Platformers games....Are they dead? How to improve in 2017?

Hey guys,

So for years i've been reading about how platformers are dead. Some of my most favourite times were playing all the old 16bit platformers as well as seeing them transition to 3d in the ps2/n64 era, but after that things got pretty quiet. Sure there's the odd few here and there like Ratchet on PS4 and the recent Crash Bandicoot but overall the scenes quietened down a lot.

Personally i'd love to get my hands dirty with a concept idea I have, but i'd love to hear what you guys think would make a platformer stand a chance 2017 onward or if anyone has any interesting game design suggestions or ideas.

Looking forward to hearing back.

 

Um, Steam was flooded with awful 2D indie platformers just a few years ago. So no, I don't think platformers are dead.

Did you mean to say 3D platformers? If so, they don't seem super popular, but do seem to have had a bit of a comeback with Yooka-Laylee and Snake's Pass and Skylar & Plux or whatever.

I don't think there's any great impetus for or against them, so if you want to make one go for it.

 

I think 3D platformers would be very cool to explore. I've always thought it would be awesome to make something like this (minus spending all of the time on the 3D cinematic sequences)...

which was 3D-inspired sort of sequel sort of its own game based on this...

and Ghosts to Glory was followed by a sequel that introduced some traditional rpg elements...

I think if you make a great platformer like any of these 3 games there would be a good number of people who would play it. I actually like the Army of Zin a lot as far as how to approach making an rpg game for a single developer. I guess action rpg or arcade rpg to be more precise.

 

Platformer of any kind hasn't disappeared, they has just been absorbed as traversal gameplay by other games, just like adventure and beat'm up mechanics. Thus you don't need these genres to exist as vanilla as much as before.

 

And we have Super Mario Odyssey, just around the corner.
Yee hah!

 

Pretty sure the entire Lego franchise counts as a modern platformer. And there are still plenty of indie platformers of all types being released.

 

All the platformers I see doing well have an additional "thing."

Every major 3D Mario platformer since the N64 has something big different about it.

• Sunshine- Watergun
• Galaxy 1 & 2- Faux gravity
• Odyssey- Possession Cap

Disney Infinity games have all the level editing and personal expression tools on top of a pretty standard (Albeit well-polished) platformer model. (Not to mention the whole merchandise/toy aspect)

You mentioned Ratchet and Clank, which I'd say is the least gimmicky one I can think of, because the most fun is always the guns. They swap out some puzzle mechanics here and there, but every entry always has a bunch of new guns that are whimsical and fun to play with.

At the moment, I look at PS2 era platformers and I go "Yeah, and?" The formula is so well established, it seems like 95% of the features are now must haves.

So yes, the genre is ripe for innovation- but so far all the successful innovations we've seen are pretty darn expensive and labor-intensive.

 

Platformers - especially 2d ones - are still really popular. The big ones seem to do something innovative or look especially appealing. A lot of modern 3d action games also use platformer elements as key elements of the game.

 

Saw a good mechanic that might work well in 3d here.

 

when do Super mario odyssey beta?

 

No clue-- Nintendo only does in-house or contracted beta testing.

I'm making a 2D platformer right now. I agree with the notion that "Platformer" often isn't interesting as a genre on its own anymore, but rather as a description of locomotive mechanics, and it elicits an expectation for some additional descriptive terms to help convey what type of game it is.

I think platforming is still one of the best ways to deliver a sense of exploration for an interesting game world, especially with capabilities of current devices to make games feel more seamless, loading-wise. It can also be used as a feature rather than a type-- Destiny has bits that use platforming as the primary challenge, and also feel a little bit platform-y in general thanks to its vertical movement mechanics.

In the 3D realm, first-person games are pretty popular, and platforming games are harder when you can't see the character's feet at all times. This can be worked around, but a lot of players are ok with decreased environment traversal if the focus is on other fun things, and this is what seems to happen much of the time-- maybe it's a trend that will change as more time passes. I'm down for some more platforming games.

 

We do of course have the Mirror's Edge series which received a sequel last year, though it was a tad underwhelming. Not a bad game, just not as interesting as the first in some ways (and plagued with some performance issues on launch). In addition, I've heard that Dying Light had some parkour elements.

Not platforming in the most traditional sense, but environment traversal as part of the core gameplay nonetheless.

And of course there's Assassin's Creed, which though not being first person, has traditionally had parkour elements. They've moved a bit away from that, but it still exists.

 

I have no idea.
I wish I knew though.

 

Tangent about mario.

Nintendo have a certain special touch with their graphics, and the wii mario kart looked phenomenal ... I had an intuition, I looked at a HD playthrough or mario galaxy on wii with reshade, and it has the same rendering effect as the newer console! their you have nintendo's secret ... do texture the mario galaxy way.

/pointless