Connor Cadellin

He/him. Technical artist in video game industry- Gears of War E-Day, Little Nightmares III. Specialising in materials and shaders; forever DM. Musings on games, tech, and D&D. No AI. ❤️💜💙

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Last Notes

2026-10-29 12:10:45 UTC

Watched Conan the Barbarian recently- the 1982 one with Schwarzeneggar. The amount of unintended, unexplored homosexual subtext is *incredible*.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/524/116/553/288/610/original/a9c3d00015bcdf8c.png

2026-08-22 12:09:06 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h we live in interesting times.

2026-08-22 11:04:17 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h in the UK and we had the opposite- hottest summer on record. Six back to back heat waves, historic drought and records shattered.
(chart here only has the first five heatwaves)
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/117/138/825/933/199/425/original/509adf9dd1a5c700.png

2026-08-17 12:02:20 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h Donkey Kong Country really is THE example for this; some magazines speculated it was actually a next gen launch title when unveiled because it blew so many minds. Same technique for DKC2 and 3.
A bit out there but most environmental assets in Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 + 2 also used this.

2026-07-26 05:11:45 UTC

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@nprofile…d0yj Wow, thanks for the reference.
Yeah I only encountered the film recently; was on a list of movies recommended by an artist I knew. Every single film on the list was an absolute banger; now I make a point of getting recommenfations from the people I work with lol.

2026-07-26 05:04:01 UTC

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@nprofile…d0yj I quite enjoyed Deep Cover, which really gets across that the cops are as bad as the drug ring they are hunting when the chips are down. Does a good job of flipping the script, without spoiling.

2026-07-19 09:37:11 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h I love that aesthetic so much. Trying to think what other games did it at the time- Sonic Adventure, SM Sunshine and Kingdom Hearts come to mind.

2026-07-16 21:05:31 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h by far the most ridiculous Ive seen of these has been the timeline for the Transformers movies.
Did you know Optimus Prime served at the Battle of Waterloo? Or that a transformer killed Hitler?
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Movie_timeline

2026-07-14 10:40:53 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h man I love Spyro, its so refreshingly colourful. There's some masterful use of vertex colouring to paint skies. There's an awesome Gamasutra article from 2000 which covers the process; I found a PDF copy with working images still: https://sn005.k12.sd.us/Classes/Game-IT/Unit%201/09%20-%20Lessons%20in%20Color%20Theory%20for%20Spyro%20the%20Dragon.pdf

2026-07-12 21:12:51 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h Griffin McElroy had a submarine combat system for The Adventure Zone Ethersea, which might be reskinned. Intended for a craft piloted mostly by an adventuring party, so may be smaller scale than you intended.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tQxqMrkkyNTIdquseqL8XukwgrknCsWTknXj459Nv2Q/edit?pli=1&gid=0#gid=0

2026-07-11 22:04:13 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h that actually stems from the "fair use" guidelines on Wikipedia which are very rigid. Low res is deliberately employed for copyrighted content to limit allegations of copyright violations. Probably a bit too strict with the game screens.

2026-07-09 11:32:30 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h this is asking for a gritty mockumentary.

2026-07-09 08:57:21 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h my go to is usually to block javascript on the page. Often kills the pop up and lets you browse in peace.

2026-07-06 09:34:13 UTC

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@nprofile…h0v6 Doom, hands down.

2026-07-05 13:26:23 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h its useful- be aware it will likely mess with topology. Fine for static meshes but can be harmful for anything that animates, as they need clean edgeloops.

2026-07-04 22:00:10 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h very cool!

2026-06-20 17:21:38 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h
This was the tutorial series I learned from, learning how to make patterns is a good way to get some of the fundamentals.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKs2LEfLYSBMIZ6jitAnN61SN2LaA4wU7
Theres an official Discord which is a great place to ask questions too, the community is very supportive. Currently on a road trip but I'll help where I can too later.

