In an age of ray-tracing and photorealistic graphical fidelity, it’s easy to see why the blocky, pre-rendered visuals at the center of the point of click genre could risk being left behind. But according to Neyyah dev, Aaron Gwynaire, this perceived weakness is in fact the genre’s greatest strength if it’s to survive, and thrive.
“The key is not to think VR or feeling like you’re actually there – physically … It’s being able to fill in the blanks yourself,” Gwynaire told us. “Imagination can do wonders, as I found as a child: playing the original Tomb Raider games with all those low poly, compressed textures everywhere. They felt like real places because of using your own imagination.
“I believe this helped me take on the skills needed in my game development journey, and particularly nailing a seven year game project like Neyyah. I hope this path in game development inspires others too – to create and play similar games, and think outside of the box of what is around us in this day and age. At the same time, I hope it ignites some extra fire to the furnace that is already roaring for the love of point n click / prerendered games.”
Gwynaire explains that while there is a place for VR or a real-time world, the role of imagination in creating immersion risks becoming lost in time. He said: “I resonate with point n click games, especially with the charm and atmosphere they can bring to a player’s experience – enhancing immersion, not within a VR headset or a real time world, but from strong narrative driven gameplay, fun loveable characters, and giving space for the imagination to fill in the blanks – which is always fun, and something that has seemingly become lost to time … or has it?”
I hope it ignites some extra fire to the furnace that is already roaring for the love of point n click / prerendered games
Neyyah creator, Aaron Gwynaire
Neyyah launched in September to rave reviews on Steam – with a GOG release set to follow in a couple of months. A key part of this, Gwynaire says, is down to a deep appreciation of the game’s pre-redendered visuals. “Neyyah hit the screens of thousands of players, and gave them something they haven’t experienced in a long, long time – or maybe never have experienced before, as the steam reviews show,” he said. “It’s not only the quality and realism that can be depicted within the prerendered graphics, but the ease of computer power required to fire them up. You don’t need the latest high-tech expensive graphics video card to get Neyyah running, and doesn’t have any load times. You can run it straight up, and away you go to Neyyah. This goes for so many other point n click games!”
He contiunued: “I didn’t see prerendered graphic design as a restriction for me, although I’m not the best programmer, and using an engine like Visionaire Studio 5 enabled me to ‘stitch’ together a world so much easier in the prerendered form than in real time. No. It’s the ‘charm’ – the atmosphere conveyed, the actual pointing and clicking (even to the sound of the mouse being clicked) … It is nostalgia speaking heaps, but it’s also a vibe. I love that vibe, and will definitely continue to create from it.”
Neyyah is out now on Steam for PC.
