Introducing "Matt"
March 13th, 2010
Last week, the Mac build of the Overgrowth alphas got a tremendous speed increase. I alluded to the fact that some of these changes were contributed by someone who may or may not go by "Matt" and promised I would introduce him later. "Matt" Every once in a while, we are approached by people who would like to help us ...
Visual C++ quirks
March 12th, 2010
Visual C++ may be the standard IDE for PC game development, but it has its fair share of idiosyncratic problems that have bothered me for years, and forced me to find makeshift workarounds. Here are the ones that I run into most often. 'Intellisense' not so intelligent VC++ has a feature called 'intellisense' which is used for autocompletion and jumping ...
First pass cat head
March 11th, 2010
Back when we started Overgrowth, even before we had chosen a name, I had started on the test assets we would need in order to get gameplay working. This is the head I modeled for a cat character. This looks a bit strange with no fur on it We did (and still do) have a lot of fancy features planned ...
Alternatives to killing
March 10th, 2010
In most action games, every battle lasts until one side has been completely exterminated. The victory condition is binary -- if all the enemies are dead, you have won. If some of them are still alive, you haven't won yet. This is a traditional design that video games have used since the beginning, but it is evolving much more slowly ...
Overgrowth Alpha 69
March 9th, 2010
Here is what is new in Overgrowth in the 69th 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 ...
The Indies Are In Town
March 8th, 2010
GDC 2010 is just around the corner and the indies have been arriving in full force. We decided to unite the clans for a vigorous round of indie disc golf at Golden Gate park. The weather was perfect; not a cloud in the sky and no one was maimed or injured by flying discs, although there were many close calls ...
Overgrowth Soundtrack: Ambient 4
March 7th, 2010
We've uploaded another song to the Overgrowth Soundtrack playlist on YouTube. The songs are composed by the talented Mikko Tarmia and often feature Anton Riehl on the flute. Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to another beautiful ambient track. Be sure to enjoy it in HD. This track commences with predictably soothing tranquility. However, as my eye ...