https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog daily 0.75 2024-09-12 https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/splinter-1 monthly 0.5 2024-09-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/8a6698c6-5fe0-46d4-a93f-8a29ffd61a43/website.PNG DevLog - Splinter System design and content design are separate, and they need to be budgeted for separately. I designed a neat system for dynamically simulating a sword duel and developed an AI to fight use it, but did not foresee the fact that I would then have to tune and balance the enemies to be fun on top of building the system. Building physics simulations from first principles is non-trivially hard. I tried to put together a spring simulation to drive the sword using the math I remembered from high school physics, but it was very unstable. I hindered by not yet having a truly deep understanding of Unreal’s execution order and frame rate handling, which would have helped. Asset creation isn’t necessarily the long pole task. I threw together a cave with some spooky flora and interesting lighting in an afternoon with some Houdini magic. Admittedly, this is easier if your game is mostly set in the dark. Copying physics simulations works great in a pinch. I ended up replacing the spring with a slightly modified implementation of Verlet integration that I stole from the internet. This worked just fine for my purposes. Complex gameplay systems need an abstraction layer to translate from engineering-semantics to design-semantics, even when I’m both the engineer and the designer. The sword simulation exposed a whole lot of variables about how the sword moved and bounced and curved and all sorts of things. This was great, but it would have been much easier to work with if I had just a few higher level knobs for things like “weight” and “responsiveness” that I could use to change things when designing enemies. Mixing animation systems isn’t the end of the world. I had a few animation-minded friends working with me, and one person ended up building the player sword rig driven by IK while at the same time someone else was building the enemy sword as a system of blend shapes. I was a little worried that this would be confusing, but they were separate enough problems due to the different viewpoints to camera that it wasn’t an issue. When they say C++ doesn’t do memory management for you, they mean it. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/root-cause monthly 0.5 2024-04-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/5a254866-92c3-4088-9008-a4824df487fc/ship_concept.jpg DevLog - Root Cause - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/682f4ff0-5561-4175-963f-ebbad6654989/engines.png DevLog - Root Cause - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/3384f1b8-06c1-4cba-b8f7-d8d8faba1d89/cover.png DevLog - Root Cause - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/bread monthly 0.5 2024-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/15f74ede-38af-4080-bdcd-511e916d69c8/to_wrangle_or_not_to_wrangle.PNG DevLog - Bread - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/27072105-030e-46cf-83a2-161ddb57bedc/bread_notes.jpg DevLog - Bread - Make it stand out unending bread notes https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/theseus-return-to-the-labyrinth monthly 0.5 2024-02-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/e7e8d5ab-54dc-49f4-8354-0ac9f0d217b6/minotaur_in_maze.PNG DevLog - Theseus: Return to the Labyrinth - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/641ed3c0-b51b-41a3-b323-139b102c3de7/theseus_in_maze.jpg DevLog - Theseus: Return to the Labyrinth - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/719599b3-2ea0-4ffc-88d7-248a05afc5ad/spool_story.png DevLog - Theseus: Return to the Labyrinth - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/00ef1334-d6d3-494e-abd0-69c83fdbdccf/theseus_title.png DevLog - Theseus: Return to the Labyrinth - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/physics-tooling monthly 0.5 2023-08-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/70c6491d-8756-4f9e-aa42-8d8c8f16bca3/physics_tool_window.PNG DevLog - Physics Tooling - All of these assets are created through a custom editor window, which is rather boring code that I wrote with the surprisingly effective assistance of ChatGTP. The bulk of the logic is configuring Unity’s Recorder to record the animation, and the rest is a simple set of buttons and fields. There are lots of ways that I could make this safer to use: right now it’s possible to wipe test cases by with duplicate names, record the wrong thing, or accidentally mangle the test case objects somehow. But, I’m the only one using it so quick and dirty is perfectly good enough. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/voyage monthly 0.5 2023-05-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/9cf739a9-2cd0-493f-a2e1-f2a55e68fda8/en_route.PNG DevLog - Voyage - Make it stand out It exists, with lots of room for polish https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/ik-experiments-ii-fabrik monthly 0.5 2023-05-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/432e7657-4f5f-4829-b475-e4bb834ae976/mech_plans.PNG DevLog - IK Experiments II - FABRIK - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/ik-experiments-1 monthly 0.5 2023-05-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/9e566254-acd6-4eeb-acfc-697a543c3dc9/long_arms.gif DevLog - IK Experiments - Make it stand out My implementation on the light blue long arm, Unity’s on the orange arm. Notice how the Unity solver looks happy and content, and mine looks vaguely terrified. