Stay Autonomous

 Why Physical media is important? why local hardware is important, everything needs to be in hand to be function if the services goes down is important? why institutional knowledge needs to be maintained and fundamentals needs to be held close?

what if you lose everything tomorrow, power, connectivity, services, just gone on a whim without you knowing, what will you do?

I know this scenario is a " come on! why would that happen? "

but you have to think a little ahead, think how screwed you will be if that happens.

You wouldn't been needing a fire extinguisher in your house then, you should not wear your seat belt, you do not need cash on hand cause the ATM will ALWAYS be there ha?

Just think a little bit ahead, do not allow your autonomy to be taken away from you.

This is why the whole AI shinanigans is not good for your businesses, if you relay too much and after 5, 10 years down the line, knowledge shift and dependencies happen and reliance, then poof! servers are down for days, some crap will happen, cables shot, some bullshit, or services run out of funds and shuts down, or geo political issues limit your access, whatever it is, while your experts has no fundamental nor developed the mental fortitude to manage the work manually, what is your contingencies? what is your plan? what will you do?

back in highschool we were taught that at some point there was Punchcards acted as programs, never understood why we were taught that history until recent years learning 3D texturing, Masking and normal direction with 0 to 1 value, such a basic concept that to this day is still the fundamental that even helped me explain to students that idea easily.

not saying learn how to program a punchcard, but learn the concepts, keep them in mind, we need documentation and education of those concepts for developers and professionals to know what to look for, what to reference, we all as humans know " rubbing two sticks to make fire via friction " that is it, at least! have that!  

This is why you need to maintain knowledge, understanding the infostructure of the work you do, software, game engine, whatever it is. 

we have seen over the years how institutional knowledge is constantly lost with advancement of technology that we push for stronger hardware for no reason whatsoever. 


we have seen corporate pull the rug on users many many times. 

do you have a backup plan? 


regarding having offline systems, hard copies I will tell you a personal story. 

Living in a war torn country through my teen years taught me something interesting.

when the power went out for months, I was a stupid teen who was not looking at the fact " oh shit we are at war " I was more of " I am not going to school and there is no power to play my PS2? shit! that is shit luck! " after 3 months of no power and then our neighbor got a generator OH MAMA! first thing I did was power that bad boy and game. but it was still limited cause gas access was limited but I still felt secure about my gaming, I had everything right here, I just need power, and then I was able to exchange (PS2 Mod chip) they were popular at the time and cheap, exchanged it with a Game Boy Advance that had a damaged screen.

batteries were available and cheap and I had my way to make them run longer that I picked up from my dad, and it was the time that I felt " man I am lucky to have this " as we sit in the dark when the power was out and I still enjoy Castlevania, Metroid and more cool ass games, and when the power is back, I can instantly fire up my PS2, mind that, this whole time since the phone lines were down... Dailup internet was not accessable.

this experience in my life taught me a very important thing, what if I lose my power and internet, this is why I was super excited about android gaming, like bro, you get a pocket size device that acts as your phone but also you can game until the sun goes down, and you slap a solar cell outside to charge it! SIGN ME UP!

This is exactly why high end graphics and game streaming and online gaming never worked for me, I am harnessed to the scenario of what if I lose my access to all of this with a blink of an eye, which we lost during the war ( Power and connectivity ) what will I do?

I am not saying you should live like me or think like me, I am saying, do not tether your selves to something remote that you can not access directly, and someone else can pull the plug on you, this is a very important thing that I hope now in today's age are in full understanding with the current market situation at hand.

This is the experience that I am pulling from, especially at your job imagine some shit will happen under sea cable is attacked and now you can not connect to your AI servers, your games, music, netflix, what will you do? 


Just a thought and experience to share, a spark to see the dark world around you for a fraction of a second, stay autonomous

Dark Souls 2 Miscommunicated

I was was writing my previous blogpost about DS2 weapon durability, this thought started to form.

 

Dark souls 2  released with lots of broken promises, and issue but there was a deep problem within the Darkouls community at the time, remembering the comments on the groups about how cheap and shitty it was, weapon durability is bullshit, enemies are bullshit, getting back stabbed more easily ( but you an backstab more easily so it can go both ways ) 

Darksouls 1 had a tagline " Prepare to Die " this tag line was super important, it gave perception to the player that this game is going to destroy you. Darksouls 2 had nothing and when the complete version release it was " Scholar of the first sin " more towards lore.

