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[BlueSweatshirt]

Keep in mind Minecraft is NOT a low-poly game. Take into account that each block is two tris per side. On average you'll see either 3 sides or 1 side of a block at once. That's 6 tris or 2 tris per block.

A hill in Minecraft may be made up of about 1000~2000 tris, when in a non-cubic 3D game it'd probably be under 100.

Oh yeah, and Java, like Sinclair said 

[Nikica]

Well, I give up on Minecraft, not really my thing even if I enjoyed the multiplayer back when it was only building pretty stuff. And yes it does run somewhat slow, there's slowdowns here and there even on minimal draw distance.

[Thomas Finch]

If you run 64bit then make sure you have the 64bit version of Java. Otherwise you'll get "out of memory" errors and the game will run really slow. Java's website does an automatic check of your version of Java, but for some reason even if you have 64bit it gives you the 32bit version. Here's a link to the 64bit version: http://javadl.sun.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=49026

Even more help would be to download the HD Texture pack fixer. It patched the minecraft jar to enable support for higher textures, but when using it if you go into options, you can increase your memory. If you have 64bit then you just go to the options of the HD patcher and double the number. Mine is 2048 now. Here's the link - http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/232701-611-update173-compatible-mcpatcher-hd-fix-210-02/

Minecraft was running a bit slow for me too and those two things fixed it. In fact, now I run Minecraft using a 256x256 texture pack and it looks and runs just great with view distance on full.

Now, if you just have a crappy computer, then none of that will help. Sorry if this shouldn't be posted in this thread. Just trying to help people who are having problems.

[s0]

Oh yeah, and Java, like Sinclair said 

I was surprised Minecraft runs as well as it does when I first tried Beta, considering how notorious Java is for being slow.

[SirNiko]

Tried playing some minecraft while a buddy of mine coached me along on how to mine for coal.

Then I realized it was 8pm and I hadn't fixed anything to eat. Damn it.

[Nix]

what's the big deal with vvvvvvvvvv it's not that great

[s0]

There is no "big deal," really. It's fun and polished, has good level design and a (to these ears) great, catchy chiptune soundtrack.

Of course you could argue that it's just another indie retro platformer with a gimmicky mechanic but hell, there's nothing wrong with something un-"innovative" but well-made coming out once in a while.

[[RM8]]

Agreed. Fun, challenging and has fantastic music, I liked it a lot.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

it also has a great story and interesting characters, even though it's of minimal importance to the game and the game doesn't spend that much time developing that part

i also like the free exploration part; the individual paths to the crewmen are linear, but a lot of the world and the finding of those paths is explored nonlinearly; that's one reason i preferred it over super meat boy (although i liked both)

[phubans]

Of course you could argue that it's just another indie retro platformer with a gimmicky mechanic but hell, there's nothing wrong with something un-"innovative" but well-made coming out once in a while.

There's plenty of other games that fit that criteria but don't get nearly the same attention as VVVVVV. I don't really get it either. I tried it and thought it was pretty simple, bland, and gimmicky... Not sure why it's so highly regarded.

[BlueSweatshirt]

I'd say the attention would be from the fact it got on Steam, really. How it got on Steam is another question.

I thought it had nice, well structured level design and a pleasing(albeit kind of overused) aesthetic. The gravity mechanic wasn't exactly unique in any regard, but I thought it was executed well, which is what matters to me.

[iffi]

I thought it was pretty fun and designed very well, it offers plenty to do after rescuing all the crew for the first time, and it has an awesome soundtrack (the best part of the game IMO). It's also fairly fun to speedrun (I did that a lot back in May - managed to get under 19 minutes without going for trinkets, though there were definitely a lot of places where I could improve).

[st33d]

Oh yeah, and Java, like Sinclair said 

I was surprised Minecraft runs as well as it does when I first tried Beta, considering how notorious Java is for being slow.

Lots of languages run really fast when there's a way to offload all the rendering on to the graphics card. Processing was originally for "sketches", but as soon as it got paired up with the JOGL library, people started making some incredibly impressive stuff. In Java.

[dEnamed]

VVVVVV is a good example of marketing done right in my opinion. It's certainly not the best game while not being a bad one either but if you were going by quality, execution and ingenuity alone, several other games would deserve more attention (imho) but it already had a cult following even before it was released.
I think there was a thread about it someplace here which got quite long in the process. It's interesting to see and follow how people were becoming hyped for it. It was also supported by frontpage posts and just general good reception in the indie crowd. It's quite interesting to read up on it and maybe something could be learned from how it was executed?

[s0]

I guess, but I remember VVVWWWW getting a lot of flak when for being commercial and costing $15 even though it was a "freeware quality" game when it came out.

(The difference between commercial and free is often just one of production values.)

[Tumetsu]

I think VVVVVV is good enough game to warrant the recognition it has, though sure, there definitely are better more obscure games too. However, I think that it could have been freeware game if it's design wouldn't be so good, and content wise I think that original $15 was a bit much since many indie games which have more content cost same or even less. I think it's current price is spot on though, and I got enough entertainment from it to worth of my money. Can't remember how much it cost when I bought it, maybe 5-8€.

[Brother Android]

I don't see why it deserves flak for being sold. If you don't think it's worth it, don't pay for it, but isn't the thought behind that statement that one-man teams who develop games with low production values don't deserve to make a living off of what they're passionate about - even if people have as much fun with their games as with games that cost a great deal more to make? That's like saying that Guided By Voices shouldn't be allowed to be professional musicians.

[SirNiko]

VVVVVV got a lot of TIGSource love because Terry has been a TIGSource regular for ages. It's normal to want to support the work of a colleague and friend, and VVVVVV was a quality title to boot.

But it did get a lot of flak for the price at launch.

[s0]

I don't see why it deserves flak for being sold. If you don't think it's worth it, don't pay for it, but isn't the thought behind that statement that one-man teams who develop games with low production values don't deserve to make a living off of what they're passionate about - even if people have as much fun with their games as with games that cost a great deal more to make? That's like saying that Guided By Voices shouldn't be allowed to be professional musicians.

I didn't say it deserved flak for being commercial, just that it got it (remember the TIGS frontpage and Indiegames.com comment sections when it came out?). Idk I guess for a lot of people, paying for a game implies a certain standard of production values. In terms of mechanics, level design, etc VVVVVV is absolutely on par with, say, Super Meat Boy.

[Nix]

So I played some more and I guess it's pretty neat