So, I have a story about the Skyrim Intro and how hard game development is.
That intro is famous now, but back then, it was just that one thing that we had to keep working and working on forever. I lost track of how many times I've seen that cart ride. Easily hundreds. (thread)
See the issue with that cart ride is that it's not just a cart on rails. That cart is physically simulated. Why you ask? Good question.
So anyways, this meant that all kinds of things would cause the cart to start to freak out and fly off the road.
Maybe the road was too bumpy. Maybe there was just a physics bug. Maybe somebody accidentally put a rock too close to the road. The cart had a path it wanted to follow, but that doesn't mean it was a path it COULD follow. Big difference. :)
Well one time, riding that cart yet again, the cart starts to shake violently and all of a sudden WHOOSH! The cart goes up into the sky like a rocket ship. Like WAY up there.
Something was telling that cart to just fuck right off and to get off that road. The thing is, it wasn't happening every time. Nobody knew what was going on at first.
So it turns out there was another bug where the bee in the game couldn't be picked up. So then some potions couldn't be made. That bug got fixed. Only the type of collision put on the bee didn't just let it get picked up. It also made it collide into things.
Meaning, that bee was an immovable force of nature if it ever happened to cross the path of the cart. The cart wanted to move down the road. The bee did not want to move. So up the cart goes!
So game development is hard. Every time you fix one thing, you might be breaking another. This is especially true about open world games. Yet, that interplay of all the systems is what ends up making them all super interesting.
I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story! It's always been one of my favorite stories.
If you're interested in more, go ahead and follow me. I'm working on an #UnrealEngine solo indie game now. It's an open world horror metal game. :)
It's just me, so it's Just Purkey Games.
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