Pixelized

Slow month in the programming department in general. I’ve had books to read, music to listen to, and clouds to watch. Right now I’m mid-pivot so not that much to show but I’m excited!

Pivot

Ortho

For a moment I had a hard time figuring out what I was even building. I went too deep on the tech side of things. Of course I need networking and physics, those things are cool! But they happen to be a pain in the ass as well. I’m not one to say no to a challenge but am I doing this because it’s a challenge or because it actually takes me to a place I want to be?

So I did what I typically do when I feel frustrated, I started a new repository. Tinkering with the basics always gets me in a good mood. Just typing out simple and handwritten glue code, mm, pure bliss. Now I’m back to where I was a month ago but with a new codebase and a new idea in my head.

Game

Not going into too much detail since it’s still just an idea in my head. But I wanted to constrain myself a bit and have been thinking of a more top-down style. I’ve played around a bit with using an orthographic projection to give it more of a pixel game style.

I’ve noted another benefit of this approach as well. Not only does it limit the scope of what you can do in terms of gameplay compared to a FPS, but it also simplifies a lot of the technical challenges I’ve encountered with my rendering.

Style

Now I’m playing around with the style. I feel it would be neat to target something that looks like pixel art, but that is in 3D. As an example I tried pixelizing the lighting:

Pixelized

But as you see if you rotate, it’s actually 3D.

Pixelized 3D

As you can see, the regular light gives a bit of another feel.

Regular light

So I have some experimentation to look forward to in the coming month. I think first order of business is probably to fix my foliage, which for now is full of artifacts.

Other

  • Monk and Robot: I recently got introduced to solarpunk by a colleague and I was scrolling through some books. This was one of the few that didn’t seem to want to force a lesson on me so I bought it. It was actually an amazing read, very simple and like therapy for my overthinking brain.
  • How rendering changed | Sebastian Aaltonen: Interesting interview with Sebastian Aaltonen.
  • Goings-on in Ziglang with Build System Reworked and ELF Linker Improvements.
  • Boards of Canada - Inferno: First album in 13 years and it was amazing!