I thought this game was well known but I haven’t seen almost any mentions of it recently. It’s very weird for a FOSS enthusiast not to advertise one of the best open-source games of all time so here I am trying to make it spoken about again.
Disclaimer: this game may be addictive for some individuals. Player discretion is advised. If you notice any symptoms of addiction while and/or after playing the game, stop playing immediately and consult with your doctor. Untreated gaming addiction may result in severe consequences such as digestive disorders, social behavioral disorders, loss of job, and depression.
I don’t think it necessarily sucks. It’s just old and I’m not a fan of it.
It looks like the “good enough” placeholder art that devs put in before they get around to hiring an actual artist. It’s serviceable to understand what things are and what’s happening, but there’s no style to it.
I personally disagree, I really love the dramatic sprite style they’ve gone with. Everything’s so hyper industrial with lovely details when you zoom in.
It’s also so wonderfully mechanical and smoothly animated. Might not hit for those that didn’t grow up with similar styles or something.
It is my understanding that Factorio’s art is 3D modeled and rigged, and then 2D animation frames are captured from that so the game doesn’t have to actually render 10,000 inserters every tick.
Ah that’s awesome, but now I’m wishing I could take a peak at the 3d versions running and explore them a bit.
It would also explain why they all have the same visual vibe of the ancient dancing baby gif haha
A lot of 2D games made their art that way; earlier I called Factorio “Age of Empires with a 3 pack a day habit” because AoE’s graphics are 2D sprites made from 3D graphics. I mean, think about it, would you rather draw the little villager walking frame by frame by hand in a pixel art editor in 8 or 16 different angles depending on if the model is symmetrical, or model and animate it in 3D and then frame capture it from several angles? Hell there’s probably tools to do the latter automatically. I bet Blender can just do that.