Echoes of Somewhere

AI research: freeware 2.5D point and click adventure game anthology for Mac & PC - demo out now!

[Echoes of Somewhere @echoesadventure]

Echoes of Somewhere is a free release experimental 2.5D point and click adventure game anthology with no monetisation. The project is research into gen AI utilised in game production and what does it mean for devs? #ai #indiedev #buildinpublic The project has an extensive devblog

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

After working on my AI assisted free 2.5D point and click adventure game for a year, I am releasing a demo for PC and OS X! This demo shows how AI tools help a solo dev make a game and what it could be. I have the whole process in my blog. #aiart #indiegamedev #buildinpublic

[Echoes of Somewhere @echoesadventure]

In case you had not noticed, Echoes of Somewhere has been taking a break. Read why and for how long from here:
https://t.co/wpJFIykIJW

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Dev days 87-89: new reflections.
I spent too many days rewriting the reflection shader from scratch with roughness and metallic workflow support.

I think the end result is fine, but not sure if it is worth all the hassle, you tell me 🤷‍♂️
#indiegame #unity3d

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Hey Twitter / X would you play this game?

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Vehicular combat game Drivers of the Apocalypse dev day 83: Polished drone upgrade / tech tree. I drew icons for most of the upgrades and added some additional hover details, like link highlighting and details panel. Dialogue boxes were added for successful and failed upgrades. Also the Audio work for the computer UIs has begun!
#IndieGameDev #uxdesign

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

I love the smell of 80 LEVEL article in the morning!

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Near-final Drone load-out CRT UI for the game Drivers of the Apocalypse (dev day 80.2)
Working on these retro setups is way too satisfying! I added dithered shading for the added components to differentiate the from the default drone parts. The dithering looks really retro, not sure if dithered shading was used back in the day, but on this timeline it sure is!
#ux #indiedev #buildinpublic

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Indiedev day 79: retro wireframe renderer with trackball functionality!
As someone noted, my retro UI was missing rotating wireframes, I added one! In the drone loaout screen you can now see a very low poly version of the drone in proper retro fashion! I created a cross platform wireframe renderer and trackball funcionality to interact with the mesh. For fun I also made a world space position floor function for the mesh vertexes so that the mesh jitters a bit when it rotates, mimicking the unstable 3D geometry from games in the 80s and before. The UI is still completely unfinished, but I decided to post the cool wireframe feature as I just finished it today.
#indiegame #buildinpublic

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Drivers of the apocalypse day 77: mercenary app logo animation + logo design. #motionGraphics #solodev #gamedev
I will embed this into the in-game computer screens next when the system boots up and add a load-bar.

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Drivers of the Apocalypse day 75.2:
I was looking into Unity URP gbuffer manual while resting in the hammock - like you do. And noticed that the normals buffer has the smoothness piggybacking in its alpha channel! So, I promptly went in and did a pass on my custom point light / spot light rendering to add smoothness support! I also refactored the color falloff a bit to make the lights look even oomphier and added a bit of global boost for the lights to really POP. I think the end result is looking pretty good! Even better than it used to, smoothness makes such a difference! I love to be able to put lights everywhere with blatant disregard! Thousands of lights!
#Unity #gamedevelopment #solodev

[Echoes of Somewhere @echoesadventure]

Echoes of Somewhere mentioned!

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

A recent podcast visit regarding my research into how AI might affect game development.
https://t.co/GPPvSkzTOV
#AI

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

I have been building a vehicular combat game for fun for the last 70 days after work (late nights, weekends). Here is a pretty lengthy capture of all of the content and systems I have managed to build / put into the game this far!
#solodev #indiegame #screenshotsaturday

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Drivers of the Apocalypse dev day 67:
Finally I managed to bring everything together that I have been preparing since day 27 and the mission select map is now fully functional!! Phew! It is a combination of a mission manager and dialogue manager, with data flowing in from both. The mission details panel is also fully set up to support voice overs for the text and video files or animations or anything really to visualise the missions. I might end up using video 🤔 I still have to tie some loose ends, but it is pretty close!
The system is a bit of a joke on apps like uber or doordash etc. The player will get a star rating from the clients from each run etc. I was thinking of using chatGPT to come up with hundreds and hundreds of lines of reviews the player could receive on mission complete / failure. And I also want to build a star rating system that tracks your status as a mercenary.
If you have any more ideas what to do with the mercenary profile (it is mostly just fun world building), please let me know!
I also did a bit of a photoshoot and posed as Crazy Steve for the shop UI!
#indiegame #Unity #UI

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

If you hate AI, or love AI, or do not know what to think, this might be up your alley: While back I created a demo for a freeware adventure game that uses mostly AI generated images as a test to learn about the limitations, possibilities and threat of the technology and our future. I wrote a very detailed devblog about my process. Link to the blog and demo download in the thread.
#AI #indiegame #solodev

[Echoes of Somewhere @echoesadventure]

@visuhead I have been thiking about making a longer video of the developement at the end.
The presentation on youtube does a but of that already (found on the project website)

[Echoes of Somewhere @echoesadventure]

New blogpost for Echoes! #wishlistwednesday

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

What! A new blog post on my experimental adventure game web page, where I explore what it feels like as a game artist to co-exist with AI! But it has been months since the last update, for sure this project is dead!
No, it is not dead, but I just do not post that often anymore!
This update is about using chatGPT to create functions for your C# codes to speed the process up! These were my first explorations into using chatGPT for programming and I have been using it more and more since!
#chatGPT #aiartoworks

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Gamedevday 52: camera shake based on damage / explosions. First iteration only. I will need to polish the look and feel and iron out dome edge cases, but the core system is there!
#indiegamedeveloper

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

DEV DAY 51 BREAKING NEWS:
Man what a dull dull day! (video is not related, just the latest cool gameplay) As I have a procedural world that is pooled around the player, new pieces being added and removed as I go along, the enemy vehicles fall off the terrain all the time and if you drive to the opposite direction for example all of the cars simply die and you win. Today I tackled that monster. it was super annoying to fix and took me way too long to do, but now it is done!
I also spent some time working on the perf and the terrain generation is not done asynchronously in a background thread.
#indiegamedev #solodev #racinggame #unity3D

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

DEVDAY50 news: mesh deformations, biplane cliffs and terrain wetness! A massive productive night! I created a custom mesh deformation setup for getting the cars totally banged out of shape when they blow up and collide with each other. It really adds to the chaos. I also did some balancing to distribute less damage from car collisions so you can do that more! As I was gearing up to record this video, I figured I would try to line up a cavity based wetness map with the procedural terrain and after I had done that I figured what the hell, lets add a biplanar cliff feature while we are at it! (pictures in the thread) #indiedev #solodev #unity3d #vfx

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

Happy #PointNClickFriday today I would like to remind you that the demo for my freeware, experimental adventure game has been out on itch io for a while! https://t.co/kxXJylnPx8

[Jussi Kemppainen | Drivers of the Apocalypse @JussiKemppainen]

DEVDAY38: Finally the first powerup is in. The repair!
I will be knocking out the simpler power-ups first. Repair, shield, nitro, etc. Then I will move on to the more complex and imaginary ones, whatever they may be! But I suppose they will be fun, like order an air strike etc.
#indigame #solodev #buildinbublic