Dear Future Gamer

With reference to your top-down, bottom-up approach to games development discussion, I agree with your sentiments and I also agree that gameplay should come before beauty. However, should gameplay come at the expense of beauty? If a great idea can be harnessed to a powerful graphics engine, can you begrudge a developer being tempted to harness them together? Game development is just one of the many industries where being at the forefront of technology not only brings kudos but also expands the industry.

We all know that the great games played on the Spectrums or NESs of old were great because of the gameplay; there were no added frills. However, does that mean we would prefer to play on these machines rather than playing updated versions, with gameplay intact, plus all of the added eye and ear candy on our PIIIs and Dreamcasts? I think the answer would be no.

Richard Stratton

FG: We weren't saying developers shouldn't make the most of the power they've got available, but that they shouldn't look at the power available first and the gameplay second. Sure, graphics and sound can add masses to the gameplaying experience, but only if there's a decent game at the core.