How do you define "polish"?
Friday, July 3rd, 2009 - 6:36pm
...and no, I don't mean "from Poland".
"Polish" is a term we use all the time to describe games. A simple forum search will show the word occurring in many threads.
But what does it mean?
It seems to be a fairly nebulous term that can be applied to almost anything: graphics, sound, functionality, control scheme, writing, et cetera. Is a buggy but graphically impressive game more or less polished than a bug-free game with bland visuals? Can we even use this quality to compare games, or is it only useful for assessing games individually? Is polish a universal quality, or is it entirely subjective to each gamer's perspective?
Tell me, fellow goodjers, what does "polish" mean to you?
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To me, a game that is "polished" is one in which it is obvious that care and attention have been paid to every element, from UI to loading screens to music to sound design to gameplay, etc. As in every form of entertainment, polish does not necessarily equate with enjoyment or fun; however, with a highly polished game I can at least appreciate the detail and aesthetic elements. We can all think of books, movies, and games that we loved despite the flaws and the lack of polish, and some "slick" presentations that didn't move us.
It depends. If the resulting glare is blinding and covers up other flaws then polish is a thin layer of spit, smeared to an even thickness.
If however the polish simply allows you to better appreciate the underlying material, then polish is just a well crafted surface. Soft to the touch.
A game can only be truly polished once you tighten up the graphics on level 3!
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Polish means they've iterated on their ideas many times over and refined them many times over. It means lots of playtesting.
Polish can show up in different areas. Some games have polished production values. The animations are just right. Graphics are detailed in the right spot. Frame rate is smooth. The act of pressing and seeing what happens on screen is very tight.
Other games can iterate on ideas and polish those up. Make encounters more interesting.
You can have a fairly dull game with high production values. The videogame equivalent of a mirage. Some 360 games are like that for me.
Or you can have games with solid well though out interesting ideas where they had the framework for an interesting game, but just didn't execute on the production value side of things.
I thought REd Steel on the Wii was very much like that. Lots of interesting gameplay mechanics like pushing over tables to take cover and the sword fighting mixed in with the fps stuff, interesting way that they setup the mission structure aka the lounge where you talk to the different patrons to get missions, and at least one very interesting level ala the rabbit/carnival level, but they didn't execute on the production value front. Frame rate issues, animations were so-so, controls were a bit iffy, etc.
To me, a polished game is one where it both ships in a good quality state (i.e. no major bugs) and where as others have said, clear attention to detail was paid. Basically, if the game has a feel that true passion and effort went into it rather than just shoving something out the door to meet a deadline. It is an intangible and subjective quality in many ways but I've found that a game that is well polished is generally thought as such by a majority of people. In many ways, it is something you can just "tell."
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The only game I would define as polish is the Witcher.
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Relatively minor things tend to define polish for me in a game. For example, in the Ghostbusters game in the museum level, I noticed no repeating textures for the paintings on the walls. These small details draw me more fully into a game, as they seem to promise greater things to come: like a foreshadowing to greatness. I also very much appreciate unique and creative uses of the mechanics of the game. Using Ghostbusters again (I just finished it so it's all I can think of), the ghost fight in the Civil War section of the museum was a wonderfully creative use of the game's premise.
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Polish refers to those aspects of game design that are separated from the high-concept design-document stuff. Little things, like good menu design, are polish that add an extra shine to the core game.
Like the time that precedes words, there are colors but no rules
Attention to detail, in any area. In other words, the more attention to detail there is, the more polished it is. Polish is the '10' part of the 90/10 rule.
You jest, but observe the steady increase in the quantity and quality of WYSIWYG game design toolkits...
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Take something good and give it further refinement, that's polish.
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As many others have said, polish is that last look at a game, and fixing relatively minor things that can annoy the player. Cleaning up confusing menus, making sure the controls work as one would expect them too, paying attention to the load screens and minor details in the environments.
There are plenty of great games that aren't very polished, but a polished game can often overcome some more obvious flaws.
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Polish is where it feels like the team put every part of their passion and love into the game, and it wasn't simply something to make a quick buck with. It's the games that last for a long time in our mind with "Man, that was truly a great experience."
Just think about your favorite Windows 95 games. Thief. Planescape. X-Wing. TIE Fighter. They all had polish.
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I'd say polish is knowing when to stop developing new content and start refining and fixing what is already there. It's basically finishing a working game and then going over it again and again trying to improve on what is already there whether that's the graphics, user interface, bugs, small adjustments etc.
It's also knowing when to ignore the "one more great idea" you may have if it involves introducing brand new stuff.
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Like STALKER, ArmA and every other buggy, great game from my side of world? As an expert on polish I can't agree!
