Dev Log [Untitled Project]
This project is an ongoing effort to build a large-scale, procedurally generated game world driven by interconnected systems and emergent gameplay. The focus is on creating a living simulation where both the environment and its inhabitants operate continuously, whether or not the player is present to observe it.
NPCs follow the same underlying systems as the player and can interact with the world in similar ways. The goal is for the player to feel like part of a larger simulation rather than the center of it.
The intent is to create a dynamic, reactive world where meaningful and often unpredictable outcomes emerge naturally from the interaction of systems, NPC behavior, and player choice.
This blog serves as a development journal to document the progress, challenges, and evolution of the project over time.
Updates
Terrain Shader and Volumetrics
2026-04-29Here's a look at how far the terrain system has come over the last couple of years. Additional noise passes in the terrain and grass shaders have given natural surfaces a much more detailed, organic feel — moving away from the flat appearance of earlier iterations. The water shader has also been updated to support shadow casting on the surface, adding a layer of physical believability that was missing before. The biggest visual upgrade is the volumetric lighting, which adds real depth and atmosphere to the scene in a way that flat ambient lighting simply couldn't achieve. Also visible here is the transition to fully dynamic, shader-driven clouds. These replace what was previously a static skybox — the sky is now a living part of the simulation rather than a painted backdrop.
The volumetric clouds deserve their own mention. This was achieved through a URP adaptation of Unity HDRP's built-in volumetric cloud system, courtesy of jiaozi158's open source port (https://github.com/jiaozi158/UnityVolumetricCloudsURP).
Development Retrospective: Early Prototypes
2026-04-28This post is a retrospective collection of early development captures from the project, spanning roughly the first four years of work. It documents foundational experiments that shaped the current direction of the game.
Procedural Terrain & Water Systems
Early experiments with terrain generation and water rendering systems. These focused on establishing a stable procedural foundation for large-scale world generation.
Settlement Generation
Initial prototypes of procedural settlement placement and structure generation within the world. These systems explored how rule-based generation could produce coherent inhabited spaces.
Rendering & Optimization Experiments
A short clip demonstrating early custom camera frustum culling used to improve rendering performance in large procedural environments.
