Skyrim 2D - Complete!

Finally finished my final adaptation, Skyrim 2D! Here's an excerpt from my adaptation document where I reflect on the project:

Overall, I’m super happy with Skyrim 2D, which is good as before starting the project, the scale of the original game was quite intimidating! I actually started the demo before the document this time, as I was keen on setting up the HD-2D visuals with the depth of field effects. This ended up being a good move, as it let me know that it was possible (there weren’t difficulties like with Subnautica 2D’s ill-fated cylindrical world) and that it looked great and worked the way I wanted it to work! 

I had an interesting realization while working on this project. While I want to make it clear that my previous adaptation, Subnautica 2D, ended up being a successful project which I’m proud of, I found myself being a lot more enthusiastic about both Skyrim 2D and Resident Evil 2D while working on them. For both Skyrim 2D and Resi 2D I had a clear and distinct vision from the get-go, not only for the gameplay, but the visuals, which required more effort to achieve the stylised results. Subnautica 2D’s straightforward semi-realistic style, while working well and implemented intentionally to successfully increase immersion and relatability, stands out as being a little less unique and interesting than the others, partially because it’s the same graphical style as the original. Generally, 2D is great for stylised visuals as you aren’t necessarily limited to polygons, or by having to stay close to reality. I think this is why I prefer how Resi 2D and Skyrim 2D look. Once again, that’s not to say I’m unhappy with Subnautica 2D – the style I went for achieves exactly what I wanted, it’s just a little less eye-catching. 

I was concerned for a while that Skyrim 2D was not 2D enough. After all, the world itself is 3D, and there’s also some verticality – I went into this earlier, but I want to reiterate as it’s important to the project. This uncertainty prompted me to look even further than I already had into what people consider to be 2D and 3D. What did I find? A whole bunch of inconsistency and contradiction. Some people consider any game which utilises 3D graphics in any capacity, such as New Super Mario Bros., to be a 3D game regardless of the strictly 2D gameplay, and some people consider Metroid Dread, one of the games that inspired my whole MA project, to be a classic 2D platformer, despite featuring a fully 3D environment, and moments where it shifts into an over the shoulder perspective.

For this whole project I’ve been focussed on how restrictions and limitations encourage creativity, and that’s what I think is the most crucial aspect of the adaptation process. All my adaptations keep the gameplay restrictions and limitations of the flat 2D games that I used for inspiration – the 3D elements are just part of the presentation. The gameplay of Skyrim 2D would work the exact same way in a purely flat style as well. Even the verticality, as like I mentioned earlier, games such as A Link to the Past emulate verticality with perspective and parallax background movement. Even shifting to sidescroller mode has been done – the original, purely flat Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy features both top-down and sidescroller gameplay, for example. Modern technology and a 3D environment simply made it possible to have an in-camera transition between two styles of gameplay which stick to the conventions of classic sprite-based 2D games!

This is why I’m happy with Skyrim 2D. The restrictions and limitations to the gameplay are what brought about the interesting design changes and creative problem solving, and being able to utilise 3D assets helped capture the essence of the original, while still staying true to the aforementioned gameplay restrictions and design conventions of purely flat games. This helped give the adaptation a bold style, which also happened to include using flat 2D sprites for characters and creatures – we’ve come full circle!

And with that, I’ve finished my adaptations, at least for my MA. At this point I’m entirely confident that the adaptation process as a whole is a fun and challenging exercise for anyone interested in game design, which encourages both thoughtful analysis as well as creation. That’s why next, I’m going to create a guide of sorts, so anyone who is interested in giving it a go has some guidelines to work from. I’ll also be able to explain to them why certain choices work well due to the advantages of 2D thanks to my two essays.

Thank you for joining me on my adaptation journey!

That's all for the adaptations for now, but as I said, I will be making a guide that people can follow if they fancy designing an adaptation for themselves - that'll be coming over the next week or so. See you in the next one!