My definition runs the risk of being just as tricky and nebulous as the word itself, but for me, a polished game is one with high production value. This can still pertain to any aspect of the game, and any one area can be polished while other areas are lacking.
The Burnout games always feel very polished to me. Silky smooth frame-rates, excellent controls, pretty graphics, all packaged together in a game that just feels like it is without any significant flaws. The way the camera slows down on a crash while you keep driving, only to come back to you without making you feel lost or overwhelmed by the transition from control to no control to control again is an excellent indication of polish in both presentation and gameplay. That it's sometimes noticeable that you have been moved into the center of the road sometimes during the crash or that you're obviously invincible for a few seconds after a crash is unimportant. A lot of EA games seem to have a high degree of polish, in at least presentation if not any other aspect of the game. Except for music. A lot of EA games have sh*tty music. Burnout especially.
Super Mario Galaxy is another game I associate with polish. Everything about the game screams expert craftsmanship from an experienced team that truly cared about the end result being no less than perfect. Very few Nintendo games lack this feeling, even when they're games I don't really care about. Even when a Nintendo game drops the ball in the presentation department, the gameplay almost always feels polished to perfection. Except for Kirby Air Ride. That game is a turd.
The last-gen GTA games never felt polished, but I still loved them. GTA4, however, feels very polished, almost to a degree that no other studio making an open-world game of that scale could ever hope to achieve. Sure, Crackdown is polished, too, but it's not nearly as big. Saints Row 2 is as big if not bigger, but it's not nearly as polished.
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I use the term polish a lot when describing what makes a good game great. Polish is taking a game that is done, ready to hit the shelves, and yet the developers decide to take more time to make the game shiny. To really enhance the gameplay and graphics beyond what is necessary to make a game successful.
Take the Killing Floor and Left 4 Dead as an example. The Killing Floor has all the gameplay parts done and the graphics are good for the feel they are trying to acheive. To me the game is good, but not great. Now take Left 4 Dead. The gameplay is good and the graphics are good, but it has so much polish that it far surpasses the Killing Floor.
Take the lighting as an example. After the levels were made, Valve went over the levels and changed all the lighting to make the city feel more "abandoned". They turned on the headlights of cars to give bright areas with surrounding dark, and logs of shadows.
Now look at the characters. The Killing Floor only had a bunch of cops and army men. They added a little polish by giving a backstory to each avatar, but nothing more. In Left 4 Dead, each character had a personality. They said things as you went though the levels. They talked to each other and gave audiable clues to the players.
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I agree, except that polish does not draw me further into a game but rather keeps me from getting pushed back out. Polish is the detail work that keeps the 4th wall from breaking, from having those moments that scream, "Hey, you're playing a videogame! Some guys made this part! They kinda sucked at it!"
It's completely independent of whether a game is good, however. Most bad developers can't manage to put a decent polish on their games, so we associate it with quality, but it's not. Polish is craftsmanship, not artistry. So it's stuff like not repeating textures, like designing good menus, like having controls that quickly become subconscious, competent voice acting, etc.
Someone or something from Poland?
As for a serious answer, it's ironing out the quirks. Framerate is solid, crap isn't clipping through walls, stuff isn't freezing, physics work properly, random pedestrians don't continually walk into your immobile self during cutscenes, etc...
Stuff like that, it's absense doesn't ruin a game but it's presence seperates a good game from a great one.
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As others already said, polish is usally referring to every single aspect of the game. It means getting it beyond 'functionally complete'. It means removing also the bugs and problems that won't destroy the experience, but still can be perceived by the player.
It's the equivalent of the ingredient "love" in a dish prepared with passion.
The details that make me chuckle, that's polish. The little things that show the developers truly enjoyed working on their game, that it wasn't just a product but a labour of love.
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If I try to break a game mechanic and the game shoots it back in my face like, "Haha, not only can you not break me, but I'm going to break you for trying," then the game is polished.
Hitman: Blood Money was like that for me.
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stupidhaiku wrote: SteamYonder wrote:
Polish, for me, is taking that extra pass through to make the blemishes of a game less obvious, make the game more playable. Listen to the Half-Life episodes with commentary to see just how much they refine and polish segments of games. Many instances of "Players would often ge to this point and get lost, be overwhelmed, etc."
I would love to come up with another example, but Valve is so far ahead of the competition when it comes to game completion, these days, that I cannot find an example on par.
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Other companies I would put into this pool are Bioware and Blizzard (but not the Activision part).
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I define polish as the ability to hold a game back that last couple months to go through and make that much more sure things are "perfect"
Bioshock comes to mind as a recent example of this.
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I think Tritone nailed it in the first post.
Unpolished? EA sports games, EA games, Ubisoft,
Polished? Nintendo, Blizzard, Valve, .....