How an iconic game faked a mirror and fooled me completely

Mirrors in games are notoriously tricky to get right, especially on tight budgets or limited hardware. But game devs are nothing if not resourceful. A recently resurfaced clip from Derek Forte (Shesez/Boundary Break on X) has pulled back the curtain on how developers created eerily convincing mirror effects in The Walking Dead.

Rather than using complex real-time reflections, which can be taxing on performance, even when using the latest and best game development software, the team at Telltale Games cheated brilliantly.

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Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.