An original post-apocalyptic RPG and world builder powered by the custom PIP Core engine—built in public, one stubborn experiment at a time.
Cascade Failure began as a deceptively simple challenge: make a self-contained 3D game that could launch directly on a Mac. The project rapidly grew into something larger—a playable RPG prototype, a modular vault and world editor, a reusable character pipeline and PIP Core, Pip Tech’s own game engine. Pip Tech is the dedicated game and engine branch of Wasteland Works.
This public log records the visible journey without revealing story material, private character sheets or unannounced narrative details.
Pip Tech’s custom game-development environment is entering its first external beta. Platform packages are released individually after architecture testing, and every installer is restricted to authorised Wasteland Works members.
This is unfinished development software. Testers should expect missing specialist workspaces, visual rough edges and possible bugs. Back up important projects and send clear reproduction steps with every report.
Already registered? Sign in here. New testers can create a Wasteland Works account and request access; approval is required before protected builds unlock.
Your Wasteland Works membership controls which private builds are available.
Send the PIP Core team a structured bug report. The form prepares an email containing the details needed to reproduce and investigate the problem.
Please remove passwords, access tokens and private project material from logs. After your email opens, attach any useful screenshots or non-sensitive crash files before sending.
Humanity entered its final energy crisis slowly. Conventional nuclear fuel was being consumed faster than it could be replaced, while generations of radioactive waste accumulated beneath an increasingly power-hungry civilisation.
Atom Corp believed it had found a responsible answer. Its seventeenth experimental material—A17—could remain dormant until activation, power compact reactors for years and leave almost nothing behind. Buildings, industries and shelters adopted the networked system faster than the old infrastructure could be retired.
Then one reactor disappeared from the network.
What followed became known as the Cascade: a sequence of failures that crossed cities and borders faster than any government could understand. Surviving records contain an unexplained two-hour interruption—just long enough for part of humanity to reach shelter. Who created that window, and why the system resumed, are questions buried inside the world of Cascade Failure.
The earliest Cascade Failure build proved the core loop: first-person movement, aiming, interaction, dialogue, weapons, health and a working interface inside a hand-built 3D renderer. That technology evolved into the PIP Core engine. The geometry was deliberately primitive; the important result was that the game existed and could be played.
Saving, companion selection, doors, inventory, weapon hotkeys, ambient NPC dialogue and the wrist-mounted PID Companion were layered onto the prototype. The PID became Cascade Failure’s own diegetic interface and targeting assistant rather than an imitation of another game’s device.
A grid editor grew into a modular world-building tool with exterior terrain, vault entrances, automatic floors and walls, interior partitions, room zones, furniture placement, NPC occupations, 3D walkthroughs and a dedicated development vault. The long-term goal is to let players construct and inhabit multiple vaults across the wasteland.
Characters moved from assembled shapes to higher-density humanoid meshes. A common skeleton and animation contract now supports walking, running, combat tests, inverse kinematics, equipment sockets and future facial animation. The current Jessica runtime stands at a verified 1.65 metres and retains its animation data inside the editor.
Reusable clothing was developed as real removable geometry, not painted-on colour. Lab-coat tailoring led into fitted vault suits and layered armour. In parallel, powered armour evolved from a rough silhouette into a full industrial machine built around an internal frame and removable protective sections.
The present work centres on integrating the higher-fidelity animated cast into the Map Builder, improving environmental terrain and preparing a clean asset pipeline that can eventually target macOS, SteamOS/Linux and Windows. Cascade Failure remains in active development; everything shown here is work in progress.
