The Desolate Nature of Videogame Betas

Vaporweeb

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Just the other day, I was watching Vinny Vinesauce's VOD of him playing some leaked early versions of Nintendo 64 games, including Rare's never-released Dinosaur Planet, Glover, and Ocarina of Time.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCuQxkH4ceA


I've always been interested in these development versions of games that the public never sees, but when Vinny got to this version of Kakariko Village, something about it really resonated with me.
Screen Shot 2021-03-11 at 3.13.18 PM.png

For some reason, I was absolutely struck by how particularly dead it felt to the point of it feeling a little bit creepy. The copy/pasted house neatly lined up in rows, the otherwise blank environment, and that classic old-school fog effect certainly didn't help. Not to mention, absolutely zero music or sound effects to the area. Just the echoes of Link's footsteps.

Now, I can only guess that the reason it feels so off is because I'm just used to how the final version of Kakariko Village is, which has lots of character and life to it. By comparison, this just seems alien. Now I really understand why so many mediocre creepypastas from the late 00's are based on early versions of games like these.

I'm immediately reminded of Winter Sleep's work, especially the cover of Return to Dream City, which appears as if you've gone out of bounds in an old video game. Just like these unfinished maps, it is similarly empty and devoid of life.


View: https://winter-sleep.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-dream-city


Anyway, here's a selection of stills from other early areas in the game's development that I feel are particularly unsettling.
Screen Shot 2021-03-11 at 3.24.01 PM.png

From the map titled "Sacred Forest Meadow."
Link approaches the completely faceless façade of what might have become the forest temple later in development. The entire area is dark and shrouded with fog. Again, no music either.
Screen Shot 2021-03-11 at 3.26.40 PM.png


Screen Shot 2021-03-11 at 3.32.01 PM.png

An unfinished version of the Fire Temple, which seems mostly similar to the final product, save for the fact that it is incredibly dark, and the labyrinth pictured here is much larger than in the final game.

Screen Shot 2021-03-11 at 3.38.13 PM.png

The graveyard connected to Kakariko Village. It's very plain, save for the chunk of bricks inexplicably missing from the wall in the back. Note the crosses on the headstones that most certainly didn't make it into the final version.

There's a lot more than that, so feel free to check out Vinny's walkthrough of all the maps.

Parting question: are there any other old video game betas that give off a similar feel to this?
 
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vaporwavemaster1

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私は同意します、未完成のプロトタイプはかなり魅力的です。誰かの子供の頃の仮想世界が、構想から完成まで大幅に変更される可能性があると考えるのは奇妙です。ビデオゲームデザインの多角形の性質は、ビデオゲームのグラフィックスが開発を通じて常に少し変更できることを意味します。ゲーム内のクッキーのぱりっとしたネクタイを思い出します。目的は、できるだけ多くのクッキーを食べることでした。どうやらクッキーの少ないベータ版があったようです。このプロトタイプでは、プレイヤーは朝食の城のホールをさまよい、クッキーを見つけることはめったにありません。
 
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Merek

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I'm going to necro this thread just to point out for the record that what you're referring to here is liminal spaces. It makes sense that betas would be rich with them, because what usually ends up making a space "liminal" is the lack of expected set dressing, including other people. Obviously betas, as early prototypes, are often only going to have the bare minimum in a given map, but the map's size, shape, and context clues imply there should be more, thus giving them an eerie, empty feeling.

All of this probably has some atavistic evolutionary root to it. If you walk into a setting you expect to be full of life only to discover it's empty and abandoned for no obvious reason, it probably increases your chance of survival to notice this and get the fuck out, because there's a good chance something bad has happened, and it might happen to you if you stick around.
 
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