Summary
For some developers, the games they make are iterative. Each one is a practice in refining what came before, twisting it in different ways to create a familiar foundation that feels brand-new. This is a great philosophy, and one that resulkts in some incredible game sthat leave nothing unused in terms of their world.
For some though, once a game is done, it’s done. You move onto something brand-new to flex those creative muscles. These developers brand-new games every time that are dramatically different from anything they’ve made beforehand.
Heart Machine initially came to prominence with Hyper Light Drifter. It took elements from the Soulslike genre, putting in an an isometric perspective reminiscent of classic games and non-linear exploration. Satisfied with that being complete, Heart Machine moved onto Solar Ash.
While the artstyle across its games can be similar, they never stay the same. Solar Ash was all about movement, giving you a large world to move through. And now Hyper Light Breaker returns to the world of Drifter, but as a third-person multiplayer game.
Guerilla Games found their fame in Killzone, PlayStation’s answer to Halo. While it never quite reached the same heights of its competitor, they were graphically beautiful games, and has some fun environments to explore. Which made the leap to Horizon: Zero Dawn all the more impressive.
To go from competently-built linear first-person shooters to a third-person open-world game with a focus on natural environments and cinematic story is an immense effort. While neither are best in class at what they do, the sheer flexibility of Guerilla’s technological prowess and shifting game design should be commended.
Red Candle Games are purveyors of incredible horror experiences, at least when it initially began. Detention was a side-scrolling adventure, one showcasing military occuptation mixed with the horror of local folklore. Devotion was somewhat similar, to shifting to a 3D first-person perspective was a big leap, especially when exploration became a much larger focus.
Nine Sols is otherwordly in how different is it. Mixing Taoism with Cyberpunk, adding in Sekiro-esque deflection mechanics and Metroivania exploration, there are few developers that have made such a massive leap into a new genre, and somehow master that design on the very first attempt.
When Obsidian is spoken of, people tend to think of its RPGs. Alpha Protocol, Fallout New Vegas, The Outer Worlds. All big hitters, and while even they have distinct differences between them, they don’t showcase just how diverse Obsidian’s video game output really is. Yes, its RPGs are excellent, but so is most everything else.
Pillars of Eternity are other RPGs the studio has made, but from an isometric perspective akin to the earlier Fallouts. However, it is in games like Grounded and Pentiment that we see Obsidian’s diversity. Pentiment is a choice-based game styled after illuminated manuscripts, while Grounded is a survival co-op game. And the studio just keeps changing.
4Supergiant
Supergiant is a small studio, having grown only a small amount from its initial game inBastion all the way up to Hades 2. There are by all means shared aspects between its games, especially at first glance, with the top-down perspective and popping colours and character portraits. Deeper examination shows just how different they all are.
Bastion are quick rushes or combat, Transistor has turn-based combat mixed with real-time. Pyre is a visual novel mixed with a team-based sports game. Hades is a rogueslike that continually advances no matter what. There is an evolution of the design philosophy that somehows feels so different in each game.
Tango Gameworks is a funny studio. It is one of the studios that was born from the closure of Capcom’s Clover Studio, founded by Shinji Mikami, shut down, and then resurrected. Building on the horror prestige of Resident Evil, the studio’s first game was The Evil Within, a game somewhere between Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
Even the sequel to The Evil Within was dramatically different, becoming closer to a survival horror in a semi-open world. And then came Ghostwire: Tokyo, a fully open-world first-person game, with a massive emphasis on melee combat. And while all these horror experiences are different, none of them compare to Hi-Fi Rush. Cel-shaded and action heavy, it was not just different from Tango’s other games, but a competent character-action game, too.
Respawn has historically been put in a poor place with its first-person games. Titanfallintroduced mechs into a competitive multiplayer settingand incredible free-form movement for a multiplayer experience like no other. Titanfall 2 only built upon it, and added a full-featured singleplayer campaign. Even if they were sent to die before Battlefield.
Respawn decided to go in a different direction. Why stick to just multiplayer titles when you could make a third-person licensed Star Wars title that pulled heavily from the Batman: Arkham games and Metroidvania design. It is a large change from Titanfall, but not one that Respawn has lost. Apex Legends takes Titanfall’s base into a battle royale, even if it does lose the flair of the movement.
Until more recent years, Vanillaware remained somewhat unknown until 13 Sentinels, Aegis Rim. But from the studio’s earliest days, they haveconstantly shifted what its games can be. Like others, the art design stays somewhat similar between games, it is the foundation that lets each of these games shine.
Dragon’s Crown is an action game with beat-em' up elements, while Odin Sphere is a more RPG-heavy title with a stage-like presentation. 13 Sentinels changes to sci-fi, swapping between more visual novel segments and tactical grid-based mech combat on a massive scale. And now we have Unicorn Overlord, a fantasy setting with real-time overworld movement and a tactics-based combat system reminiscent of Final Fantasy’s Gambit system.
