I’ll be making one of those semi-regularly depending on how it goes. Here’s interesting things I found online this week:
Game Development
I am continuing to update my game development resources post. Here are the new additions from this week:
- Moebius-style 3D Rendering - A video looking at how to implement shaders to mimic a Moebius art style in 3D
- How to make HD 2D Games in Unreal Engine 5 - Explains the basic techniques used to mimic the HD-2D style of games like Octopath Traveler in UE5
Documentary
Not a cheerful subject matter but one worth talking about. There is a really good documentary about nationalist Israel settlers illegally occupying the West Bank by Louis Theroux called The Settlers. I believe it’s available on other platforms than BBC too if you can’t access iPlayer. His documentaries are always good as he has this great ability to innocently talk to people and ask questions, letting them drop their defenses. He interviews a very prominent woman in the movement who gleefully brags about her plans.
Games
I’m repeating a very popular opinion this week but, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a pretty cool piece of art. It is rare to see big AAA game that have so much soul and vision, so I think it’s worth mentioning. I’m not very far into the game, but I could quickly tell that this game is a passion project. It also has a brutal story with strong emotions that surprised me.
I’ve played aa few small games from the Steam Minimal and Chill showcase, including:
- The Cabin Factory which is very simple and short (probably an hour to finish) but sort of interesting in how it’s about noticing anomalies. Nothing groundbreaking here but it was kind of fun.
- I also tried Clickolding which is about you clicking for a guy who’s paying you to watch you click, which was also sort of fun, though the amount of clicking was annoying to be honest. I’d prefer the same story with like 3 times less clicking. Still, it’s an interesting and unnerving experience. Feels a bit like doing sex work (which it sort of is in a way)
- I also played A game about digging a hole which is fun but a bit overrated for how much people talked about it. It is fun but I wish it had a bit more content to justify being a full game? This is more like a fun prototype that you’d play as a demo on itch.io.
- Retro Gadgets looks cool, though I haven’t had time to play it much yet and only started the tutorial. This is for tinkerers who want to make things, as it is more of a sandbox really. But I am impressed at how deep its systems go, and how tactile and pleasant it feels to interact with. It looks like you could get lost making all sorts of things in there. Would be cool if they could be exported as standalone programs or something though
- I also saw the trailer for Desktop Survivors 98, which looks like a fun mix of nostalgic desktop buddy and vampire survivors. I love vampire survivors type games and this trailer looks cool!
Videos
- I watched Jacob Geller’s video about digging holes. Always like his videos, and it reminded me of the surprising amount of times where I dug holes before…
- This ITV Program seems to have neurodivergent/autistic people interviewing celebrities. I randomly found this episode where they interview David Tenant, it is kind of fun and cute compared to the average interview. Tenant is a great guy and a long time trans ally, which he gets asked about by a trans woman in this interview
