Hello amigans,
since some of the issues brought up in this thread are particularly dear to me, I thought I might share my opinion...
Since the Amiga market is so little, producing new games is basically a work of love. Unfortunately, since making games is very demanding and since everybody has to carry on with life, it isn't surprising that there's lack of games. I'm sure many would just love to make games for the Amiga platforms.
But I guess I'm stating the obvious.
As regards creating modern-looking games: are you really sure that, f.ex., Lionheart or The Chaos Engine would look better in a higher resolution? More in general, are you sure that using all the latest technologies automatically means better technical quality? What I want to say is: don't be fooled! Modern technologies are nice and all, but also old techniques have their beauty and value, and it's a pity to forget them.
(I'm thinking of the visual aspect).
Finally, as regards the oldkool gameplay: that's another thing that has been forgotten. Games, with all the due exceptions, tend to be empty shells. Not just for lack of ideas (it's hard to innovate nowadays), but also because game makers wrongly think that impressing people is what really counts, that the core of the gaming experience revolves around senses. But that's false. And games tend to be shallow, to provide just superficial pleasure. Also, I have a feeling that sometimes games are made to last little, so that the gamer has to buy another one. What the good ol' times games did was to involve and challenge greatly the gamer's intellect, patience, endurance, determination and so on, ultimately giving him/her an entertaining and deeply rewarding experience. I call it the no-pain-no-gain phylosophy, as opposed to today's gain-without-pain one.
It's a complex matter and I'm so tired that I'm not sure I expressed my thoughts conveniently, so I'll stop it here.
In the end, allow me a shameless plug:
BOH seems to meet some/all of the requirements of some of you partecipating to this discussion: it's new, it's for the Amiga, it's oldskool... have you tried it yet?
saimo