2026-06-20 09:25:58 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h yeah avoiding obvious tells is critical. A grass texture with one yellow flower in it is going to create a really obvious grid of yellow flowers.
Its a bit more complicated but theres a tutorial I made here on tile selection in case that helps. UE5 though. Good for things like tiles or brick but is quite tricky.
https://youtu.be/jGwYJ3PR-N8?si=Z6qetrTebUSTOK9m

2026-06-20 09:15:41 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h nice. Yeah its like an open source version of Substance Designer, and my preference of the two these days.
The tiling problem is a tale as old as time of course. There are some tricks you can do in shader, such as layering textures in a composite fashion, to disguise it. For example, having several dirt textures layered on a wall in shader, which tile at different scales and angles to the underlying brick.

2026-06-20 08:36:48 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h material maker would be my suggestion if you do want to get into that.
If you want realistic texture sets without rolling your own, Cgbookcase has an excellent collection of copyright free (CC0) textures. https://www.cgbookcase.com/

2026-06-11 07:06:29 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h technical artist who specialises in mats & shaders here- i see others have already talked about DXT1 so I won't repeat them. You're probably fine.
Texture channel packing is your other useful trick if you've not touched it yet.
The current Unreal trick is virtual texturing, which cuts up all textures into 128 x 128 chunks and streams them in only at desired scale- so at a sharp angle say only the close bit is actually loaded at full res. I dont think thats in Godot yet however.

2026-05-25 21:30:48 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h best I could come up with was the NEC Turbo Express, which sold about 1.5 million units from 1990 onwards.

2026-05-17 16:15:40 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h ive not had to do it at work in some years but I always found UV unwrapping somewhat meditative. A lot of people hate it but to me it's just relaxing. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

2026-05-12 09:09:35 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h The Roottrees are Dead had a short one in the intro. (The 2025 version anyway, not sure if the 2023 version had it) I'd argue that's retro themed given you are mostly interacting with a 90s PC in that game, with a classic Windows style interface- though that genre didnt exist at the time.

2026-05-07 13:01:31 UTC

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@nprofile…59td @nprofile…ugpy I really wish we would make fliers with dodgy bar charts and tactical voting recommendations illegal. The bar charts in particular.

2026-05-01 19:56:55 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h have you ever encountered unskippable playing of the game's trailer after credits? Sometimes in there purely so the trailer production is covered by a tax break.

2026-04-09 09:00:09 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h Gaming On Linux often covers indie material by virtue of its niche as a Linux focused outlet. Thats often where I get indie info. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/

2026-03-29 07:40:12 UTC

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@nprofile…6zrg it used to match, but in the mid 2000s the US candy industry lobbied a date move so that it would be lighter for Halloween evenings. Canada moved to match but now there is this three week continental drift twice a year. So damn annoying.

2026-03-29 07:38:24 UTC

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@nprofile…6zrg I was against daylight saving anyway, but nothing has made me more angry about it than working on a large, cross atlantic game dev project.
Because NA move the clocks three weeks earlier, any meeting series booked by an American moves- but European-booked meetings dont move till the end of March. Daylight saving went from a one day nuisance to a three week event of meeting clashes and frantic reorganisation.

2026-03-19 12:33:42 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h probably! On a more terrestrial level i bet cats and other animals find our screens weird

2026-03-19 12:24:23 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h there's also the problem that basing the wheel on RGB isnt necessarily matching human perception to begin with. Painters would make RBY based wheels historically, its all based on convention more than physics.

2026-02-13 13:12:51 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1015/

2026-02-09 08:09:12 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h oh you're right- 7 is also being made there apparently.

2026-02-09 08:05:13 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h Tropico is German. Theres also an EA office in Koln; I think that's one of the sports studios.

2026-02-01 12:46:22 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h I think i'd still call that kind of mod total conversion- it IS totally converted after all. In a commercial sense I'd just call it a new game, in the same way Ocarina of Time is built on top of SM64. Theres a common code base there but its just a new game at that point.

2026-01-17 08:23:35 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h Could be. Also one largely forgotten today as its not been a franchise maintained and enjoyed to the degree of something like Civilization? Team 17 had some pretty rough times of late.

2026-01-16 22:38:13 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h these are some great ones. It didn't make my list of five but I have fond memories of Worms also.

2026-01-16 22:06:08 UTC

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@nprofile…5y0h
Civilization II
The Settlers II
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Spyro the Dragon

2025-12-30 22:22:24 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 Might and Magic does have some truly bizarre lore including aliens and time travel, but it isnt immediately apparent and does feel very generic on first impression. Only played Heroes though, cant speak for the original series.

