https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/images/TitleBoard_Square.png https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/ Claire Blackshaw's random blog posts on gamedev, roleplaying and various bits n bobs. en-gb https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/10/still-dreaming-bits-and-bobs-from-the-dreams-days/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/10/still-dreaming-bits-and-bobs-from-the-dreams-days/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:07:08 +0100 TLDR: Cleaning my study for the first time since 2020 turned up a pile of bits and bobs from the Dreams days. Some random reflections: Twitch and the Dreams community, presenting the first Impy for Favourite Streamer, the signals gadget that never shipped, telling VRChat about OSC, and a launch that COVID wrecked. I'm still dreaming. Doing a bit of a cleanup of my study trying to rearrange https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/08/exporting-investment-the-case-for-and-against-vgec/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/08/exporting-investment-the-case-for-and-against-vgec/ Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:09:02 +0100 TLDR: We are very quick to hand companies tax breaks. I would rather move the same money from corp structures like VGEC into personal tax credits for UK residents earning in strategic creative sectors. More transparent, survives job moves, makes UK freelancers more affordable and catches the indies VGEC misses. People first, because this industry is built entirely on talent. Right off the bat I https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/07/shipping-godot-vr-and-porting-to-psvr2-a-partial-post-mortem/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/07/shipping-godot-vr-and-porting-to-psvr2-a-partial-post-mortem/ Sat, 18 Jul 2026 13:46:27 +0100 TLDR: Written version of the talk I gave at Develop Brighton 2026. Yes Godot can ship commercial VR, we paid roughly £80k in early adopter tax to do it. War stories from rebuilding Godot's core, the community PS5/PSVR2 port with George Marques and André Ewald, why I ended up writing a whole new render server for 4.7, and a call to arms for platform holders and render programmers. Nothing in https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/04/better_pr/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/04/better_pr/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:31:35 +0000 TLDR: Post GodotCon brain dump. First and foremost this is a people problem, process and tools just help us scale our collective fallibility. Three angles on the rest: Juan's anon voting panel proposal (good idea, needs guardrails), AI review (yes, do it, it's already standard at commercial studios), and stack your bloody commits (the only fix you can ship today). Worked example with git commit https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/04/shipping_vr_godot/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/04/shipping_vr_godot/ Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 TLDR: This is the extended written version of a talk I gave at GodotCon. The 30 minute slot was too short, my delivery was knackered, and I worried on the day that the whole thing came across as too negative — so I'd cut a chunk of positive advice for time, and I've put it back in here. Yes, Godot can ship commercial VR — we did it with Augmental Puzzles. The labour cost was roughly £80k https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/02/lazy-sunday-feedback-screens-viewport-bugs-and-giving-back-to-godot/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/02/lazy-sunday-feedback-screens-viewport-bugs-and-giving-back-to-godot/ Sun, 15 Feb 2026 15:09:34 +0000 TLDR: After shipping Augmental Puzzles on Meta (Feb 3rd) and Steam (Feb 13th), I spent a lazy Sunday porting our XR screenshot capture code back to Godot main as a PR. The feature was born from wanting a Subnautica-style in-game feedback screen — capture the full eye view, attach it to a mood-tagged bug report, send it to our ticketing system. Godot's OpenXR viewport capture was broken, so we https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/02/contingency/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/02/contingency/ Mon, 02 Feb 2026 12:56:11 +0000 Audio Recording this blog post is written from TLDR: Back from Contingency, a lovely residential roleplaying convention in Sunny Hunny. Played and ran a bunch of games including Brindlewood Bay, Shinobigami, For the Queen, and Liminal Horror. Had some important realisations about modern safety tools—particularly the "lay-off/bring-it-on" mechanic borrowed from LARP combat for emotional scenes. https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/01/netflix_cloud/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2026/01/netflix_cloud/ Mon, 26 Jan 2026 14:38:52 +0000 TLDR: Netflix calling out cloud gaming as a 2026 priority to shareholders got me thinking about an entire design space I've been orbiting my whole career. From Buzz controllers to WebSockets to Twitch Plays Dead Nation - there's a rich history here that most people have forgotten, and it's about to become relevant again. I'm too busy getting ready to ship our first VR game as a studio to chase https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/10/neo_robot/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/10/neo_robot/ Wed, 29 Oct 2025 10:22:36 +0000 TLDR: I just watched the Neo trailer. It's creepy as hell, but I'm also really excited. The hardware design is smart: soft plastics, wool, and non-intimidating. It's designed to not be scary, even though it is. VR devices unlock cheap and accurate telerobotics which bridges the AI gap and gives data for building the AI This isn't just about chores; it's a "solid platinum" data collection play. https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/10/start_engine/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/10/start_engine/ Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:52:38 +0100 A mate pinged me recently because a student friend of theirs had a specific question: how do you actually get into game engine development? Not just games programming in general, but proper engine work. It's a brilliant question and one I don't get asked often enough, probably because most people assume you need some sort of dark magic ritual involving assembly code and linear algebra. TLDR: https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/09/standards_matter/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/09/standards_matter/ Sat, 20 Sep 2025 18:48:02 +0100 TLDR OpenXR now has a sensible generic controller profile Digital buttons (menu, primary, secondary) Analogue trigger & grip Joystick axes & touch Grip/Aim pose tracking This is a boring-but-huge deal: no more "laughably unusable" default controller STANDARDS WORK MATTERS and this is an small but important milestone, standards work is often not celebrated enough. It is slow careful compromise https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/08/fast_text/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/08/fast_text/ Fri, 29 Aug 2025 19:34:08 +0100 I hit two massive problems a few months back. First, my simple text menus were absolutely destroying performance in VR, especially when adding nodes to the scene tree. Second, the font quality looked like shite. This is the story of that rabbit hole and the custom solution, FastText, that came out of it. TL;DR: If you're using Label3D in Godot for anything more than a couple of labels in a https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/06/personal_journey/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/06/personal_journey/ Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:20:28 +0100 What do studio closures, a changing funding landscape, cancer, A&E, and co-working spaces have in common? I didn't expect them to be a major part of my last year. As Flammable Penguin Games approaches the one-year mark and the announcement of our first VR title—after cancelling one title and shelving another—I thought it apt to reflect on how what was meant to be a studio with staff is https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/05/godot_rough_patch/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/05/godot_rough_patch/ Tue, 27 May 2025 12:31:43 +0100 TLDR: Shipping a game with Godot is hitting all the expected rough patches around polish, tech milestones, and store compliance. The engine's great but the community's mostly hobbyist, so commercial requirements often mean rolling your own solutions. Also, please stop renaming functions in the engine - some of us are trying to ship games here. I knew it was coming, I said as much in my Develop https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/03/split_render/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2025/03/split_render/ Sat, 08 Mar 2025 16:37:20 +0000 I've been doing a 30 day video challenge on YouTube and lately speaking a lot about VR topics. VR Standards Dilemma Messy History why PCVR is still a faff Messy History of VR Streaming and today on Split rendering And I thought it would be good to get my ideas back in blog format. Conclusion at the top to save you time Split rendering will likely be a part of future of VR/AR technology, but it's https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/12/watchy/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/12/watchy/ Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:37:48 +0000 A short article on a little hobby code project resulting in two watch faces. As long term fan of the best wearable, The Pebble Watch, my wife and I have a real soft spot for the long battery life epaper watch focused on time keeping and bits of useful functionality. The wearable market is dominated by wellness, fitness and subscription based services. The lack of a true pebble successor is a sad https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/11/craft/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/11/craft/ Fri, 29 Nov 2024 12:39:54 +0000 Industry Context Recently, I attended GodotCon and gave a talk at Develop North. GodotCon was eye-opening, and at Develop North, I discussed using Godot professionally. I shouldn't post the talk here, as it's better suited for a conference environment, but much of the information is already on my website in articles. I want to address a phenomenon being discussed in many circles: how does a https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/11/godot_extend/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/11/godot_extend/ Sun, 10 Nov 2024 13:53:31 +0000 There are many reasons I think that Godot is a great technical base and has a robust future, but chiefly among them is the modular way in which things are built and designed with the assumption that parts will be ripped out, replaced and improved. This is done through an easy to approach code base, modules system and robust support for addons and extensions through GDExtension (using godot-cpp) https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/wider_game/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/wider_game/ Fri, 25 Oct 2024 10:17:42 +0100 Disclaimer: This is a bad news bear piece. If you're feeling rough, have a coffee and skip this one. I have spent almost 20 professional years in what I would call the premium gaming market but now almost weekly I hear of layoffs and survive till ‘25 so what does our future look like? Last week I was at GodotCon in Germany which was a great time but a moment to reflect on the shape and scale https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/not_dev/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/not_dev/ Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:29:45 +0100 It’s been a while since I started this little gamedev journey and I wanted to talk about all the bits