It goes without saying that video games take a lot of work to make. Now, sure, a single person can make a video game, it’s happened numerous times. But more often than naught, it takes a team, each person bringing their own disciplines and skills to the title to make it shine. For the MMO Worlds Adrift, which is on Steam Early Access, one of the team members wanted to give people a look at what he does, and how he does it.
A post on Steam reveals the process and mindset of Jason, the VFX artist for Bossa, the developer behind Worlds Adrift. He has had a long career in video game development but always came back to VFX. While it may not seem it, VFX plays a huge part in video games. Not just in making visual effects that shine, but helping relay the little details that make the game even cooler. Like making a puff of dust when you land on the ground after a jump.
When Jason starts an effect build, he doesn’t just go and make the effect. Rather, he begins by working out what exactly the effect needs to be. Does it need to be big? Small? What’s the look? These are the initial steps that he needs to work out.
After that’s done, he’ll start making passes at the effect itself. He’ll start small with an emitter then work his way up. Each time he’ll add more and more to the effects to that they slowly become what they need to be without taxing the system. There is such a thing as “too grand” an effect.
Once he feels he has the effect ready, he’ll implement it into the game world, and start to improve it even further based on what he sees. The process continues until the effect is truly finished.
Hopefully this very (VERY!) small look into the effects building for Worlds Adrift will help you appreciate the game development process even more.