Video games have evolved in ways previously thought impossible since their inception, largely thanks to the rapid growth and improvement found in iterative hardware and the importance of such devices in the digital era. What was once a rudimentary open-world game like The Legend of Zelda pales in comparison with Breath of the Wild, both games offering freedom and exploration in vastly different ways. Because of the rapidly-changing standards, however, titles that were once considered the highest quality of their era are constantly challenged by newer efforts. What was once hailed as revolutionary is now considered a relic, usually only in terms of aesthetic, nothing more. So when developers claim that they are attempting to evoke a "classic" feeling, what are we to expect from their product? It isn't necessarily the same as what is "retro," which, depending one your tendencies, is anything produced within the previous fifteen to twenty years. As men...

There have been many memorable characters spawned by the independent video game industry-avatars with delightful and strange qualities that cater to their gameplay mechanics and motifs. Hand drawn, pixel-based, and three dimensional designs that are able to express and execute on smaller concepts that a full retail game might feel bloated in attempting. As games have become bigger and better, the design sensibilities of earlier titles- focusing on finely-crafted level design and a well-established set of mechanics for a tight and comprehensive experience- has become a standard of independent development, instead. Well, successful independent development, that is. When a team might only have one opportunity to make a statement on a certain platform, they need to ensure their product is as well-executed as possible in order to do so. Fortunately for developer studio Wayforward, they entered the scene at the right point to bypass this risk. They began developing and publishing games in ...