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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg

@thorsten.suckow-homberg.de
47 followers 52 following 226 posts

Full Stack Web Dev by day - C++, affine transforms and game dev by night. Building clarity with code, proofs & plots. thorsten.suckow-homberg.de | garagecraft.games | @garagecraft.games

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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 10/09/2026
New #devlog is up! While I'm spending most of my time on research and writing, there's little time left for implementing new game ideas - but that doesn't mean the underlying core can't benefit from all that theory: garagecraft.games/devlog/2026-... #ecs #database #indiegames #indiedev #gamedev
garagecraft.games
ECS as a Relational Model | garagecraft.games
In my Master’s thesis I investigate how partitioning entities and their components affects parallelization and concurrency in ECS systems.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
The english translation of the paper is available here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Entity Component System as a Relational Model: Archetypes, Component-Centric Relations, and Normal Forms
PDF | The Entity Component System (ECS) is a data-oriented software architectural pattern for the efficient organization of entities and associated... | Find, read and cite all the research you need o...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
This relational perspective makes it possible to describe structural properties of the different storage organizations, derive static invariants, and establish connections to concepts from database theory. English translation will be available soon! 🧵 6/6 www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Entity-Component-System als relationales Modell: Archetypen, komponentenzentrierte Relationen und Normalformen
PDF | Das Entity-Component-System (ECS) ist ein datenorientiertes Software-Architekturmuster zur effizienten Organisation von Entitäten und zugeordneten... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
For this reason, I preceded the main part of my thesis with a normal-form analysis. Under the assumptions of the model, I demonstrate that archetype-based relations satisfy the first through fifth normal forms, while component-centric relations satisfy sixth normal form. 🧵 5/6
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
While researching current ECS literature and widely used frameworks, I noticed that the frequently drawn connection to relational data structures tends to remain informal, with their classification in terms of relational normal forms often only being implied. 🧵 4/6
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
At the same time, certain runtime invariants and, in many cases, deterministic state transitions must be maintained. 🧵 3/6
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
The research question is motivated primarily by the use of ECS in video games and real-time simulations, where making comprehensive and effectively distributed use of available system resources and CPU cores is highly relevant. 🧵 2/6
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 09/09/2026
In my Master's thesis at Trier University of Applied Sciences, I investigate how partitioning entities and their components affects parallelism and concurrency in ECS architectures. 🧵 1/6 #ECS #indiegames #indiedevs #gamedev
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 30/08/2026
All hail the type-erasure idiom, ancient gatekeeper between the Realm of Generic Infrastructure and the Wildlands of Custom Implementations! ⚔️ None shall pass with their concrete type exposed! 🧙‍♂️ #indiedev #gamedev #enginedev #cpp #indiedev #gamedev #enginedev #cpp
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 29/08/2026
You're right, they didn't have all that money from the beginning. But even with a more limited budget, there should have been some kind of stable release for the backers to enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I really like to hop into the verse now and then, but I'm getting tired of the constant bug huntin.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 29/08/2026
The stakeholders here are mostly enthusiasts who spend a few dollars here and there on ships, hoping to make their childhood dreams come true and fly through the universe. I think those stakeholders should speak up. Louder than they have so far.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 29/08/2026
Now, financial backing from investors usually comes with more formal structures and legal constraints, which this project seems to be lacking.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 29/08/2026
#starcitizen #squadron42 - a drama in the making. Scope creep, tech debt, mismanagement, overengineering... It seems to have it all. I don't know whether better team organization and a clear set of goals could have led to an earlier release, but with that budget, I think it should have.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 18/08/2026
The process of #annealing, known from various crafts, has an interesting parallel in #softwaredevelopment: Repeatedly working and refining a prototype until the refactored system eventually settles into a stable, production-ready form. #craftsmanship #dev #engineering #programming
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 15/08/2026
Where there’s a w̶i̶l̶l̶ wall, there’s a way. 🔨 😎
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 15/08/2026
#indiedev #indiegames #enginedev
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
Rudolf Thomas INDERST (he|him) @gamestudies.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Im Rahmen seiner BA-Arbeit an der HS Neu-Ulm untersucht einer meiner Studenten, wie Menschen eine kurze audiovisuelle Szene wahrnehmen & interpretieren. Die Teilnahme dauert ca. 10 Minuten. Mit Deiner Unterstützung leistest du einen wertvollen Beitrag zu seiner Arbeit. Vielen Dank fürs Mitmachen!
