Imagine the world frozen in a great crystalline winter. Every animal stilled midmovement, every leaf perfectly preserved, even the wind has been captured by this eerie stillness.

This is the world presented to a visual effects (VFX or simply, FX) artist with the vague mandate “fix it”. But where do you start?

FX should usually be one of two things:

obviously out of place

subtly blended with the world

Obvious FX are things like fire, spells, scifi beams, explosions; effects that are big, flashy, and “cool”. They are extremely fun to make and very easy to get feedback on because they either work or they don’t. End of story.

Subtle FX are ones that fit within the environment around the player & are most noticeable by their absence. For me, environmental FX are the most satisfying- even if they usually go unremarked. There’s a moment when the scene clicks and suddenly you know it’s time to move on to the next biome.

Since TUG is procedurally generated, the FX I make have to work anywhere. In past games, I might be able to set up an FX for specific angles, or distances. A far off waterfall could be done cheaply PC performance-wise in a game that limits the player’s movable area. In TUG that same effect needs to look as good up close as it does from far away while, but also be able to allow for a randomly generated number of them to appear in the same scene. Usually this works. Sometimes you get synchronized leaf drifting.

Oops.

For the most part, FX in TUG are tied to objects - they come from a fixed source. Glowing spore softly drift from little mushrooms, will’o’wisps dance around the the deadly trap lures, leaves drop from their respective trees. But what about the more extreme biomes that can’t support lush plantlife?

We rely upon the wind. By creating small dummy objects with a transparent texture to attach the FX to, we can populate a biome with a cohesive effect that appears to come from everywhere and nowhere as once - just like a gusting wind blowing sand across the desert, snow eddies striking up suddenly in the mountains, or hazy fog drifting in the swamplands.

Nerd Kingdom is building our own engine and this brings with it some unique challenges. Every effect made so far is temporary. As our tech improves or is changed then so are the FX. I’ve already lost count of the number of times I’ve redone the wisp or fires as updates have come down the pipeline. Our engine is still very young compared to other games out there, which means there’s a lot of room for us to grow- especially in the FX department.

It’s exciting to think about what we can add next to improve how our game looks and feels. As more content gets added and new player mechanics come online, the variety & need for more effects ramps up too- turning TUG into an increasingly vibrant and living world for you to explore.

Jessica Nida (aka geekthumb) is the Senior Artist & FX Lead for Nerd Kingdom. She likes art, games, and making things explode in a ridiculous manner. When she’s not practicing aeromancy in TUG, she’s designing boardgames in her spare time or cooking enough food to feed a small army. She’s recently started kayaking in the hope of spotting the Lake Dallas Leviathan, which she did not totally just make up.