2025-12-17 08:05:55 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 Ooh I got a couple. Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. It became "Final Fantasy Adventure" in North America, and "Mystic Quest" when it came out in Europe two years later.
Also minor one, Tomba- known as Tombi in Europe.

2025-12-16 22:46:31 UTC

It is a universal rule that playing postgame #BluePrince with your family in the evening will result in someone getting the golden run that takes an hour and a half and cannot be interrupted, just as you are all contemplating bed time.

2025-12-09 20:09:52 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 this has me thinking of the early weakness of firearms against cavalry as a cavalry charge could ride in during your ~20 second reload window- hence the development of mixed pike and shot blocks.

2025-11-29 15:40:25 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 the moon of Toril is inhabited in the Forgotten Realms setting, though I've not played any adventures that make use of it.

2025-11-22 19:13:58 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 gonna have to jot a few of these down on the list...

2025-11-14 21:09:36 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 I'd play it! Sounds like it would have an almost environmental aspect, with a setting that is a landscape ravaged by (magic) weapons.

2025-11-03 21:58:11 UTC

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@nprofile…f4xf Level Select by Pizza Hotline. https://pizzahotline.bandcamp.com/album/level-select

2025-10-29 08:13:09 UTC

The fifth and last of the family computers is now on Linux. A little late for #endof10 but we made it- only Windows machines left in the house are work ones we can't mess with. No regrets so far.

2025-10-28 17:12:06 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 that's a good hook. A loose salvager community, a rumour mill about a good haul x got in Y location. Unscrupulous salvagers who lure in, kill and loot others etc.

2025-10-28 10:08:30 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 yeah. Its something I do while DMing- ideally with some sort of linking narrative between your story layers. How did the site end up in control of second layer people?

2025-10-28 09:01:17 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 you could have several layers- what it was originally built and used for versus what later occupants did with it.

2025-10-27 21:53:04 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 i ran a D&D dungeon ages ago where the players were simultaneously doing the dungeoneering parts like clearing traps and monsters, while sorting out the place for resale as apartments.

2025-10-25 15:39:10 UTC

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@nprofile…998y BREAKING: Apple unveils the thinnest and lightest scroll bars in the industry.

2025-10-25 14:54:39 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 the good old refuge of the yen is also high- though thats been the case since the invasion of Ukraine started.

2025-10-18 13:58:31 UTC

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@nprofile…3jr3 nice.

2025-10-14 11:55:05 UTC

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@nprofile…rtt8 Freedom House was every Jan.

2025-10-12 14:23:21 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 true, PSX did have the perspective problem though.

2025-10-12 13:54:59 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 yeah. And I'd agree with you that most do focus on the PSX style rather than N64- probably coming from the fact that PSX was just way more popular at the time.

2025-10-12 13:06:11 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 not played, but Kero Quest sounds like that. https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/01/kero-quest-64-is-a-new-n64-style-platformer-from-veteran-mario-and-zelda-modders

2025-10-09 16:58:30 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 I have a spreadsheet of all the games I want to play, of any style. Started it in Covid, keeps track of what I finish too. And yeah weird indie guys like that are all through it.

2025-10-09 16:54:55 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 yeah I mostly grasped for '99 because it rolls off the tongue. Haven't actually played Selaco yet, its on the list.

2025-10-09 12:32:16 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 "vibes of '99"?

2025-10-09 09:45:30 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 I see. Yeah, challenging. 1999-style? '99-core? There's probably a catchier way to say that, but it may be too broad.

2025-10-09 09:02:54 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 ah how did I miss that line?

2025-10-09 08:59:00 UTC

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@nprofile…gwm4 closest i can think of is people calling it PSX style- but thats usually accompanied by jitter and sometimes the perspective issues from the platform.

2025-10-01 07:41:50 UTC

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@nprofile…39ss We set up Mint for our gaming machines a couple of weeks ago. Did not regret! Only finnicking we had to do was preventing screen tearing by enabling full composition pipelines on the primary monitors, it struggled with multi monitor setups else.

2025-01-12 10:09:23 UTC

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@nprofile…949v reminds me of this:
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodongamedevplace/media_attachments/files/113/814/834/432/676/722/original/6582875631cc7d96.png