Inside Penny's Big Breakaway - They Made Their Own 3D Engine! - Developer Deep Dive
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- Опубликовано: 14 авг 2024
- From the creators of Sonic Mania, Penny's Big Breakaway sees developer Evening Star deliver their very first 3D platform game. In a brilliant DF exclusive, John Linneman talks to the team and discusses the genesis, creation and execution of the game.
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00:00 - Introduction
01:07 - Part 1 - Starting from Scratch
04:08 - Pitching the Game
05:23 - Creating Art
09:37 - A New Programming Language
11:49 - Part 2 - Building the World
13:49 - The Shape Layer
17:53 - Part 3 - Bringing it to Life
20:34 - The Gradient Shader
23:31 - Animation Talk
27:20 - Shading
29:37 - Part 4 - Adding the Detail
31:36 - Procedural Generation in Action
36:34 - Proc Gen Challenges
38:37 - Part 5 - Optimizations
40:43 - Baking Lights and Shadow
43:45 - Optimizing for Switch
48:15 - Wrap-up 
Игры
I'm super-impressed with how well their artstyle nailed the 90s era airbrush art! It looks a lot like the Sonic key art!
Yeah imo it looks like Sonic CD would have if it were in 3D. Just a very specific aesthetic that I absolutely love.
I really hope this engine gets used in more games. I’m so tired of the washed out and/or generic art design of Unreal games.
I bought this game thanks to Linneman's praise of it, and it's been great fun!
Same!
@@daspotjoel Great, enjoy it!
I find the gradient shader concept is incredible. It facilitates a distinct art style that the artist has complete control over.
I could see 3D animated movies benefitting from using something like this
the main drawback is that it's really difficult to make different colored light works without looking weird, just like Sonic Adventure
so it's really the Sonic Megadrive color palette concept transposed in 3D with all their pros and cons
@@Pakigi716 I think that's the idea, that it's not really meant to represent light per se
Also it's only like the color pallete in the sense that every object would get its own palette which could change whenever, which is obviously much better than what they could do in the old days
It’s a really common way to do a cartoon shader. Several exist for Unity
@@antivert I wouldn't call it a cartoon shader exactly
This video was super informative. Really cool that this team is building their own tech rather than relying on middleware. Thanks to John and the DF Crew (exclamation point) for the incredible amount of research and work y’all put into this.
I can't believe Sonic Mania is 7 years old
No it's not! Is it really?
@@DarkReturns1 Almost. In August, it'll turn 7. (Gawd, I feel old)
@@cliffturbo2146 it's been in my back catalog for 7 years, geez...... I think I'll play it today finally lol
@@DarkReturns1 You do dat. Still an awesome game👍
@@cliffturbo2146 it may be old, but it’s still new for some of us. I bought it last week for the kids and got sucked in immediately. It’s wonderfully imaginative and feels great to play. What a game!
I hope Evening Star takes this engine to wonderful heights for their future projects!
I have been waiting for this interview since you mentioned it was in the works months ago!
Using such a new programming language seems crazy. I feel like you do that when you have fun developing and you like the challenge.
beef lang is slept on
@catlolis I mean, I would too for something that new. There are so many programming lanagues that say they are the next best thing.
Like it remindes me of Crash Bandicoot, where they created GOOL, a custom-made language that was lisp based.
In that case, they claim they did it because there wasn't really a common scripting language at the time. Even then, it kind of feels like what they did here now.
this video needed to be made, huge respect to teams that build their own graphics engine
I feel like we don't get many of these deep dive developer interviews for recent games, so this is a fantastic treat. I've had the game for a bit, but unfortunately haven't had the time to get to it. Still, absolutely in love with the visuals of it (and John's video visuals are snazzy too!)
I love the fact that one of my favorite artists is part of the inspiration for a video game. Greetings from Germany!
Who?
@@ConteudoLibertario Oskar Schlemmer.
