It may seem odd that none of these have taken off, considering the popularity of gender reassignment psyops (speedrunning)
When I scrubbed through the Steam pages for all these I noticed a pattern.
And no, I don't want to talk about ambient DnD again. Although I really like it.
When I think back to defrag or surf, I think a central aspect is that it was so community driven, with all other players appearing as ghosts, new local records being announced in chat, and voting for the next map. Of course, the maps themselves were community made as well.
So Celaria leaning into that isn't that much of a surprise to those who played others in the scene.
Aesthetically, defrag and surf maps have vastly outcompeted all of these new contenders, for the simple fact that Surf can lean on the Source 2 engine, and even defrag had global illumination via lightmaps. That grainy re-encode I put in the op may not do it justice, but it was VERY smooth to look at, and that became its own aesthetic in Quake circles. People loved those low frequency textures and color bands. That may have influenced or been influenced by the release of Mirror's Edge too, but idk.
It can be very hit or miss to go for that look deliberately, because without advanced lighting techniques for the mappers, it becomes very boring very quickly.
Mechanically, I guess it's laudable that Hoverflow and BOOST VECTOR EX try to do their own thing, although I would be worried about it sticking.
Anyway, what is a good name for these types of games?
>Honorable mention: That Teeworlds grappling hook mode.