We begin with a demonstration of our nifty new cloud development setup, which lets us build the game and run the game server using cloud-based computers. Then we attempt to add 3D lighting into the game, which necessitates reading vertex normals from OBJ files. A bungling misadventure in refactoring unfolds, leaving the game looking slightly more broken than before. But it turns out the real treasure is the conversations we had along the way. We discuss bad sci-fi tropes, cranky maintainers of open-source projects, the chaotic launch of Cyberpunk 2077, grindy open-world games, and why it would be great to be a one-trick pony.
Notes/highlights
- For you Ghost of Tsushima fans, this video has some tips that makes combat much easier: https://youtu.be/zIymornXN6c
- The best 6 seconds of Nier: Automata are when the Big Bad gets rather sloppily ejected by a mechanical vulva: https://youtu.be/sx-us2pCzsU?t=30
- Progress Quest, one of the greatest games ever made, is very easy to play: http://progressquest.com/
- If you’re a Node.js user and want a version manager, try asdf-vm.com. But if you are stuck using nvm and aren’t happy what it’s doing to your shell loading times, try a lazy-loader like this: https://github.com/lukechilds/zsh-nvm
- Sometimes you want to use your SSH identity on a remote computer, but don’t want to move your private key to that computer. What you want is SSH agent forwarding: https://www.ssh.com/ssh/agent#ssh-agent-forwarding
- Is your computer too slow, or doesn’t have the right libraries or operating system for your development needs? VSCode has a plugin that lets you do programming on a remote computer: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh
- Are you still reading, Node.js users? If so, you may be interested in the fact that fs.watch() doesn’t work on recursive directory trees on Linux. Luckily, there is a battle-tested NPM module that can do the job: https://www.npmjs.com/package/chokidar
- Jordan Mechner’s The Making of Prince of Persia is a fantastic read for anyone interested in vintage gaming, and also makes for a surprisingly effective and relatable bildungsroman: https://www.jordanmechner.com/store/the-making-of-prince-of-persia/
- Prince of Persia famously pioneered rotoscope animation techniques for video games. Here’s one of the reference videos, starring Mechner’s younger brother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0cpppGuow
- A legendary defenestration scene from Robocop: https://youtu.be/OtHqqkpfmMU?t=149
- Ghostrunner, yet another cyberpunk game in a season chock full of them, has a great soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZ3_FXehEw
- The source video for the “Tighten up the graphics” proto-meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRWvfMLl4ho