Ever heard of the load-bearing tomato? The phrase originates froma viral Tumblr post, which jokingly describes a fictional situation where a player finds a random model of a tomato hidden within a game - a tomato that, if removed, would end up breaking the entire game. Somehow, this single, random model of a tomato was the only viable solution, making it a strangely effective dev hack.
This concept refers to a real and all-too-familiar practice in game development. Devs have often had to hack together a solution that somehow fixes random issues without breaking the game further.
Sometimes, these solutions are easy. Others, however, require a bit more creativity. This kind of gritty problem-solving results in some hilarious and down-right genius solutions, once again showing how incredibly creative game developers are. Here are some of the best of those devs hacks, from floating models to NPCs with train helmets.
#1 -ASSASSIN’S CREED’S CHARACTER SKELETONS
Charles Randall, a developer who had worked on the originalAssassin’s Creed, gave fans a peek behind the developer curtain.NPC Malikwas a one-armed assassin - though, due to budget constraints, devs couldn’t create a custom skeleton for his model. In the face of such a challenge, the devs utilized a simple solution - turn the arm inside out.
Randall also went on to mention that the horse models were just “twisted fucked up human skeletons” on the inside. Since their current tools only worked with biped models, devs had to figure out a workaround that would still allow them to place and animate horses in the game. Though the image of a twisted skeleton is a bit unsettling, it was yet another hack that creatively bypassed tool restrictions. As Randall comments, “Cheers to the amazing riggers and animators that managed to make that guy look like a horse!”
#2 -THE LAST OF US PART II- ELLIE’S RIFLE
Originally spotted by u/TheUFCVeteran3, Ellie’s rifle actually jumps out of her arms when the player looks through its scope. While it looks like she may be performing telekinesis, it’s actually a simple way for devs to accommodate for the mechanics of a scoped weapon. Players need to be able to see through the weapon as if through Ellie’s eyes without creating clipping issues. The best way to do it? Just reposition the rifle right next to her.
#3 -FALLOUT 3’S POINT LOOKOUT MANSION
The tale of this hack comes fromdeveloper Nate Purkeypile, who was a lead artist onFallout 3and its DLC Point Lookout. Purkeypile worked alongside artist Grant Struthers, who he credits with this particular solution.
In this DLC, the Point Lookout mansion inevitably explodes. Though, due to the economy of the build, most of the distant assets were actually static - including the mansion itself. This meant that devs couldn’t toggle distant items on or off, which of course, makes an explosion difficult. Their solution was to make the mansion ITSELF the explosion.
Making the mansion itself a dynamic asset meant devs could toggle it on/off, even if it was a bit finicky. The ending result of this hack, though, creates exactly the kind of impact they aimed for.
#4 -TITAN QUEST’S INVISIBLE SQUIRRELS
Arthur Burno, now the owner and lead designer ofCrate Entertainment,once worked on Iron Lore Entertainment’s RPGTitan Quest. Inan article originally for Game Developer, Bruno recounts one of “the hackiest things” he remembered from the development ofTitan Quest.
Titan Quest, like many RPGs, managed its quests through an event scripting system. However, its event/quest system has a major weakness - it couldn’t delay actions once they were triggered. This meant that any triggered action would occurr instantly, without leaving much room for timing finesse.
Towards the end of development, however, one QA tester came with a dev hack. In the midst of pre-launch chaos, the tester managed to figure out how to delay triggered actions based on the length of an animation.
The tester used one of the game’s squirrels, which eventually became the game’s default timing system. So, hidden in levels scattered throughout the game are invisible squirrels, dictating the player’s quests and events with their idle animations. Luckily for the tester, their creativity got them promoted to designer on the next project.
#5 -SKYRIM’S HIDDEN NPC INVENTORY CHESTS
Skyrim has no small number of NPCs, each with their own dialogue trees and animations and pathing. Managing their behaviors themselves is nothing short of a gargantuan task, not to mention tracking inventories and player interactions. One way developers eased the burden on NPC tracking? Hidden chests.
