Procgen

Part of the reason why DSC only has one cramped interior is that time is of the essence and all has to be crunched (be done as fast as possible until it can be). Which sort of keeps the scope in a really tight space as you can imagine; may it be good or bad, in terms of cut features, like visually inspecting your environment via a periscope or being able to go outside in a suit (the one that’s the logo for the game). However, the lack of pre-production is the reason why the project has a timeframe (of few months), instead of a fixed release date for 1.0, because times like this, features/designs are being made up on the spot and need additional creative problem solving. Luckily, my experience doing all these things as a dev helped, as my previous projects all had these features in one way or another currently using.

A good example would be when my long standing issue with lighting was finally figured out (circumventing the fact that the project can't use any modern lighting techniques, due to hardware limitations on my part), in a form that looked OK and didn't tank the frames. But I digress, because this time around procedural generation came to the spotlight once again. See this example of texture based lighting on an in-between project:

In my previous major prototype, the tiles that were used in the game were on the same level, spread out on a 2D grid. With the ease that there were these chunks that either could spawn a prefab (a pre-made asset, like a waterfall, or a boss room) or regular blocks. This time however, there was a need to make all this in 3D, which is why I’ve opted in using the famous “wave function collapse” technique: A fancy way of saying “blocks determine what other blocks are around them”. The feature is in the design phase, have been cutting up these building blocks for a day now and still not done (requires unique naming, fit-testing, assembling lookup tables, and so forth), which will be the core of this feature. So it looks something like this now:

These might look a bit rough, but because there isn't any need for visuals outside the cabin, the project can get away with simpler executions in the form of simple geometric shapes; nobody will notice, unless they read this article!

Once done, the algorithm will be assembled in the engine and hopefully will be able to generate something that I’m aiming for: 3 distinct zones, with varying sets of features (small hills or depressions). One for the near coastline, one for the plains of the sea, and one for the deepest parts as you venture out. Will have to play with it though, as one backside of this technique is that it is not self aware on a larger scale. So incorporating larger, cohesive structures require additional methods and manual tinkering; but we will see.

Of values

Lately, for some reason, I keep getting into situations where the topic of value comes up (last happened just yesterday), which makes this part more relevant than ever. In the last post, it was briefly mentioned that it was “nice to see others agreeing with my principles, in providing value, the need for it” (which came from other devs and people in the industry), something I thought to expand on today.

Many of you probably aren’t familiar with my attempts and contributions, but in my own ways, as someone with a limited audience and reach, been a strong voice for a few topics over the years. Often advocating for positive changes or at least trying to carve a different direction, a sort of “safe heaven” in space, from industry practices that became standard over the years. Often only there to cause harm or things that seemed to be missing on a grand scale: The “where the industry is headed” sort of thing that some people also talk about a lot (at least as far as my interpretation goes). Although, my ultimate goal was and is to provide something that I'm not seeing much on the market, as far as my definition of gaming is concerned: Entertainment with value and merit, something that stands the test of time, moves others and has the ability to create discussions.

Conversations, as of late, regarding value in gaming just represented my experience even more and reinforced my sneaking suspicion that was built over the years, how poorly value is being perceived by outsiders (folk who don’t game literally cannot understand or appreciate my efforts as an upcoming, struggling developer) and how people in the industry themselves don’t necessarily know what is what. This is why making games isn’t just a simple question of black & white, it isn't a binary decision nor an outcome in most cases, as it’s one thing what you think is true and a whole other what life is about (the full picture).

We as creatives often fall into the trap of thinking that people will love our creations as is. Truth is, most of the time they don’t as people more often than not, have different tastes and requirements for art and entertainment. Which is why my goals probably only align with a handful of people, but that’s not necessarily an issue here. It only becomes one when the players in the industry, the ones that hold power over those who cannot afford to join on their own (talking about publishers here, excluding gating for a moment), act and think as if they perfectly knew what the market wanted, sort of “in their best interest” kind of way (they’re also people, with their own taste and values); whilst wanting to make the big bucks. What’s more alarming is that most of the time decision-makers, who make the final call of writing out that fat cheque or letting that design flourish, have little to no idea how games are actually made; over the years of me trying to find a publisher for my various projects, like this one, I can almost count on one hand the times I’ve actually spoken to someone who knew how games were made, out of hundreds of applications.

And that’s a problem. A major one, as games is this special medium, where having an idea isn’t enough to complete making a game as the design itself requires a certain threshold to meet (which is this binary thinking not helping out at all), and as such often side on what’s been done before, making those safe bets, sometimes because of the lack of knowledge and not strictly for the reason to appraise the Board of Directors; this happens way too often to be a simple “coincident” or “consequence”, if everybody is doing it then there’s more to it (chasing profits isn’t the full picture here). A whole set of skills needed to do so. Not just talking about the technical aspects (the limitations, the constraints for time), to diss outrageous plans of ballooning scopes and false promises, but for the fact that intent and composition also plays a huge role in all of this, which brings us to my loose definition of what I call “value” (the multifaceted aspect of making decent games). Things that come outside of the industry, from other well-established principles. And this always bothered me, and was the reason why tinkering with games became a thing for me back in the day, because what I wanted was just not there to take.

And this stuff is seen by gamers, people like you, when a game is there to strip your wallet and gives back nothing else but misery, under the thin veil of “this is how the industry works, soo deal with it”. Sometimes it feels like an insurmountable issue to tackle, as you can only do so much against the tide as a drop; something that’s been wearing me down, has been for years really, the constant fighting and the cutting out tiny-devs like myself out from opportunities to make a difference (especially in certain parts of the world, which is why this whole Early Access is a thing, what would be compensation for as asking for donations is not really viable at the moment). Not mentioning the long term implications this has on the industry or on consumption as a whole (like the race for the bottom in the indie scene when it comes to pricing).

It's wild to think that something as embedded and structural as this would be left out in the dust, or cared little for most of the time, knowing that the one thing that we’re after, well, should be after is spending our time best, because filling up on those cheap snacks will make us hungry that much faster…