iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I made a super simple tree generator to demonstrate how different parameter spaces (ranges of allowed values, basically) affect the outcomes of the same algorithm. This is for my upcoming talk at GIC. #gamedev #procgen

0324

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The NPCs can now have conversations! Don't mind the text, it's a placeholder. #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

2165

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I will be speaking at GIC this year (gic.gd) with a talk called "The Possibilities And Limitations of Procedural Generation". It will be a fairly general talk about procedural generation where I will be using Vuntra City as a case study to make my points. Come check it out if you're there!

Game Industry Conference - 21-24 October 2026, Poznan.

152

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Having an absolutely amazing time with Nivalis Nights, especially after installing a mod that slows down time. The original 60x time scale feels way too fast for a game where things happen on a schedule, and slowing it down to 15x actually allows for a chill exploration and life sim experience.

0100

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The NPCs will now evacuate if an uncontained fire gets past a certain size. For now I made them go to the other floors of the building and avoid the floor with the fire for 2 ingame hours. But if the fire is on the ground floor, they and other NPCs will avoid the whole building. #gamedev #procgen

1113

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I made the NPCs react to the fireworks using my new event system! #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

1144

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh and the NPC's reaction can depend on their personality.

A happy NPC saying "Yes... Haha, YES!" when another NPC got hurt.

152

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I've added an NPC event system that lets the characters react to all kinds of situations. The standard events that only have dialog and/or animation reaction can be easily added via database without needing any code, but custom code for specific events can also be added. #indiegame #procgen

1175

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I've added a way for the NPCs to say things outside of the player dialog. So they will be a lot more chatty now! There will be many situations in which they will voice their opinion, and their comments will depend on their personality. #gamedev #indiegame

NPCs in the procedural city saying random things in floating speech bubbles.

1196

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This NPC got herself trapped in an art piece somehow (bug). #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegame

1175

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ok I think I did it. 60+ FPS in VR on max settings, with 4 million total NPCs in the most crowded area of the city. Still not as stable as I'd like it to be, but it is quite playable so I'm happy! #gamedev #indiegame

Vuntra City footage in VR with steam overlay showing 16.1ms frame time.

1224

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Enjoying the last warm days of this year at the local park's jazz festival, and I can't help but feel that I need more cozy outdoor spaces like this in Vuntra City. I already have bean bags and string lights, but none of them spawn outside 🤔

People sitting on bean bags in the park with string lights above them.

080

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The increased population certainly changes the city's feel in VR! #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

0177

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

My NPCs have invented this weird dance. Does this count as emergent behavior? 😆 #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

1173

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Debugging the NPCs can look hilarious sometimes! #gamedev #indiegame

0142

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Everyone is playing around with DLSS5 and debating whether it's good or not, so here I have a totally legitimate comparison of Vuntra City with DLSS5 off and on. See for yourself!

Two screenshots side by side, one of a normal Vuntra City character and the other of a similar but more detailed character who bears uncanny resemblance to Lucia from GTA6, but totally isn't her.

050

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The parties are getting pretty packed with the increased population. #gamedev #indiegame

1120

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I messed up one of my camera scripts while working on a new devlog and it sent me to the upside down, literally🙃

080

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I made the NPCs take their clothes off when relaxing at a spa and get into the hot tubs. Implemented an entire outfit system for it, so I can later use it to give them other temporary outfits. Also added steam to make the hot tubs actually look hot! #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

1225

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

By the way, I am working on optimizing the game to run with >4m NPCs instead of ~1m that I started with. I'm still not sure I will succeed, as there are several performance bottlenecks that make it very hard, but the city sure looks so much livelier with quadruple the population! #gamedev #procgen

1170

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Apparently, when there are too many NPCs in the same interior, they start playing a game of musical chairs of sorts. Watching them fight for a seat is pretty hilarious! #gamedev #procgen #indiegame

2154

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

By popular demand, I've changed the moon phases to look like moon phases rather than an eclipse. #screenshotsaturday #indiegame

1185

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

After rewatching Cyberpunk Edgerunners I got the urge to render something colorful and cyberpunk themed. Here's an environment shot WIP.

060

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Don't have anything new to show this week because I'm working on performance improvements. So here's a sunny city for #screenshotsaturday. #gamedev #indiegame

Procedural city at daytime with neon lit skyscrapers reflecting in the water.