Thank you SO MUCH for making this video, I fell in love with Penny's Bkg Breakaway when it came out and I've been wanting to know more about it's development since
these style videos are gold for inspiring developers and gamers in general
I seriously wish this game made a bigger splash! Its definitely a well deserved hit in the critical spaces I follow, along with a few streamers who play more 3d platformers. But its just so good, not just gameplay, but the art direction and music just feel so cohesive and with vision towards what feels like a game that would've existed if the Sega Saturn was actually a success and kept sega in the console business
Really enjoyed this style of deep dive John. I’m sure it’s a ton of work but hope you can do more of this format when the opportunity presents itself. Just picked up the game on Steam and can’t wait to play through.
I picked up Penny's Big Breakaway because John was basically drooling over it. I can say his recommendation was on point; it's a wonderful, fun game and a nice pseudo-nostalgic break from the glitz and grit of modern titles.
I had a gift card for Switch so I nabbed it there... I regret that. The uneven and often surprising frame stutter/rate reduction is so difficult to deal with even having the performance setting turned on. I'm loving what I can play of the game, but the frustration from missed jumps and lost input because of the the uneven performance has proven to be a resistance to continue playing.
I've waited a little while to see if they'll further improve the performance, but at this point I'm either going to re-purchase the game for PS5 or wait for Switch 2 and see what happens.
But I *love* this game. I've family who love to watch me play, they love the music and atmosphere. It reminds them "of old games I used to play as a kid" :)
Oh, this is amazing. Really love getting to see behind the scenes development insight through DF. I've only gotten to watch some of the video thus far, but it's wonderful -- fantastic work, John, can't wait to watch the rest.
LOVED this game! I'm waiting on the physical release, cannot wait even more thanks to this!
The fact that these guys basically made an incredibly fluid 3D platformer that rivals games like Super Mario Odyssey ON THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT (unless I’ve missed another 3D platformer that they made?) is pretty incredible.
I hope they continue to make fun games even if the economy and gaming landscape are a little rough right now. Also major props to Digital Foundry for putting this game on people’s radar as it deserves all the praise it gets.
Awesome!
I'm still enjoying playing through this absolute beauty!
Absolutely loving the "Matcap-like" look coming from the gradient shader. It's instantly noticeable in game, in the best way possible !
Terrific interview / behind the scenes video John. The proc-gen system being built for iterative purposes is fascinating - thanks to the Evening Star team too for being so generous with their information!
The presentation of this video is outstanding, well done!
Silhouette Mirage mentioned!!!
What a fantastic video John, great job not only with the interview but also the visuals to illustrate what is being talked about.
I did see some Treasure touch in the game so it's cool to hear that their games were indeed a source of inspiration to the visuals and tone of the whole thing. The game reminded me of Mischief Makers in particular with its super whacky vibes and having a very distinct gameplay mechanic, in this case the yoyo whereas Mischief Makers had the grab+shake.
This DF retro makes my sunday feel like christmas morning. Next level Linneman
Love this format for developer interviews. Also the switch segment was nice, to know why performance was struggling.
What a wonderful video john thank you so much for making this
Hehehehe
Those little bobble dudes as the stand-ins for all the different people are hilarious. Beautifully done!
I was already blown away by how they choose very unconventional roads from the start but that QoL for designers using procedural generation with the artist input, something I always hate for level design, proved to me it CAN be used to make good levels and actually save time.
Thanks a lot for the video, the artstyle unfortunately is not my thing but these guys have frequently proved their talent and actually seeing the problems they had to solve to get this out was even more impressive, that they have to go indie to make what they want just goes to show this industry went wrong somewhere.
The graphics style is so amazing. in still images it would look like a 3d sprite based platformer, but to see it in 3d its just awe inspiring.
Amazing is a bit of a stretch. 😂
i find the graphics to be some of the ugliest
Not a fan at all of the art style myself. Each to their own
I would say it's unique. It has great personality.
They literally wanted to mimic Gamecube-era graphics to make production faster/less expensive
15:45 it's awesome how they took something that could be viewed as a product of limitations and then went even further with it to make it essentially the aesthetic of that part of their world. They turned their lack of tools at the time into a unique setting because you might as well use what you've already developed.
This is a great format and I enjoy learning more about how the developers make games. Thanks DF!