I think if it had a tagline such as " you are never safe " that would have shifted Player expectation and perception towards all the " cheap deaths " that were actually teaching players lots of mechanics, core mechanics that can be used such as striking a gun powder barrel with a fire sword causes it to explode,

 that teaches fire makes things go BOOM! which results in strategy shift of looking for those barrels in the environment and how to utilize it by hitting it with a fire arrow or a grenade,

 weapon durability forced un expected players to shift strategy and a change weapon in the middle of a heater battle, getting ganked by an enemy that chased you from Far away in the level,

and my mortal enemy, the pursuer just showing up when you think you are safe or got out of the frier into the fire. 

A simple marketing tagline that might have not save the game from its shortcoming but it might have shifted perception enough for the player to look at the game in a different lens... 

The problem wasn't only that DS2 had questionable design decisions. It was that the game didn't adequately communicate the design philosophy behind those decisions.

what do you think? 

In the defense of Dark Souls 2 Weapon Breaking system

 Hello there! 

This will be the most Raw and un edited thought I will be posting here. 

As I was walking a while ago I remembered Dark souls 2, the fond memory of boss fights and tough encounters, how that game made me play it in a way like I was playing a stealth game, I was constantly worried of each encounter, fearing if I get ganked by a bunch of baddies and lose my humanity, souls and everything. 

what is worse is dying in the middle of an intense boss battle or a deep run but why you lost... that! is what makes things interesting! 

Weapons breaking on you is a solid reason why you sometimes lose, the interesting part about that system is that you are constantly watching out for the gear, your shield, your weapon, you are constantly watching their health while fighting trying to make sure they will not break as fixing them some times cost a good number of resources you could invest somewhere else. 

I my self play usually as an Inga Bonga build, give me the big boi Great Sword 

I know if you were a broad sword kinda guy you can carry two, one breaks you shift to the other and you do not feel a thing, but when you are a great sword! the whole play field is different as you require a certain level of strength to just carry the damn thing but also you need strength to carry other things without getting overweight.

to me personally that is when things got the on the edge! as I was carrying this giant hunk of metal around and man this thing broke fast and in the heat of a boss battle, you can kiss it good bye! I remember the first time this happen, I do not recall against whom but I felt it, I remember the dread as I instantly had to scatter around running for my life while thumbling on the controller trying to change to whatever weapon I can use to replace it. 

this is when it sunk in, oh shit, I need more strength to carry more shit but also, what can I carry with it, and that is where this system came into full on strategy! I had to learn and get used to another weapon and play style as a back up plan as if the weapon breaks or low on health I can shift on the fly, at first all I can carry with it was a dagger, then I had to strip some of my armor pieces to carry a broadsword so my combination became Great Sword Main and BroadSword as 2nd form and if I shift to second form I taught my self to go quickly into the menu and unequip the BroadSword out of my gear to gain more movement and speed, if you break my Great sword, you will be in more trouble. 

until I started building my character's strength and health to get more weight limit and more speed. 

it was an interesting journey how the game punished me for my shortsightedness, cornered me into shifting to a new strategy and adapting to its systems with a new play style. 


Weapon breaking helps you adapt to the situation and not get too comfortable doing the same thing over and over, takes you off guard if you get too relaxed and smack you on the hand and say " stop repeating the same thing, do something else! " it was the curve ball that I needed in the game not to get too comfortable swinging that massive hunk of metal.

to me that system was the most powerful of DarkSouls 2 character and gameplay, if you disagree, give Darksouls 2 a run, with this in mind, see how it sits, take a different point of view. 

you might like it, or you might hate it more. 


just wanted to share this thought with you guys, have a good day! 

Triple A and graphics Fatigue. (Lowpoly is the new PunkRock) ?

Lowpoly is the new PunkRock?

