Mission... incomplete
May 1st, 2010
There's one question that I keep coming back to when thinking about game design: how do you tell the difference between a game that's fun to play, and one that's painful to stop playing? Subjectively, it can be hard to tell the difference, and objectively, players will buy and play one just as much as the other ...
Overgrowth Fan Art Spotlight - Bear Clan by Andrige
April 30th, 2010
This is a guest post from Andrige (aka Triggerman on the NS2 forums). You might remember his awesome NS2 OG Collaboration piece that was created during the Organic Indie Preorder Pack. However, since then he has posted some awesome bear warriors on the Wolfire forums. Andrige was kind enough to let us share them on the blog and provide us ...
New IRC experiment
April 29th, 2010
The Wolfire IRC channel is an awesome place to hang out with developers and talk about Overgrowth, video games, and random stuff. Like the forums and blog, we try not to really moderate it -- it just naturally sort of polices itself and stays cool. However, every once in a while, the channel is attacked by people who can easily render ...
Soft Particles
April 28th, 2010
In games, particle effects like smoke or fire are drawn as image squares that always face torwards the camera. This looks fine in most cases, but the illusion is destroyed when these particles intersect with the environment and reveal a flat intersection line. Below you can see the flat intersection of a 'hard' smoke particle on the left, and the ...
Overgrowth Alpha 76
April 27th, 2010
Here is what is new in Overgrowth in the 76th weekly alpha. If you are confused what a weekly alpha is, or even what Overgrowth is, please read our fancy FAQ. Basically, we are developing a massive video game from the ground up -- we are able to do this completely independently by accepting preorders for the game before it's ...
Sword Breaker
April 26th, 2010
If he only breaks your sword, consider yourself lucky. Heavy armor is excedingly rare in Overgrowth, and not without drawbacks, but offers excellent protection against cutting weapons. You can read more about the dogs in the Overgrowth comic.
Saving the world, one plot twist at a time
April 25th, 2010
There is a formula to game plots, which goes like this. The leader of an evil conspiracy kidnaps or kills the player's family and friends. The player then destroys the evil conspiracy by killing the conspirators one after the other. Along the way, he usually discovers that his 'friends' are actually part of an even worse conspiracy, so he ...