Oliver Franzke
@p1xelcoder.bsky.social
I'm making colored pixels for Double Fine Productions. Lead Programmer of Broken Age. Also worked on Keeper and the remastered versions of Grim, DotT, FT and Monkey Island.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
I did a lot of lighting on Keeper and it was a joy to have a fully dynamic lighting system, which made shifts in areas like this easy to do. We also had custom Lumen-based lights that @p1xelcoder.bsky.social put together that helped us hit the painterly/stage lighting look we were after.
November 11, 2025 at 4:17 PM
I did a lot of lighting on Keeper and it was a joy to have a fully dynamic lighting system, which made shifts in areas like this easy to do. We also had custom Lumen-based lights that @p1xelcoder.bsky.social put together that helped us hit the painterly/stage lighting look we were after.
Normal polygonal meshes have a fixed topology. Roughly speaking this means the number of holes in an object can't change. Also the (explicit) surface of two meshes can't be blended smoothly into one. This is no problem for distance field morphs with implicit surfaces.
November 10, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Normal polygonal meshes have a fixed topology. Roughly speaking this means the number of holes in an object can't change. Also the (explicit) surface of two meshes can't be blended smoothly into one. This is no problem for distance field morphs with implicit surfaces.
Bonus post to end the week: If you are a graphics programmer do yourself a favor and get a MIDI board. It makes the work way more tactile and fun. Full props to Matt and @aaronmjacobs.com for getting me on the MIDI train. :)
November 7, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Bonus post to end the week: If you are a graphics programmer do yourself a favor and get a MIDI board. It makes the work way more tactile and fun. Full props to Matt and @aaronmjacobs.com for getting me on the MIDI train. :)
The morphs in Keeper use distance fields as an (implicit) surface representation, which makes it possible to control the distance at which the surface should lie. In other words, it’s easy to deflate or inflate objects, and meshes become easily ‘moldable’.
November 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
The morphs in Keeper use distance fields as an (implicit) surface representation, which makes it possible to control the distance at which the surface should lie. In other words, it’s easy to deflate or inflate objects, and meshes become easily ‘moldable’.
So what is a "distance-field"? It refers to a function that tells you, for every point in space, how far away the closest surface is and—by extension—in which direction it lies.
November 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
So what is a "distance-field"? It refers to a function that tells you, for every point in space, how far away the closest surface is and—by extension—in which direction it lies.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
If you're still on the fence about KEEPER, a lot of folks have said some incredibly kind things about it.
We are blushing! ☺️
We are blushing! ☺️
November 5, 2025 at 6:56 PM
If you're still on the fence about KEEPER, a lot of folks have said some incredibly kind things about it.
We are blushing! ☺️
We are blushing! ☺️
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
Article about Creative Direction on @polygon.com that I contributed to, which also features one of my very early concepts from Keeper! www.polygon.com/game-directi...
November 5, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Article about Creative Direction on @polygon.com that I contributed to, which also features one of my very early concepts from Keeper! www.polygon.com/game-directi...
The experiments with surflets and voxels yielded some cool results, but it became quite obvious that distance fields were the way to go to represent the surface of morph objects (as I alluded to previously). This allowed us to implement some visually neat effects like this twist transition.
November 5, 2025 at 4:41 PM
The experiments with surflets and voxels yielded some cool results, but it became quite obvious that distance fields were the way to go to represent the surface of morph objects (as I alluded to previously). This allowed us to implement some visually neat effects like this twist transition.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
I often see dope game art I wanna retweet, but don't want to spam the wide variety of followers I have here. So I made an alt for spreading the low poly love! @dalowpolyrat.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I often see dope game art I wanna retweet, but don't want to spam the wide variety of followers I have here. So I made an alt for spreading the low poly love! @dalowpolyrat.bsky.social
Every cool graphics feature begins with a doodle… well at least for me.
November 5, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Every cool graphics feature begins with a doodle… well at least for me.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
I love our breakable floors.
November 4, 2025 at 3:40 PM
I love our breakable floors.
This illustrates the full process of capturing the "Essence" of a mesh to be used in a morph. The distance field is retrieved and then the mesh is projected onto the cube-shaped "screen" in order to pack its surface properties into two cubemaps.
November 4, 2025 at 6:12 PM
This illustrates the full process of capturing the "Essence" of a mesh to be used in a morph. The distance field is retrieved and then the mesh is projected onto the cube-shaped "screen" in order to pack its surface properties into two cubemaps.
Is might cat obsessed with isosceles right triangles?
November 4, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Is might cat obsessed with isosceles right triangles?
In order to use a mesh in a morph it has to be converted first, which is done by projecting its properties (base color, normal, roughness, AO) onto a cube. The results are then packed into two cubemaps. These maps in combination with the associated distance-field comprise the "Essence" of the mesh.
November 3, 2025 at 10:25 PM
In order to use a mesh in a morph it has to be converted first, which is done by projecting its properties (base color, normal, roughness, AO) onto a cube. The results are then packed into two cubemaps. These maps in combination with the associated distance-field comprise the "Essence" of the mesh.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Game Architectures with Alex Evans and Anton Mikhailov
YouTube video by Wookash Podcast
youtu.be
November 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
i had a chat with lukasz and @antovsky about gamedev and stuff, if youre into that sort of thing! the middle hour is the juiciest but its all fantastic, ofc ;) youtu.be/mFBmoCv5EcQ?...
