Clomper by Rob Lang

... When I play Falconer/Bulwark/Ship Shaper, I'm really playing in the mind of Tomas Sala. I think that will be the draw for many: knowing that you're playing a human's creation. There will still be a place for AI-as-an-engine but also Indies too.

I think the suits are expecting AI to build the next game for peanuts. I think the abstraction layer will leap over that and AI will be the game: uniquely tailored experiences for the individual.

There's still a place for indies but they will need to be more like you...

YouTube video by Rob Lang I spent 3 weeks fighting Unity's lighting (and almost lost) | Indie dev log | Clomper #78

All the details of how I went about fixing it in my latest devlog.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvPl...

Lighting in a #3d #videogame makes all the difference! It took me over 3 weeks of my spare time to get global illumination working in Unity but it was worth it.

YouTube video by Rob Lang I spent 3 weeks fighting Unity's lighting (and almost lost)

😱 I spent 3 weeks fighting Unity's lighting - and almost lost!

☀️ Beautiful lighting, global Illumination, adaptive probe volumes and a new machine to plug in.

🐞 Clomper Devlog #78

🎥 youtu.be/LvPlo0i6vCo

#indiedev #gamedev #indiegame #steampunk

A Davinci Resolve (editing software) timeline with lots of cuts and edits with a bearded idiot pulling a face with his game behind him. I wasn't actually pulling a face on purpose in the video, my face just sometimes does this.

At this point in a #gamdedev devlog edit, I'm a bit bored of my own face.

A perfect opportunity to freeze frame and mock the me from last week! He who couldn't speak properly, made loads of mistakes and missed some important points. What a tool!

#editing #youtube #video #gaming

Does it not carry the context of those having the conversation? I could understand your point of it's subjective but not objective. So many cultural references are "You had to be there", I have more than a few with friends. 6,7 is not your cultural reference but has meaning to those for whom it does

What do you mean by "lack of relevance"? Is that purely subjectively?

⚠️ This is what happens if you leave your Clomper🐞 running and don't pay attention! 💥

I've been making devlogs for years, you'd think I'd get used to stopping the Clomper🐞 and turning down the boilers. I accidentally drove this one off a cliff into a crevasse!

#steampunk #steam #gamedev

Oh my. I don't know what to say. Ben was a huge part of the YouTube game dev community and a superb musician too. I knew he had been fighting cancer (he did a brave video) but he ploughed on regardless.

My heart goes out to his family. Fuck cancer.

Given Bulwark is keen on levels, how about outriggers on the outriggers? 😜

A github issue with Clomper #900 at the top and the bug text "IMGUIContainer cannot be used in runtime panel." with a little red pill with bug written on it. Also has the face of a charming and much younger version of Rob.

🍻 Weird #gamedev thing to celebrate, I've just hit my 900th issue in GitHub. And it's a bug too, which is nice.

That's 0.38 issues a day!

Clomper on Steam Drive your mechnical ladybird across a procedural hellscape by making pipes to power machines with steam. Explore from inside the submarine-like Clomper: collecting resources, completing quests and re...

You can check the old lighting setup in all its high contrast darkness in the trailer on the Steam page ⬇️

store.steampowered.com/app/2349380/...

9️⃣ Added an orange light on each boiler to show how hot it is (cannot be baked as it changes dynamically)
1️⃣0️⃣ Add post processing back in (bloom, vignette, panini, chromatic abberation, film grain, slight post exposure bump.

Happy with the results but it's going to get tweaked again for sure!

Metallic materials are lit by reflection probes - this is what it looks like with the probes off! The walls and wood machines of the Clomper are lit nicely but the pipes and metal floor is black.

6️⃣ Replaced reflection probes for the metallic sufaces (the pipes and floor!)
7️⃣ Added point lights by each light fitting model as baked only
8️⃣ Added 3 realtime distant lights in a triangle shape pointing down with low intensity to lift the brightness

The dark patches are caused by emmissive materials contributing to global illumination and adaptive probe volumes. I never found out why it did this, so I removed it.

1️⃣ I removed all the real time lights, post processing, reflection probes
2️⃣ Added Adaptive Probe Volume
3️⃣ Tried lighting using HDR material emmission but the APV came up with patches
4️⃣ Kept emmissive materials for bloom, no longer contribute to GI
5️⃣ Every object that can be static, made static

💡Before and after lighting update!

While the inside of the Clomper is supposed to be a dim and warm like a mechanical Victorial library, it was a little too dark in places, which made the diegetic UI hard to read and there were nasty overexposed light spots.

What did I do? 🧵 1/5

Green walls contributing to global illumination, no emissive light

Emissive light but walls not contributing to global illumination

Emissive light and walls contributing to global illumination makes unwanted dark spots

💡Global Illumination problem update!

I can either have surface contributing
OR
Emissive light.
BUT
Not both without dark patches.

Anyone know why?

Detail + download here: discussions.unity.com/t/how-to-rem...

#unity3d #gamedev

Worse, I do feel stuck with Clomper now. Like I can't really go forward. This is all on a branch so I could leave and come back if I get an answer but what if I don't get an answer? It seems best to keep pushing for assistance for now, even though development has ground to a halt. #unity3d

How to remove dark patches in URP APV GI? I do not understand why some of the valid probes are so dark and are giving dark patches in the ceiling of my mesh. The mesh is “inside out” in that the collider polygons are facing inwards. I have t...

Still struggling with @unity.com adaptive probe volumes. No matter how much effort and detail I put into the post, it's just being ignored on the forums. I'm really doing my best to understand it all but it doesn't make sense.

discussions.unity.com/t/how-to-rem...

It's been a weekend of struggling with Adaptive Probe Volumes and global illumination in Unity. The Unity docs are written from the POV of someone who already understands everything.

Do you know of any good resources to get rid of these patches or explain why the probes are dark?

Lol obviously not Clomper (open beta definitely) but you might have a game that can be included here!

YouTube comments system with an AI autogenerated comment option saying "That's an excellent idea, and something I've been thinking about too! We're definitely heading in that direction with the environments".

I never, ever use #YouTube AI comment replies. Ever. I hate that they exist. Comments should be a connection between two humans, not some button click platitude.

As if to fight back against this meaningless drivel, my comment reply are going to become even more flowery and bizarre.

YouTube video by Rob Lang You told me my game felt bad… So I fixed it | Indie dev log | Clomper #77

Me: What would you improve about the game?
Player testers: A lot!
Me: 😱

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiWz...

YouTube video by Rob Lang You told me my game felt bad… So I fixed it | Indie dev log | Clomper #77

You told me my game felt bad. 😢
You were right. ✅
So I fixed it. 🛠️

🎥 New! devlog 77 youtu.be/BiWzW2vDinM

If your Clomper looks this broken then you've got some work to do! 🛠️

I ❤️ having a photo mode camera in Clomper, it makes panning shots like this really easy.

Devlog 77 coming soon.

#indiegames #steamgames #indiegaming #indiegame

It's me and I've got my mad face on for some reason.

This face! It's the face of a man who's recorded a devlog. 🥳

It's also the face of someone who needs strong medication. 💊

And the face of someone on day release from a facility with 20m high walls. 🤪

I like machines! Hey there!

Please make sure you eat, drink and sleep! 🤣

Clomper isn't about making pipes fast. It's about squeezing pipes into a confined space and for that you don't need to go fast.

Quite often you find yourself counting out loud "one two three". Easier with a click.

Like the sound of that? Go wishlist: store.steampowered.com/app/2349380/...

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