poll.hnu.de
Wahrnehmung einer audiovisuellen Szene
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 01/08/2026
I'm gonna thrive on that coffee. ☕
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 29/07/2026
A rendering demo showcasing parallel #ECS execution in #helios. Systems in a domain-partitioned world run concurrently, record render commands (non-/instanced), then flush their command buffers. The RenderManager batches and processes the commands. #enginedev #gameengine #indiedev #indiegames
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GamesMarket @gamesmarket.global · 28/07/2026
In our ongoing series about researchers, we portrait the people wo bring game studies forward and define how game making is taught at universities. Today in the spotlight is @gamestudies.bsky.social of Hochschule Neu-Ulm and columnist here at GamesMarket. www.gamesmarket.global/researcher-s...
gamesmarket.global
Researcher Spotlight: Rudolf Thomas Inderst
In our ongoing series about games researchers, we portrait the people wo bring game studies forward and define how game making is taught and learned at universities. Today in the spotlight is Rudolf I...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 28/07/2026
Definitely, the journey has been worth it. I learned far more from the refactoring than I would have by starting with an ECS from day one. :)
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 28/07/2026
The WS project served as a testbed for a game engine. 🕹️ ECS research grew out of that work, leading to a major refactoring of the codebase into a more modular and reusable architecture. A few early examples can be found here (hope you don't mind a few template parameters): github.com/ThorstenSuck...
github.com
GitHub - ThorstenSuckow/helios-examples: C++23 example projects demonstrating helios engine modules, rendering, platform integration, and ECS workflows.
C++23 example projects demonstrating helios engine modules, rendering, platform integration, and ECS workflows. - ThorstenSuckow/helios-examples
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 27/07/2026
Besides working on my research on Entity Component Systems as a relational model and my master's thesis on domain-specific world partitions in ECS, I thought it was about time to finally release the outcome of my project assignment from the Winter Semester 2025/26. 🤘 #indiedev #indiegames #gamedev
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 18/07/2026
... this is on an M5 MacBook Pro.
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 18/07/2026
Hey @kaesve.bsky.social! running single-threaded on CPU w/ OpenGL backend. Non-optimized release build (e.g. per-object AABB culling), 250.000 cells (rendered as wireframe spheres, with every tenth cell initially alive) run at 60 FPS. Systematic benchmarks will be part of my master's thesis!
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 16/07/2026
Conway's Game of Life running on #helios #ECS engine with 22,500 entities. Every cell is an entity, updated in real time. Fun stress test for iteration throughput, cache locality, and deterministic updates, and part of my MCSc #thesis project. #gamedev #cpp #ecs #gameoflife #gameengine
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 05/06/2026
I remember how fascinated I was by #Doom's bsp-based visibility system... For #helios I opted on non-hierarchical #AABB #culling #algorithm (Miettinen), testing against every scene member and switching MaterialHandles to highlight culled and visible objects. On to #BSP now! #gamedev #indiegames
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 24/05/2026
Building on the foundation established with #helios, I’ve refactored the project into self-contained modules. helios::ecs now forms the base #ECS system for everything entity-related - w/ most inheritance based impls thrown overboard in favor of concepts. #gamedev #enginedev #indiegames
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 01/05/2026
"We have #Saros at home."
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 23/04/2026
10/10 #gamedev. Sometimes a #bug reveals a better design than the original intention ever did. I mean, when was the last time you adventured around with a perma #cat on your shoulder? #crimsondesert
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 20/04/2026
Cleared out a lot of technical debt: Removed circular dependencies, made #helios compile cleanly under the more demanding #Clang compiler (#MSVC, thanks for letting my first baby steps slide), and cleaned up a fair bit of mess. #helios is now on #macOS 🍎 #indiedev #indiegames #gameengine
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 20/04/2026
You could bind your (gameplay) systems to the various states of a state machine - once the game is in state "paused", do not process specific systems in the game loop. Makes it easy to consider those systems that should still be running (e.g. ui, input).
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 13/04/2026
Finished and published the report on #helios, my C++ game engine that slowly shifted from #OOP toward DOD #ECS. What started as a small prototype turned into a deeper dive into #architecture, #performance and trade-offs. I enjoyed the ride tremendously! 🕹️ www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) helios: Explorative Entwicklung einer ECS-basierten Game Engine
PDF | Wir stellen helios vor, eine in C++ entwickelte, ECS-basierte Game-Engine zur Umsetzung eines Geometry Wars-Klons. Das Dokument geht auf die... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on...
