Game is Art.

Coding is a crucial part of making a game, but at esence theres alot of engines already made. Engines that are better than those who try to make their own, at least when the majority is concerned. Theres a lot of elements in code that make up a game, graphic handling, audio managament, data resources, ect.

Even though the code(the engine) is what sets a game apart from a slideshow, it is ultimately the visuals and audio that wins over the player. However it is not how realistic a game is, but how well it fits. A common problem with indie games(the majority not the minority) is a lack of consitancy in art style and audio. A consistant art style and fitting audio(if needed) can make a buggy game more attractive than a well coded but horribly slapped together with clip art and different art of different styles.

I'm not trying to short change the coders though. Its not easy work. I've had a few attempts, but when it comes down the graphical and audio handling I'd rather leave it to the more experienced. I'm more of a creative type, but I do enjoy coding the game itself.

I focus on the visuals because to me a game is a piece of art. At root its art, it can also become a story, lesson or challange. Unfortunatly high demand has made First person shooters the dominate game of todays consoles and pcs, kind of killing the art aspect when everyone is trying to do realism. The alternative? Usually top-down or 3rd person games. The 2d world is almost forsaken by big industry.

Nintendo has thankfully not gone against its art style. Which to state they even handled the transition better than most. 3d graphics were all the rage when they began to grow, but if we really look back some of the transition some games made or even new ones provided a crappy use of 3d, showing its limits. We now need computers far faster than ever to come close to decent. Even emulating cartoons is more work on the computer than displaying frames.

Focus on making the game a game was begining to fade the more advanced visuals and audio got. The industry began to forget how to make games and just how to clone them. As a result you get games like Oblivion, who had to be aided by user content and lacked the most features of all the Elder Scroll series. Sure you can buy a house(very few) and ride a horse, but sacrafices for graphics cost a lot for that title. Another good example is the much forgotten DeusX 2 and Thief 3. Both originally were very great games but sacrafice a lot due to the 'realism' wars amongst game companies.

While I don't hate realism, I do enjoy it, its just if every game looks real then isn't every game the same?