Synths, impossible physics, and an “erotic experience with a PS5 controller

Synths, Impossible Physics, and an “Erotic Experience with a PS5 Controller”

[A roundup of cool side projects from video game developers, showcasing creativity and passion beyond commercial games.]

In the world of gaming, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest blockbusters and industry trends. But sometimes, the most interesting things happen outside the mainstream, in the realm of personal projects and creative exploration. This week, we’re taking a look at some of those hidden gems, showcasing the passion and ingenuity of developers who are pushing boundaries and experimenting with new ideas.

Interactive Fiction for Heart Monitors

Dr. Holly Nielsen, a historian of play and game developer, created an interactive fiction piece during her recovery from a heart issue. Her goal is to eventually integrate it into a heart monitor as an installation piece. “I’m noodling with ways to do that,” she said, “and a friend on the board of an art gallery said they were interested, but I haven’s yet had the room (both physical and time-wise) to take the concept into reality. Physical things are hard. But I return to it every few months.” She’s also working on more short-form interactive fiction to bring interactivity into academia.

Pixel Art Lunch Breaks

Korina Abbott, a comms specialist at Wolfeye Studios and previously the founder of agency Neonhive, finds creative fulfillment in pixel art. “A recent mini creative meditation I’ve started is doodling pixel art in Aseprite over my lunch breaks,” she told me. “It’s just been so fulfilling to make time to create a small piece of personal art each day.” Here’s one from just the other day:

Movement in Non-Euclidean Space

Freya Holmér, a tech artist, created an example of “movement in non-euclidean quaternionic space,” a concept that many might find perplexing but appreciate for its sheer coolness. “Not sure if or how it would grow into something playable,” they said, “but it was really need to see it take form.”

Blender-Designed Pergola

Rob Shaer, a game and level designer since 2002, built a pergola and privacy screen, designing it in Blender. “Not a game project,” he said, “but I recently built a pergola and privacy screen – somewhat creative I guess (designed in Blender) 😁👍”

Immersive Sim Game Noodle

John Livingston, a senior level designer at 2K working on the next BioShock, has been experimenting with an immersive sim game (“with 2K’s approval™”, he assures me). “I’ve been noodling on a weird take on the immersive sim genre,” he said. “Inspired by Mosa Lina, Scribblenauts, and LittleBigPlanet (which incidentally is how I got into game dev!)”.

Bluesky Alternate View

Ste Curran, a game designer behind a neat puzzle-slash-matching game called Mindset, also created this alternate view for Bluesky call skyspace, turning it into a version of 2005-era MySpace (and also pointed me towards Maraoke, a library of classic karaoke songs that’ve been rewritten to be about video games – to me this is a bit like how that gaming bar near you does cocktails with gaming puns).

Mecha TTRPG/Wargame Playtesting

Dr. Nic, a technical narrative designer at fenris creations (the studio behind Eve Online formerly called CCP Games), is working on “a combined mecha TTRPG/wargame with my partner and we’re hoping to do another round of playtesting soon!”

Endless Art Gallery Made of Light

Fidel Destro is working on GaleriaLux, an “endless art gallery made of light.” They took a breather from it recently but are looking to get back to it some time soon. Here’s a preview of it:

Quake Mapping Jams

Ed Lu, who does multiplayer engineering for Mega Crit by day, recently started learning Quake mapping, and has made two maps for recent jams. “I’m glad I found the community when I did,” Lu said, “in a time when it feels the validity of my profession is being thrown into chaos.”

Twine Grimoire Resources

A developer and writer who goes by GRIM on Bluesky has been making the Twine Grimoire series of resources, described as tutorials and templates “for people to noodle with and learn from their own projects.” You can take a look at those here.

Star Fox-Inspired Cinematic

Fran Vergara, a freelance lighting and cinematic artist who’s worked on games like Sea of Thieves and Until Dawn 2, is currently working on a game cinematic, sharing this screenshot. “I may have been playing Star Fox probably too much this summer,” they said.

Plinky Synth Creation

Alex Evans, co-founder of fellow Brightonians Media Molecule, pointed to the “crazy high crossover” of developers who turn their hands to making modular synths, “often escalating into a departure from games into the latter.” He gave the example of another fellow Brighton institution in Thonk, a long-running shop that was set up by a developer from Relentless Software – the studio which made the Buzz! quiz games. Evans meanwhile made Plinky during his later years at Media Molecule, while he says “the Expert Sleepers brand is an ex-SCEE [Sony Computer Entertainment Europe] person, there are a load of other examples. So… tldr games people drifting into (audio) hardware via hobby projects seems to be a pattern.”

