Wolf of the steppes
October 7th, 2009
Here is the first wolf model I have done for Overgrowth! The wolves reject all tools and technology. They won't even wear clothes. They feel that using armor and weapons are signs of weakness. They accept that death only comes to those who are unfit to live. Their outlandishly styled fur and ritual scarification shows their rank and social ...
Get Well Soon Edmund!
October 5th, 2009
Our friend Edmund McMillen, the prolific game designer responsible for amazing titles like Gish (as seen in David's design tour), Time Fkuc and Super Meat Boy, was admitted to the hospital today for gall bladder surgery. Edmund was one of the first indie developers to reach out to us when we were just starting out, and didn't really ...
Open development vs. spoiling the story
October 4th, 2009
We've explained the virtues of open development in depth, but it's not obvious how this development strategy should apply to the Overgrowth story. I've already seen brief discussions about this occur in IRC, and given the 92 comment reaction to Aubrey's storyboard post, I think people may have some strong opinions on this issue. Please feel ...
Character normal maps
October 3rd, 2009
We've discussed a lot of the subtle techniques we're using to make the Overgrowth characters look realistic, but we still haven't explained the most important graphics technique in modern games: normal mapping. You probably know that normal mapping lets us render detailed models very efficiently. But what is it actually doing? Let's break the name down ...
Overgrowth fan art spotlight - Resin
October 1st, 2009
Continuing our series of Overgrowth-inspired art, I would like to share some stylized character portraits that Andrew (aka Resin) posted on page 1 of the fan art thread. We had a chance to ask Andrew about his creative process and here's what he said: "Regarding the process. I worked in pencil first, which I then inked with pen and ...
Rocky Hall rabbit guard
September 30th, 2009
Here is a new character I just completed. Originally I was planning on making a raider, but the sketch I had done was not working out too well in 3D, so I decided to switch gears and make a guard character. I may do a few variations of this model for other guards too. I am learning things all the ...
Soft normal maps for fur
September 29th, 2009
The rim lighting shader went a long way towards making the fur look soft when lit from behind, but it still looked hard when lit from the side. This problem is so prevalent in modern games that I've started referring to it as "plaster-hair syndrome" -- when hair or fur is sculpted with great detail, but lit as if carved ...