A procedural world, a personal project
Small world.
Deep rabbit hole.
How PixelPunk was made, from the first rooftop to the small details that make the town feel lived in.
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From the first rooftop to a town with a voice of its own.
67 minutes of rabbit holesThe development journal
It started with a rooftop,
and one problem led to the next.
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A town with no to-do list.
The first rooftops, and the serious engineering underneath a town that is meant to be unserious.
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When buildings learned to meet.
Hidden walls, roofs that stop at their neighbours, and details generated from how buildings touch.
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Teaching the night to glow.
Hundreds of glowing fixtures on sixteen real lights, and a bug that only showed up when something moved.
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The city is in the details.
Getting bricks and painted walls to agree, putting dirt where it belongs, and making detail hold up at normal zoom.
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Big buildings, little lies.
The arch that was really a disc, the tower that was eight flat walls, and why bigger buildings needed different rules.
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Making the mouse feel right.
A drag harness, a frame budget that wouldn’t quite give, and construction animations that also changed when rebuilds get paid for.
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The town meets you halfway.
Placement that suggests a fix, paths that turn into steps and stepping stones, and a spiral staircase that came out of a simple connection gesture.
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A little room for life.
Leaving space, balancing things slightly off, one particular duck, and where the experiments stop and finished features begin.
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A place for the mess.
Rerolling a courtyard, finding room for a crate, and teaching plants where they can grow.
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The town finds its voice.
Construction clicks, a score that makes room for the mouse, and lamps that ease into the evening.
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Someone has moved in.
Bird habitats, a cat with an umbrella, and little starting scenes that suggest something to try.
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A different way to look.
A softer look costs more than expected, and perspective makes a lovely model while complicating the view used for building.
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Letting the town settle.
Creatures in normal play, a photo camera that gives your view back, and the window bug that had been dimming the town.
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Keep the house in your hand.
Arrow handles, buildings that grow during a drag, a quieter selection highlight, and a closer look at the hitches.
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A house in the branches.
An Amsterdam canal scene exposes the old tree limit. Growing branches and timber supports open up a much taller kind of neighbourhood.
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Watching the trees grow.
Fuller crowns, a new evergreen, branches that grow when planted, and an interface that leaves more of the town in view.
Read the chapterMaking room for beauty.
What the next art pass aims to change, what it needs to protect, and how the results will be judged.
The latest chapter
Straight from the project notes.
Every chapter draws on the development notes and real captures, and the failed experiments and unfinished edges are left in.