The Switch Is About To Get Its Next "Hardcore" Platformer In Dexteritrip

Cool music. I’m a bit tired of the minimalist approach that seemingly every game for the Switch employs. Stellar reviews may sway me though.

Sometime simple is better....

Didn't look to be much platforming going on in the video

@Gen0neD
I agree. I mean, I love minimalists approaches, but as a graphic designer myself, the less elements you have in your visuals, the harder it gets to get it right. People think that going minimalist is easy. On the contrary. The time you're not spending in creating visual assets, you NEED to spend it in finetuning your designs until they're perfect. Style is becoming more important the less elements you have. You can't just throw assets in there.

This game, to me, isn't approaching the level of "perfection", from a visual standpoint, I'd expect from a minimalist approach. The first N+ game got it right. I haven't played the second, but to me, screenshots looked liked it's visually worse. Doesn't affect how fun it could be though.

But as always, fun factor is king, so if this game gets rave reviews, I might have to check it out.

@Realnoize That was a cool response. Everything you said was right on the money. As a designer yourself, I found your angle on the subject informative. Never stopped to think of it that way. Thumbs up

I honestly can't understand why anybody would pay money for stuff like this in 2018 when there are so many awesome games to play on the Switch already.

@construx

Different strokes for different folks. This doesn't personally interest me, but as others said above, N++ is a great platformer with a minimalist aesthetic. If the game is fun, it doesn't matter how simple it is visually.

@Realnoize - I also appreciated reading your thoughts on minimalist design. One game that gets it right (at least for me) is Just Shapes & Beats. The visuals are low-res with only a few colors, but the overall aesthetic works. And the game itself is quite engaging, with considerable variety in the levels, enjoyable synchronization with the music, and some silly humor thrown in the mix.

To your point about the need to get each detail right when designing minimally - I noticed some subtle aspects of visual design in JS&B, such as the slight wobble of certain bullets, and the fading-in of lighter shades of pink to telegraph incoming bullet streams. At first glance, the visuals of that game might look simple, but after hours of playing I see they are carefully thought-out.

@Gen0neD , @sfb

Thanks for the comments guys. BTW, one thing I failed (IMO) to describe properly, is about the importance of every element you use in minimalist design. I mentionned the importance of style, but that's not exactly that. It's more like the less elements you have, the more important every aspect of those elements need to be thought about. Position. Size. Colour. Everything. These all contributes to visual balance, and so, the less elements you have, the less "tools" you have at your disposal to attain balance. So it becomes harder. Not easier.

It's like trying to create a personnality for a character in a story. With fewer and fewer character traits at your disposal, it becomes more and more difficult to create an interesting character. But when you succeed, it works, and everyone understands it. It's kind of like that.

Minimalist artwork is truly a thing of beauty when done right. And not just in gaming. In everything. Less is more.

Like B&W photography. Colour is like crutches. Colour distracts the eye from the core of the photo. A nice B&W shot can be a lot more emotional than a colour one. B&W forces us to focus on details we otherwise don't pay attention to. It forces us to see differently. Hence, you need, IMO, more talent to create truly great B&W shots because you don't have colour to rely on to create a wow effect (less tools at your disposal). You want to know if your photography skills has legs? Get rid of the crutches.

Cheers!

I never understood the appeal of these "hardcore" platformers myself. The appeal of platformers is usually based around exploration more so than just super difficulty IMO.