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Crafting A Tiny Open World: A Short Hike Postmortem

Name: Crafting A Tiny Open World: A Short Hike Postmortem
Description: Adam Robinson-Yu's GDC 2020 talk on how he shelved a big project to prototype what became A Short Hike. He covers the solo development process and technical choices like a pixel shader over low-poly models.

GDC Festival of Gaming Talks intermediate

Open on YouTube First HN thread

1 HN user recommended this talk in 1 different month between 2020 and 2022.

2007–2026

1 recommendation 3 citations HackerTube score 1

HN people cite it for solo-dev inspiration and for the rendering technique behind the game's look.

Adam Robinson-Yu's GDC 2020 talk on how he shelved a big project to prototype what became A Short Hike. He covers the solo development process and technical choices like a pixel shader over low-poly models.

Pull quote: “You might want to watch this for inspiration” (HN, 2020)

Also tagged: indie game postmortem, a short hike, gdc, solo development, pixel shader, game design

What Hacker News said

4 labeled comments from the HN archive; up to 20 are kept per video, favoring different commenters. Each one links back to the original thread.

Recommends butz December 2020 under Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

Postmortem on single-developer struggles and success.

You might want to watch this for inspiration: Short Hike Post-mortem ( [this video] ) about single developer struggles. Of course, this is one of successful stories, so your mileage might (and will) vary. Give yourself tight deadlines and see if you can stick to them. Do not be afraid to bail out early, if you see that game development is not working out. I'd suggest keeping your daily job until you at least have minimal working prototype of your game and get positive feedback. As for games on mobile platforms, be prepared if you will create something new and unique - it will have dozen of clones on day three after launch.

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Citations, criticism and jokes

Cites it yorak July 2021 under SpriteStack Voxel Editor

GDC talk discusses the shader used in A Short Hike.

Nice. The resulting graphics style reminds me of a Short Hike, which is a family friendly bite sized 3D adventure and exploration game. I'm not affiliated in any way, just enjoyed the game with my kid. It has a nice balance of story, challenges, and some platformer action. [link] Edit: IIRC the shader a Short Hike used was discussed in the GDC talk by the game's author: [this video]

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Cites it annnoo June 2022 under Ask HN: Non-violent video games with great stories?

Developer explains how A Short Hike was made.

Maybe not the greatest story but definitely one of the loveliest games I've played was A Short Hike. It is a kinda short (~5-6h) feel good game in which you more or less just have to explore a holiday island and meet different other Animals The developer held a talk on the GDC how he made the game: [this video]

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Cites it NortySpock December 2022 under Isometric Pixel Art

Developer used low-poly models hidden behind a pixel shader.

Not the same method, but as I recall the developer of the game A Short Hike did a similar procedure - mostly to allow him to quickly draft 3D models and hide the low-poly models, artifacts, and "glitches" behind the pixel shader. [this video] GDC presentation by the developer of A Short Hike My review: a fun, calming, and enjoyable 2 hour game with a heartwarming ending.

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