discussion What's your opinion about remakes when the game is not finished yet?

[ArtoriasABW]

It's something I see happening often, most of the time I think the Devs are just milking the supporters but there's a few that improve a lot the quality of the game.

 

[jeriko65]

It's something I see happening frequently, most of the time I think the Devs are just milking the supporters but there's a few that improve a lot the quality of the game.

depends on the games./ bad bobby remake is pretty good so far

 

[RunningMouth]

It depends how different it is. It's sort of like normal games. I don't need a remake of a game that looks like it was made a year or two ago. Like even Red Dead 2, I don't need that remade. It's good as it is, and any improvement you make is going to be minimal.

If a dev is making his/her first game, then I can see how they can look at their earliest work and just cringe. I remember being into 3D modeling and animation back in the late 90s. The first things I made compared to the last things I made were night and day. However, if I had to make a game that was a conglomeration of all of the art I did, I would maybe only remake the first few images and animations I did. The rest were good enough.

I worked at Blizzard for a while way back when, and one thing I can tell you about artists is that they allow themselves to be bothered by the imperfect way too often. I told some of the artists that they don't have to make things 100%. If it takes 10 hours to get something to 100% but 2 hours to get to 90% then just get to 90%.

Perfection is the enemy of the good. A lot of these devs are seeking perfection when all they really need is something good enough. Keep going on your first project. Make something smaller than what your mind wants to make. It's like when you're about to have a huge meal. You're looking at all the things you want to chow down on. Then you get through some of it and you're like, "God damn, I'm already full." Make your first games smaller. Use them to learn. You can make the longer and more complex games later on. You don't start off making your magnum opus.

 

[AlBetGam]

It depends how different it is. It's sort of like normal games. I don't need a remake of a game that looks like it was made a year or two ago. Like even Red Dead 2, I don't need that remade. It's good as it is, and any improvement you make is going to be minimal.

If a dev is making his/her first game, then I can see how they can look at their earliest work and just cringe. I remember being into 3D modeling and animation back in the late 90s. The first things I made compared to the last things I made were night and day. However, if I had to make a game that was a conglomeration of all of the art I did, I would maybe only remake the first few images and animations I did. The rest were good enough.

I worked at Blizzard for a while way back when, and one thing I can tell you about artists is that they allow themselves to be bothered by the imperfect way too often. I told some of the artists that they don't have to make things 100%. If it takes 10 hours to get something to 100% but 2 hours to get to 90% then just get to 90%.

Perfection is the enemy of the good. A lot of these devs are seeking perfection when all they really need is something good enough. Keep going on your first project. Make something smaller than what your mind wants to make. It's like when you're about to have a huge meal. You're looking at all the things you want to chow down on. Then you get through some of it and you're like, "God damn, I'm already full." Make your first games smaller. Use them to learn. You can make the longer and more complex games later on. You don't start off making your magnum opus.

Seconding this, and adding that I think a lot of these cases come down to indie devs being bad project managers. On a professional project there'd be someone with authority to say "no we're not redoing the last 18 months of renders from scratch because you think you're better at them now"; when it's some guy working on his pet project in his spare time there's no one to tell him that. Except frustrated patrons, maybe.

So to you question OP, I'm generally not fond of it unless the parts being remade had serious problems. Most devs would probably be better served finishing the game (or at least reaching a clear pause point, like finishing Chapter 2 of 4) and then taking time to go back and change things they're not satisfied with.

 

[famkam1111]

If youre talking about porn VN's, I think most of the time its fine but there are the ones that make no sense at all.
Example:
Good Remake - Where It All Began
Bad Remake - The Secret Reloaded, Life In Santa County

 

[ツSisterSexualシ]

It's called money laundering, lacking creativity and laziness

 

[randociff]

It seems like a bad idea to me, I feel like a fair number of abandoned games got abandoned because the dev decided to remake old content, it took too long, players lost interest, dev looses interest, game is dead. If the content is that shit and can be improved that much, maybe go back after finishing the game, or honestly just make a second better game at that point.

 

[MajinGuu]

Sometimes it's just needed like Max's Life, Summertime Saga (the coding part because that game was barely functional. Not the other shit), ShutUp and Dance etc.

Way too many devs use it to milk though

 

[User_9860]

guess depends on the intention of improving or finishing it

 

[DameJudyMench]

There's a lot of these that you can see how much the developer has improved. I get wanting to show off the new skills. But so many of them abandon once they get back up to the same spot that the trust is too broken

I think the better move would be to call it a new chapter, continue developing, and then go back later. Or do 1 new content, 1 revised content back and forth till you catch up

 

[User_9860]

agreed. too many just abandoned again and its like what was the point then

 

[Bananana73]

I've seen a few where the dev either just starts milking their subscribers, or else they keep running into monetization/life problems and the updates effectively stop.

There's a bunch of games that had huge potential but failed for one or another reason, so I'm honestly all for remakes...eventually there'll be a dev that actually realizes the game, surely.

 

[rocketsheep]

It's normal to happen when someone is passionate about a project. They do it because they identify with it. At some point, their abilities have advanced to the point where they are ashamed of their early work. So they want to rewrite it. The fact that the early part of the game is what people get to see first also makes them think it's rational to do so. The longer until completion of the game, the stronger the pressure to act this way. I don't think there is any malice.

 

[VermillioN]

I hate it, most of the time the game is doing fine but suddenly "GAMENAME V0.1 remake" it's downhill from here till it get abandoned tag. I don't even remember last time this work.

 

[ejectitembrilliance]

Agree with a lot of folks here. Depends very much on the intent, or need.
When they go back and denoise the images and stuff, things that don't take that long it's great.
When it's a money grab > abandoned, not so great.

 

[Loliholic]

I think thats the 6th time i need to say i hate remakes of unfinished games. Developing a game tunes the skills of coders and artists just like any sport freak gets better during a championship, but thats no reason to start from the beginning once someone learns some new tricks. Finish your shit and remake the "bad" parts that gained your first fans and followers after...or just take your earned wisdom to your new project and be prepeared to learn something new there as well.
Everything else is just milking and i honestly despise the idiots who keep paying for games/devs even if they dont continue their game. If you want regular money you should earn it with progress, not with backpedaling.

 

[JadedSkywalker]

If a game is very far along, starting again at the beginning for negligible improvement strikes me as George Lucas syndrome. The need to constantly tinker just for the hell of it. I'd say finish the game and then make another game afterwards with everything you have learned. Or at least don't stop at a point and then go back to remaking from the beginning, without providing new story content. I hate it when Devs do that and they abandon their game, you go years without a new chapter, while they tinker on things like graphical improvements.

Do you want mediocre, no I don't but perfection is often the enemy of the good.

Also remaking as self-sabotage and censorship any DEV does that its game deleted and dropped.

 

[Barryton42]

they most likely killing the games

 

[LewisCarroll]

I mean, can it truly be a re-make if it hasn't even finished being made? I'd call it a 're-imagining' instead. Only if it was OKed by the original (or license allows it) and then only really welcomed if it improves on the original. Otherwise, it just looks like low effort theft.

 

[onlark]

I can understand wanting to start a project from scratch to make something better, but it's just a terrible look for the devs. Imagine supporting some devs' game for months, only for them to announced they're redoing the same game but better!