Anniversary

One year ago today I began working on the ODM Gear plugin. Today is its first anniversary. Originally the name I used was Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear and I started working on it after seeing only 13 episodes of Attack on Titan. It was something I created on a whim with no real plan and a minimal understanding of the gear from the show. But experimenting with the 'rope physics' using leashes turned out to be highly captivating, as it was something that felt out of the realm of Minecraft. The attached video is a short compilation of 'archival footage', the oldest clips of the very beginning of the 3DMG.

That day, only the basic functionality was completed - spawning the wires and reeling towards them, then retrieving them, without any fancy visuals of course. On October 3rd I made the 3DMG model, which remains unchanged since then. It features 219 elements, making it quite detailed, though I like to think the texturing style puts it somewhere in between Minecraft aesthetics and complete realism. On that day I also took the first screenshot and made the first Replay Mod video of the gear. It was my first time using the mod.

The making process was very creative as it included texturing, modeling, sound design, even classic frame-by-frame animation, and the programming offered intriguing challenges with the ropes, swing mechanics, aim assistance, etc. At one point I even experimented with an actual physics simulation, though it didn't really get me the results I wanted. It's still an exciting idea though and I might revisit it. The diversity of the process is what kept me coming back and making more improvements, I think. That and new feature ideas provided by the show of course, up until its end in that time period. I actually did not know it was unfinished and only found out after reaching the penultimate episode. I searched for the finale's release date and it turned out to be the next day. The 10-year-old series was ending one day after I had caught up with it. It was so hard to believe.

Thanks for reading!