Super fun watch! I love when you are able to pull some devs in to get deep dives into the process of making the game. This one being particularly interesting due to how much was custom made!
The combined passion of all involved in this video is electrifying.
A lot of comparisons to Sonic, but when I look at this game, the art overall reminds me of Mischief Makers for the N64 more than anything else.
mostly its due to the fact the team that made this formed as contractors on sonic mania, and the jump from a 2d sprite game to a fully 3d game
@@pixeljacked8047 I know. I can see the Sonic influences on it as well. But just like the overall look and characters reminded me instantly of Mischief Makers.. but then again, I'm the only one who liked that game. 😅
Yeah the team hold up Treasure as their big source of inspiration when asked, so I think you’re on the mark. Whether it’s specifically Mischief Makers or something like Silhouette Mirage, they’re by the same company with the same character designer so absolutely
Fantastic video John! I really loved the exploration of the aesthetic influences of the game, as well as the deep dive into the procedural generation system and how it was used by the dev team. It's full to the brim with really interesting information, and it's inspiring how the Evening Star team seized the opportunity to innovate in order to make something truly fresh. Kudos to them for their efforts, and also to you for documenting and presenting this!
I truly love the work that you do, John.
Recently finished a wonderful playthrough of this on my Deck oled, it's a great way to experience this game.
Holy cow 🐄🐮, the beef language was the most unexpected 🍖
It's unironically great
Excellent video and content. More of this please :)
Love this deep dive. What an excellent game and brilliant creative team behind it.
Absolutely incredible insightful video and interview, next level Digital Foundry stuff.
This is why teams should be kept together and not laid off after a project. I love Penny, and I love this video. How did a small team make this? By being smart and talented af programmers and artists committed to a plan because they trust each other. -Okayokay, besides all the other reasons they should not be laid off!
Bro, your videos are gold.
The game is still on humble bundle (GDQ bundle) for 4 days! The bundle also has Arzetta, Morrorwind, Dishonored, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, Hyperbolica and Blazing Chrome
gradient shader is super cool, it's a lot like the old lightwarp textures in the source engine which i always thought were rather underutilized. only drawback is it ended up looking a little fullbright in this game
This is such a cool feature. Great job John in putting this together and it's awesome that Evening Star let us get such a detailed look under the hood. Top notch!
I'm so glad they went back to it and added the 60fps mode on Switch. Feels infinitely better.
>playing on switch
>caring about performance
Pick one bud
@@methrogen1779 Jesus, you guys have to attack everything. It’s nice because it’s a tight plataformer. I didn’t care much when TTYD didn’t include 60fps, unlike the original release.
Don’t worry bud, it’s not like Switch owners can’t own 3K+ USD PC’s if they want real performance ;)
@@methrogen1779If devs care to attain it like in a lot of Nintendo first party, players can too. Like what, we don't get a say because of what exactly?
It is impressive for small team to build new game and engine at the same time
Creating a game engine from scratch is DEDICATION. 👀👨🔬
does it pay off though? its still very buggy
@@tiguilherman_plays Thank god it's not the case for Unity or UE5
"an engine" in the abstract isn't that hard; you technically only need a loop that reads inputs, updates the objects in the world, then draws everything the player can see.
Each one of those *can* be extremely trivial too, especially with a reasonable amount of objects like you see here and with the hardware we have today.
The real trouble is not trying to do too much; there's endless amount of work you *could* do, each seemingly perfectly reasonable. I'm impressed not that they made their own engine, but that they made a game instead of just endlessly spinning on the engine!
@@christmaslights9870 - guy who hasn't used either
@@christmaslights9870 Yes, that's why even AAA studios are flocking to UE5...
Great vid DF, thanks for all the work that went into this. Thank Gawd the old trope of "building your own engines == bad" in the industry is finally being laid to rest. Here are some of my takeaways I got from this vid:
Build/refine the engine in 2D with specific mechanics first: helps to understand the types of problems you might face when extending the engine to 3D.
Custom engine needs platform layers early: helps to focus on the game engine and logic, art, design, etc. Optimizations can be done later /platform.