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/3e3f649c-1499-4a3d-8c6f-1f07c6271a88/short_arms_2.gif DevLog - IK Experiments - Make it stand out My implementation on the left, Unity’s on the right. They are tracking targets at the same relative position to their bases. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/fixing-the-render-pipeline-animation-capstone-4 monthly 0.5 2022-04-04 https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/mash-doodles monthly 0.5 2022-03-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/0d2579bf-a828-4ef6-b456-ac045a4c15ca/stairs.gif DevLog - MASH Doodles - This was accomplished with two overlapping offset nodes with animated parameters. These operated on the initial state, which was simply all of the stair steps stacked vertically above each other. The first offset node rotated all stairs by an animated value, such that when the stairs where fully opened it rotated the entire stack around to the rotation of the final staircase. The second offset node counter-rotated by the final rotation amount, with a linear falloff along the height of the stairs. This falloff was animated moving up the staircase as it opened up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/34573bc6-4340-4b65-9903-2cc8e1b82adc/pinecone_scrunch.gif DevLog - MASH Doodles - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/03050848-1409-44bf-ada2-ac31db5140d7/pinecone.gif DevLog - MASH Doodles - This is the project that I demoed in my lecture. It takes the geometry of a single pine cone scale, wraps them around a central cylinder, and allows them to be opened from bottom to top. I am not a modeler in any way, so I used a very simple scale model. In bulk the results are still pretty good, and the form of the pine cone still reads. The particular skill that this demo was intended to teach was two different uses of falloff objects, which are objects in the world that control the strength of individual transformations in the MASH network. In this case, there are two offset nodes which transform the scales from their original cylindrical distribution. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/bdd63dce-986e-4d24-8d70-0b56b3ceca41/bouncy_stairs.gif DevLog - MASH Doodles - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/fc71f002-2db0-426f-a819-f9fa83fd42b8/flowers.gif DevLog - MASH Doodles - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/boids-boids-boids monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/overlap1 monthly 0.5 2021-02-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1614032361864-Q7TQYQ22CV8P6W9TSYFT/not_overlapped_1.gif DevLog - Overlap Tool: Animation Capstone 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1614032365646-OEY1HBS93FN7R1H07Y40/overlapped.gif DevLog - Overlap Tool: Animation Capstone 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1614032417113-MATOJH4OSOJPU0FRNZ9H/arm_not_overlapped.gif DevLog - Overlap Tool: Animation Capstone 2 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1614032421679-V3U8Q5UG0YR1J7F4Z37Q/arm_overlapped.gif DevLog - Overlap Tool: Animation Capstone 2 https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/anim1 monthly 0.5 2022-03-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1611721286069-ISYRHVI39ORSM76XGHI7/early_schools.jpg DevLog - Animation Capstone 1 - 3D Effects Lead: This is what I am most excited to work on. Our job description is to "solve all the problems that we don't already have a pipeline for," which is quite the undertaking. I’m planning on crowd simulations for fish schools, fluid/particle systems for ink and sand, and a variety of ways to quickly build dynamic environments. Each of these problems are deserving of a number of posts dedicated to their intricacies, and new problems are certain to emerge. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1611723402100-FLP0YNB2KD6DQOLHGFO3/octo_banner.png DevLog - Animation Capstone 1 https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/pathfinding-beyond-a monthly 0.5 2021-01-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1601352011495-2PVKINEUB1QUZAE2CAS5/adventurers_wandering.gif DevLog - Pathfinding: Beyond A* https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/testing-in-unity monthly 0.5 2020-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1600389175690-3UOMNLG3BCMZQCCWA3PH/auto_test.gif DevLog - Testing in Unity An adventurer (green) making their way through a dungeon room, slaying an evil goblin (red) as they go. The art in this is, in my humble opinion, quite impressive. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/water-1 monthly 0.5 2020-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1598833041821-KXW1S4YAWLPIR4VEZQR2/image-asset.png DevLog - Water 1 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1598833464302-4NY4TH0KEIVWNCHLM8NR/popcorn.gif DevLog - Water 1 - I tried tacking velocity into my current solution, but everything quickly turned into popcorn. The discrete time steps with the discrete locations and volumes caused untold problems. It was very frustrating. