In the Beginning...
...there were pixels, then came Pong within those pixels. It was the first "video game". At that time, there were no graphic cards, no hardware crazyness, even no gaming PCs. It was pure fun with two simple sticks and a square "ball". Then the video game movement got started. Technology was very limited so a programmer was able to make a game in 4-6 weeks single handedly. No surprise, a lot of games released, most of them were clones, but there were very original and great games.

With new technological achievements, games levelled up eventually. They evolved into better graphics, better gameplay. New genres invented like Platforms, Shoot'em ups. Gaming PC's like Commodore and then Amiga invaded every home. We were buying games ranging from 1 diskette to 15 diskettes. I am not a gaming dinasour but I started gaming when I was 5 so I can say they were good old times.

Doom
Then came a game called Doom in a cold december night (Dec 10 1993 actually) and "doomed" our lives. Everyone bought an "Office" Dos PC which everyone thought is just for work. Network systems of a lot of big companies crashed because of Doom LAN parties. It was the first "real" (despite Wolfenstein) first person shooter. It's also the first time gamers bought new piece of hardware for a video game.

Let us fast forward a bit... After Doom came Doom 2 which is more like an expansion pack for Doom. Then came Quake...the graphics were awesome!(Oh man, 3dfx times) Gamers met 3D graphics cards. Quake 2, Quake 3, Doom 3 and a whole lot of other 3d games. ID software always set a new standart for video games technology which led gamers to buy new hardware.

What Happened to the Gameplay?
With new technologies developed, game developers concentrated on visual quality in their titles. They were consuming so much energy on graphics so they forgot gameplay and fun factor little by little. Sometimes we were having more fun playing multiplayer pong or tetris than playing Max Payne.

Today 10-20 AAA titles released every year. Only one or two of them remain in our minds, others usually go to the "graphically superb but zero gameplay games junk". New graphical technologies developed so fast that those "superb graphics" games get outdated in 6 months.

So visual quality is not a standart for a games success.

Visual Quality for Independent Games
That's the best part of indie games. Great next-gen graphics won't work in the indie market! You need to tweak your game so well, most of the computers must run it at a proper speed in the meantime it has to look good.

That is why I have no worries to use DirectX9 or DirectX10, as Blitz3D uses Directx7. We don't need shader support, we don't need normal mapping, we don't need volumetric particles...

All we need is quality gameplay, the games we create must be fun, addictive and replayable. So I get back to coding and suggest you to get a cup of coffee and get back to your work be it animation, programming or music.