GGJ12: Reprise (Unity3d)

Posted by Matt in Portfolio on Feb 2nd, 2012 | 0 comments

2012′s Global Game Jam theme was a picture of “Ouroboros”. I was able to attend the Dallas, TX jam where I joined a team to create “Reprise”. Our team decided to share art assets and build 2 different versions of the game. One sub-team would use a proprietary engine to build the game, while my team would use Unity3d. Most of our graphics and framework was done before Sunday. However, due to timing problems brought on by our version control, we would not be able to implement our full vision of the game.

Reprise is a game where you move through time and space, collecting shapes that differ from your current form to grow. If you are circle shaped, you collect triangles and squares. However, there are past versions of yourself running through the course. Colliding with your past will cause you to rip a whole in time and space, causing you to shrink. Shrink too small & you will lose. Grow big enough and you will win!

Here are some links to the game:

Play Web Version (requires 3.5) - Download Windows Version – Download Mac Version - GGJ Link

Here are some screenshots:

2011…Complete.

Posted by Matt in Game Blog on Jan 1st, 2012 | 0 comments

Hello 2012!

2011 was my busiest year. I’m 25, I’ve held a job since I was 12, and I’ve been in school since I was 3, but nothing compared to 2011. This year, I developed a game remotely (and went to events related to the game), developed a small working HTML5 engine, worked a 28 hour web development job while in college, graduated and went full time employee, got married, went to 2 game conventions, and many other things.

The past 2 or so months, I’ve basically been dragging my butt on game development. So tonight, all that’s changing.

First off, I’ve redid my site.

Second off, I’ve picked up the 3D engine. Now, It’s not going to be perfect. I’m going ahead with implementing singletons. Right now, I’m trying to learn what I can from the books and everything else through trial and error. The lessons from the latter will probably be a weekly (if not daily) feature here.

Third off, RESTINCT is picking back up. We’re looking into selling the thing and making it available for multiple platforms. I’m looking forward to working on it.

Well, that’s enough for tonight. G’Night!

RESTINCT

Posted by Matt in Portfolio on Jan 1st, 2012 | 0 comments

RESTINCT is a game that I’ve proudly been a part of since the end of 2009. I’ve worked remotely with a team located in Chicago. So far, the game has been featured in Columbia College’s Profile magazine and we have also held a “Case Studies Exhibition” at Columbia College in Chicago. I’ve been the lead programmer on the project and we’ve been using Unity3d to build the game.

Here is some gameplay footage from 3 of the minigames that was played in our case studies project:

Footage from Adam’s Mini Game

Footage from Mary’s Mini Game

Footage from Solomon’s Mini Game

Here is footage from the ”Case Studies Exhibition” at Columbia College in Chicago.

Footage from Case Studies

The game will eventually be completed in May and distributed on PC for free.

Zombie Plague (Work in Progress)

Posted by Matt in Portfolio on Dec 23rd, 2011 | 0 comments

Zombie Plague is a recreation of the board game of the same name. It is currently a work in progress. A large amount of work was put into a path finding system that could work with “Zombie Plague’s unique movement rules.

Almost all of the game’s movement, AI, combat mechanics, and special shaders were complete. The effort was made completely solo and was put off until other paid projects was complete.

New Trophy: Game Engine Complete!

Posted by Matt in Game Blog on Oct 24th, 2011 | 0 comments

Hello archival readers (My traffic is currently 1 person a week…)

Let me explain my current progress as a great programmer.

I. I’ve created an HTML5 engine. This would have been great to write blog entries about & I regret not doing it. I’ve learned a heck of a lot doing it. Little tips such as embracing JavaScript’s quirks to design object based parameters for easy to manage code & low cost; Tricks such as the ol’ (# | 0) for flooring numbers; and lessons such as not implementing a callback based update system.

One of the decisions I made early on was to use event listener systems for everything. I overrode the onclick event for various purposes (I wanted to take advantage of any efficiencies in browser pipelines). However, this proved problematic when timing was off.

I ended up reading a tutorial on javascript game loops that showed how to create a better loop. I didn’t implement all the ideas but it did get me a fast solution for my gameloop.
Link: http://nokarma.org/2011/02/02/javascript-game-development-the-game-loop/index.html

Tonight, I was finally able to get a megaman character to slide across the screen using my framework. All that’s left is to get some art & start programing my gamestates & I’m in business!

II. RESTINCT
The Chicago Unity3d Game project has been coming along pretty darn well! We had a exhibition where viewers could enter and play our various minigames. Once they finished, they would write feedback for said games & we would update them by a few days time. This exhibition lasted a month & a half. I actually drove down and viewed the exhibition while meeting the rest of the team. It was a great experience as everyone I met on the team was great!

I’ve been learning a lot of lessons while looking at the old code (especially for mary’s game). The biggest dumb decision came down to how to handle offsets of the blocks (ie: positional data from center to bottom left). I won’t go into details, but a lot the code I wrote (while clever) could have been much simpler. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way & something I’m going to be more aware of in the future.

III. Pong 3D
While the original idea was to create a better 3D DirectX 10 engine and use it for pong, I’m focusing on what’s important in the now first. I also would really like to finish “Effective C++ (Scott Meyers)” before I finish the engine (I don’t want another Singleton fiasco of Summer 2011).

IV. GDC Online – Austin, TX
I went to GDC online. I’m going to be honest here. The sessions weren’t the best. The HTML5 stuff was either way over my head (I know nothing of webworkers {although I need to change that}) or irrelevant (sorry, but I’m not aiming for ie7 compatibility).

The best parts was the following:
A. The Networking. That’s of course the #2 reason why I wanted to go. I met a lot of really nice people. I hope I get to meet them again. I wonder what you are supposed to do with your business cards now that you have them.
B. Austin. Man, I love a big city. Austin is my current #2 favorite (San Fran takes top spot). Everyone there is super friendly & down to earth. I also had the best tacos ever (yes…ever.. *drools* 8p….).