Nearly every NPC in the game has a hidden chest under the map that stores their inventory for them. This helps ease the system’s burden in tracking inventories, leaving instead to the chest asset to hold. Some of these chests are impossible to get to, but a fair number of them aren’t hidden too deeply. With some clipping (of course) through floors, players can actually loot these NPC chests rather than trade. Anything to save a bit of gold, eh?
#6 -FALLOUT 3’S TRAIN HELMET HACK
Once again, a tale fromFallout 3’s DLCs makes the list. This hack comes fromFallout 3’s third add-on, the Broken Steel DLC. In the game, players board and take a train; however, rather than the train being a separate animated model, the devs used a different trick for travel.
On “entering” the train, the game equips players with a helmet that changes their view to look like a train. This armor piece comes with its own specific camera animations, which moves the player’s first-person camera forward along a specific track. This helps accomodate for the fact that the DLC had no vehicle system, creating a bug-free and relatively cheap solution.
Player Character with the train helmet equipped. Wacky!
#7 -FABLE’S DEFAULT TEXTURES
Sometimes, the dev hack is not wacky or grand, but simple and elegant. Oftentimes, when faced with crunch or impending deadlines, the simplest solution works the smoothest.Technical Designer Luke Parkes-Haskellrecounts one such solution onFable: The Journey.
The action RPG was plagued by last-minute build issues. Textures weren’t appearing, creating swaths of default grey within otherwise beautiful environments. Though, with shipping so close, there was little time to find an elegant solution to the build issue. Instead, they opted to simply change the default material grass green - problem solved!
#8 -THE OUTER WORLDS' TV DIORAMA
ObsidianTechnical Designer Taylor Swopeunveiled a behind-the-scenes tidbit for scifi RPGThe Outer Worlds. Throughout the game, players communicate across the vast expanse of space through a number of monitors and broadcasts. Characters call in through television broadcasts or personal video messages - and, as it turns out, these scenes are actually captured live in the game.
The game places characters in a diorama outside of the player’s level, standing in front of a wallpaper that depicts wherever the character is calling in from. This hack replaces the lengthy and expensive process of creating cinematics, leaving the teams to focus on more pressing matters. Clever, simple, and economic, this hack is the very definition of making do with what you have.
#9 -STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC’S EXPLODING BARRELS
A vibrant world full of chaos and combat,Star Wars: The Old Republiclet players wield blasters and lightsabers. The difficulties of combat, though, was balancing damage from people versus objects.
Georg Zoeller, the principal lead combat designer, shared his version of a dev hack that he employed in the final game. The story, told throughMassive Entertainment producer Palle Hoffsteinon aTwitter thread, described the mechanics of the game’s exploding barrels. “Exploding barrels are filled with shrunken invisible people as only people were a valid damage source.” Initially, these people were complex models, but after finding they tanked the framerate, were replaced with a much simpler version. Maybe a bit morbid to picture, but if it works, it works!
#10 -DONKEY KONG 64’S FREE MEMORY EXPANSION
Taking it back to the days of the Nintendo 64, this solution proves that devs have been utilizing creative solutions since the beginning of widescale game development.Donkey Kong 64released in 1999, and it was the first N64 game to require the system’s new 8MB Expansion Pak to work. The reason? An unsolvable bug.
In adirector’s interview with programmer Chris Marlow, Marlow explained that a difficult glitch would repeatedly cause the game to crash. It was seemingly random, yet only caused crashes when it was configured to the N64’s standard 4MB memory setup. Even after extensive testing and searching, devs were unable to find the root cause, and they eventually used an external dev hack - release the game with the Expansion Pak included.
Though devs were unable to find a software solution, they took advantage of available hardware to solve the issue. That makes this a clever dev hack of its own in my book, and shows that sometimes, devs have to look outside of the game for the right tool.
