Honestly back when I was a kid this is how I thought games were made, every possible image of a game was already saved and according to your input it just loaded the next image.

I stopped thinking that with 3d games

[–] Makeshift@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

This is what I believed. And I tried to trick the game by doing movements and inputs no one could have planed. Never outdid that planning somehow. They were on to me!

[–] 0ops@lemm.ee 52 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I thought that they were managing that stuff on a per-pixel basis, no engine, assets, or other abstractions, just raw-dogging pixel colors.

And before I even played video games at all I was watching somebody play some assassin's creed game I think and I thought the player had to control every single limb qwop-style.

[–] FateOfTheCrow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

In the first few Assassin's Creed games, they did use the idea of a Puppeteer system for the control scheme, although it wasn't physics-based or anywhere near as hard as QWOP. Each of the controllers face buttons performed actions associated with each limb, and the right trigger would swap between low profile actions and high profile actions.

In the top right of the screen, there was always a UI element showing what the buttons did at that moment in that context, which might've been why you thought it was a QWOP style system. It's not exactly what you were thinking of at the time, but you were closer than you realise.

[–] Zugyuk@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

Not quite "Time Killers" level of limb to button assignment, but a line that I had not drawn in the AC control scheme!

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Apparently ai is learning to do that first thing you said about pure pixel management. It's crazy that it works at all

[–] mister_flibble@sh.itjust.works 4 points 20 hours ago

Those shitty old tiger hand holds kind of worked like that.

[–] Scoopta@programming.dev 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even with 2D games that's basically impossible. Only time it could work is with turn based games and then...you end up with this post lol.

[–] Wolf314159@startrek.website 16 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I see you've never played "Dragon's Lair", where every scene was cell animated and the player "chose" the path that the animation would take.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 points 21 hours ago

That one ran on a laserdisc, right? Like a CAV disc so it could very quickly move the laser to one of a couple of places for basically a win/lose decision, overlaying some graphics over top for the game UI?

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 2 points 22 hours ago

Space Ace!

[–] Scoopta@programming.dev 1 points 21 hours ago

LOL, I've actually heard of it, but I have not played it. Ofc that game never even crossed my mind when writing my comment haha. I suppose choose your own adventure style books also fall into this category.

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I remember having a thought one day as a young kid while interacting with a DVD main menu (the kind that had clips from the movie playing in the background, and would play a specific clip depending on what menu you went in to).

"This is basically how video games work, there's a bunch of options you can choose from and depending on what you do it shows you something. Videogames are just DVD menus with way more options."

I grew up to not be a programmer.

[–] kmacmartin@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

The game Myst actually worked kind of like a DVD menu with more options.

[–] buffing_lecturer@leminal.space 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Instead you are a choose-your-own-adventure author

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Close, I DM'ed a short-lived DnD campaign a year ago.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Dragon's Lair was a hugely popular arcade game that worked that way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Lair

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

It does work like that a little bit, like with sprites they've often hard-coded the frames of animation, so when you push a button it loads the correct image, like Mario's jumping frame with his hand in the air. But there are such things as tilesets, and sprite positions, and all that good stuff.

[–] Cirk2@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago

Its not terribly far off from pre rendered or FMV games like Myst are doing it.

[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I remember speculating as a (small) kid that the AI soldiers in Battlefront II's local multiplayer might be real people employed by the developer. Not the brightest child was I.

[–] DesolateMood@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

I remember as a kid seeing my older brother talk to people on a mic and thought he was talking to the characters in the game

[–] NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

I grew up mostly with the PS2 and above and I thought the same thing 😅. I did think there had to be a better way though