Tag Archive for 'Games'

Portfolio Planning

Published on April 15, 2010 in Game Developement, Games and Metagine. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Wow, its been a long time since my last post! The past month has been tough for a number of reasons but I’m now back on track and looking forward to a summer full of productivity… hopefully! I’m going to use this post to help plan out some of the things I’ve got in the pipeline for my portfolio.

Protorb XL

I have recently acquired a new phone, a HTC Desire running the Android operating system. Protorb is no longer compatible with this system but shouldn’t be too difficult to port and update. From this spawns Protorb XL which will be an upgraded version of the game with remastered graphics. I have some other interesting ideas… more on that in a future post.

Estimated time: 1-2 months.

Able in Space + Metagine

Unfortunately I haven’t had the time to do any development on the engine or the game itself due to my MSc project taking priority of my time. By the end of the summer I would like to have this game finished or as close to completion as possible so that I can work on polishing it up in time for job applications.

Estimated time: 3-4 months.

New RPNi Game

Over at RPNi we have all been hard at work on the next game. Unfortunately I can’t tell you much about this one until we make any official announcements. Needless to say, it contains zombies, pirates, brains and cannons. Quite an interesting mixture, I’m sure you’ll agree. We are currently in pre-production but very close to starting full-speed development. We hope to have this game completed by late July 2010.

Estimated time: 2-3 months.

Other Stuff

That’s not all! In early June I plan to attend the TIGSource UK game-jam (a.k.a TIGJam UK3) in which various game developers assemble in a Cambridge bistro and develop a game in 48-hours. Sleeping is optional! Whilst the game won’t be of commercial quality I’m hoping that I’ll be able to contribute towards a shared goal and get to work with some enthusiastic people.

Nintendo Internships

Published on January 14, 2010 in Alumni Stories, Gaming, Moving Image, Uncategorized and opportunities. Closed Tags: , , , .

Nintendo

LSM graduate Michael Andrews tells us that Nintendo’s Digital Assets Creation Team in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, is looking for an Intern (m/f) in the Digital Assets Creation Team.

Continue reading ‘Nintendo Internships’

4K Java Games

Published on November 4, 2009 in Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

4KB is not a lot of space (4096 bytes). It is an especially small amount of space to contain an entire game (including any assets) within.

So, you might be surprised to hear that its entirely possible to code a playable game in Java (of all languages) within that tight filesize budget. I recently discovered Java4K and now I’m pretty hooked on the idea. I love programming around technical constraints and this poses a significant challenge.

It is actually a competition (rules here) and although I’m not interested in entering at this stage, I’m still going to attempt to develop a simple game based on their rules and constraints. Last year I developed a simple Breakout clone called ‘Protorb’ (which coincidentally needs some final spit and polish). As my first attempt I’m going to port the game logic from this and pair it with some ghetto procedural graphics and see if I can get this below or at the 4KB limit. If I have any luck with this, perhaps I’ll develop something more significant for my portfolio!

There is some information on getting started which should be read if you are interested in the challenge. Of the games on the website I’ve played so far, here is a list of the ones that have impressed me the most:

  1. Left 4K Dead.
  2. jm00.
  3. Just Get Bigger.

Check them out!

Philip Roberts

Published on November 2, 2009 in Alumni Stories, Gaming, Television, Uncategorized and Video clips. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Codemasters_crop_150w

Just once more keeping you informed of my progress since leaving Uni.

Continue reading ‘Philip Roberts’

iRis AG v1.1 out NOW on the App Store

Published on October 16, 2009 in Game Resources and Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Great news!

iRis AG v1.1 is out now in the App Store! I would like to thank all of the crew for the hard-work it took to get this far, pats on the back all round. We have also submitted a lite version for approval but this has not yet been given the all clear by the Apple moderators.

The Game

Relive those classic arcade moments with a fun new twist! iRis AG is a unique, fast-paced, color-matching puzzle game sure to keep your fingers busy. Eliminate falling blocks by connecting similar colors, but instead of guiding them as they fall you’ll move the whole world around them to put them in their place!

As blocks fall, swipe your finger back and forth to match four of the same color together, then watch them disappear. Take out all the blocks at the bottom of a pile, and the whole tower gets taken with it. Keep on combining blocks to earn as many points as you can before the mass bar fills. Then take your score and claim your place on the global leaderboard!

My Role

Over the summer I contributed to the iRis project as a programmer. My work mostly concerned the fixing of bugs and refactoring existing code. The whole process was a huge learning curve for me as this was my first real programming experience outside of university life. Over the time I feel that I grew as a developer and got to grips with a whole new language and skill set. Coordinating distributed development across different countries and timezones is no easy feat and I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jonathan Wolf, our project leader who kept the well oiled development machine chugging along.

I would also like to thank Jonathan on a personal level because he has often acted as a personal mentor to me – above and beyond the call of duty. With his help I have identified a number of key areas that I would like to improve upon in order to become a better programmer.