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 12/04/2026
On #helios’ way toward an #ECS-driven infrastructure, I’m rewriting resource management, abstracting it into a TypedHandleWorld - a handle-oriented, domain-specific registry that simplifies access to resources otherwise scattered across the system(s). #gameengine #enginedev #indiedev #indiegames
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
Rudolf Thomas INDERST (he|him) @gamestudies.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
OUT NOW! 😍
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 05/04/2026
helios is currently rendering ~10.000 objects in the #gameloop at stable 60 fps (w/o inst.). Lets crank those rookie numbers up and make sure the render resources are managed more cache friendly, render commands batched and queues optimally sorted. #gamedev #helios #enginedev #indiegames #indiedev
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 03/04/2026
finished my project assignment on the exploratory dev of an #ECS-based #gameengine. Now it’s time to refactor the remaining tech debt into more idiomatic ECS. Out with the old (SceneGraph), in with the new! (flat list of components sharing relationships) #helios #indiedev #gamedev #indiegames
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 14/02/2026
Als jemand, der sich selbst intensiv mit Game Engines und Spielentwicklung beschäftigt, finde ich die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Spielerfolg und Spielforschung besonders spannend. Wandert auf meine Leseliste! 📖
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 12/02/2026
Congrats! 🕹️🎄🖖
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 10/02/2026
Migrated helios' architecture to an #ECS-based setup, and reworked the #gameloop to allow much finer-grained control over when events become visible and when commands are applied. 📖 garagecraft.games/devlog/2026-... #devlog #helios #indiedev #indiegames #dod
garagecraft.games
Phase/Pass Architecture: Evolution of the Game Loop | garagecraft.games
A follow-up to the game loop architecture post, introducing the refined Phase/Pass structure. This post explores how helios now organizes the game loop into phases with granular passes, enabling fine-...
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 09/02/2026
ECS refactor drop in #helios 🔧 Value-type GameObject handles, tag-based filtering, centralized component registration, plus new unit tests. #gamedev #cpp #ecs #indiedev #gameengine #indiegames #enginedev
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 31/01/2026
Loving it! Beautiful scenery!
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 31/01/2026
Now that collision detection and SpawnPlans are in place, I’m moving on to 2D UI integration - score display and menus next. Let’s go! #gamedev #indiedev #indiegames #helios #twitch #streamer twitch.tv/garagecraft_...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 25/01/2026
If someone had told me a while ago that I’d be here - building collision detection and spawn systems in my own engine (that should have been a framework) - I probably wouldn’t have believed them. Really happy with how far this has come. #gamedev #indiedev #indiegames #enginedev
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
Adam Sawicki @asawicki.info · 20/01/2026
Graphics APIs – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - a new article on my blog (in English and Polish version) asawicki.info/articles/gra...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 05/01/2026
Reduce it to N and N+1 and, suddenly, determinism is just induction.
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
GarageCraft Games @garagecraft.games · 05/01/2026
Over the holidays I’ve been busy refining #helios to enable player interactions with game objects: Controlling, spawning and – the holy grail of every game - Collisions💥 I ended up with this draft for a deterministic game loop: garagecraft.games/devlog/2026-... #gamedev #indiegames #indiedev #cpp
garagecraft.games
helios - A High-Level Overview of the Game Loop Architecture | garagecraft.games
A deep dive into the architectural separation of concerns in helios. This post outlines how deterministic world mutations are handled via bare-metal Commands and Managers, while decoupled communicatio...
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 31/12/2025
It’s been quite the ride this year! 🕹️ 💻 📖
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Thorsten Suckow-Homberg @thorsten.suckow-homberg.de · 25/12/2025
Bringing in the component system over the past few days has been a real architectural eye-opener. #gamedev #indiedev #indiegames
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Reposted by Thorsten Suckow-Homberg
Louise Blackwick @handle.invalid · 24/12/2025
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who took part in my writing journey this year! I feel richer for knowing you!🤗❤️ I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS & a HAPPY NEW YEAR! May we all meet again in 2026, feeling well-rested & refreshed! www.patreon.com/posts/146610455 #merrychristmas #happyholidays
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