by mjd on 3/14/25, 4:41 PM with 41 comments
by gorgoiler on 3/18/25, 7:05 AM
I wonder if the creators of these physically rendered games ever get together to talk shop, or even host a conference, on the topic of non-linear animation and storytelling. It’s the sort of thing that I, as someone who merely consumes their content and is absolutely nowhere near being able to replicate their skill, would love to take part in.
Comic-Con but for games done the hard way. Thimbleweed Park, another remake in the animated adventure game genre, actually has a scene in it that’s based on a conference for real-life point-and-click games developers.
by gmueckl on 3/18/25, 7:49 AM
1. Film sets contain wild walls that can be easily removed to accommodate light and camera placement outside the space looking inwards. Wild walls in the dioramas could have prevented the necessity of cutting holes.
2. Git is not the right SCM for the job. My first choice would have been Plastic a few years ago, but this got rolled into Unity DevOps after an acquisition. But it is meant to accommodate truly vast repositories (53GB isn't actually that big). The second best choice is SVN - yes, really.
by ashoeafoot on 3/18/25, 7:26 AM
by mauvehaus on 3/18/25, 1:01 PM
If you're going to use it, it's worth making up or buying veneer flattening solution, wetting the veneer with it, and clamping it between two pieces of melamine or plywood with some packing paper to get it flat without destroying it. Change the paper a couple times as the veneer dries.
Once it's flattened, you can glue it down using a caul (one of the pieces of melamine you used to flatten it will work) to hold the veneer flat to your hopefully flat substrate while the glue dries, or you can hammer veneer it with hide glue.
Hammer veneering doesn't risk gluing your caul to your veneer, but it does require a warmer shop, and I wouldn't want to do e.g. a dining table that way. Melamine cauls usually pop free pretty readily if they do get glued to the veneer. If you don't have or want to buy melamine, a packing paper layer between the veneer and the caul will help, as will covering the caul with packing tape.
Ideally, you don't end up with a lot of glue bleeding through the veneer, but burl veneer tends to wick it through.
by merelysounds on 3/18/25, 6:30 AM
I didn’t expect avoiding the custom engine side quest in a game with a very custom art style; kudos!
I think there may be an even bigger mistake avoided here: many indie devs build amazing projects and don’t talk about them enough. If you ever created something you enjoyed, wanted to share it and somehow didn’t, watch and learn; I know I should!
by esperent on 3/18/25, 8:39 AM
In case the author is reading: anywhere that's not Steam to wishlist or buy the game? This would be a definite purchase from me on GOG - well, if it reviews reasonably well. I love quirky and unusual graphical styles.
But I have never, and probably will never, buy game from anywhere that requires me to install a launcher and look at advertising before I get to play.
by hiccuphippo on 3/19/25, 12:12 AM
by mjd on 3/26/25, 5:34 PM
https://novalis.org/blog/2025-03-26-responses-to-the-hacker-...
Love, your low-quality Twitter bot
by admiralrohan on 3/18/25, 12:31 PM
Want to understand the user journey, as if people show interet they should check the game out.
by metaphor on 3/18/25, 7:46 AM
I wonder how the author manages this bloat if he has to pivot to a different workstation. LFS enabled in his GitLab instance? Shallow clone? Just swallow whole??
by SanitaryThinkin on 3/18/25, 7:02 AM
Can't wait to see the finished game. The blog posts are a part of the journey
by mjd on 3/14/25, 4:41 PM
Dave says: Often when you watch videos of people doing crafts on the internet, they're people who have been doing it for years. They don't make mistakes, or if they do, they don't really show them to you. I haven't been doing any of these crafts for years. So I've made lots of mistakes, and I want to show them to you, so you don't get the impression that this is easy.