By Zaid Al-Shaheed

a couple of years ago, I wrote a blogpost about Lowpoly is Digital 3D impressionism as it shares a lot of traits with the concept of impressionism, the concept of the impression of the shape, light and shadow to create something that resembles things that we are familiar with. lowpoly-3d-is-digital-impressionism

now we are here 2026 and seeing how games with high graphical fidelity still fails hard, massive budgets that does not meet expectation but also high budgets that does not generate back what was thrown at it. 

at best barely breaking even. 

it is not that High graphical fidelity is bad, but it is expensive, to produce and also expensive to run. 

with the raise of indie, we have notice a new trend of solo developers making small scale games but most important for 3D... Lowpoly. 

Lowpoly is lowbudget, a rise of style against the mainstream Triple A realistic graphics and dripping face sweat, challenging the normal convention building upon a foundation that was left unexplored once hardware was upgraded, for games that has bigger budget, bigger teams, more polished look. 

Lowpoly serves few purposes but as a 3D artists who is involved in game development I know it is the following : 

1- lowbudget ( Quick, does not require monster hardware to create, does not require Monster hardware to run! )

2- more accessibility 

the points above does not mean it requires less mastery of the craft to make, it actually requires more experience similar to impressionism. 

going deep dive recently in certain video articles talking about going against convention and mainstream makes me think. 

is Lowpoly and the current games we are seeing now, is Punk? 


I mean pulling similarities between Punk as a movement comparing it to what is happening now with lowpoly and low resolution pixalated texture, dithered alphas and heavily stylized 3D lowpoly. 


Punk rock did not expect anything back they just wanted to do and express.
a lot of indie lowpoly games are doing that.

Lowcost or no budget
Indies are doing that. 

going against the standard and norm, and not giving a fuck!
indies are doing that.

creating a game to communicate a feel that you have.
that is fucking Punk AF at least how I see it.

Steam Page

Of Love and Eternity

Air Frame Ultra Steampage

AirFrame Ultra

Samurai Unicorn

Samurai Unicorn

This is not to discredit high fidelity graphics games or high budget games, or any other game is " not punk " go check Suda51 games, Punk AF!

just an observation and a question that has been going on in my mind. 

Indie 3D lowpoly games for the love of the genre and going against the mainstream and standard is Punk?

What is Game feel?

 What is Game Feel? 

By Zaid Al-Shaheed

Today I was reminded of Pacman Arcade, I remember how this game was one of the 2 addictive games my dad used to be obsessed with, the other one was tatris. 

I remember how many hours unphased he could sit infront of the TV play the NES version of Pacman and then got hooked on Pacman 3D but always went back to play the original, and after so many years, playing so many games and learning about them while making them, and now looking at Pacman and realized how addictive this game is...

Pacman seemingly simple game to the regular casual player, it is the yellow ball, eating dots being chased by ghosts while running inside a maze, but when he eats the power dot (big dot) he can eat the ghosts.

you eat more dots and ghosts to collect more score, and there is the occasional fruit that you eat for a bigger score.

you finish the level, it loops but now the ghosts are faster.

Simple game loop simple description and nothing too big expansive, but why is it interesting till today, 

we start with the player, the Yellow Dot, Pacman him self, the way he closes and opens his mouth, 

the sound he makes when he eats the dots, when he is not eating the dots there is a sound like a police siren while he is running away from the ghosts like an outlaw.

and how the sound changes when he eats the power Dot, making the moment more significate, separating the power mode from the regular mode,

  how the ghosts turn blue and run away from him,

 when he eats the ghosts, he actually has a hit stop to give significances to the moment that he dominated the Ghosts accompanied but a chomp sound to emphasize that moment event further

then the eyes of the ghosts runs away to their lair.

and how the ghosts speed goes faster the less dots on the screen giving that sense of urgency to run! get the last dots before you are caught!

and when you do collect all the dots, the game just stops for a moment, fades and resets but now faster.

the timing, of all of those events, how the sound plays moment to moment gameplay, such a simple game RICH! with game feel.

imagine Pac man has no chomping sound when he eats the dots, no hit stop when he eats the ghosts, that alone will make the game feel much less. 

simple things gave such significance to the game feel. 

apart from how the game controls, and how the character move, game feel is a combination of elements to give that good feel moment, that ephoria when you are being chased by the ghosts and they are so close and you reach a power dot, and suddenly! the tables have turned! and you go back at them and chomp them one by one with that moment to moment hit stop and them running away to their lair in shame and afraid. 

that combination made what pacman is, ticks every box in game feel, I might add a bit of screen shake to the ghost combo that you get a shake if you eat one ghost and then the shake gets more violent if you eat another and it goes on, that might have made the game event better.