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/devlog-2-secondary-growth monthly 0.5 2020-08-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1596332053062-FB86YYW29QMGULZPVI9Y/spiral_trees.png DevLog - Plants 2: Secondary Growth Spiraley-leaf-piles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1596332206278-R9J8251SZ8BS01NCQBFT/mega_leaf.png DevLog - Plants 2: Secondary Growth mega-leaf https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1596332267387-S6VT33U6JLI02EYE4O5U/image-asset.png DevLog - Plants 2: Secondary Growth The back row of plants got more water and sun, and thus are more gigantic. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1596332405655-W24WA9F61TAR8B1NCMQU/plant_editor.png DevLog - Plants 2: Secondary Growth - I also built some custom editors for the L-systems themselves, which let me explore some more realistic generation rules. This uncovered a lot of small additional features that will make plant growth more interesting. The big one I'm thinking of a the moment is to lock some production rules behind water and sunlight requirements. This should let me add flowers and fruits and such that won't actually appear until the plant is large enough and the environment is right, so there can be somewhat natural seasons without explicit work from me. On that note I also want to have plants be able to loose parts, because autumn is a nice thing to have, and moving a gigantic plant to a desert should have some adverse effects. https://www.oliverabate.com/devlog/post1 monthly 0.5 2020-08-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1595747494139-EBONZL7954MCEASSWH1X/exploding_tree.gif DevLog - Plants 1 Grows sideways and kills CPUs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1595747220588-ZLLOJF9S5LCB6WA7SBWJ/growing_tree.gif DevLog - Plants 1 Current status of tree generation. Will be less red in the future. https://www.oliverabate.com/games daily 0.75 2024-09-13 https://www.oliverabate.com/games/coup-dtat monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/9956a5d9-2768-4d12-9ae2-631b0549af02/cover.png Games - Coup d'État - Mastermind the members of the Royal Court and surrounding Kingdom to architect the overthrow of the king! https://regoradin.itch.io/coup-detat https://gitlab.com/Regoradin/parcel https://www.oliverabate.com/games/root-cause monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1713493415417-FKSUBHYEZ8ZE7S9LSG8M/cover.jpg Games - Root Cause - Keep your airship afloat long enough to reach your destination. The bar at the bottom shows your distance, and the bar at the side shows your height. https://regoradin.itch.io/root-cause https://gitlab.com/Regoradin/root-cause Read more about the development process here. https://www.oliverabate.com/games/theseus-return-to-the-labrynth monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1706398088784-CTEF07UYAJR626VQ7I9X/theseus_title.png Games - Theseus: Return to the Labrynth - Your quest is to weave your thread throughout the entire labyrinth. You have 5 nights to do so. Every night, the unmapped parts of the labyrinth will rearrange. Leave each night when you are ready. If the Minotaur catches you with spool in hand, your thread that night is lost. Be careful. Made for the Pirate Software-Game Jam 14. https://aleks-j.itch.io/theseus-return-to-the-labyrinth https://gitlab.com/Regoradin/spool Read more about the development process here. https://www.oliverabate.com/games/apocalypse monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/c7f88338-51a7-43ef-a399-54a3865fd167/apocalypse.png Games - The Day After (the Apocalypse) - That end of the world party last night was a banger, but you don't remember any of it. Retrace your steps by hopping into the memories of partygoers who wiped out to figure out what happened last night and where the hell your airpod went. A game created for the PIG Squad Summer Game Jam in July. The themes were "Narrative" and "Doomsday". https://joespacio.itch.io/the-morning-after-the-apocalypse https://www.oliverabate.com/games/handshake-simulator monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/81e532e1-0514-4cf2-98b2-690672a9dffb/handshake.png Games - Handshake Simulator - A small weird thing to test some limb physics. Shake the hand. Built in Unity to test the mech arm physics system that I was building, which you can more about here. https://regoradin.itch.io/handshake-simulator https://www.oliverabate.com/games/voyage monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1684473946033-J9L3L7GL8KM50UA4KJUL/caravan.PNG Games - Voyage - A short game made quick in Unity. https://www.oliverabate.com/games/trapsense monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1726190721014-NM1HEC05NGQLPMNISEOI/trapsense.png Games - Trapsense - The first game that I properly finished and released into the world. I learned a great deal about the entire development pipeline from making Trapsense. https://regoradin.itch.io/trapsense https://github.com/Regoradin/Trapsense https://www.oliverabate.com/games/alchemelee monthly 0.5 2024-09-13 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e4cca7dea34b0374b345b93/1726190155433-7GLZFWPSB81KLGI0KN6B/alchemelee.png Games - Alchemelee - Alchemelee was developed in a few short months by Skyglow Games, a team that I created and led. I learned a lot technically from creating Alchemelee, and I learned a lot about collaborating and coordinating a diverse team of creative people. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1206590/Alchemelee/ The code is in a private Gitlab repo, available on request. https://www.oliverabate.com/home daily 1.0 2024-09-13 https://www.oliverabate.com/reel daily 0.75 2022-03-19 https://www.oliverabate.com/hexcentric daily 0.75 2024-01-27