🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter 19 - Cyberpunk City-builder, Pre Render Graphics, Zelda Playfuness Re-invention
# 🗝️ Bosskey Newsletter #3 Things: 1 🎮 Game news, 1 🔎 Interesting Find, 1 📱Social Post. Written by a Part Time Indie Game Dev
🎮 Game News
Cozy Cyberpunk City builder
Found this via TikTok there seems to be this new genre of cozy city builders propping up. Based on the trailer made by a solo dev Matt on (X @marshmatter ) described as a meditative dark cozy cyberpunk zen in your little mega city “bosai tree” world.
Similar to the castle building game Tiny Glade, you sculpt your city and environments adding new life, like Holograms and picture billboards.
The game has a nice old 90s style aesthetic reminiscent of blade runner / Akira, except you get to enjoy the Mega City vistas of the dystopian world without the chasing of Replicants, which can be meditative to watch.
Cozy Dark Side of cyberpunk trailer : Dystopika
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Tiny Glade TikTok:
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Links
Matt on X / Twitter: @marshmatter https://x.com/marshmatter
Official Site
Steam Page https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379910/
📱Social Post
The Beauty of Pre Rendered Graphics
Found this interesting video about a time long ago when games were 2d based with dense pixels. I do miss this old style of art aesthetics in games but 3d Realtimes has taken over.
This video essay takes a trip back down memory lane and have a look at modern Indie Games still using this Art Style in their games.
Link to Social Post
Other Games
Arcanum
🔎 Interesting Finds
The playfulness of Zelda BOTW
https://www.pointnthink.fr/en/the-reinvention-of-the-legend-of-zelda/
Recently I was researching about Nintendo Design Philosophy and stumbled on Zelda Article about the game how it reinvented itself in a sea of Open World games that seem to funnel the player into a highway. Looking at Death Stranding.
i got a Switch recently and am going to check the 2 games in the series. It is a way that Nintendo wants to re-invent and add creativity into a genre.
The article is a long but good read on
https://www.pointnthink.fr/en/the-reinvention-of-the-legend-of-zelda/
Here are some highlights:
When I was a kid, I went hiking and found a lake. It was a surprise for me to stumble across it. As I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling across incredible things as I went, I realized what it was like to set off on an adventure like this.
Shigeru Miyamoto
Quite simply, by putting travel and the desire to discover back at the heart of the experience. Zelda’s stroke of genius is to invert the logic of discovery: the map is initially blank, then becomes a medium for inscription. Instead of being guided by a set of points of interest, it’s up to the player to annotate it, to place markers on it, according to the places he or she spots.
It’s no longer a question of moving mechanically from one objective to the next, gently following the GPS on our map, as if we were just trying to fulfill a set of specifications. The adventure forces us to be the real protagonists of our journey. From start to finish, it’s our choices that structure the course of the adventure, and it’s unlikely that any two players will experience the same things. The relationship with space is divine, and materializes as a veritable invitation to travel, leading to the appropriation of a territory and the inscription of one’s personal path, while remaining open to the solicitations of the environment. Breath of the Wild and Tears of The Kingdom make the other games seem like highways, where we all end up following the same line in order to move forward.
Other Sources Further Reading and Watching
Articles – internet
https://www.cbr.com/zelda-botw-design-exploration/
https://screenrant.com/botw-open-world-breath-wild-exploration-zelda-sequel/
https://www.grahamoflegend.com/blog/how-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-completely-nails-exploration
Video
Less is More – An Analysis of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Soundtrack.