0275

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Can't sleep because of a cold that I caught somehow, so it's time for some more shader experiments (WIP).

190

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I messed up my sky shader for a second and got this wonderful effect. The fun part about using a sky sphere with custom colors rather than a physically based atmosphere is that I can actually pull stunts like this in the game - unique weathers with weird sky or cloud colors for special events.

An unusually dark and blue sky with the moon reflected in the water.

240

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Ah mine does not have that. Great attention to detail!

210

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Added a bit of noise to the moon disk so it doesn't look flat. Here are some glamour shots of the newly added moon (bonus eclipse)! #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

3225

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I just got back from an awesome seaside vacation and I'm back at work! But first things first. As I was swimming in the moonlit sea at night, I couldn't help but feel that Vuntra City has been without a moon for too long. So I made a moon. #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

4 images of the moon in various phases over the procedural city.

1182

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Ok here's a life hack I just learned for crowded touristy areas: you enter any expensive hotel and ask about their rooftop bar. There's a good chance they have one and it'll be empty and quiet because they don't advertise it outside of the hotel and most people don't know they can just come in.

280

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I'm doing some real life city exploration while I'm on vacation. Just saw a building that looked like it had a rooftop terrace from the street. So I went in to see if I could go up there and they let me. Turned out to be a rooftop bar that looks eerily similar to the Vuntra City rooftops.

A building that seems to have a rooftop terrace, viewed from the street.

A rooftop bar with a pool and lounge chairs.

140

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

I just won this thing in a machine learning competition organized by one of our local gamedevs and my algo didn't even use any machine learning. ❤️❤️❤️ the gamedev community here in Cluj!

A box of... something. I'll find out when I open it.

080

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Increasing the city population to ~4 million, combined with the changes in the distribution of citizens, makes the interior spaces almost as packed as they should be. Now the hardest part - to optimize it all so it can run with a decent framerate. #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

1134

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

If you've ever wondered how to unequivocally assert dominance at the table, this Vuntra City NPC is here to show you. #gamedev #indiegame

A glitched NPC standing on the table with her foot on the glass.

2182

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

First look at the interior schedule WIP (time sped up). I'm trying to give every type of interior somewhat realistic "work hours", so you may notice that more interiors will be lit during the evening and fewer in the morning. #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

0184

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The terraces get so cozy sometimes, they really make me want to implement more elevated outdoor spaces (and I will, hopefully). #gamedev #indiegame #procgen

A penthouse terrace in a procedural city overlooking the river.

1153

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I'm back to working on the NPCs and I have implemented overrides that allow an NPC to disconnect from their GPU calculated schedule and then gradually return to it. This override also kicks in any time the NPC is too far from their anchor, making it easier for the player to find them. #indiegame

071

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Trying out Marathon today. Still getting the hang of the gameplay, but the visual style is *chef's kiss* 🤌

Screenshot of Marathon's CyberAcme AI character.

060

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

The flames make some of the environments feel particularly cozy. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegame

1184

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I made a little demonstration of all the particle emitters in my fire system for the upcoming devlog. Each emitter also has a number of parameters that scale differently with the size of the fire. #gamedev #indiegame

0121

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

The outdoor fires will now go out in the rain and ignite back up when the rain ends. Here's a little demo with time sped up. Don't mind the NPC that decided to be the center of attention 😅 #gamedev #indiegame

0172

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

I've also added fire pits on the terraces, so here's a little showcase of all the cozy flame types that Vuntra City has now. #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #indiegame

1145

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I put the fire extinguisher in a box near the elevator on each floor. I think it's a fitting place? Or should I change it?

Fire extinguisher in a box near an elevator in a virtual city interior.

120

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

There are now fire extinguishers in Vuntra City, so you can put out large fires before they take over the entire place. #gamedev #indiegame

083

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

As I'm sitting here in the superheated inferno that is Europe, I'm also working on creating a superheated inferno in Vuntra City. Which feels just about appropriate. #gamedev #indiegame

A bar interior completely engulfed by flames

3142

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The fire now destroys any item tagged as flammable. Although I might still tweak the effect to make it more gradual. #gamedev #indiegame

061

Vuntra City @vuntracity.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I've added wood and a gently flickering light to the fireplaces after some feedback from my community. Also they now go out when you turn off the lights in the interior. #gamedev #indiegame

093