Development Screenshots

Here are a couple of development shots from iRis AG (then called just iRis). These images demonstrate the evolution of the game’s UI over time, designed by our very own Ben Simonds.

Evolution of the iRis UI.

Evolution of the iRis UI.

Future Works

RPNi intend to continue the development of the geWiz ES engine used to power iRis AG. In addition to this we are beginning the preliminary work on the next official title. The next game will build upon the lessons learned during the development of iRis AG, the good and the bad. We now know what works and what doesn’t and we will use this knowledge to make another kick-ass game. Watch this space!

Feedback

If you have access to an iPhone/iPod Touch please try the game and let us know what you think. All feedback is appreciated and will be taken into account whilst developing our next title. The full version of iRis AG costs just £1.19 on the UK App Store, but you can also try the game for free upon the release of the lite version.

Extras

Here are a couple of extras that we thought you might like!

  1. iRis AG OST by Bradley Burr of OC ReMix (DOWNLOAD).
  2. iRis AG wallpaper pack by Ben Simonds (DOWNLOAD).

New Academic Year

Published on September 30, 2009 in Musings. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

The past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic as I’m now back at university to study for my MSc qualification. There have been a number of issues involving enrollment but these are now sorted. Me and my housemates took a break from the hard work of university life and partied til 5am in the morning in true fresher (for the 4th time…) style, I think I might still be recovering from this.

I’m still looking for a project for my MSc. I’m finding the process harder than I thought as it didn’t take me long to find something suitable for my undergraduate dissertation. I’m looking at game engine architecture and technology, but also parallel architecture and concurrency. Clearly these are all broad areas and so narrowing it down into a realistic project is proving to be difficult. I’m going to hit the past papers, journals and presentations of similar subjects to see if I can find some inspiration there.

In other news, I’m now a demonstrator in some of the undergraduate workshops that supplement the lecture program. This will be a good opportunity for me to earn a bit of cash and also looks pretty good on the CV. My first workshop will be for the Game Design unit on the Games Computing degree, working with mod development for the Half-Life 2 engine.

Indie Games and More

Published on September 1, 2009 in Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Lately I’ve taken an interest in the indie game development movement. I’ve seen a lot of cool games this past week and so I plan to feature some videos of them on this site, they’re worth watching if you have an interest in this sort of thing. Hopefully in the next year I’ll get some indie games of my own developed and promoted here. I’m not looking to make any money from this, I’m just looking to have some nice content in my portfolio.

I’ve added some content to the other pages at the top of this blog. Progress is slow as I’ve been very busy with that “real-life” game, but things are starting to come together. I’m going to get a friend at university to design me a new top banner as I threw this current one together in a few minutes. Hopefully this will achieve a more professional look and feel which I can use to promote myself as an employable entity :)

On a side note, here is an awesome video of an iPhone game entitled “Bear on a Wire”, I really like the production values of this:

Bear on a Wire Trailer from bearzo on Vimeo.

Watch Second Skin Online

Published on August 12, 2009 in Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Second-Skin-Poster

Second Skin is a film about MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and the effects it has on people’s lives. I’ve watched the first 30 minutes and found it to be pretty interesting. I knew people could get addicted to these games but not to this extent. It makes you realise that as a game developer you really need to think about the possible impact that a game you are working on might have on individuals.

Second Skin takes an intimate look at three sets of computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by online virtual worlds. An emerging genre of computer software called Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs, allows millions of users to interact simultaneously in virtual spaces. Of the 50 million players worldwide, 50 percent consider themselves addicted. From individuals struggling with addiction to couples who have fallen in love without meeting; from disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose to gold farmers, entrepreneurs and widows, Second Skin opens viewers’ eyes to a phenomenon that may permanently change the way human beings interact.

You can watch the whole thing free online until tomorrow (13th August 2009). If you have some free time it is worth a look!

Left 4 Dead 2 – 2 Soon?

Published on June 3, 2009 in Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Yesterday a pretty cool looking trailer for Left 4 Dead 2 was released by Valve. The game looks great, but is it too soon for a sequel? It doesn’t seem like long ago that the original game was released and I feel like it could have been supported post-release with more downloadable content such as more maps and scenarios (I think it would be fair to charge for this, I wouldn’t expect it for free).

As for the original characters – I hope that they are still available. People become accustomed to using a certain character and it would be a shame for this to be missing. I guess this depends on how far the sequel strays from the original formula, will it be more of the same or taking the game in a new direction? Lets hope for a shopping mall episode, that is one movie cliche they can’t afford to miss this time.

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Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – Physics Glitch

Published on May 3, 2009 in Games. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

I spotted this glitch whilst playing through Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on the PS3. The piece of rubble appears to be stuck within the level geometry. This probably happened due to a collision detection issue, perhaps the rubble accelerated to such a fast velocity (caused by an explosion) that it passed through the world geometry before a collision could be detected.

One solution to fix this might to be impose a maximum velocity limit that ensures objects won’t pass through the world geometry. If this functionality is already in place, the limit might need lowering.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/JtpIhj2AEYA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]