Going back to my dad, He might have had a gambling addiction, but I think these elements looking at a lot of gambling machines, that carries all the the sounds and lights and building up to the great moment, all the loot boxes.

it was all implemented right into the game play which made the gameplay even more exciting, it created a very affected game feel.

Watching the arcade game play today made me realize that event the good old games has solid game feel that many games now days lacking. 

maybe Pacman can be a tool to teach students more about game feel if it was not included in their study. 

I personally believe Pacman is the best tool to introduce young game developers to game feel.

I hope this was insightful. 

see ya on the next post.

 

Lowpoly 3D is the digital impressionism?

 Lowpoly 3D art, is it the digital era of impressionism?

By Zaid Al-Shaheed

3D Art Generalist / Technical Director

Synty SciFi Cyberpunk

For years I myself admired lowpoly 3D art, characters, objects, environment in games. Not sure if it is nostalgia,  the aesthetics, its efficiency in rendering, time consumption in making or it triggering the imagination and interpretation of what the object is. 

So many things all in the same time, we can admire all the high poly sculpts, the hyper realism 3D models in games that we have been seeing recently, but something about the lowpoly still stands, with indie developers and 3D art creators. Yes it is cheap and fast to make but some of those same people who do lowpoly are highly skilled 3D artists who can produce impressively detailed objects and characters , artists such as Kennth Scott, John Kearney, Karol Miklas, Zoltan "Z" Hegedus and MANY MANY more. They still somehow go back to doing lowpoly models here and there or does a project that involves it.  

As a 3D artform, lowpoly is an entry level but the pros are pushing the boundaries and the mindset of what lowpoly is and can be. A good example is the 256fes hashtag on X formerly known as Twitter, using nothing but 256 triangles creating amazing looking cars, mechs, characters, environments and much much more.

By :VampireDev8 on X aka Twitter

By :LezTusi on X aka Twitter

The thought process that goes behind it, lowpoly is not just form of art but also ascended to being a philosophy.

how is that even possible!? 

Few years ago when I was studying and going through GDC talks on game design and game art, I came across a wonderful talk by an exceptionally fascinating individual, Ethan Redd, an indie game developer artist and designer. He talked about something very interesting, he put into words my thoughts I failed to communicate to myself and others. 

The atomic size of an object as when it is a certain size it needs to have certain number of polygons to represent the shape of the object and how much we can get away with. 

really discussing lowpoly art in somewhat philosophical way sorta speak.

you can watch the whole talk here : 

His talk made me think, why do we stick to lowpoly, why do I and others still do it, and one day I was discussing game art with my wife and it hit me, impressionism!!!

Impressionism describes a style of painting developed in France during the mid-to-late 19th century; characterizations of the style include small, visible brushstrokes that offer the bare impression of form, unblended color and an emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light.

Lowpoly  is very similar to that small number of polycounts that are visible and offers the bare impression of a form, and still focuses on how the light reads the form "emphasis on the accurate depiction of natural light".

Claude Monet, French, 1840 - 1926, Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Synty pack Polygon Western Frontier

Under our nose we had a rise of an artform that is discussed and the word thrown around even misunderstood and misrepresented, and yet we never noticed that we are living in an era where an artform is born and still living and will still live for many years to come. 

in games and other media, even after 25 years since we migrated to stronger hardware, with more rendering capabilities, bigger memory and advance methods of rendering, still to this day, Lowpoly art is here and here to stay with indie creators making games, with asset packs out there in the wild such as the Synty packs, and even in 3D printing. 

just a thought that I had and wanted to communicate and get it out of my head. 

I hope these words I wrote triggers something in your mind, a thought, a spark of inspiration, or a shrug, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Kenneth Scott : https://www.artstation.com/superactionfunboy

John Kearney : https://www.artstation.com/johnkearney

Karol Miklas : https://www.artstation.com/kmiklas

Zoltan "Z" Hegedus : https://www.artstation.com/zoltanh

256Fes : https://twitter.com/256fes

Quick Render Neon Skull December-7-2021

 Quick renders done with Blender 2.8 eevee