Jacek Wesołowski

@jzwesolowski

Game designer, mostly. Knows how to make a custom editor in Unreal, write jokes in a foreign language, track police movements across a large city, and publicly scold an abusive party leader.

236 Siguiendo226 Seguidores3243 Publicaciones

Bluesky

gamer

¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y jzwesolowski.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 2d

Definitely a very Undertale-like personality quiz (that is: charming and a bit unsettling at the same time). Though kindness has always been more of a thing I aspire to than something I actually have.

Results of an Undertale-themed personality quiz. It says:
KINDNESS
green sould
"No matter how many times I got hurt, I never let that make me cruel."
Kindness 79%
Justice 70%
Perseverance 57%
Integrity 42%
Patience 36%
Bravery 35%
Determination 20%

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 2d

This atlas was generated automatically by a naive algorithm that leverages a heuristic about the texture set that's being processed. Efficient development means I'm not going to complicate the algorithm for the sake of optimisation, unless I actually need a more efficient solution.

Screenshot of a custom editor in Unreal, implementing a simple importer for a set of a few dozen textures, all of which are being packed into a single atlas. Developers who know what to look for may notice there's also a placeholder structure for the accompanying UV data, but it's not filled out yet.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 6d

You may not like it, but this is what peak affordable housing looks like. (ok, the standard of execution could be better, the 1980s were rough in that regard)

Paved path surrounded by lawns covered in young meadow-like vegetation and a variety of bushes and trees. Along the path there are concrete pots with flowering bushes in them. A few meters away from the path, on boths sides, there are low and mid rise blocks of flats built around the year 1980. Unlike most block of the era, these aren't just cubes with windows. They're arranged in a sort of cascading shape where individual elements repeat but no two parts of a building look exactly the same. There are no people on the path because it's Saturday morning and I could pick a frame without abyone in it but there are actually a few passers by per minute right now. Importantly, there are no fucking fences everywhere.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 8d

I have a spare room now, but if you want to move in you're going to have to negotiate with the current tenant. She really likes this spot for some reason.

A small cat peeking out from a slighly ajar drawer. The drawer is made of fabric and can double as a cube-shaped box, but in this case it's part of a larger modular piece of furniture from Ikea.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 11d

That feeling when any layperson from outside the project would tell you to gtfo because this doesn't even look like a game, let alone play like one, but you're just so happy to have crossed a milestone (i.e. levels in my dungeon crawler can now be multi-storey). Decent wall materials are next. ^_^

A first-person view of a multi-storey level in a traditional dungeon crawler game that doesn't have actual 3D, but instead fakes it with carefully placed sprites. The view is fairly abstract, and because there's no lighting and the test texture if just flat colour without detail or shading, parts of geometry that are not close to each other appear to blend into a single, hard to read shape. It's absolutely unplayable at this stage.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 15d

It crashed in a rural area. Nearest large city (Lublin) is 40km to the north. They probably figured it was unlikely to cause harm or serious damage. Trying to shoot it down is dangerous on its own (debris, missed shots etc.).

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 19d

I'm now officially without roommates. My cats seem more than happy to claim the room for themselves, though, so I'm not sure if I should consider subletting again at this point. (previous tenant didn't like them and wouldn't let them in)

Two cats lying on an unmade bed in an empty bedroom that has been recently vacated.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· 26d

For reference, what it looks like in Europe. This isn't even a particularly good example, because some planned development never happened (hence that big gray parking area behind the stadium).

A google maps mockup that's pretty close to what an aerial view of the main football stadium in Warsaw would look like. The stadium is surrounded by a mix of parks and relatively dense residential areas, with only some parts devoted to parking lots. There's also a rail like and a train station right next to the stadium, and the nearby roundabout has numerous tram and bus stops. Beneath the train station is a metro station, but the picture doesn't show that.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jul 11

I live in a very typical blokovisko, i.e. mainly residential, low-to-mid income, relatively low standard of construction. But it's green, quiet, well maintained, and walkable, and that's all I need.

A narrow paved path surrounded by dense and lush temperate climate vegetation. The path forks at right angles a few meters away. Behind it is a seemingly impenetrable wall of bushes and trees. Behind that there's a five storey block of flats with a flat roof, the kind that makes you think of low income neigbourhoods. Also, it's raining.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jul 8

"I'm an engineer and not a fucking magician". My friend heard my gamedev anecdotes and felt this was the right mug to give me tea in. I tend to agree.

A mug with a sign in Polish that says "I'm an engineer and not a fucking magician".

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jul 4

As a consolation prize, I get to work with people who actually know what they're doing. This here is another concept art from @tinykato.bsky.social, and it's the same project as the bookworm lady bsky mistook for "adult content".

