Devlog Series:Four Years of Indie Game Development
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Sapiens - Four Years of Indie Game Development is a retrospective video by Dave Frampton on the development of the game Sapiens over four years.
Summary
The video discusses the following key points:
- Early Development: The game started as a world-building engine with basic terrain and atmospheric rendering. The initial concept was a sci-fi-based space trading game set on a planet's surface, but it eventually shifted to a primitive setting.
- Technical Development: The game engine was built with physics and PBR (Physically Based Rendering) capabilities. Bullet Physics was used for the physics engine. The game also used the Lua programming language for the majority of its code, especially for the user interface.
- Climate Simulation: A climate simulation was created to assign biomes, such as deserts and forests, based on realistic climate patterns. This added a level of realism to the game world, although it was acknowledged that most players might not notice this detail.
- Gameplay Mechanics: The game introduced mechanics for resource gathering, building, and interaction with the world. The building mechanic allowed for the placement of objects like campfires. The digging mechanic was also introduced, although it was acknowledged that it needed further refinement.
- Animals and Environment: Mammoths were added to the game, although they were later removed due to issues. The game also introduced grass, which led to a shift away from the low-poly look to a more realistic aesthetic.
- User Interface: The user interface underwent several revisions, with a focus on reducing the number of clicks needed to perform actions. The interface was also changed to have more texture and personality.
- Switch to Vulkan: The game's renderer was switched from OpenGL to Vulkan, which improved performance and allowed for smoother camera movement.
- Future Plans: The focus for the next year of development will be on the game itself, adding content, and refining the user interface. The goal is to have an alpha version of the game by mid to late 2019.
Throughout the video, Dave Frampton emphasized the iterative nature of game development, with many features being added, revised, or removed over time. He also highlighted the importance of learning from mistakes and being willing to change direction when necessary.