Small Indie Devs Can Make Big Games: The Case of Wheel World
Building a Large World with Limited Resources
Small indie dev teams needn’t be limited in the scope of their projects. There are plenty of resources and tools to help realize large worlds, as in the case of Wheel World, a serene cycling adventure game set in a stunning cel-shaded semi-open world.
Procedural Generation and Houdini
Wheel World is a significant step up from developer Messhof’s previous pixel art side-scrolling fighting game series Nidhogg, instead taking inspiration from open-world games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and sports games like Motocross Madness and Lonely Mountains: Downhill.
But how can a small team with just about ten people, including only two artists, manage to build the large biomes required for the player to cycle around? By having a vital third member on the art team – Houdini, a procedural generation art tool for 3D animation. Houdini is used not only by AAA studios but also by indies.
Creating Barriers with Procedural Generation
Even for a reasonably sized art team, building a city is quite daunting, notes co-art director Dan Hunter. "For a small team like ours, it meant that I could create a tool that, for example, creates barriers like a wooden fence, and then I can give that to Mark [Essen, creative director] or other designers and they can specify the length and color. Rather than me going, ‘You need a fence that’s 10 meters long,’ you can just say, ‘Here’s a fence, build it three miles if you want,’ and then you build on that.’"
Adding Variation with Randomization
There are still props that are built by hand, such as air-conditioning units and satellite dishes, but these are also objects that would be realistically identical, which Houdini can then add into the mix with instructions, such as ensuring it’s always placed at least five meters off the ground or only on a rooftop.
Maintaining Artistic Personality
Using procedural generation doesn’t mean Wheel World is lacking in any artistic personality. Indeed, it’s very committed to its cel-shaded comic book aesthetic not just in character models but in environments, such as the first main Italy-inspired biome Tramonto.
Vertex Painting and Detail Rendering
To achieve the flat shade effect, Hunter tells me that the game doesn’t actually have any textures, instead everything is vertex painted, although the aesthetic also hides the detail of the models that have a deliberately wobbly appearance. "We don’t have parallel lines, we don’t have straight lines, so a building will kind of be wobbled. There is kind of a decent amount of polygons in those things, but that’s just to create a kind of roundness and wobbliness to everything."
Conclusion
Wheel World is launching summer 2025 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. A demo is currently available via Steam Next Fest. Visit the Messhof website for more details.
FAQs
Q: What is Houdini?
A: Houdini is a procedural generation art tool for 3D animation.
Q: How does Houdini help in building large worlds?
A: Houdini allows for the creation of complex 3D environments and objects using procedural generation, which can be used to build large worlds.
Q: What is the art style of Wheel World?
A: Wheel World has a cel-shaded comic book aesthetic, with a focus on vibrant colors and a whimsical feel.
Q: What platforms will Wheel World be available on?
A: Wheel World will be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