Tooling to counter scale: The proc-gen system the team came up with is wild *chef's kiss*. Simplifying the problem can sometimes result in the most robust solution.
Development environ: Although they don't mention this in the video, I think for Evening Star and definitely for myself, developing with an IDE, good debugger, and a simple compile-and-execute structure for the code really lends itself towards being able to iterate and stay lean.
Controller inputs: Although I know a good deal of PC gamers and enthusiasts will not like this, I actually think-again, I'm assuming here-that the idea to more or less forgo keyboard and mouse and treat controller inputs as first-class citizens (no beef intended) makes for a better DX and requires less work (less mapping in the platform layer). I see it as a bit of a trade-off between enabling full kb + mouse button remapping, and having a single, precise control scheme that maps tightly to all platforms.
Love this content. As a sole, wannabe indie dev lurking on your channels - they've certainly left me more committed to my resolve! More of this wen !?
No one has ever said that. The strawman you're beating up doesn't exist.
if you think game devs the world over have been encouraged and incentivized to build their own engines - your made up competence doesn't exist
@@mechadeka you have no idea what a straw man is 🤡
@@mechadeka your intellect is non-existent :)
Picked this up after learning about it here. Thanks for the heads-up on this one, it's great! I wish more modern games were like this- just fun experiences that don't need to be open world 30+ hour filler to justify their purchase.
I'm glad you gave this team the time and let them talk about this. I love Penny's, so this is pretty sweet.
I have to admit, the 60fps patch for the Switch was amazing. To be fair, the whole game feels like something really designed specifically for 60fps and above. Plays great now.
I really enjoyed this video. I hope it goes on to be very popular so you can make more. The algorithm sucks in my case it didn't let me know anything about digital foundry until 3 years ago and since then I've devoured all the DF retro playlist and many other videos.
This was awesome! I'd love more deep dives, especially of unique games like Penny's :)
This is a cool technical dive! I love seeing a small team making tech specifically for their games!
This is really impressive! Really unfortunate that I did not enjoy this game at all. Hopefully they can greatly improve on the sequel because I loved Sonic Mania!
definitely one of the most underrated games released this year
This is so cool! I love the presentation (DF) and what a fascinating style the developers created.
try out this game’s free demo, folks! it’s a wonderful title
So glad this video came out! Can see why it took so long. So much to see and share 😊
Incredible video! Can't wait til I have the time to play this game---the backlog is deep, but this one is moving its way up quickly.
absolutly amazing work gang! Not just on the game but on this video!
These kinds of videos are awesome! Getting any kind of insight into how developers make their games is always fascinating
Great video. Loved my time with Penny's and eagerly awaiting Evening Star's next project!
I was really hyped for pennys big breakaway from the good coverage at DF. But actually playing the game. It really lacked lots of polish and the story was particularly barebones and rough even for a platformer and the bosses were super disappointing. And the level design was kind of tedious and the music really repetitive and limited and the side quests were just bad. The only saving grace was that the platforming was pretty unique and fun
Overall its like a 6/10. And other indie platformers like a hat in time and demon turf are just so much better
Honestly I am just annoyed that any game seems to need boss fights. I get that many oldschool platformers had them too but they usually have janky mechanics or rely on a gimmick.
Also heard about the bugs and since there has not been an update beyond the first few hotfixes on steam I would rather not gamble on it.
two words
skill issue
Grabbed it during the Steam sale for my Deck OLED. I plan on starting it this week on a 7hr plane ride. Really looking forward to it!
it has a bit of a learning curve, so be patient :)
I do like the dynamite heady aesthetic.
John makes amazing DF videos. It's interesting to hear about all the work that went into the engine and the design.
Though to be honest, I'm not a fan of the art style. I guess it's subjective. To me, the surreal color palettes look garish. It's actually hard to look at. Apart from the colors, something seems to be really wrong with the lighting. Everything looks flat and overly bright. Almost cell-shaded at times. There is apparently no proper global illumination, and ambient occlusion is missing in many places. So the game is lacking visual depth and is hard to "read".
I guess some of that is intentional (especially the colors), and some people do apparently appreciate it, which is nice.
