If you're into retro-inspired 3D platformers, then Demon Turf may have caught your eye a few years ago. Published by Playtonic, also the creators of Banjo Kazooie spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee, it stood out visually for how it was a 3D platformer but had 2D character sprites, reminiscent of early 3D games such as Mario Kart 64, which used prerendered sprites. However, according to Fabian Rastorfer, founder of indie studio Fabraz, this aesthetic choice was down to technical limitations rather than for the sake of being retro.
"We had no one experienced enough with 3D character models in the team," he tells me. "With that in mind, we explored how we could still make a 3D Platformer, and after some initial experimenting, it led to this 2D sprite in a 3D world approach that ended up defining the game's entire aesthetic!"
