You may also consider that "innovation" can be represented in more ways than simply a new game mechanic.

Perhaps the volcano is made of blocks but is so far away, the individual blocks aren't perceptible.

Aside from the astounding level of baseless judgment here, you seem to be under the impression that these guys are asking for money to fund a simple hobby. The fact is that these are professionals and their time costs money. If they put in huge chunks of time to create a product for people, how is it you reason that…

Actually that doesn't necessarily mean that the actual polygonal lids close. The reason the polygon edges are there could be because the eyes are still separate geometry. If so, they could "move" the eye around by globally sliding the eye geometry's UVs, hence why they had to be separate from the head (so they didn't…

I'm in development too, animator here, so I get what you're saying. At the same time, I do disagree - I think first impressions are incredibly important. Clearly this video has no bearing on the quality of the end product, but players will react to whatever they've shown. It's likely that most of the team had no input…

It'll be used much the same way that motion capture is. It'll probably start out this way - straight scans with some (relatively) minimal editing. Then it will eventually be adopted as a means to quickly get a base to then build off of. Using your roads example, scan numerous smaller sections with some decent variety…

People are simply responding to how this studio is choosing to portray their game. The first thing that they show off is an improvement in tech. To a lot of people, that says the tech is the team's top priority - not the design, not the experience, nor the story. If they had released something else to give people a…

Not disagreeing with you that it looked nice, but perhaps people are just starting to want more out of their games than improved visual fidelity - which I personally think is fantastic. I actually find this complaining to be refreshing. The best thing I like about this trailer is that it's another step towards realism…

That scanning tech is all well and good, but I have a feeling this will be suffering from Scooby Doo Syndrome. Characters and foreground/interactive props will stick out dramatically from the background environment.

It depends on how you define visual quality. Film and CG/games have opposite challenges. When filming practical stuff - a physical set for instance - you start with imperfection and work towards perfection. In CG and in games, everything is flawless and perfect out of the box, making it feel fake. So the challenge is…

Careful with a phrase like "big project." It's more impressive to have a couple small, but really solid projects than it is to have one ambitious one that is either just okay or never gets finished. Keep the focus small and tight so that the quality is the best it can be.

Right on, I dig Lemmings. So you want to do all parts of development - design, art, and code?

Hah dude you're 21. Take it easy, you've got more than enough time ahead of you to make it happen. What do you want to do?

F50 is right, this is a rare case. Far far more people are hired through standard channels than through a modding community. Obviously the latter happens on occasion, but its not typical.

Very fair point. People love a rags-to-riches type story, so most people don't consider factors like that. Not having to support himself otherwise definitely gave him the time he needed.

Working in games isn't all flowers and beer, but I'm not sure about all of that. I've worked in several large studios, never as a lead, and have never found myself underpaid or without respect. Overworked occasionally, but the leads always worked just as hard as everyone else.

It isn't quite as simple as that, but I like your optimism.

Facial features aside, the comparison is being drawn because they're clearly similar in terms of composition and overall design direction. At least for this promo image.

No worries, I get ya, I've used SSS numerous times. And I realize it's a bit silly for us to continue discussing this but simply for the sake of clarity this is what I was referring to in terms of reflection. This is reflection, not SSS, and I think what robotsanic was originally talking about:

It's both. There's "specular" reflection - the tighter whitish highlights on the folds in the ear - and there's the refraction of light through the mass of the ear (as some people have pointed out is called sub-surface scattering). Skin is reflective and refractive. Robotsanic has issue with the highlights, not the…