*games are listed in reverse-chronological order*
Schoonover Center for Communications: Office Chair RacingSCC: OCR was completed in early June, 2009.
(or SCC for short) is a networked multi-player arcade style racing game in which player characters, representing all of Ohio University's Communication majors, compete against one another around the (yet to be built in real life) Schoonover Center for Communication. Players compete for 3 laps each race, jockeying for position and tossing character specific projectiles to impede their opponent's progress.
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| Altered Lighting (not in game) |
At the beginning of the project I was tasked with creating 3D interiors and 2D textures based on rough architectural sketches. At that time I did not have any Maya experience and only marginal Photoshop knowledge. The lack of experience and knowledge did not a deterrence. I was able to pick-up and learn the basics of Maya and Unity quickly as well as pushing my Photoshop knowledge further.
After completion of the game I felt that I had developed a good working knowledge of Maya and Photoshop and was able to produce very low poly interior meshes. I was also able to design and create assets for the in-game HUD and menu screens. This game also introduced me to the asset pipeline and flexibility of the Unity game engine -- the fourth engine I have used in development.
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| Main Menu |
While I am glad that I worked on this project, and used it as a great personal and technical learning experience. I feel that the quality of the assets that I produced could have been much higher. Time spent learning is often time taken from asset creation and iteration. In my opinion this was a detriment to the overall graphics quality of the game.
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| In Game |
This game was built in Unity, models were created in Maya, textures in Photoshop.
SCC: Office Chair Racing boasts 8 playable characters (with individual projectiles), 3 race tracks, and a fast passed arcade feel.
Blazar Blazar was completed in November, 2008 and can be played at www.PlayBlazar.com
SCC: Office Chair Racing boasts 8 playable characters (with individual projectiles), 3 race tracks, and a fast passed arcade feel.
Blazar Blazar was completed in November, 2008 and can be played at www.PlayBlazar.com
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| Main Menu |
Blazar was started as an independent student project which culminated with a submission to The Independent Games Festival in 2009 as a web based Flash game. Our Team started out large in the design phase but shrank down to six main developers by the end of the project.
Nearly all members of the team, including myself, did not have any previous Flash experience. After teaching myself the basics of Flash art creation, I dove into prototyping many different styles and iterating on the ones we found most interesting. Many of the final objects and animations chosen were my assets including the gas cloud, meteor, asteroid, planet, and galaxy. I was also able to develop and implement the transitions between levels that serve to inform the player before each new wave of enemies. This was a challenge for me because I had zero experience in animation or ActionScript3. I also took on the process of editing, mixing and refining the recorded sound effects that were used in the final game.
Nearly all members of the team, including myself, did not have any previous Flash experience. After teaching myself the basics of Flash art creation, I dove into prototyping many different styles and iterating on the ones we found most interesting. Many of the final objects and animations chosen were my assets including the gas cloud, meteor, asteroid, planet, and galaxy. I was also able to develop and implement the transitions between levels that serve to inform the player before each new wave of enemies. This was a challenge for me because I had zero experience in animation or ActionScript3. I also took on the process of editing, mixing and refining the recorded sound effects that were used in the final game.
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| Level 2 Intro |
Upon completion of Blazar we submitted the final build to The Independent Games Festival, but sadly we were not chosen as one of the finalists. Regaurdless of this fact, I enjoyed the rapid iteration times and team bond we were able to establish during production. I feel that the most rewarding parts of the process were being able to keep the visual style consistent across our four artists, as well as being able to work closely with the programming team to develop the code that runs the transitions between levels.
Blazar was entered into the 2009 IGF (Independent Games Festival), but was not recognized in the festival. BUT it was covered on Hak 5 coverage of IGF 2009! (time stamp: ≈ 30:45 - 31:38). (its a long video).
Chromatica Chromatica was finished in early June, 2008. Game info and download can be found at www.chromaticaGame.com
Chromatica was the first team project of which I was a part. The team consisted of 19 students, the first and largest team in Ohio University's game development major. Chromatica was built in the sprite based Torque Game Builder engine using TorqueScript.
Blazar was entered into the 2009 IGF (Independent Games Festival), but was not recognized in the festival. BUT it was covered on Hak 5 coverage of IGF 2009! (time stamp: ≈ 30:45 - 31:38). (its a long video).
Chromatica Chromatica was finished in early June, 2008. Game info and download can be found at www.chromaticaGame.com
Chromatica was the first team project of which I was a part. The team consisted of 19 students, the first and largest team in Ohio University's game development major. Chromatica was built in the sprite based Torque Game Builder engine using TorqueScript.
When I joined the project in the 3rd month (of a 6 month) production cycle I was asked to create narrative based cut-scenes. This was a large task because of the volume of story-line that precedes gameplay. At the start of my work on the game there was a mountain of story written but none of it had been implemented. The team was worried that the player would be confused without introducing at least some of the narrative before dumping the player into the game.
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| Game Play |
I was able to assist in recording voiceovers of the dialog, assemble character and environment assets, alter them for cut-scene use and animate them in time to the dialog. I also worked in a skip feature to allow players to skip through the cut-scenes (much to my displeasure, after spending so much time and effort on the cut-scenes, I wanted people to see them, but I understand why it had to be done).
I also was able to assist one of the artists in implementing the main menu system. One of the main UI artists had iterated on main menu design for a while, but the programmers were busy getting the game to run (consistently) and implementing enemy and boss behavior. So I was able to set up the assets and the framework of the menu system and then handed it off to the programming team to fully implement.
I also was able to assist one of the artists in implementing the main menu system. One of the main UI artists had iterated on main menu design for a while, but the programmers were busy getting the game to run (consistently) and implementing enemy and boss behavior. So I was able to set up the assets and the framework of the menu system and then handed it off to the programming team to fully implement.
I am satisfied with my ability to come on late, get up to speed quickly, and take features (that most likely would not have been implemented) from the "would be nice to have" list to the "in and done" list. I must thank the other members of the team who were willing to give me a crash course of TorqueScript for the 2D engine. I had worked in Torque Game Engine (their older 3D engine) and had used TorqueScript to implement some gameplay elements, but there are fairly distinct differences on how each engine handles the scripting language. Without them I would not have been able to be as productive as I was.
In hindsight, I would have liked to have constructed more cut-scene specific art assets myself, but considering the time constraints, I feel that I did the best I could have with the limitations that I had been given.
