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Gamelab: “FIELDWORK”

Originally published 2026-10-08 on Advisory Hour.

Originally published as an Advisory Hour Substack post on 2026-10-08. This first-party site copy preserves the text, localizes public supporting media, and connects the record to its project trail.

Original post

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

The “FIELDWORK” experience pulls together several projects in gamelab in a fun, puzzle-solving way. The question to explore is the idea of large interactions. I wanted the world feel like it had more depth and complexity than prior worlds. The robot and the drone helper get a slight update, more transformations and several fun surprises. Let’s click in and take a tour.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

What a fun project and also the start of a strange new challenge in these experiments. The worlds are getting larger and more complex. The result? It’s taking me far longer to quality-gate them, and even then I find I myself pushing against the wire. A challenge I’m still making sense of, and one I suspect many more will be running into.

Speaking of running into, let’s take a little robot for a test drive.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

This is a slightly modified version of the robot from IslandLab. The treads are larger, and there’s a few attachments. These are utility driven attachments. For example, there was a puzzle about how to have the robot drive a truck. Well, I have an answer for that, now.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

How does a robot drive a truck?

This is where a terminally online habit pays dividends. The robot drives a truck by transforming into the engine of the truck. Then, you as the player, drive the truck. The robot transforms itself into the engine. If this reminds you of Targetmasters then you would know the inspired source of the idea.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” video 1 from the original Advisory Hour post.

There’s also the contraptions.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

If you’re familiar with the Firehawk project, then this robot might look familiar. Trapped in the sand and rusted over, the robot is frozen in both time and place.

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

This was a fun project and so interesting to intentionally mash up so many past projects into something new. Shaders are compiled at load time, and so I’d recommend only tackling this one on a device larger than your phone.

Read more: https://ericrhea.com/gamelab/fieldwork.html

Play: FIELDWORK | GameLab

Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.
Gamelab: “FIELDWORK” image from the original Advisory Hour post.

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