This is one of our favorite subjects: the clever, cost-effective shortcuts in game development, used both then and now. Joe Wintergreen, who worked on WolfEye Studios’ debut game, Weird West, recently shared some behind-the-scenes insights that are sure to delight you.
He began with the original Halo replacing the Warthog’s tire texture with a blurry one when the wheels spin fast. The developer then showcased a ceiling fan shadow in the VR shooter Robo Recall, which isn’t a shadow at all but a rotating translucent mesh.
Half-Life: Blue Shift used a classic fake reflection trick by simply placing the same room under a glass surface. As Wintergreen pointed out, many old games did this, but Unreal Engine 1 games didn’t, and Deus Ex had real reflections:
