majority of male players, this might not be an issue. But for females
and minorities, this is so common that we really have to do some mental
jujitsu just to get past it to the point of true immersion.

I think this phenomenon also explains why basketball and football games have a
much higher amount of minority gamers than, say, adventure games and RPGs.

This isn't just an issue in video games-- Hollywood mirrors this to a degree.
It's why a movie with all black characters (or a black lead) routinely draws
large black audiences, often regardless of the quality of the movie.

One of the things I liked most about playing Crysis 3 was being able to
identify with the main character more-so than in most FPS games.

Sometimes people want to be able to see themselves in the heroes, the side-
kicks, the minions, and even the villains.

------
liquidise
Pretty sensationalist title here. The quote literally says graphics + physics
engine + sound design + assets + production values + art direction = 60%.

Given the reality of the statement, it seems very acceptable. Graphics are
only a small piece of the puzzle. Adding in realistic physics and immersive
sound scores add a ton to a game. Leaving that out in the title is pretty weak
journalism imho.

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psykotic
In any recent Crytek game, they're 100% of the game.

~~~
angersock
The AI and physics in Far Cry (the first one) were actually pretty legit.

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richforrester
Depends on how you define "graphics".

To me, graphics constitutes aesthetics, and usability. Good art direction
combined with great user interface = 60% of a good game.

If in this article, they're talking about as many pixels, particles and
polygons as possible, it's a bit of a rough statement; it might be true for
_their_ games, but not for _all_ games.

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ascendantlogic
The "percent" of X that makes up a game is purely in the eye of the beholder.
For some people graphics has a huge part in their like or dislike of a game.
Conversely there are plenty of games that go out of their way to have retro
graphics specifically to evoke a certain nostalgia or just to shift the focus
to the story and the gameplay.

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ZaneA
In my opinion _animation_ is more important than just "graphics". In my
experience a well motion-capped game is easily more enjoyable and immersive
than a traditionally animated one. Of course this doesn't apply everywhere,
but I think fluid life-like animation goes a long way regardless of the
graphics that package it.

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chipsy
As it happens I wrote something that addresses this type of statement, just
today.

[http://spacecreeps.com/essays/when_a_game_means_something/in...](http://spacecreeps.com/essays/when_a_game_means_something/index.html)

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shmerl
_Graphics Are “60% Of The Game”_

It pretty much depends on the genre. For some hack-n-slash or RTS that may be
true, but let's say for a good RPG - the depth of the story outweighs the
graphics factor.

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stcredzero
Seems like sound design is nearly half of the game. Art direction is another
big chunk. Playability is another big chunk. How technically advanced the
graphics are fits into the remainder.

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nyar
Gameplay is 100%

A game without gameplay is a 3d demo.

~~~
vinkelhake
What's a game with 100% gameplay? A design doc? These percentages are silly.

~~~
nyar
dodgeball

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thecrumb
They've obviously never played Zork.

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adventured
Depends on what you mean by graphics and what the game in question is.

If you mean the graphics appropriate to the game in question, then sure
(whether the 60% was just a silly rounding above half because Yerli is
graphics biased, who knows).

Minecraft has graphics, and they added substantially to the aesthetic style of
the game, helping to make it stand out. It obviously doesn't have Crysis level
graphics however, and would have failed if that had been attempted.

Tetris, as a classic example, doesn't need high powered graphics, but its
style of graphics are still a substantial part the game, as necessary for the
basic gameplay.

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sultezdukes
Yeah, Crytek makes it a point of pimping their engines quite a bit. The
problem is that they're not comparing their engine to Minecraft, but to Unreal
4, Frostbite 3, Id Tech whatever, etc..

Is someone going to choose to play Crysis 3 because the graphics are a bit
better than say the Frostbite 2 engine in Battlefield 3, or whatever Call of
Duty is using? I don't think so.

I do applaud Crytek for being pretty developer friendly with their Crytek SDK,
but maybe they should look at how Dayz really helped out Bohemia and release a
game SDK too.

I'm not sure what engine Far Cry 3 is using, but I'm sure some developers
could create some real interesting mods with an SDK.

~~~
corin_
People _do_ chose to play Crysis 3 over other AAA titles because of its
graphics. That's literally the most-used reason for buying it.