Three young women wearing insignia of a made-up organization that seems to be some kind of post-apocalyptic post office. One of them is wearing cargo shorts, a shirt, an apron with the organization's insignia, and a huge backpack. The second one is on a wooden bicycle witout tyres, has a vest with the same insignia, a smaller backpack, and a small crossbow. The third one resembles a fantasy setting rogue, if fantasy rogues wore combat boots. She's holding a single small parcel in one of her hands, in addition to being lightly armoured and armed. The two civilian-looking women are grinning, but the third one's expression is toned down. They all give off a kind of bright new future vibe, as if they were on a mission to make the world better, which is probably mostly true.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jul 3

A few weeks ago I bought this tiny puzzle-strategy game called "Dawnfolk". It's pretty good! Today they made this announcement that made me want to tell you about them.

A screenshot of an announcement on Steam that says:
Posted on Friday, 3 July
You actually own your copy of Dawnfolk.
Dawnfolk is DRM-free, even on Steam.

Hey everyone,
I think this is a good time to remind you that Dawnfolk is yours forever, even if you bought it on Steam.
I believe our games should remain ours and playable forever, even in digital form.
Dawnfolk is DRM-free. You can copy the entire game folder anywhere you'd like and it'll still run. Steam isn't required to launch the game.
To do so, simply right click on the game in your steam library, go into properties, then Installed Files, and finally click on the Browse button. This will open the game's installation folder "lueur", which contains the game files as well as executables for Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can simply copy this folder wherever you'd like to keep a backup.
Dawnfolk didn't sell well enough to justify a physical edition, but I still hope it'll get one someday so those of you who collect physical games can add it to your shelves. Until then, make sure it's safe in your digital collection.
Happy preserving <3

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jul 1

Quick search yielded this hopefully useful chart. Apparently, Belgian shirts are "turquoise".

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 30

@tinykato.bsky.social is very good at capturing this kind of nuance. In this case that's where one of the main characters lives, and she can be summed up precisely as "cozy but ready for adventure":

A woman in her twenties, wearing cargo pants, a crop top, and a light yellow vest made of thin patterned fabric. Her ear-length, curly hair is kept in place with a headband. She's also wearing improvised lower leg armor (this is the only armored part of her body), and a large stuffed backback. She's pointing a crossbow at the camera, and her face has an angry expression. She's very short and has very muscular arms.

The same woman sitting comfortably in an armchair. She's wearing reading glasses and is reading a book. She's wearing a short nightgown and comfy slippers. She still has the headband on.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 30

Three more days and I'll finally have the time for this project again. (art by @tinykato.bsky.social )

A cozy, somewhat cramped indoor space divided into a living area with a bet, an armchair and a table, and a low tech kitchen area with an old style stove, and a barrel in place of a kitchen sink. Under the ceiling there are glass jars filled with some kind of fluorestent fungus or alga. There's a large window in front and an open door do the side, showing a hot sunny day outside. The inside is cool and shaded.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 27

The Blueprint for the final mission in Star Trek: Voyager. Dialogues are represented with single nodes here, as their flow is managed by separate scripts. Our technical designers Luna Krüger and Toni Winkler are my heroes for dealing with a system that was designed to handle much simpler scenarios.

Screenshot of an Unreal Blueprint representing mission flow in a single mission in a narrative-driven video game. The screenshot is zoomed out beyond legibility, but it still shows there are a few hundred individual nodes in there, organized into a branching structure and a few dozen subroutines.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 27

- Mom, can we have AC? - We have AC at home. AC at home:

On a bed, there is a pot of water. Behind the pot there is a large tabletop fan blowing toward the camera and slightly down. The surface of the water in the pot is disrupted, indicating that the air is moving it. Behind the fan there's a window. The blinds are almost completely down, preventing the sun from shining into the room. A row of potted plants are standing on the sill, still exposed to the sunlight.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 26

Did someone say "get more people to reply to me with cats"?

Three sleeping cats cuddling tightly in one chair.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 17

Every day this picture feels more and more relatable to me.

A still frame from a piece of reporting early in the Russian invasion Ukraine. A masked Ukrainian soldier hiding in uneven terrain is discussing their tactics against the Russian invaders, and the subtitle says "we are very lucky that they are so fucking stupid". This was at the point when Russia had already invaded from three directions but it was already clear they were not going to "take Kyiv in three days" as originally promised. Kind of what the US is going through with Iran now, for similar reasons.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Jun 3

"Tiny Glade" has a very satisfying balance between accessibility and ease of expression. I've been building this village piecemeal, 15 minutes at a time, and it's brought me so much joy. Part of me wants to set a whole game or story in it now.

A screenshot from a computer game "Tiny Glade". It shows a fantasy-themed village in a large clearing in the forest. Each house looks like a slightly flattened dome with a lot of small windows. Houses are clustered together in such a way that their domes overlap, forming tiered complexes. In the middle there's a particularly large building, much larger than others, with two rows of windows instead of one. To the left of it is what looks like a blooming park. There's also a small district where houses have huge chimneys. All houses are seemingly drowning in greenery. The trees around the clearing seem extremely large compared to the houses, easily 50 metres tall or more.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 30

So the area looks like this: 1 - metro station 2 - local train station 3 - buses and trams 4 - some more buses and trams 5 - parking

A satellite picture of the national stadium in Warsaw and the surrounding area. Marked on the picture are nearby transport facilities: a metro station, a train station, two bus and tram hubs, and a parking lot. The lot is about half the size of the stadium. There's a large park across the street from the stadium. On the other side of the stadium is a river, which is about 300 metres wide at this point, and has a wide, semi-wild strip of green next to it. the rest of the area is occupied by low- and mid-rise, mostly residential buildings. This place is just outside the city's downtown, well within its administrative boundaries.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 24

My cats look absolutely adorable when they're not trying to kill each other.

