I thought this game was well known but I haven’t seen almost any mentions of it recently. It’s very weird for a FOSS enthusiast not to advertise one of the best open-source games of all time so here I am trying to make it spoken about again.

Disclaimer: this game may be addictive for some individuals. Player discretion is advised. If you notice any symptoms of addiction while and/or after playing the game, stop playing immediately and consult with your doctor. Untreated gaming addiction may result in severe consequences such as digestive disorders, social behavioral disorders, loss of job, and depression.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      He just told you: “it looks terrible.” And he’s not wrong; Factorio’s art really does kinda suck.

      • blackbirdbiryani@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Man I love factorio’s art, had no idea people thought it was bad. Maybe at release. But there’s alot of attention to detail in the sprites, even the trees sway gently in the breeze. You don’t see that often in other games of a similar style.

        • vala@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It’s the color palette. It’s genuinely terrible. The pixel art itself looks pretty good but those colours just kill it.

          Edit: god damn UK phone… color not colour.

      • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        That sentence could just as easily mean “I’ve never played it, but it looks like a really bad game”.

      • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        Factorio’s art really does kinda suck.

        I will restate the original question: What do you not like about it?

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It looks like the “good enough” placeholder art that devs put in before they get around to hiring an actual artist. It’s serviceable to understand what things are and what’s happening, but there’s no style to it.

          • DWin@feddit.uk
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            2 months ago

            I personally disagree, I really love the dramatic sprite style they’ve gone with. Everything’s so hyper industrial with lovely details when you zoom in.

            • Rukthag@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              It’s also so wonderfully mechanical and smoothly animated. Might not hit for those that didn’t grow up with similar styles or something.

            • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              It is my understanding that Factorio’s art is 3D modeled and rigged, and then 2D animation frames are captured from that so the game doesn’t have to actually render 10,000 inserters every tick.

              • DWin@feddit.uk
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                2 months ago

                Ah that’s awesome, but now I’m wishing I could take a peak at the 3d versions running and explore them a bit.

                It would also explain why they all have the same visual vibe of the ancient dancing baby gif haha

                • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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                  2 months ago

                  A lot of 2D games made their art that way; earlier I called Factorio “Age of Empires with a 3 pack a day habit” because AoE’s graphics are 2D sprites made from 3D graphics. I mean, think about it, would you rather draw the little villager walking frame by frame by hand in a pixel art editor in 8 or 16 different angles depending on if the model is symmetrical, or model and animate it in 3D and then frame capture it from several angles? Hell there’s probably tools to do the latter automatically. I bet Blender can just do that.

              • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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                2 months ago

                … Did anyone really think 2D pixel art is rendered in real-time from individually animated 3D 9bjects?

          • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            there’s no style to it

            I mean, it depends on how you are defining “style”, but, to avoid being pedantic, I actually think that it does have a style, and a very recognizable and unique style at that. It has a very maximalist, industrial, gritty look to it that I love. Everything is so hyper-detailed in model design, texture, and animation. It all fits a very specific aesthetic. It’s completely fine if that aesthetic is not to your taste, but I think it’s disingenuous to say that it has no style at all.

            • yonder@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              This ia exactly on point. I have never played Factorio but can recognize it from any screenshot from its style.

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Mindustry looks like one of those games you’d find on those “1001 Games!” cds back in the 90s thatbalways had the Hugo Whodunit games and the shareware version of Wolfenstein 3D. It has that MS Paint look to it.

      • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I hate old games.

        Is 2020 considered old…?. I understand that the game was available for some time prior to that, but during that period Factorio was in early access. 1.0 came out in 2020, and I am treating that as the full release, and everything prior to that is beta testing for development.

          • Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            Factorio’s art style may draw its inspiration from older games that had technological limitations that forced specific art techniques, but I’d only be guessing — I haven’t found any official source that states where Factorio drew its artistic inspiration.