Sunday, March 11, 2007
Angband
People often attempt to modify or update classic games. Angband has been supplemented with various different tile-sets which can be applied to give the game better depth, graphically. After using several of them, though, I’m not sure that it is actually worth the effort. Angband developers constructed the game using the text icons as representatives of the game’s world and objects, but the bulk of the game is what happens behind these symbols. The real world of Angband takes place in the player’s own mind, and while the graphics can be tweaked to look a little more impressive on first glance, the nature of the game doesn’t change. If anything it is a deal more difficult to play because the tiles appear more distracting than the text symbols.
The designers of these tile-sets have obviously worked hard on these features, but they demonstrate clearly that there is more to games than their graphical interface.
People often attempt to modify or update classic games. Angband has been supplemented with various different tile-sets which can be applied to give the game better depth, graphically. After using several of them, though, I’m not sure that it is actually worth the effort. Angband developers constructed the game using the text icons as representatives of the game’s world and objects, but the bulk of the game is what happens behind these symbols. The real world of Angband takes place in the player’s own mind, and while the graphics can be tweaked to look a little more impressive on first glance, the nature of the game doesn’t change. If anything it is a deal more difficult to play because the tiles appear more distracting than the text symbols.
The designers of these tile-sets have obviously worked hard on these features, but they demonstrate clearly that there is more to games than their graphical interface.
