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This week, Planewalker Games takes readers through an overview of the area creation process used in its upcoming RPG, The Broken Hourglass. The article includes illustrations of the steps needed to take an image and turn it into a useable game environment.

2D environment maps are usually shrouded in mysterious data files, but we demonstrate how areas can be created simply by using a few tricks to create silhouette and surface renders of the same map players will see in-game. This should open up area creation to a wide range of modders who are more interested in staging and rendering intriguing environments than they are in manually describing polygons or editing coordinate files.

The Broken Hourglass: Inside The Engine, Area Creation

The Broken Hourglass (add to watch list)

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