A Year of Substance: Game

We chose some of the best game-related stories of the year

  • Community
  • Game
  • Interview

Before we move into 2021, let’s take a look back at the best made-with-Substance game stories of the year. From top-notch AAA games to indie development studio, mobile and VR, 2020 has been a rich experience for Substance and gaming in general!

And don’t forget to take a look at our series of articles highlighting the use of Substance in other fields in 2020:

Cyberpunk 2077: A World Full of Substance

Image courtesy of CD PROJEKT RED

CD PROJEKT RED integrated the Substance toolset on their latest release, the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077. Creating their material library thanks to Substance Designer, learn more about the custom tools the technical team developed to allow a smooth texturing experience for the artists.

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII – Substance Helps Remake a Classic

Final Fantasy VII is one of those classic games that holds a special place in the hearts of many of us. When Square Enix announced a remake, the challenge of offering a new gaming experience while keeping the original appeal of the game was a play of fine balance. Check out how the team accomplished their goal in part by using Substance Painter and Substance Source to texture virtually all the environments and characters of the game.

Destroyed Beauty – Texturing Gears Tactics with Splash Damage

Image courtesy of The Coalition

We talked with the team at Splash Damage as they go through their advanced texturing workflow on the decaying world of Gears Tactics. See how they used a combination of Substance Painter, Substance Designer, and the Substance Source library to texture nearly all of the assets of the game.

Raji: An Ancient Epic – Enter the Realm of Indian Mythology

Image courtesy of Nodding Heads Games

Raji: An Ancient Epic is one of those gems of a game you have to discover while attending a local game development conference in India (which we actually did). After meeting the Nodding Heads Games team at their apartment studio in Pune and seeing the wonderful things they did with the Substance toolset, we just had to interview them and share their story with the rest of the community. The game released in the summer and their years-long hard work paid off, with critical acclaim and even a nomination for Best Debut Game at the 2020 Game Awards!

Extreme Realism: Asobo Studio Talks Microsoft Flight Simulator

Artwork Courtesy of Asobo Studio

Microsoft Flight Simulator has a heritage that stretches back nearly four decades, with each version improving on the previous one in various aspects. Much has to be said though on the high fidelity to realism in the 2020 edition. Often working with original CAD data, the Asobo Studio team leveraged the photo-realistic texturing capabilities of Substance Painter to set a new milestone in flying simulation.

Using Substance & Medium for VR Games with Polyarc

Image courtesy of Polyarc

Who hasn’t dreamt of playing a tiny mouse in an adventure puzzle VR game? Meet the team at Polyarc as they discuss how they use Substance and Medium for their VR game, Moss.

Reducing Mobile Game Size Through Texture: When Gameloft met Substance

Image courtesy of Gameloft

Take a trip down memory lane with Nikita Krasikov: In this interview, he recounts how Gameloft Kharkiv adopted Substance Designer back in 2014 in order to reduce texture size for mobile gaming, and how their mobile game development experience evolved along the way.

Substance in Games Showreel 2020

While you wait for 2021, check out this year’s games showreel, a selection of trailers and real-time footages from games made with Substance:

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