Part of my inspiration for all of this was mostly the fact that a new Wolfenstein is coming out, and I had a spare night to code something random.  I chose to crack open some of the file formats to 2009′s release of Wolfenstein to hold me over while I wait for the next id Software game to make it’s debut.

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I don’t know why I am so interested in these types of off-the-path rendering techniques.  Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are so different from the classic “push more polygons” pipeline.  Or maybe that they serve a singular purpose of trying to make the experience better through a non-traditional use of traditional content like triangles and textures.  Still, now that the dust has settled and everyone has chosen their sides in the fight I wanted to go back and analyze Megatextures more.  I wanted to question if it was the right choice for id Software and what can be done with it in the future.

I’ve been following this technique for far too long.  A likely side effect of my addictions, I find myself combing the whitepapers and lectures of companies like Crytek, id Software, Dice, Valve, Epic, Ubisoft, and many more.  I guess it’s not the worst thing for an engineer to do with his spare time but, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, wanting to follow in the steps of giants often leaves me standing in a dark place from the large shadows they cast.  And fully knowing my flaws, I still venture into this technology to ask myself if it is something worth investigating for my own indie-scaled games. » Read more..

For some people the early stages of development are the best.  This is when the pie-in-the-sky ideas get put down on paper and everyone has smiles on their faces.  This is the time when you almost never hear the word, “no” because every idea that spews from someone’s mouth sounds like sweet sweet music.  The early stages of game development is always the greatest time for the creative side of your brain, but it’s also the time that makes your logical side shed a tear whenever you start to hear buzz words like “bleeding edge”, “innovative”, and “multi-platform”.  It is especially painful when they are coupled into the same collective pitch.

More recently I have found myself questioning what my next project will be.  It feels like a daily activity to bounce back and forth between, a dedicated PC game, or a multi-platform game that may have some sacrifices.  It sounds like a no-brainer doesn’t it.  The “smart” bet is to aim for multi-platform but what does this mean for an indie developer? » Read more..

I am about to do a little bit of free-form game conception here.  This is less an exercise in brainstorming and more about thinking big inside of a little box.  I’ve blogged in the past about my interest in atmospheric games and this is the first step in that direction.  If the stream of consciousness below makes no sense, don’t worry, that’s just how my brain jumps through time and space.

I’ve always been a big fan of Metroidvania games and I’ve always liked how the game was less about dialog and more about exploration.  I don’t think that shying away from dialog was any kind of intentional design on the part of creators such as Gunpei Yokoi but it certainly lent itself to a subtle kind of story-telling.  It allowed people to see more than what the creators intended, allowing the imaginations of young gamers to craft a much larger world. » Read more..

Inland Studios is pretty deep in the hole, and making any kind of profit on anything I’ve done thus far is pretty slim.  I still plan to release Retribution on the PC with a number of tweaks and upgrades (HD PC resolutions, Mouse & Keyboard support, UI tweaks, bug fixes, no need for QRCodes on PC, and more), but I don’t expect it to move the needle much.  I would love to be wrong though.  I just haven’t seen much buzz around the game.

Most critics who contacted me during the development of Retribution have disappeared.  They seemed to have just taken the download codes and run with them.  The sites are still up but there is no mention of Retribution and there isn’t much of a response to my requests.  It’s a pretty sad situation but I’m not going to pry any longer.  The game is gone from the “New Releases” list which means that it’s lost in the obscurity of Xbox LIVE now. » Read more..

I recently read an article that went into great detail about why frame rate is the wrong metric to determine the fluidity of a game experience.  Though I may agree with the general concept, I can’t completely agree with the sentiment that Frames Per Second (FPS) is a worthless metric that needs to be replaced.

If we remove some obvious conditions from the equation, you’ll find that FPS is a brute but useful method to improving responsiveness.  The most obvious condition is large stutters caused by resource loading or video drivers suffering from bandwidth issues.  Assuming that the game has properly balanced their resources for the machine that is being used, we can get down to the root of the issue. » Read more..