Fez screen courtesy Trapdoor
I guess it’s partially because I dabble a teeny bit in game development, but I really, really love hearing little tricks that went into the making of my favorite games. Far from spoiling the magic, learning how, say, the developers on BioShock rigged a bunch of lighting systems to make Fort Frolic look especially theatrical will always make me appreciate the craft just a little more.So this rad thread from Vlambeer developer Rami Ismail made my heart go pitter-patter with nerdy joy yesterday. In it, he asked devs to share their favorite little “hacks” or solutions to development issues that they’ve used in their own games.This is how I know the folks at Polytron implemented that gorgeous day/night cycle in Fez by sampling one little texture:
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Or that, in one Adventure Time game, Jake the Dog was made out of repurposed work from a racing track editor from the dev’s previous game:
And how the folks at Telltale made the rearview mirrors work in The Walking Dead Season 1 (disclosure! Jake here is a friend and former podcast co-host of mine):
It goes on and on, and let me tell you, there is GOLD in that thread.As our own Cameron Kunzelman stated in a column not long ago, “like all games are, put together with duct tape and glue,” but I live for finding out just how artful (or utterly goofy) the solutions are to making some semblance of a coherent system, world, or character.What about you, dear readers? Do you have a favorite story about finding out how a favorite game pulls off the trick? Sound off in the forums.