History of Game Design

If I was going to develop a game in the 80's I think that I would make a Text Based RPG game. Knowing the limitations that I do about games developed in that time frame, I think that this type of game would be ideal to make. Text based games dont use much CPU so creating a large text based RPG would be possible. 


I noticed while playing some games from different genres that the environments and levels differ greatly. 
        Games made in the 80s, are lot less graphically impressive than the games that you find today. The environments of games were linear and 2d, which meant there was little exploration in maps. Pacman and Donkey Kong's consisted of only one level and every time you won, the enemies in the level got harder. Metal Gear however had some very detailed environments for its time.
        Games in the 90s were a big improvement over the ones released in the 80s. The games made in this time changed from 2D to 3D. With the 3D graphics, it allowed the environments to become a lot detailed and more open world games were created. Super Mario 64 had some detailed and large environments which you are able to explore.
        Games made after 2004 have extremely detailed and large environments. Games like Just Cause, GTA 4 and  Midnight Club: Los Angeles are open world games which are still graphically impressive. With the powerful computers and consoles that we know have today, these large scale worlds are easily capable.

I think that a game environment varies according to the genre of the game. For example a racing game tries to offer authentic racing environments so the detail is going to be a lot greater than a children's game. Children's games are created more for fun rather than recreating an environment therefore it doesn't matter if there is little detail. The size of the environment also depends on the genre. First Person shooters for example are usually very linear so the levels dont need to have alternative paths. Adventures game however have some sort of exploration factor so the levels are alot bigger and have have a lot more variety