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Posts in 2021

The Art of Mirror's Edge on 11th of Apr
Serving Static Websites Using Lambda@Edge on 20th of Mar
Thread Safe Random in C♯ on 16th of Mar
Spotting Fake Indie Game Key Requests on 11th of Mar
Jenkins Library for Unreal Engine 4 on 13th of Feb
Three Approaches to Readable Materials in First Person Games on 7th of Feb
Cheap Synthetic Monitoring with AWS Lambda on 24th of Jan

Posts in 2020

Generating Mipmaps for Render Targets in UE4 on 24th of Dec
Routing DNS over HTTPS Using Raspberry Pi on 6th of Oct
Tips for Building Games with Unreal Engine 4 on 3rd of Oct
Serving Localised Assets from S3 Using Lambda@Edge on 17th of May

Posts in 2019

Automating macOS Notarization for UE4 on 23rd of Nov

Posts in 2018

ISO Country Code to Unicode Flag in C♯ and JavaScript on 22nd of Jul
Serverless Git LFS for Game Development on 6th of Jan
Adding Custom Map Checks in UE4 on 3rd of Jan

Posts in 2017

Building and Deploying a React App Using AWS Lambda on 24th of Dec
Git HTTP Username and Password in Environment Variables on 22nd of Dec
Capturing and Uploading Screenshots in UE4 on 20th of Dec
Using Capsule Shadows on Large Objects in UE4 on 8th of Dec

Viewing subset of posts matching the word "light".

The Art of Mirror's Edge

Posted April 11th, 2021 in game-art

One of my favourite games is Mirror's Edge (2008) because its art stands out above all else. I would not recommend it for its gameplay or story, but it has served as an inspiration for me in terms of environment art and level design.

This post takes a walk down memory lane into Mirror's Edge, with lossless 1440p screenshots taken straight from the Steam copy of the game (no processing). I also wanted an easy-accessible record of the level art for my own archives, since it's mostly a showcase of what great artists can achieve with standard rendering tech.

Cityscapes

Probably one of the most iconic features of the game are the broad cityscapes. These typically consist of rooftops with a lot of verticality provided by ledges and HVAC systems.

One thing that really sells these scenes for me is the scale of everything - the low-poly distant buildings blend right in with the detailed foreground. In addition light and shadow plays a big role, with buildings obscuring sunlight and objects on rooftops casting massive shadows.

Jenkins Library for Unreal Engine 4

Posted February 13th, 2021 in game-development

For Estranged: The Departure, I released on Steam many hundreds of times, all at the push of a button using a tool called Jenkins.

At its core, Jenkins is a job scheduling system, where a job consists of some commands to run. You can define the job in the Jenkins interface or, as I prefer, in a Jenkinsfile which lives at the root of your source control repository.

I won't explain how to get a Jenkins server and attach a Windows build machine to it as there are better resources out there to explain that:

This post outlines the general-purpose Jenkins library I developed for Estranged. The library can be found here:

https://github.com/alanedwardes/Jenkins.UnrealEngine.Builder

Three Approaches to Readable Materials in First Person Games

Posted February 7th, 2021 in game-development

In Estranged: Act I (2014) and Estranged: The Departure (2020) a lot of the storytelling was via newspapers and interactive screens, using different approaches in each game. In this post I will document those approaches and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each.

[Full-Screen Take Over]
[First Person Camera]
[Cut-Scene Camera]
[Conclusion]

Tips for Building Games with Unreal Engine 4

Posted October 3rd, 2020 in game-development

I have released Estranged: The Departure on 3 platforms, Windows, macOS and Linux, and I will be bringing it to the Nintendo Switch and other platforms in the coming months.

This blog post covers my experiences as a solo developer, working with Unreal Engine since 2014 (without access to the UDN), and what to look out for if you are new to the engine.

I intend to keep this post updated (a living document).

Using Capsule Shadows on Large Objects in UE4

Posted December 8th, 2017 in game-development

Capsule shadows are a great feature of Unreal Engine as they allow characters to cast soft shadows even with a game which relies on only static lighting.

The Last of Us 1 used this to great effect, as levels had a lot of areas which didn't receive dynamic lighting, and characters still felt grounded in the world using the capsule shadow technique (below).

Ine of the characters from the game The Last of Us, and their capsule shadow.

Source: Arnage on the Unreal Engine 4 forums

The use of this does not have to be limited to characters however - the technique can be applied to other set pieces. The only caveat is that they have to be skeletal meshes, not static meshes.