May Dev Log — 4 Workouts In, Physics Feels Right
Dumbbell Curl, Military Squat, Bench Press, and Pull-Up are in. They are physics-driven, with failure states coming next.
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Gaby KimRelated reading
Jun Dev Log — You Only Get What You Train
Three things shipped this month for Ego Lifting Simulator: muscle growth driven by what you actually train, a stamina effect, and character selection.
I sold 450 copies of my first Steam game. Here's what I learned.
450 copies, $1,500 gross. Not a success story — but it cost me enough to be worth writing down what it taught me.
My Self-Taught Blender Pipeline for a Weight Lifting Game Character
How I built a Blender character pipeline from scratch — low poly base, shape keys for muscle growth, inner lines, per-muscle flush effect, and facial expressions — for Ego Lifting Simulator.
Here is where the game is right now: Dumbbell Curl, Military Squat, Bench Press, and Pull-Up are all in.
All four workouts are fully physics-driven, with no pre-baked animation. The raw gameplay feel is already there, and the next pass is about making failure states land properly.
Workouts implemented so far
- Dumbbell Curl
- Military Squat
- Bench Press
- Pull-Up
Gameplay feel
The current build is still raw, but the important part is working: the body, weights, and equipment are being driven by physics instead of fixed animation clips.
I am still a solo dev learning as I go, so progress is not as fast as I would like. But it is definitely moving forward.
What is next
I am working on failure states for each exercise: what should happen when your stamina runs out, or when you get hit by a barbell held by an NPC.
Getting those moments to feel satisfying and funny is the main design challenge right now. More workouts are on the way too.
If you want to follow where this is headed, wishlist Ego Lifting Simulator on Steam:
Dev updates
Want to get dev updates directly in your inbox? I am putting together an email list for anyone who wants to follow the build.