The hidden tricks bringing game worlds to life.
Indie studio National Insecurities was well on its way to completing its latest first-person murder mystery parody, 2000:1: A Space Felony. It had an eye-catching name, a publisher, and a rock-solid visual and thematic base it could use to play off audience expectations. There was just one problem: The centrifuge didn’t work.
An astronaut jogs around a stark centrifuge, punching the air as he travels in an endless loop. This scene, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, is one of the most iconic in film history. And National Insecurities’ parody couldn’t replicate it. No matter what it did, the team couldn’t find a reliable, smooth way for the player to run along the centrifuge as it spiralled through space. Then lead developer, Lauren Filby had an idea.
Rather than attempting to create a special case for the player to be able to travel around the centrifuge while it was moving, she bent space around the player. When the player was outside the centrifuge, it would rotate as normal. However, as soon as the player entered the centrifuge, everything else in the game world would begin to rotate to ensure consistency of movement. This leap of logic is common to game development. Surprising in its requirements, bewildering in its utilization, and essential to increasing the fidelity of a game’s world.
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
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Special Report- Stacked Deck - Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big.
Monster Train, a deckbuilding roguelike that firmly entrenched itself as the crown prince to the kingly Slay the Spire back in 2020, was the kind of smash success you might call Champagne Big. Four years later, its successor Inkbound’s launch from Early Access was looking more like Sandwich Big.I’m not just saying that because of the mountain of lamb and eggplants I ate while meeting with developer Shiny Shoe over lunch, to feel out what the aftermath of releasing a game looks like in 2024. I mean, have I thought about that sandwich every day since? Yes. But also, the indie team talked frankly about the struggle of luring Monster Train’s audience on board for its next game.
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