I was surprised to see that Penny's Big Breakaway makes such extensive use of lightmaps, as the shiny gradients tend to overpower them.
The ambient occlusion, etc., is there, but it's almost impossible to see.
I have to wonder if tweaking the balance between those two layers would give the environments a richer, deeper look.
However, this does have a pretty cool style in general, and it doesn't quite look like anything else out there, which is great. I'll withhold judgement until I've properly played through it.
Thanks for making this video. I really appreciate it. Thanks to the devs of the game for pouring their passion and expertise into the project to make life more enjoyable.
The art style was a great choice for an indie game considering it doesn't require highpoly sculpting or baking, or even painting textures, while using shaders that are simple enough to run on basically any hardware capable of 3D. So assets were quick to make and easy to modify. The other interesting aspect is how they utilize custom normals almost everywhere, which only became reasonably useable in 3D modeling packages like Maya/Max/Blender around 10 years ago (a little after Star Citizen made them popular), before that they were so buggy and unreliable that no artists wanted to touch them.
Looking forward to seeing where they take this art style and their technology in the future :)
That was an awesome video :) . Love hearing about custom tech
Would love more like this! Super good
Awesome video! Thanks for making it happen, John!
Love the color scheme and aesthetic of this game. It’s pretty fun, looking forward to what they do next.
i don't know if it's all that similar at a technical level but the gradient shader reminds me of the way the original release of sa1 did its lighting
Love to see how bakery was used here and how it got integrated into a custom engine ❤
wild that they went for it with a new engine
I'm sold. I had no idea about this game until now. Looks great.
I got huge Rocket Robot on Wheels vibes with Penny's Big Breakaway. Very much a good thing :D
This video is DF at its finest
I love the entire vibe of this game, and the backstory. I got too frustrated while playing it, but maybe I'll come back to it soon
John, incredible video! Would love to see more like this
I fucking love the presentation of this. Banger job
These guys are so skilled, really great insights in this video and I wish them the best :)
This is a level of knowledge and dedication that I'll never reach
All you need is passion. Everything else will be done to satisfy that passion
This is excellent work John. Congratulations.
I bought this game day one on the PS5 and will probably end up with it on the Switch too! Sent this video to my HS son who is into art and animation to hopefully inspire him a bit.
This game is fun, challenging, and unique! I enjoyed this behind the scenes video!
Thanks!
Just hearing the music is making want to play this alone. I hope they do another sonic game with Sega. Sonic Mania is incredible 💜
That was really inspirational. I will do my best!
This game seems to carry so much Sonic DNA in both aesthetics and mechanics yet is also so different that it feels like the kinda game Sonic Team never got to make.
I literally just finished this last night. Funny.
I thought it was alright.
Yeah I thought it was okay at best. Very buggy too. I fell through dozens of platforms, walls, floors by the end and the controls seemed very inconsistent.
Really? I thought it was amazing.
Amazing enough for me to replay it 3 times.
@@pacomatic9833 I mean I still play it. It's just kind of only average to me. It's just not terrible and unique enough today to hold my attention. But I wouldn't put it in a top 20 3D platformers for myself. I'd say it's at least worth it's price.
@@runadumb Yeah, Penny gets lodged into geometry a LOT and sometimes certain actions don't behave how they're supposed to. It's mostly the rolling doesn't behave consistently.
Personally think the 2D comfortable team should have lead with a 2D project just to get comfortable with their own IP and then expand it into 3D later down the road, the game has a lot of little blemishes that seem to stem from that inexperience. Fun time but I look forward to what comes next far more.
The use of a completely custom engine and fairly new coding language likely helps explain a lot of the bugs and issues seen in PBB at launch in particular. Hopefully the tech can be refined in a sequel or whatever future project Evening Star tackles.
I’m interested in this game. I mostly play FPS games lately, but I loved Mario Odyssey and Astros playroom. Sometimes I like a less violent game.
Love hearing master crafts-persons speak on their process
This game took Sonic to the next logical step. Crazier bauhaus / new memphis style colours, combos and keeping slopes.
Interesting video, thank you! Looking forward to what comes next from this team.