146. Matt Parkin

Matt Parkin — 3D artist, game developer, and creator of The Polygon Pilgrimage — joins Tammy and Tim to talk about building games solo, shipping his first commercial title, and what it actually takes to go from a whiteboard idea to something playable on Steam.Matt has been running The Polygon Pilgrimage, a weekly tutorial series on YouTube, for over a decade. The channel covers 3D modeling, texturing, and game art using tools such as Blender, Substance Painter, Unity, and more, and has grown to over 10,000 subscribers. He also streams 3D modeling live on Twitch and has been featured by 80.lv for his tutorials on Substance Designer and Unity. Outside the tutorials, he works as a senior programmer for the Air Force, runs his own design LLC, and has spent 25-plus years in 3D art.In this episode, Matt talks through his background — drawing since age three, picking up 3DS Max in high school, earning a bachelor's degree in multimedia arts and animation, and teaching himself four programming languages along the way. He walks through the making of 1325 Maple Lane, a parody horror game about the terrors of home ownership, now on Steam. He also gets into his philosophy on using asset packs versus building from scratch, why he left Unreal Engine for Unity, how he manages color in his work as someone with achromatopsia, his approach to teaching beginners (start with the smallest complete circle you can make), and a Twitch-integrated game project currently in development. The after-show covers AI in 3D art pipelines, optimizing geometry for game performance, the importance of building the bottoms of the feet, and the games that helped shape his career.Mentioned in this episode:1325 Maple Lane on SteamPaws & Play StudiosThe Polygon PilgrimageUnitySubstance 3D PaintertldrawDisney's 12 principles of animationBrickTownBust quickplayFollow Matt Parkin:TikTokDiscordTwitch