Since our final project, FitMi, is designed in pixel style, I research on available pixel games in the app stores and surprisingly find that pixel games, which seem to be a bit outdated, are still popular in the market. But why? Based on my personal experience and some further research, I suspect that these are possible reasons that keep pixel games alive.
One of the most important reasons is reminiscence. Because of reminiscence, developer created pixel games to pay tribute to the pioneers, for example, Super Mario, which bring them a lot of fun in their childhoods. Players of classical pixel games are attracted by new pixel games because of similar reasons.
Secondly, many game developers and organisations are short of man power which means that sometimes they have to do game design without designers. In such cases, pixel game is a rather safe choice due to its simplicity.
Third, pixel games actually enable users to make full use of their imagination. Therefore, for children and teenagers, who are never lack of imagination, pixel game is still a great choice for entertainment.
Moreover, expectations to pixel games are usually lower than the expectations to more advanced games such as GTA5. Since user accept the simple design of the user interface, it is not likely that they expect the game play to be very fancy.
On the other hand, since pixel game cannot afford too fancy game plays, they really have to put in effort to come up with a core feature that is fun. The Binding of Isaac, for instance, is a very good example of simple but playable game. The carefully designed core features keep pixel games attrative for a long period.
Last but not least, considering the large number of pixel games in the market, maybe it is just some of them becomes successful and popular at the beginning. And the success of these games earn users and credit for other pixel games which makes the whole market alive.
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