Topic: Is this a cool feature or totally pointless?

[Mouth for war]

I'm not sure if this fits the critics lounge exactly but It felt like the best place to put this. I tried everything but I just couldn't embed this video. Anyway, I know that pixel graphics has a special place in a gamer's heart, in mine as well so I just tried a little experiment

https://vimeo.com/269961490

Would you care for a feature like this or is it just a waste of time? I thought it was kind of cool to add an "old school mode" (This is not an AGS game btw) but it would be nice to hear your opinions

[ManicMatt]

To be honest I had to watch it twice before I noticed it went slightly blurry! If anything I think you need to make it look even more pixelated otherwise like this it's not really making much of a difference other than reducing the quality a bit.

(Also I know it's not what you're asking, or if its something planned already, but with him being 3D, his lack of shadow hurts the game imo)

[C.L.I.C.K.]

Yep, barely noticeable in the video.

his lack of shadow hurts the game imo

This, too. The windmill has a shadow, so...

As for oldschool mode, pixelating 3D graphics slightly makes them ugly, not oldschool. Pixels are totally fine if they are crisp and stuff, set there by hand and not by anti-aliasing.

I know of one other game having an option for this, though.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/314230/Rodina/

You can even set the pixel size there.

[Gilbert]

Personally IMO if the pixellation filter makes the graphics resemble pixel art it'd be great as pixel graphics is more a style than anything, but if the source graphics are more realistic, or are 3-D rendered (be it pre-rendered or real-time) this does not work so well. Here the result looked like PS1-era (or DKC on Super Famicom) graphics, which IMO, might look impressive at their time, don't age well and look ugly nowadays, unless it's intentional to mimic that PS1 era quality.

On the other hand, if the filter is more extreme, like apart from lowering the resolution, lower also the colour count, such as posterising the screen it may work as a style even though they look even more ugly, as there are indeed games intentionally designed to use such kind of presentation.

[Mouth for war]

Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate it a lot :-) The video is not the best quality to say the least so I totally understand if it was hard to tell the difference there. I will post screenahots tonight instead. You will see the difference more clearly I think. Oh and the character actually isn't 3D I just simulated that with 16 directions for the walkcycles.I could have 32 to make him feel even more 3D but that would require 512 images in total so maybe not XD I don't think I can create a realistic shadow for the player when it's a 2d environment but the good ol' black circle shadow might even be better than nothing

[Mouth for war]

Ok so here are images instead because of the bad video quality. Maybe it's easier to see the difference now

[Jojo_the_monkey]

Broken Age has a similar retro mode. See here:

[Darth Mandarb]

I'd say just stick w/ the hi-res! It suits your style better anyway

I have never liked the "retro" modes that are just reduced quality backgrounds because I don't consider them "pixel art" as each pixel wasn't placed by hand.

I may be a tad more discerning than most but to use photoshop (or something like it) to reduce images just feels like a gimmick to me. I don't dislike it (I'm all about that retro feel) but I think if you want to achieve something magical with this concept I would, personally, take the time to re-pixel-ize the backgrounds individually. So the transition from hi to low-res would be striking and really show the love!

Just my thoughts!

[Mouth for war]

I think you're absolutely right darth. It was just fun to mess around with but it will probably become very tedious. I will scrap that idea XD

[Danvzare]

I have never liked the "retro" modes that are just reduced quality backgrounds because I don't consider them "pixel art" as each pixel wasn't placed by hand.

Same here. I'm not a pixel purist or anything, but those "retro" modes only ever make things look terrible, rather than making things look like something that's actually retro.
I think they could work... but to make it work would require way more effort than anyone would ever be willing to put in.