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
If you're a fan of Max Ernst, Krull, and the Brothers Quay you should watch this!
If you're wondering how a human mind comes up with something like KEEPER, now you can find out! Our newest video features @leepetty.bsky.social walking through 18 different inspirations for your favorite lighthouse game 😎
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCYs...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCYs...
18 Inspirations for Keeper featuring Lee Petty
YouTube video by Double Fine
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:32 PM
If you're a fan of Max Ernst, Krull, and the Brothers Quay you should watch this!
I'll talk more about morphs next week, but here is a prototype called "fractal guts" which didn't make it into the game. It's perfect for Halloween though!
October 31, 2025 at 7:12 PM
I'll talk more about morphs next week, but here is a prototype called "fractal guts" which didn't make it into the game. It's perfect for Halloween though!
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
Our studio @wunderfax.com is making a game called STUMBLE IN THE DARK! :o
Golly, we've been working on it for quite a while. I'm so happy that we're finally starting to show something about the game. Watch this space!
Golly, we've been working on it for quite a while. I'm so happy that we're finally starting to show something about the game. Watch this space!
First fax incoming... BRRRRZZZZ BRZZ BRRRZZZZZZ!
Hello, we are Wunderfax! 📠✨ We just posted a new glimpse into our first game. :o
www.tiktok.com/@wunderfax/v...
Hello, we are Wunderfax! 📠✨ We just posted a new glimpse into our first game. :o
www.tiktok.com/@wunderfax/v...
It‘s STUMBLE IN THE DARK! A clumsy-friendly stealth game we‘re working on. What do you think of Walter‘s outfit tonight? #indiegames #gamedev #unrealengine #spooky #funnygaming
TikTok video by Wunderfax
www.tiktok.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Our studio @wunderfax.com is making a game called STUMBLE IN THE DARK! :o
Golly, we've been working on it for quite a while. I'm so happy that we're finally starting to show something about the game. Watch this space!
Golly, we've been working on it for quite a while. I'm so happy that we're finally starting to show something about the game. Watch this space!
Ha! I totally forgot that we did one more morph experiment using space filling spheres (thanks OpenVDB!). I was planning to compute a correspondence set, so that the spheres of the different shapes can move from one to another, but we moved on to another approach. Still looks pretty cool though. :)
October 30, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Ha! I totally forgot that we did one more morph experiment using space filling spheres (thanks OpenVDB!). I was planning to compute a correspondence set, so that the spheres of the different shapes can move from one to another, but we moved on to another approach. Still looks pretty cool though. :)
Between surflet and voxel morphs the former was more promising. Here is a look behind the cube-shaped curtain... Each object is represented by a cube-quad to obj-surface mapping, which then makes it straight forward to move the associated surflet between the surface locations and blend properties.
October 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Between surflet and voxel morphs the former was more promising. Here is a look behind the cube-shaped curtain... Each object is represented by a cube-quad to obj-surface mapping, which then makes it straight forward to move the associated surflet between the surface locations and blend properties.
Another experiment we tried was to use (axis and surface aligned) voxels rather than surflets. The obvious benefit is that there are no holes the surface, but the voxelized look didn't fit Keeper and it was expensive to render due to the voxel density needed to make this work.
October 28, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Another experiment we tried was to use (axis and surface aligned) voxels rather than surflets. The obvious benefit is that there are no holes the surface, but the voxelized look didn't fit Keeper and it was expensive to render due to the voxel density needed to make this work.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
Surreal seeing Keeper in an actual printed copy of the New York Times.
October 27, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Surreal seeing Keeper in an actual printed copy of the New York Times.
In order to get to the morphs we have in Keeper now I first experimented with different approaches. Here is one of the early tests in which "surflets" are used to transform from one to another mesh. I still love the "wiggly paths" during the transition.
October 27, 2025 at 7:26 PM
In order to get to the morphs we have in Keeper now I first experimented with different approaches. Here is one of the early tests in which "surflets" are used to transform from one to another mesh. I still love the "wiggly paths" during the transition.
Reposted by Oliver Franzke
So a video dropped today of game composer Takuya Nakamura
DJing a jungle set in the middle of a rice field while accompanying it on trumpet and I feel like more folks should know about this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvr...
DJing a jungle set in the middle of a rice field while accompanying it on trumpet and I feel like more folks should know about this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvr...
jazz jungle mix at Japanese rice field l Takuya Nakamura l login.jp l juke dnb chill
YouTube video by Login.jp_
www.youtube.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:05 AM
So a video dropped today of game composer Takuya Nakamura
DJing a jungle set in the middle of a rice field while accompanying it on trumpet and I feel like more folks should know about this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvr...
DJing a jungle set in the middle of a rice field while accompanying it on trumpet and I feel like more folks should know about this.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVvr...
Another visual effect @leepetty.bsky.social, Jeremy Mitchell and I talked about a lot for Keeper was the Mandelbulb fractal. It didn't make it into the game in it's "pure" form, but the experiments I did were fun. :)
October 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Another visual effect @leepetty.bsky.social, Jeremy Mitchell and I talked about a lot for Keeper was the Mandelbulb fractal. It didn't make it into the game in it's "pure" form, but the experiments I did were fun. :)