that aren’t gamedev so I can share what I’ve been up to. This is also why I say making games as a hobby is a totally valid thing and the gap between hobbyist and professional is larger than people sometimes think. Though if you are interested in crossing the gap maybe this will help. This https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/vrbiz/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/10/vrbiz/ Fri, 04 Oct 2024 14:27:43 +0100 I’ve struggled the last two weeks to make time to write about creative tools and volumes. The subject still fascinates me but as I said at the start of this series it was a brain dump before lessons learnt paged out of my brain now I’m no longer at Adobe or thinking about Dreams. Well the brain was not fully dumped the hectic business of running a new studio has meant that it has been https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/09/volume_vs_surface/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/09/volume_vs_surface/ Fri, 13 Sep 2024 09:50:34 +0100 The long-established default in the modeling space has been the transition from pushing pixels to manipulating points in space. Originally defined with a lightpen scanning physical models or handwritten points in code into point clouds. Over time, the ambiguity of points in space led to the dominance of the triangle or surface representation. Today, we explore whether this is still the best https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/09/godot_console/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/09/godot_console/ Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:07:11 +0100 Taking a break from my tools articles to write about Godot on PS5 and PSVR2. I’m going to lay out My disagreement with the statement given Thoughts on W4 vs Foundation lines Go over their reasons Explain my studio plans, which include freely sharing any Godot port work I am sure that there are many things which triggered the Godot foundation to put out an article stating... The Foundation does https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/hard_handcuff/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/hard_handcuff/ Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:46:27 +0100 At the backend of almost years of creative tooling work with Substance 3D Modeler and Dreams I am brain dumping lessons learnt and this week I want to talk about what the actual data handcuffs are. In a later article I will talk about higher level parts of this problem and solutions but today let’s talk about the true data handcuffs or limitations: HARDWARE! Conclusion at the top as always to https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/why_meta/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/why_meta/ Fri, 23 Aug 2024 10:50:00 +0100 As part of my brain dump series on writing creative tools off the back of Substance 3D Modeler and Dreams I want to talk about WHY I was working on creative tools. Back in 2014 when I first interviewed at PlayStation with hope of being involved in the Morpheus Project, a wire basket VR prototype I had started developing prototypes for as a 3rd party developer at Climax and would later become https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/seed_godot/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/seed_godot/ Fri, 16 Aug 2024 10:58:11 +0100 As part of my brain dump series on writing creative tools off the back of Substance 3D Modeler and Dreams I want to talk about technical innovation and the importance of your Tech Stack for Virtual Reality productivity and creativity software. So let’s talk about the speed of light and Godot. Conclusion at the top to save you time Speed of Light - What are the physics / hardware constraints https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/fatigue_vr/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/fatigue_vr/ Thu, 08 Aug 2024 23:58:41 +0100 As part of my brain dump series on writing creative tools off the back of Substance 3D Modeler and Dreams I want to talk about the state of Virtual Reality for productivity and creativity. So let’s talk about VR fatigue. Conclusion ; TLDR Use VR, you will solve fatigue issues as you find them User will be seated, head tilted down with arms at their side Passthrough is important, immersion is https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/leaving_adobe/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/08/leaving_adobe/ Fri, 02 Aug 2024 10:01:51 +0100 August 2nd was my last day on Adobe Substance 3D Modeller. There is an FREE Open Beta and you should go try it: Open Beta Why? I’m starting an indie VR game dev studio. Could not be more excited! I can’t talk much about that yet BUT after working on PlayStation Dreams and then Modeller I think my time working on creative tools is at an end and I want to brain dump before this stuff fades https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/05/when_c/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/05/when_c/ Sun, 26 May 2024 13:27:34 +0100 I'm working on a VR game in Godot 4.x and well it has been long since that I admitted I would need to hack open the engine and make changes. I am trying to keep that to a minimum I talk about that about why the last game was shelved in this video. Now as progress on the new game is going well I want to talk about -two things- when you should C++. Problem: Cut a mesh in VR very fast GDSCript is https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/05/wildsea/ https://www.claire-blackshaw.com/blog/2024/05/wildsea/ Sun, 19 May 2024 12:51:54 +0100 So recently I closed off my Second Moon DnD campaign after two and half years. Which was great and honestly give me a wonderful sense of completion. That being said I'm also really excited to dig into non-DnD systems again. On the table we discussed Heart, Scum and Villany and Wildsea. Obviously by the title you know we selected Wildsea. Once again I'm using my own wiki golang code to run and