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Recommended reading 'The age of gameplay mechanics has already passed' says Shadow of The Colossus director as he praises Katamari Damacy creator's new game for not being systems-driven Dev insists a glossed-up version of Daggerfall's aesthetic was 'invented' by AI, which is a bit like saying I can invent a new plane by drawing a picture of one Gaming Industry Resident game industry weirdo Yoko Taro laments that there aren't as many 'weird' people making videogames as there used to be Gaming Industry 'Touch grass, read a book, throw a ball, get tackled once in a while': Epic Games art director and OG System Shock 2 artist says the best-looking videogames are designed by people who don't just look at videogames Crash Bandicoot's original lead programmer reckons the overhauled N. Sane Trilogy 'got almost everything right' except for one tiny detail: 'they completely botched how jumping works' Gaming Industry Most players 'know next to nothing about how games are made': New Blood devs sound off on gamedev misconceptions Space Invaders creator recalls building arcade games with mirrors, making a prototype console that never saw release, and how short-sighted Taito's sales team was about videogames: 'These things will never sell' Gaming Industry A veteran Final Fantasy programmer hates how indie games deliberately recreate PS1 visual bugs he made 'many futile efforts' to fix: 'I just don’t get what’s so interesting about trying to replicate that' Ted Litchfield 11 August 2025 The kiddies can't get enough affine texture warping these days. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: FantasyRaider) First reported by Automaton, veteran programmer Koji Sugimoto (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 10) criticized modern games' emulation of retro visual glitches, specifically the affine texture warping of the original PlayStation, a frequent feature of lo-fi, throwback indie games. On August 5, Sugimoto responded to a tweet from Unity Japan about a new tool in the engine to let devs more easily emulate the PS1's texture warping effect, a limitation of the hardware that meant flat textures would warp and jitter when viewed from anything other than a direct perpendicular angle. 当時は虚しい苦労を費やして歪みを回避していたのに、今では「味わい」とか言われてしまっている。 https://t.co/r90BkvvUAqAugust 5, 2025 "Back in the day, we used to put in painstaking work and made many futile efforts to avoid texture warping," said Sugimoto, "only for it to be called 'charming' nowadays." I have defaulted to Automaton's translation rather than the machine translation provided by Twitter. Related Articles 'The age of gameplay mechanics has already passed' says Shadow of The Colossus director as he praises Katamari Damacy creator's new game for not being systems-driven Dev insists a glossed-up version of Daggerfall's aesthetic was 'invented' by AI, which is a bit like saying I can invent a new plane by drawing a picture of one Resident game industry weirdo Yoko Taro laments that there aren't as many 'weird' people making videogames as there used to be Sugimoto also linked to a far harsher critique of deliberate texture warping he made all the way back in 2019. "It's detestable," Sugimoto said (auto translation opted for "object of disdain"), "I spent so many work hours in vain trying to work my way around [warped textures]. I just don't get what's so interesting about trying to replicate that." I understand Sugimoto's frustration, given his own work trying to fix the problem, and could take or leave texture warping myself as far as nostalgic flourishes go, but overall I do love when games look like garbage, and I'm only half-kidding. I think Thief: The Dark Project is still one of the best looking games ever made, and all of its NPCs were made with like, three triangles. The great Brian Eno has an often-shared passage from his book, A Year With Swollen Appendices, that does a far better job of explaining and defending the artificial recreation of imperfections like texture warping better than I ever could. “Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature," Eno wrote. "CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit⁠—all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided." 2025 games: This year's upcoming releases Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Square Enix Ted Litchfield Social Links Navigation Associate Editor Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. 'The age of gameplay mechanics has already passed' says Shadow of The Colossus director as he praises Katamari Damacy creator's new game for not being systems-driven Dev insists a glossed-up version of Daggerfall's aesthetic was 'invented' by AI, which is a bit like saying I can invent a new plane by drawing a picture of one Resident game industry weirdo Yoko Taro laments that there aren't as many 'weird' people making videogames as there used to be 'Touch grass, read a book, throw a ball, get tackled once in a while': Epic Games art director and OG System Shock 2 artist says the best-looking videogames are designed by people who don't just look at videogames Crash Bandicoot's original lead programmer reckons the overhauled N. Sane Trilogy 'got almost everything right' except for one tiny detail: 'they completely botched how jumping works' Most players 'know next to nothing about how games are made': New Blood devs sound off on gamedev misconceptions Latest in Gaming Industry id Software co-founder John Romero was apparently one week removed from co-founding a completely different icon of PC gaming, but he'd already made plans New study shows that Gen Z is spending way less money on videogames than older gamers A guy in California is suing Microsoft for discontinuing Windows 10, demanding free extended support AOL discontinues its dial-up internet, and we're just surprised they even offered it in 2025 New report lays out Israeli military use of Microsoft services that prompted employee protests and a boycott of Xbox and Game Pass Diablo boss Rod Fergusson is leaving Blizzard for a 'new adventure' Latest in News Ubisoft announces a live-action Far Cry TV series then immediately pretends it didn't announce a live-action Far Cry TV series The internet is about to get a little worse as Reddit moves to block the Internet Archive so AI companies can't scrape its content I'm hooting and hollering for this upcoming RPG about staging heists in the underworld from the publishers of Dwarf Fortress and the designers of one of the best narrative games of all time Former BioWare producer Mark Darrah thinks Dragon Age remasters are the series' best hope for a future, but I doubt EA and BioWare even have it in them anymore Take-Two boss says Civilization 7 projections 'are very consistent with our initial expectations' despite its rough start: 'The key thing is that Civ has always been a slow burn' Wikipedia challenged the UK's new Online Safety Act and lost, but may have set a new precedent for fighting the rules all the same HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Corsair Platform:4 gaming desk review Wildgate review — A brilliant concept that's too clever for its own good Acer Predator GM9000 2 TB NVMe SSD review Biwin Black Opal NV7400 SSD review Fractal Design Scape review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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