Comic update: pages 46-48
August 30th, 2010
After a bit of a break from the Overgrowth comic, it is back! Click below and check it out!
On the road again
August 27th, 2010
I have recently decided to relocate, and I have been using the opportunity to visit some of my favorite places that inspired the terrain in Overgrowth! This is not actually one of those places, but rather a shot of Lake Shasta in northern California. Not saying I wouldn't love it, if I had taken the time to stop. This ...
Face morph test
August 22nd, 2010
To test out facial expressions, I created shapes for winking, squinting, sniffing, and 'oh' phonemes. Then to see how they looked in-engine, I used Angelscript to weight them with asynchronous sine waves. This means that each shape cycles smoothly between its 'on' and 'off' state, and since they cycle at different rates, we can see them in every possible combination ...
Avoiding artificial gameplay restrictions
August 20th, 2010
Lugaru levels were designed differently from most games. Most of the levels had the same set of rules and the same objective: kill everyone. The variety came from the layout of each level: how the enemies were placed, how they were equipped, and how the blocks restricted their sight lines. There are things I would like to add to this ...
Hand shapes with intermediate frames
August 12th, 2010
Some of you asked whether Robbert could make fists yet, so here is an update on that front. This is a pretty important feature for a fighting game -- punches are difficult to perform without fists. It takes a lot of bones to rig a hand, even a simplified one like Robbert's. You need at least two bones per finger ...
Overgrowth Tutorial: Playing With BVH Animations
July 24th, 2010
David already teased everyone with the new animation tech in Overgrowth with his initial motion capture tests video. However, this week I had a chance to really go into the nitty gritty details of the new features. So without further ado, I humbly present to you a new Overgrowth tech demo. Be sure to check it out in HD! In ...
Art assets update
July 7th, 2010
Here's an update on some of the recent art assets I have added to Overgrowth! I made a new evergreen with long pine needles This is a dead tree that has been bleached by the sun I made a variation on the other bush I made. Here they are both together (please ignore the funny looking plants on the ...