Delaney King Profile picture
Nov 9 10 tweets 2 min read
Quick #gamedev tip continued on from here:

We usually talk about games as having several "biomes".
Artists make all the assets for a biome, and the level designers build everything from that.

This results, usually in a homogenised space that isn't interesting to explore. Once you have wandered for a few minutes, you basically "get it" and stop really finding the space fresh.
I found during my time on mmogs, that what made spaces explorable is hitting pockets that are distinct within the general theme.

So what I started to do is set up biomes as a folder heriarchy, with zones as folders within. The rule is, you can use assets from parent folders...
But you should avoid using assets from two childs of the same parent.

So you may have a "Dark Forest" biome folder, and within that "AncientGraveyard", "Swamp", "Shores", "Mountains" and "Dungeon".

You won't find swamp assets near the shores, but you will find "dark forest"...
...assets through all.

Dividing up your biomes into zones and zones within zones gives the player a sense that whatever is around the corner may be different, and not just the same things.
Even if you reuse assets like models and textures for all folders, the prefabs/blueprints you place in these folders are styled for that specific area.

Again, it's a structural abstraction, and a guideline to level building or auto generation- not a solid rule.
So as your character enters the Dark Forest, they are introduced to the general themes of the biome, such as pine trees, ferns, no grass and darker blue rocks.
As they move through the forest, areas start to bring in variations such as scorched trees and mushrooms...
Within the same biome, you find areas with stripped strees, rapid streams with salmon, bear caves and rounded rocks... then as you traverse it you come to a misty still area with large ferns, tall trees and woodpeckers. Further still, an ivy choked area with ancient ruins.
All the same biome, but you have a sense of travel and a sense of location.
I hope this helps.

:)

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More from @delaneykingrox

Nov 10
Doom Eternal game mechanics make it not a Doom game, but a technicolor piñata resource juggling game.
I just want to run around and gave gunfights with demons.

I don't wanna have to chainsaw scared looking zombie dudes and watch the same glory kill animation over and over just to get blinded by a spray of rainbow ammo symbols like a acid trip bukkake party.
*have.

All the yellow swingbars and climbing walls(tm) add absolutely nothing to the Doom formula.

It's like a pachinko machine fucked a perfectly good Doom game.
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Nov 10
Me when young dudes try explaining my job to me.
*internal voice* should I destroy them from orbit with my resume or shall I just go eat a kit kat.

Tonight, the chocolate wins.
People who saw the last time:
Read 5 tweets
Nov 10
Okay, so I keep seeing artists retopologising by essentially running evenly spread quads along something like a muscular arm or heavily wrinkled leg.

Like this... Image
I am not sure where this is being taught or why, but I see it a lot lately.

This is why it sucks...
If I was an animator trying to describe a curve, I would place keyframes along that curve.

These would occur at the changes of direction, like so... Image
Read 24 tweets
Nov 10
There are, it seems, a lot of fuckers who like stating the obvious just to start an argument.
I am just blocking people who bore the shit out of me by endlessly doing that. I have better things to do.
Just to be absolutely fucking clear, designing a game to be fun specifically without fast travel is different to taking fast travel out an existing fucking game that leans on it because there is fuck all else to do.

Obviously.

For the very sake of fuck.
Fuck.
...

...

...

No, I need one more.

Fuck.
Read 6 tweets
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Still getting a lot of questions about why #gamedev optimisation of meshes and textures matters if the game can handle it.
Over optimisation is when you spend a lot of time working on something that doesn't need optimising to do the job. Doing so wastes time you can put to better use.
So why shave a few polys off a model, cut down the texture size or strip out some bones when you can have so many these days?

Firstly, not all games are for top hardware, the latest drivers and the latest engines. What is a meagre savings on one platform is vital on another.
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I think my ideal role-playing game is one where I can just immerse myself in the enjoyable mundane of a fantasy life.
The early Valheim game really hit me close to what I dream of as it captured the feeling of being warm and sheltered when outside is torrents of sheeting rain and mud.

There are moments when you are safe in your little home, cooking your game over the fire, brewing and...
Organising your supplies.

It feels amazing just living day to day, returning to good spots to see if the berries have returned.

Moments of just making a place for your character from a hostile environment and shaping it into a home.
Read 6 tweets

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