Three cats sleeping toghether in one chair. The chair is a bit too small for that, so they're cuddled together tightly.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 22

Here you go! I am sometimes not sure if they love each other or actually try to kill each other and claim insurance, but it still feels wholesome to me. (I may or may not have a soft spot for mildly rough displays of intimacy)

A cat lying on to of another cat, particularly on his head. It looks like she's trying to suffocate him, but just for the record he's safe, because cat fur is generally fluffy and leaves a lot of space for the airflow.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 19

My friends are now sharing this interesting piece of context. I've put a translation in the alt text. (Janoszka is my former party colleague; I trust him that he's done his research)

EN (Polish transcipt below):
You're all amused with what Tokarczuk has said about the AI. I was amused, too, but no longer, because I've dug into it. Here's, my dears, what I found underneath:

The company Sundog, which Ms. Olga cofounded and used to chair its supervisory board, is part of the InteGra project and makes role-playing games that use AI solutions. Tokarczuk is overseeing this project's creative direction.

Sundog is funding this project with a PLN 17 million [USD 4.6 million] grant from the Polish Agency for Business Development. They've got something to defend and promote here.

Am I surprised? Nothing can surprise me about Ms. Olga ever since this Emanation of Sensitivity and Mindfulness cooperated with Poland's most ruthless debt collection company that got penalized by the Consumer and Competition Protection Office for their illegal practices.

PL:
Śmiejecie się z wypowiedzi Tokarczuk o AI. Też się śmiałem, ale przestałem, albowiem poskrobałem. Co się, Drodzy i Drogie, ukazało pod spodem:

Firma Sundog, której pani Olga jest współzałożycielką oraz pełniła funkcję przewodniczącej rady nadzorczej, w ramach projektu InteGra, tworzy gry RPG z zastosowaniem rozwiązań opartych na sztucznej inteligencji. Tokaruk nadzoruje projekt od strony kreatywnej.

Sundog na ten projekt otrzymał z Polskiej Agencji Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości 17 milionów złotych dotacji. Jest czego bronić i co promować.

Czy jestem zaskoczony? Od czasu współpracy tej Emanacji Wrażliwości i Uważności z najbardziej bezwzględną polską firmą windykacyjną, ukaraną przez UOKiK za stosowanie praktyk niezgodnych z prawem, nic mnie u pani Olgi nie jest w stanie zaskoczyć.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 17

"Tiny Glade" and "Townscaper" are the closest I ever got to playing a video game about level design. The key part is that even though these are freeform toys without goals, they still have various limitations that you need to work around. (in this case, I'm cheating the scale of things)

A screenshot from a game/interactive toy titled "Tiny Glade". There's a clearing in the forest, and most of it is taken up by a village made up of unusually shaped buildings. Each of them looks like a collection of domes that overlap each other. A common pattern among them is a large number of roof windows, and a spike at the peak of each dome. The roof of each building is almost toughing the ground. The trees around the clearing are giant in comparison, easily over 50m.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 10

I don't know why they like this backpack so much.

Three adult cats grooming each other simultaneously. They're lying on top of each other, with the bottom cat covered almost entirely, except for his head. All three cats are stacked on top of an empty urban backpack, which in turn is lying on a heap of blankets, which in turn are lying on a bed.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· May 3

Important clue in the ancient debate of "dokąd tupta nocą jeż", or "where does the hedgehog stomp to at night". You may be unaware of this debate if you weren't exposed to Polish TV children's programming in the 1980s.

A sign posted on a tree. The sign has a symbolic representation of a hedgehog on it, accompanied by the text: "caution area patrolled by hedgehog". The text layout makes it unclear if the author meant "caution area", or "area patrolled". They also seemingly rendered each word in a different font, giving the whole sign a slightly unhinged vibe. For context, this is hanging in the middle of a housing estate, a few metres from my block of flats. Not sure why the sign is in English, which is not what people speak around here.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Apr 28

I don't believe in curses, but if I did, then I would say my last independent project was definitely cursed. These two cardboard boxes are the epilogue - eight years after it started. (our crowdfunding campaign has a few optional rewards on top of the book; we've delivered all but one)

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Mar 28

I don't run gameXcite. I don't do mobile games. However, gameXcite did mobile games in the past, they're my current client, and this person has sent a broadcast to all people connected to (approximately) all companies in the field, hoping to reach a bizdev person or two by pure chance.

An anonymised LinkedIn "invitation to connect" sent to me by a "Co-founder and CTO" that says: Hi Jacek, I'm impressed by your work in mobile games. I think there could be potential between gameXcite and [us]. Let's connect and see if it makes sense to explore.

Jacek Wesołowski@jzwesolowski· Mar 27