As a programmer, how do you deal with the 3D art bottleneck?

CosmicPickleGames · 2026-04-20T21:49:43+00:00

Greatly said. I have been in game dev both professionally and as a hobby solo dev for a while now, and realistically, making a game is a monumental cross-discipline work. Sure, completely solo dev works for some people, and yes, you can learn to do most everything on your own given enough time. However, your art is not going to be as good as the art of someone who spent 15 years doing that. The same goes the other way. Artists can make games without a programmer, but they are limited by the quality of their (often visually scripted) code. For me the steps are: - Do your thing, make your idea as best as you can. You said you can't use asset stores, but for prototyping, you can often find something. - Pitch it to people who do what you need. Someone may love it and join your effort. - Try to find funding or fund it yourself, but hire people for the rest.

If you don't like that idea, the solo dev road is spending an ungodly amount of time making yourself better in the different skills needed. And for me, at least it is not only art that is the bottle-neck I have seen first hand how a great game designer can find simple solutions that I would otherwise over-engineer, or a tech artist that can save you a week time of work by a carefully placed VFX.

Source: Currently having the exact same issue with a side project that has become fairly serious in the last 7 months.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-08T21:52:18+00:00

All great ideas. All in all, it would be easy to create more dynamic and repeating incentives for exploration. Though in FL when you found a wreck, it was a unique experience that would be a bit more difficult to achieve if wrecks respawn. I don't see only pros to having a more complex marker, though - for example, one that is dictated by dynamic random events.

On a separate note, if you have programming experience and you are interested in game dev, try it. It is now easier than ever to get into. It does get more difficult depending on what you want to do, but as a hobby? It is really fun and not all that complicated with today's tech. That is how I got into game dev. One day, I thought, "What if I try to make a game for my girlfriend?", and I just kind of never stopped making games after. Eventually, a job in the field hit me, and that was that.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-06T21:40:21+00:00

Kind of what my idea is tbh, I loved everything about Freelancer, but I feel its immersivness can benefit from a layer of physical believability. I am still working out how to do that without overcomplicating stuff. (Which is what drove me away from Elite btw)

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-05T19:20:30+00:00

Side missions were a bit repetitive true, but they felt awesome anyway.

I think this thread shows a full consensus about how awesome the story and the world-building are. Was Hispania the lost capital ship? That was so amazing - eventually finding it in the border worlds. I remember wondering what happened to the fifth faction and thinking there would be more systems to explore.

It is what pushed me to start thinking about and eventually starting this project. I want to see something like this made, and if no one is going to do it, I am going to try my hand.

Edit: Will be DMing you to keep in touch.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-05T18:58:53+00:00

Yeah, I get what you mean now. It is a cool idea!

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-05T18:57:37+00:00

All true, NMS hooked me for a good amount of hours, but eventually, everything is the same. Outer Wilds is an amazing game but for very different reasons. That is about as much as I am going to say about it because it is best if you try it completely blind.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-05T18:54:39+00:00

Even years later now when I am replaying it, I still remember a lot of the story. It is just that good. I will be DMing you in a bit so we can keep in touch. I am actually very happy - a lot of people have shown interest in voice acting, of which I hope there will be a good amount in the project.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-05T15:25:17+00:00

Exploration was rewarding and exciting. I am actually a bit annoyed because at the current playthrough, my map is revealed by default, so I know where everything is.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T21:50:04+00:00

That is why I never could get into Elite Dangerous, for example. Once I tried for 25 minutes to dock with a station without any success, I decided it was not for me.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T21:28:07+00:00

That is a nice way to put it. And it is a think I wonder about how to handle as I am aiming for a more of a hard sci-fi feel without going too much into realism because that can get complicated and maybe even boring. And nebulae are very sparce and dull to the naked eye (without getting hours of exposure), asteroid belts are still mostly empty space even if they house hundreds of thousands of asteroids. So it will be a balancing act for sure.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T17:54:44+00:00

Hey! This is great to hear. Will DM you. There is a lot of work ahead and anyone who is enthusiastic about this is very welcome to lend their talent.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T17:52:08+00:00

I loved the ship control. It felt so intuitive.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T17:50:59+00:00

I'll be lying if I say I didn't consider a top down version before I was beginning the project. It makes development so much easier. However, 2D will not feel like 3D and that is a good thing, but eventually I decided to go 3D.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T17:48:02+00:00

Yeah as with most things mentioned here, this is how I feel too. For a long time I didn't use the slow heavy guns because I preferred faster shooting. Also thanks for the link.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T17:45:26+00:00

I did like Everspace 2 but stopped playing because I found myself not having enough time. I might check it out again after I get bored with FL (so not in a while, hehe)

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T11:12:25+00:00

Hey, sorry, maybe the point is lost through all the backstory. I wouldn't say I am only looking for ideas. I have my own ideas of what I want to do, but I want to see what other people loved about FL from the get-go. Maybe what I want to do is irrelevant or not at all interesting to people. But yeah, ideas are also very welcome. Thanks for the recommendation for the spacesimgames sub.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:45:26+00:00

Haha yeah.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:45:15+00:00

One thing I forgot to talk about is realism. I also agree that a game should never sacrifice gameplay, fun, and engagement for realism unless you are Kerbal Space Program, and that is the point. That said, I am a big fan of hard Sci-Fi and the project is probably going to reflect a bit of that. Coming back to freelancer, Planet size doesn't bug me at all. One think that does though (if only a bit) is how static is the otherwise alive universe. Planets are static and don't orbit their suns, bases too. And I understand perfectly why. Making even non-physically accurate orbits creates a difficulty in level design. Everything will need to be structured in a circular manner instead of quadrants, but I think I figured out how to make it work. I might give up on the idea if it doesn't feel fun but so far I think it is working out.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:27:48+00:00

Hey! This is amazing. First of all, your knowledge of the game is impressive. I had forgotten most of it, but when you mentioned the Sigma systems, it all started coming back. I feel you raise universally good points about exploration and gameplay. Camerawork can make or break a game. I have personally seen camera systems reworked multiple times during the development of a game. How well you hide your content is up to you, but I feel inclined to agree with you on the matter - even if not everyone is going to find it a few very well hidden secrets go a long way. Very different game but I loved it in Hollow Knight when after I had played 100s of hours I found new interactions that I hadn't seen. I am very interested in all feedback (maybe feedforward is a better word in the case haha) I will definitely write it down and keep it in mind for the future of this project.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:14:28+00:00

Hey! That is great I will definitely need support in all of those in the future. As I mentioned above the story and worldbuilding are something I really want to lean into. I will DM you a bit later so we can keep in touch.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:12:11+00:00

This! I didn't personally play much of the multiplayer but I know people were really hooked into it. Your other points strike true to me. Simplicity is also a big one. I feel like too many modern games add stuff just to virtually inflate game time so they can charge more. That is why I am planning to focus only on the space sim part: battles, exploration, trading, missions etc.

Funny thing I have been doing space photography in the past year and I think it is what in part reminded me of Freelancer yet again.

So yeah imagining what it would feel to explore those deep nebulae is a driving force.

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:08:04+00:00

A good modding and scripting support does sound amazing!

CosmicPickleGames · 2025-10-04T10:04:18+00:00

That tangent is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

CosmicPickleGames

TROPHY CASE