Going to grad school
September 26th, 2009
Working this past year on Overgrowth has been a great experience. I feel really privileged to be taking part in such a large, creative, and self-directed project with a group of…
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How saving mechanics affect fun
September 26th, 2009
Game saving feels like a fairly benign topic at first. However, if you stop to reflect on the issue, the mechanics of progress saving have a dramatic impact on your gaming…
Overgrowth Soundtrack: Ambient 1
September 24th, 2009
More Overgrowth music has arrived on our YouTube channel. The songs are composed by the talented Mikko Tarmia and often feature Anton Riehl on the flute. Today it is my pleasure to…
Ambient occlusion for characters
September 23rd, 2009
We've already discussed ambient occlusion for terrain and for objects, but we haven't yet discussed how it applies to characters. Ambient occlusion (AO for short) is a measure of…
Character rim lighting
September 22nd, 2009
When I loaded Aubrey's new rabbit model, it was clear that we needed a new rendering method in order to do it justice. Our basic object shader works best for hard surfaces like…
Overgrowth alpha 45
September 21st, 2009
Here is what is new in Overgrowth in this weekly alpha. If you are confused what a weekly alpha is, or even what Overgrowth is, please read our fancy FAQ. Basically, we are…
GDC Austin: Wolfire's PR Tips
September 21st, 2009
As you might know, we were recently invited to give a talk at GDC Austin about our PR strategy, which is essentially to be as open and transparent as possible. As promised here are…
Resolution-Independent UI
September 20th, 2009
Most UI is designed in terms of pixels, with the assumption that a pixel is a constant unit of measurement. This is troubling because, depending on the user's resolution and…
Normal map vs. mesh
September 18th, 2009
Whenever we post a new model for Overgrowth, a comment we often get is "there's no way that can go in the game -- there are way too many polygons!" That is true. However, we can…