For a long time, I thought that good games, games with “heart” or “soul” were those that were made painstakingly from the ground up. They needed original gameplay, original music, original characters and artwork custom made to fit the developer’s vision. Whether it was an indie project or AAA giant didn’t matter, only that it had all of these things. This might’ve even been true in the past, but that position has been getting challenged more and more lately. Now, I think all that’s needed is for its maker to just have a cohesive vision.

I started thinking about this back when I first started playing PowerWash Simulator, and the sentiment continued to grow as I watched my friends play games like Lawnmower Simulator, Gas Station Simulator or even stuff like Q.U.B.E. None of them were particularly well done in terms of graphics or art style, nor did they even have specially-made music or intriguing characters. What they did have, though, was a very strong vision behind them. The developers behind them knew what they wanted to make, and set out to make the best version of it that they possibly could. It really shows too, even through all the rough edges.

The game that really drove this thought home for me, though, was Deadzone: Rogue. The game is made up entirely of assets repurposed from another of the developers failed projects, and apparently many of those assets started as generic Unreal Engine assets from the Unreal Marketplace. Its music could be called generic sci-fi, its enemies aren’t terribly interesting visually and the same could be said of its guns. Heck, the upgrade items are all oddly generic too, to the point where they don’t really even fit in the setting. And you know what? None of that matters because the game is good!

Deadzone: Rogue could have easily been just another bland asset-flip of an FPS, yet it isn’t. The developer had a vision for the kind of game that they wanted to make and it shows in all the areas that matter. Those bland enemies? They all have different profiles, behaviors and threat levels! They actually present a challenge and you can tell exactly what you’re dealing with at a glance. Some even get a little terrifying in the moment due to how they behave. In other words, they feed directly into the fun and how you decide to build your run.

The music fits even if its generic, the spaces work well for the combat even though they likely weren’t specifically made for for it, the weapons all feel good to use (except for one), and even the goofy generic items become part of the fun in a goofy way. You’ll catch yourself saying things like “oh man! I got the kaleidoscope! I can cook everything now!” It makes no sense, but it doesn’t matter ’cause that’s part of the fun too. And of course, there’s real thought put into progression and build-making for each run. What I’m trying to say is that Deadzone: Rogue is a really good roguelite FPS despite being an “asset-flip” in a lot of ways.

I feel like Deadzone: Rogue is, in a lot of ways, the antithesis of something like Highguard. Highguard has money behind it, a massive team, a cohesive art style, original (if uninspired) characters, bombastic music and all of it, yet there’s really no vision behind it. The vision is just “Overwatch but it’s 3v3 with horses and phases.” And well, it shows. Deadzone: Rogue, on the otherhand, has none of those nice things. It’s made on the cheap by a small team with re-used assets, but the one thing it does have vision or, dare I say, heart! And the result: it’s darn fun to play!

So yeah, I think my definition of what makes a game good has changed a bit. Of course it’s the gameplay, but where does good gameplay come from? I thought it flowed from developers willing to make everything from scratch, but now I think that all you need is the vision and drive to make something that’s fun to play first and foremost. If your game has that behind it, then you’ve already got 95% of what you need right there.

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What do you think gives a game “heart”? What are some games you’ve played that embody that?

Image from the Steam page.