Poem-Interactive Game

Joel Auterson, a developer at indie studio Bearwaves, said: “I sometimes work with a poet called Antosh Wojcik to do little interactive versions of poems. We did this one a while back and I’m working on another one now.” The one linked is described as “a game-poem written in the throes of water-based hypochondria” and a “small adventure game, with branching narrative pathways.”

Wind Waker Style Polygonal Light Pools

Thomas Keene, an indie developer, made a Godot sample projected with “Wind Waker style polygonal light pools.” He might do a single-light-source character lighting setup next, he says. I’ll be honest, the intricacies of technical things like lighting are far beyond my understanding but I love watching them in motion. Here’s a look at Keene’s project:

Game Jam Video Restoration

A hobbyist game dev who goes by Pixel Prophecy on Bluesky has been restoring old videos, offering the following example:

Low Poly Space Ship Game

Joram Wolters, a developer from the Netherlands, said he “once demoed a low poly space ship for a class and now it’s a hypershort solodev game about choice and self-sacrifice.” He’s also working on “a game about loss of a parent while parenting” with his wife.

Orbital Mechanics Simulation

A developer who goes by Taconite on Bluesky is “getting a handle on orbital mechanics,” they said. While the goal is “to be able to simulate Kessler syndrome and show why space combat is bad™”. Here’s what that looks like:

Hamlet Retelling & Gardening Game

Annie VanderMeer, a writer, was recently laid off and is now “doing what I can to freelance – working on a retelling/interactive version of Hamlet in RenPy, resurrecting my YouTube podcast (FrieNDA), and as per usual, fussing in my garden trying to grow HELLA PEPPERS AND TOMATOES (also flowers are nice).” She also hopes to some day make a gardening game – maybe in VR?

Enterprise-Grade Narrative Platform

Petteri Sulonen and Sally Hale, both former Studio ZA/UM developers, left in the hope that their experience in solving narrative design problems might be worth sharing with other developers. They started a project that ultimately turned into the below tool. Here’s how Hale described it to me: “After years working both in traditional software and on narrative design tools, we decided to start a new project from scratch. Tarinoi is an enterprise-grade platform for studios building narrative-driven games at scale. There are still unsolved frictions in studio pipelines, and tools that aren’t always capable of meeting a team’s ambitions, which is why ours is designed around our experience developing solutions alongside narrative designers, producers, programmers, and all the teams in the studio who need to work with this software.”

Wacky Dungeon Card Game

An artist who goes by DiceDeeds has turned his backlog of personal art into a “wacky dungeon card game.”

“Erotic Experience with a PS5 Controller”

Finally, one developer at a major studio who preferred to remain anonymous sent me this fantastic description of a side project they’ve been working on based entirely on the DualSense controller: “I wanted to make a game about the care and attention we often don’t afford the small objects in our lives; the things we pay for, have shipped to our door, then take for granted. I had the idea a few years ago when I started making coffee from scratch, and all of a sudden I was paying attention to how my grinder felt, how fast or slow the water dripped through the grounds, the weight of my kettle. I gained a new appreciation for these daily objects that felt meaningful to me. Then I realised games are a huge part of my life, but the object through which I experience them gets essentially ignored, designed to melt away as soon as I start playing. I felt ignorant towards it, after all it’s “just a controller”. Meanwhile anyone who requires, say, Microsoft’s adaptive controllers to play a game will tell you how much of a difference the hardware in their hands makes. So I wanted to make something that brought the controller to life, and made it the star of the show. A game that says “isn’t this little object amazing?”. I also liked the idea of treating the controller as if it were alive, with likes and dislikes, and the one thing it lacks in its usual purpose: agency. So I made it real weird: The game uses only a DualSense controller and its adaptive sensors to create a sense of intimacy and non-verbal communication with the device – no screen or visuals other than the lights built into the controller. It creates a “desired state” at launch, and (with no further instructions) the player is expected to experiment with all the available sensors until the controller’s desired state is met. The way you’d know you’re doing a good job is by feeling the DualSense’s “heartbeat”. A steady vibration that matches an average resting human heart rate at the start. The closer to the desired state you get, the faster the heart rate. If you press the wrong button, the motors vibrate with a short and very strong jolt, the heartbeat stops for a moment, then returns to its previous value. If you press the triggers too hard, they’ll push back against you. My roommate described it as “an erotic experience with a PS5 controller that makes me apologise to it when I hurt it”. Once you get to the desired state, the heart rate reaches its maximum value, then stops beating and sustains that vibration, only to fizzle out a few seconds later. After that, a new desired state is generated. One day when I have more time I’ll release it for free and probably bring it to some local gamedev meetups and demo nights. Mostly to watch other people’s reactions when they hurt an inanimate object.”

Source: Eurogamer