Open World Gamedev 2023/002

Hi and welcome to the second issue of this newsletter! Today's date is 2023-03-01.

Just so you know, yes, I read through or watch (or listen) to all of the resources! 😊 (Eventually... with varying degrees of attention-payingness...). While I may not agree 100% with all of them I think they have something interesting to say directly or tangentially related to open world game development. It is a quite personal list in the sense that is resources that I come across and like. That said I happily take suggestions, especially to lesser known categories, resources, or content creators!

📺 Videos

• [AI] Game AI Basics (opens in a new tab) by Bobby Anguelov.
• [Art] How to Draw Maps If You CAN'T DRAW!! (opens in a new tab) by Map Crow. ✨
• [Game Design] Writing Modular Characters for System-Driven Games (opens in a new tab) by Tanya X. Short.
• [Interview] The Inside Story of how Hyper Light Breaker Became an Open World Roguelike (opens in a new tab) by Noclip. ✨
• [Procedural Generation] GPU-Based Run-Time Procedural Placement in Horizon: Zero Dawn (opens in a new tab) by Jaap van Muijden.
• [Procedural Generation] Star Citizen Live: Making Mountains (opens in a new tab) by Patrick Gladys.
• [Rendering] How Do Games Render So Much Grass? (opens in a new tab) by Acerola.
• [Rendering] Six Grass Rendering Techniques in Unity (opens in a new tab) by Daniel Ilett. ✨
• [Rendering] Procedural Grass in 'Ghost of Tsushima' (opens in a new tab) by Eric Wohllaib.
• [Worldbuilding] Raw Milk (opens in a new tab) by Steven Novella. ✨
• [Worldbuilding] The Refugium: An Overview (opens in a new tab) by Biblaridion.
• [Worldbuilding] Three Why Worldbuilding (opens in a new tab) by Justin Alexander. ✨

📜 Articles

• [Art] Introduction to Art Direction for Games (opens in a new tab) by Shahriar Shahrabi. ✨
• [Game Design] Node-Based Scenario Design (opens in a new tab) by Justin Alexander.
• [Game Design] Simulated Immersion, Part 1: Legacy (opens in a new tab) by Martin Annander. ✨
• [Math] Demystifying Floating Point Precision (opens in a new tab) by Alan Wolfe.
• [Math] Hash Collision Probabilities (opens in a new tab) by Jeff Preshing.
• [Procedural Generation] Here Dragons Abound (opens in a new tab) by Scott Turner.
• [Procedural Generation] Procedural Prefab Generation (opens in a new tab) by Babis Koniaris. ✨
• [Procedural Generation] The Perlin Problem: Moving Past Square Noise (opens in a new tab) by KdotJPG.
• [Rendering] The Nebraska Problem (opens in a new tab) by Casey Muratori.
• [Rendering] Virtual Shadow Maps in Fortnite Battle Royale Chapter 4 (opens in a new tab) by Andrew Lauritzen. ✨

📦 Assets, Code & Tools

• [Grids] Sylves (opens in a new tab) by Boris the Brave. ✨
• [Music] The Long Dark (opens in a new tab) by Scott Buckley. ✨
• [Procedural Generation] Fantasy Map Generator (opens in a new tab) by Azgaar. ✨
• [Procedural Generation] Village Generator (opens in a new tab) by watabou.

📘 Books!

• [Procedural Generation] Adventurer's Almanac (opens in a new tab). Mini-review: Lovely imaginative ideas and tables for events throughout the year.
• [Content] A Folklore Bestiary (opens in a new tab). Mini-review: Unique monsters inspired by Earth-based folklore, nicely described and mechanized.

😍 Cool Nuggets ✨

• Coastal area generator (opens in a new tab)
• Hex tiles texturing trick (opens in a new tab)
• Immersive sims musings (opens in a new tab)
• Island generation (opens in a new tab)
• Need a village? (opens in a new tab)
• Playable Immediate Mode Lodded Terrain (opens in a new tab) (By yours truly)
• Swimming animals (opens in a new tab)
• World map shader (opens in a new tab)

🎁 Bonus Stuff

• [Animation] Dead Blending (opens in a new tab) by Daniel Holden. ✨
• [Conference] Everything Procedural (opens in a new tab). ✨
• [Math] My favourite animation trick: exponential smoothing (opens in a new tab) by Nikita Lisitsa. ✨
• [Programming] Learning Jai via Advent of Code (opens in a new tab) by Forrest Smith. ✨

🕹 Open World Game News

• 60 Years in Space (opens in a new tab): Early Access release. Follow Andrew Doull here (opens in a new tab). ✨
• Ardenfall (opens in a new tab): Updated demo! Follow Joshua Steinhauer here (opens in a new tab). ✨
• Geneforge 2 (opens in a new tab). Kickstarter.
• Pax Pei (opens in a new tab): Reveal trailer. ✨
• Tides of Revival (opens in a new tab): New name, new team, new terrain, new newsletter. (Yes, this is my project! 😀) ✨
• Wildlander (opens in a new tab): Revamped wiki, and new roadmap. Follow Dylan Perry here (opens in a new tab). ✨