Obbe Vermeij
banner
obbevermeij.bsky.social
Obbe Vermeij
@obbevermeij.bsky.social
I make games.

SpaceStationSV, War the Game (steam), Learnia, GuideApp and Plentiful (steam).

Also: gta3, Vice, SA & IV
Pinned
Came across this rare photograph of the dev team behind gta3.
This would have been taken in 2000/2001 in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
You could do worse than giving the 'Plentiful' demo a shot this weekend.
It's like a 90s god game but with modern world building, dynamic water & visuals.

Demo & wishlist on steam:
store.steampowered.com/app/3044790/...

#Indiegame #Indiedev #godgame
September 26, 2025 at 11:12 PM
GTA1 and 2 had LAN multiplayer. To save bandwidth, they only sent keypresses between machines — assuming the game state was 100% deterministic. That meant every game had to run in perfect sync, at the framerate of the slowest PC.
June 19, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Hey #PitchYaGame,

Plentiful is a wholesome nature sim.

- Shape the landscape by stacking stones.
- Capture water in lakes and ponds.
- Grow fruit and vegetables to feed your people.
- Chill
June 6, 2025 at 1:41 PM
The other massive trailer released today.
May 7, 2025 at 12:07 AM
17 years ago, on April 29th 2008 we released Grand Theft Auto IV.

On order to focus on making the game truly next-gen, we dropped a ton of game features from San Andreas.
Stats (fitness, weight), Multiple cities, Stealth, Underwater swimming, Jet packs, Tanks, Bicycles, Monster trucks, Car modding
April 29, 2025 at 2:31 AM
In gta3, traffic lights cycle through 3 states:
North/South
East/West
Pedestrians

The traffic light’s model orientation determines its cycle, and at startup, my code stored the cycle in the road nodes. This is why, even if the light was knocked over, cars still obeyed the light.
February 14, 2025 at 11:51 PM
When working on the train in gta3 I found riding it boring.
I considered letting the player jump ahead to the next station but this would cause streaming issues.

Instead, I made the camera switch between random viewpoints near the track. This made the ride more interesting.
January 8, 2025 at 12:35 AM
The Steam demo of my world crafter is now live.

Plentiful v21 introduces: Volcanos, Lightning, Fire and Locusts

store.steampowered.com/app/3044790/...

A follow to anyone who kills the spiders on the 'Islands' level.
January 8, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by Obbe Vermeij
A new video is now live! Ever wonder why vehicles in San Andreas can't reach their top speed in certain areas? Let's take a look!

(Sorry @obbevermeij.bsky.social, I believe I said your name wrong in this one 😅)

youtu.be/vp9WlW9reG4?...
The Hidden Speed Limits of GTA San Andreas
YouTube video by TJGM
youtu.be
December 7, 2024 at 1:31 PM
The cheats in gta3 (and Vice and SA) on pc were activated by typing a sequence of characters. Ie:

ILOVESCOTLAND to make it rain or
GUNSGUNSGUNS to give the player loads of weapons.
November 27, 2024 at 8:35 PM
The streets of gta3 looked too clean so I added litter.

It is a single rectangle that occasionally moves with the wind. It can also be dragged along by passing cars. The artists created 4 textures for it. 2 newspapers and 2 leaves.
November 22, 2024 at 11:30 PM
In GTA San Andreas, small planes are periodically created near the player to perform a fly-by.

Sometimes they crash.
Before creating the plane, my code looks for obstacles in its path.
November 20, 2024 at 4:27 AM
For gta3, Vice and SA; Memory on the ps2 was tight. We had to limit the number of used vehicle models to 8.

My code would occasionally pick a car model to be phased out. Once there were none left on the map, this model would be removed and a new model could be loaded.
November 19, 2024 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Obbe Vermeij
#GTA test and an early GTA Master.

The master isn’t much different, but the test has several bugs still needing fixed.
November 18, 2024 at 6:23 PM
There was no way we could fit the whole map of gta3 in PS2 memory.
Streaming involves loading models from the DVD as the player moves around.
This was the hardest technical challenge during the development of gta3 and was coded by Adam Fowler.
November 15, 2024 at 2:55 AM
As the player moves around, cars are constantly created and deleted to give the appearance of a busy city.

For gta3, Vice & SA, my code places cars at about 70m from the player if they would be in view of the camera. They get removed at around 90m.
November 15, 2024 at 2:34 AM
The artists gave me a texture for the moon in gta3.
I placed the moon in the sky, made sure it was visible at night and that it was a reasonable size.

A few days later 4 artists were at my desk asking me to change the size of the moon.

"No problem" I said.
November 15, 2024 at 2:29 AM
Came across this rare photograph of the dev team behind gta3.
This would have been taken in 2000/2001 in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
November 15, 2024 at 2:22 AM