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Developers don’t need to reinvent the wheel to create great video games. Building on proven ideas leads to even greater success.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild became the best video game of the decade by doing new things. Sure, it drew inspiration from familiar sources, such as Assassin’s Creed, Dark Souls, and the original sense of adventure in the first NES Zelda game, but Nintendo synthesized those concepts, while adding many new ones. It was a groundbreaking and transformative open-world experience that we had never played before.
I don’t need the next Breath of the Wild sequel to blow me away again. I want it to contain some new ideas, but if the game just builds on the hard work and great foundation left behind by its predecessor, that’s good enough for me. An improved and polished version of a masterful old game might not be innovative, but it still looks fantastic.
Not every game developer can create a game as impressive as Breath of the Wild, but they can all benefit from clever recycling of old ideas and technologies when creating new games. It’s not lazy. From covers of transformative songs to famous cinematic homages to literature that might as well be biblical fan fiction, all great art can’t help but grow out of what came before, and gaming is no different. There is absolutely no shame in improving something that is already working.
Fresh coat of paint
Video games don’t need my permission to repeat proven formulas. From identical Mega Man titles to annual Call of Duty sequels, games love to stick with what works, while simultaneously ignoring their own history. We should criticize mediocre games that are mediocre precisely because they play it safe instead of trying something more creative.
However, we shouldn’t overlook how iteration also improves games. If creating games is like an exercise, developers get stronger with each new “rep”. They become more familiar with their tools and workflows. They understand what you want as a player and can meet, exceed or subvert those expectations.
Across countless Yakuza games, Sega has crafted a decades-long detective epic with an incredible shared sense of place thanks in part to Kamurocho’s repurposed setting. Half the fun of fighting games comes from getting to grips with a classic character’s familiar moves, as well as new tricks. Koei Tecmo can do Dynasty Warriors action combat in its sleep, so what happens when the team marinates fighting with a thick flavor of Zelda or Persona?
Back at Nintendo, the company followed Ocarina of Time in just two years by essentially doing a quick and dirty asset flip, and the end result was Majora’s Mask, an offbeat fan favorite. More recently, the Nintendo Switch port of Super Mario 3D World uses these old Wii U resources to create the impressive experimental side game Bowser’s Fury, the game that should be Mario’s future. Old ideas can be a springboard, not a crutch.
under the hood
It’s pretty obvious when games recycle old gameplay ideas, especially games from the same franchise. More interesting, however, is when the underlying old technology that powers the games is also shared and recycled.
This can be hard to spot, but games running on the same engine can sometimes have similar properties and issues. When you’ve played as many Nintendo Switch ports as I have, you know when the Unreal Engine 4 is struggling to hit the target resolution. Yet, by using an existing engine, developers don’t have to create vital tools from scratch, an expensive and time-consuming process. They can focus their energies on other aspects of the game, on their larger visions.
Also, one engine can still allow very different games. You will be shocked to learn which games use the same engines. GameMaker Studio 2 won our Editors’ Choice for mainstream game development software in part because indie games as diverse as Blazing Chrome, Hotline Miami, and Undertale all use the engine. While playing Halo: The Master Chief Collection, I took a break and played the Stubbs the Zombie remaster on Switch. Not only is it a fun and entertaining approach to creating your own zombie army, but it’s also the engine of Halo.
Konami built the beautiful Fox engine for Metal Gear Solid V and now uses it for football games. Would Grand Theft Auto III be the same breakthrough for open-world sandbox carnage if it didn’t use Criterion’s RenderWare engine from Burnout’s chaotic runners? How many first-person shooter game developers have started making Doom levels and mods? Titanfall and Death Stranding were the first games from new teams made up of AAA talent after a rift with their old publishers. So it made sense that these teams opted for existing engines, Source and Decima respectively, to make up for lost time. Forget the games. Source users can also make weird shorts.
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When looking to tap into past sources for future projects, developers even look to their own failures. Despite Blizzard’s best efforts, the unreleased Titan never became the new MMO to take up the mantle of WoW. However, many Titan concepts eventually found their way into Overwatch, Blizzard’s beloved breakout shooter franchise. Curt Schilling never made Rhode Island the next hot spot in game development, but the world and lore developed for that team’s failed MMO also informed Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a fantasy action-RPG game. and crafty that just came out of Switch.
Nintendo has a whole philosophy about clever use of old technology called “withered tech lateral thinking.” This is how the company used the cheap computing chips of the 1970s to revolutionize handheld gaming with the Game Boy. That’s how they turned a giant Wii U robot demo into the cardboard delight that is the Nintendo Labo robot kit.
The past is the prologue
As with everything else in game development, creators need to make smart choices that suit their projects. Recycling old ideas and technology has many downsides. Old ideas can make games less original and less exciting. Old technologies can cause more efficiency problems than they solve. EA’s Frostbite engine may work just fine for Battlefield and inexplicable Plants vs. Zombies shooters, but forcing it on BioWare RPGs has proven disastrous. The same goes for the Crystal Tools Square Enix engine used for a decade of tortured Final Fantasy XIII games. Sometimes it’s better to wipe the slate clean and start over. Don’t let the latest generation hold you back.
But developers should learn from the past; it has many advantages. When they aren’t afraid to stay on the cutting edge of futuristic technology or create radical new patterns in game design, they release their energy for other kinds of creativity. Give retro games beautiful and modern visuals. Make an unstable engine rock solid. Expand the sequel that makes the original obsolete. Everything is a remix, everything is inspired and influenced by other sources. So, developers, make the best remix possible.
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