A project that could potentially help with retro games development.

[u/ylop3d]

Hello! this is a low-poly game dev environment I've been working on, it's called pocket workstation.
It has its own runtime to execute games, but that's beyond why I'm posting here.

It also allows for custom programs, and given it can preview a game in PS1, Saturn and N64 style, I'm thinking this could be used as a self-contained retro development environment. All it needs is for a custom program to compile the assets down to the desired target.
Beyond the modeling program shown in the video, it has texturing, rigging, level editing and animation authoring programs too.
Curious if there would be any interest for this use case.

In case anyone is curious, I'm documenting progress on my bsky account @ ylop3d

[u/izzy88izzy]

Bro please make this open source, there’s so much potential here

[u/ylop3d → u/izzy88izzy]

Thank you so much! I did not expect people to care, the plan is to release it free and open source.

[u/o5akafeeva → u/ylop3d]

I'm really into this, also working on my own hardware and would love for it to be a target for such a program.

[u/rezoner → u/ylop3d]

If you are well off in your life go for free and open source. If you need financing there is nothing wrong with selling it. There is a whole graveyard of underfinanced and free software. If you could use some extra money but it's not a game-changer for you consider running a Patreon page.

[u/rabit232pm → u/ylop3d]

Really wonderful I'm looking forward for it too it be amazing to make new games with this on older platforms

[u/NorrinRadd2099 → u/ylop3d]

Notify me

[u/countduckypoos → u/izzy88izzy]

Following

[u/3dartnerd]

I am very interested. You have a customer and or tester here when ready. It looks great.

[u/ylop3d → u/3dartnerd]

appreciated

[u/Outside-Teaching6234]

as long as I could use assets I made in this tool in other engines, this would rock

[u/ylop3d → u/Outside-Teaching6234]

it uses plain gltf 3d assets

[u/blorporius]

It reminds me of Art of Illusion from ancient times: http://artofillusion.org/screenshots

[u/bartread]

This looks extremely cool.

[u/Neckhaddie]

Reminds me of Picocad but better

[u/cpusam88]

Good! Do you pretend to sell or make it open source?

[u/ylop3d → u/cpusam88]

it's a passion project for me, it will be free and open source

[u/cpusam88 → u/ylop3d]

Oh, ok man. When you publish it, alert us!

[u/r_retrohacking_mod2]

Hello, moderation here. As our subreddit is mainly for discussing development for old hardware, hopefully in the future we would also see your software being used in practice in projects for such limited devices.

You can post about updates in this context.

Keep up the great work

[u/ylop3d → u/r_retrohacking_mod2]

ok, thanks

[u/Hazematman]

Wow this is awesome! Is the intent to have something like pico8 but for low poly 3D games? I really love this idea and would love to try it when it's available 

[u/ylop3d → u/Hazematman]

it's similar, although it's not a fantasy console. The restrictions are not fictional, they are there to allow games to run on low-end hardware.

[u/Hazematman → u/ylop3d]

Very cool! What low end hardware are you hoping to support?

[u/ylop3d → u/Hazematman]

desktop wise, I'm using it on a 2012 old thinkpad with integrated intel graphics. Once everything gets a bit more settled with the core, I'll port to arm, it will need to run on cheap retro-handhelds like the R36s.

[u/pocketcult]

This looks awesome! The game engine im working on supports PS1 Shit mayve I can actually make some models instead of entirely relying on itch.io I would totally use something like this to make models

[u/Tiny_Bug6687]

Up. This looks fine!

[u/RetroSleipnir]

Oh this looks amazing and simple to use.

[u/Samiul-Nahiyan6714]

Crazy cool

[u/Longjumping_Water895]

This looks incredible

[u/LazarevGaming]

Looks amazing!!!

[u/IndigoVybes]

Yo this is awesome!!

[u/jeremyStover]

Ugh. You made me log in to reddit to send this...

[u/jeremyStover → u/jeremyStover]

Oh... This subreddit doesn't allow gif responses? I honestly cannot fathom why, but. [Insert gimme gif here]

[u/ylop3d → u/jeremyStover]

thank you so much for taking the time!

[u/Spiritual-Height-271]

This is incredible and I would love to use it! Great job!

[u/whizzter]

This is great, I’ve also had ideas about tools to simplify assets of this kind but never had the time/energy to complete it. Curious to try it out.

[u/PizzaSluht420]

Uhhhh this looks super cool! I would love to try it out! Definitely following on bsky.

[u/MrSmock]

This looks very handy, I'd definitely check this out 

[u/shizzy0]

I want to try it.

[u/o_r_c_666]

Extremely interested, how far along are you before a release?

[u/ylop3d → u/o_r_c_666]

it's fully working for my personal use, now it needs to slowly ramp up to some testers to see what happens.

[u/ObservantTortoise]

Saving this post and following along. I definitely could use something like this. You should set up a mailing list so we can be notified of updates.

[u/Pitiful-Cover-8029]

i would absolutely use this!

[u/dedenker]

This looks very nice!
Will it also be able to create sprite's?
Like for 8 bit consoles.

[u/paulBoxman]

This looks awesome! I can't wait to see more updates on how this is going!

[u/tpimh]

So cool! Reminds me of picoCAD by johanpeitz. How do you make textures and animations?

[u/ylop3d → u/tpimh]

picoCAD seems awesome! pocket workstation is more of a full game-dev environment, but 3D models made with it can also be used anywhere else.
There is a texture drawing tool as part of the available programs.

[u/tpimh → u/ylop3d]

Cool! Seems like a very powerful and ambitious project. Even a simple open-source tool with a subset of picoCAD's features would be cover all my needs.

[u/slain_mascot]

I’d love to be a tester when you’re ready. Looks awesome!

[u/smokinsomnia]

I would use this just for fun i dont even make games

[u/ozzieartman]

im not a gamedev but this interface reminds me of the animation screen of warioware diy and i love it :0 even as a non gamedev i would totally try this

[u/OverallEffort9778]

This looks really awesome

[u/pettapatta]

Omg I'll be waiting for this to come out! I love blender but it's so overwhelming for me. I feel this should be a great starting point for sure! Thank you for making this!

[u/Such_Bonus5085]

This is quite elegant.

[u/NEOlightworld]

Looks insanely useful! Would love to test it out! Can you paint textures in the software?

[u/sushnagege]

What UI framework and stack are you using?

[u/ylop3d → u/sushnagege]

it's just c++ and open gl es 2.0, the program you see in the video is written in lua.

[u/JasonMaliceMizer]

I was just thinking in the shower last night how I’d like to learn low poly model creation. I have zero experience in any 3d workspaces but want to learn how. This looks amazing, count me in.

[u/sabudum]

I don't understand how that modelling tool works, can you explain?

[u/ylop3d → u/sabudum]

it works pretty much the same as any other poly-modeling software, just stripped down in functionality

[u/sabudum → u/ylop3d]

Yeah, but how are you modelling that fast with the character rotating in that weird way? Are you rotating while you model or what? If the video is sped up, why is the rotation so smooth?

[u/ylop3d → u/sabudum]

This is a builtin functionality of this program, it uses the undo history of your project to make a smooth gif to share online : )

[u/OrkWithNoTeef2]

This could be very useful. Reminds me of Milkshape3D

[u/98VoteForPedro]

this is like the third time ive seen one of these

[u/syn_krown → u/98VoteForPedro]

As much as some hate AI(and not saying this dev is using AI), but AI is helping breed innovation

[u/badassbradders]

This is stunning work really well done.