Dev Time: 72 Hours (competition)
Goal:
Design a game based around the magnet theme that used innoative controls.
No pre-exsisting code allowed.
The project got off to a good start. The main problems involved doing ISO metric rending the traditional way and the controls. While the classic rock-paper-scissor mechanic works the pace of the game seems to confuse people. In the end from a gameplay perspective the project was not a success but I feel in terms of control and isometic art I learned a lot.
Space Invaders on 68k
Dev Time: Over Three Weeks while involved with other work
Goal: To Learn 68000 asm
Not wanting to spend hours in the realtime lab before I understood the langauge I used Easy68k to familize myself with 68k ASM. The project slowly built up. I had to remember the old way to draw sprites and I had some creative whitespace and memory stomping errors. In the end the project was a success. I didn't add sound simply because the Easy68k sound was not old school or anything like the real thing.
The next project was Pong on the real target machine. This project has helped me loads but it is more fun on the real hardware where I can use a pedometer and timer interupts.
Car Crash
Dev Time: Overnight
Goal: Maths Assignment, simulate the slope problem with two cars
This was a simple maths project to simulate the car crash problem. I added some functionality to our program by drawing the graphs, being able to adjust the varibles some realtime and others in the config file. Our simulation also had a data mode which outputs to a CSV file.
The project was with Emma Morton and Jason Earl. Jason did some Ruby sims and Emma did most of our documentation.
Checkers
Dev Time: Overnight
Goal: A teaching aid for my podcast and friends. Some friends needed help with a Solitaire project so I devolped the Checkers game to teach them the concepts. I then used it in an episode of my podcast to illustrate the conversation.
The project was a quick and simple demonstration. One of the key concepts I was illustrating was keeping your game seperate from the API. To this end there is a second console version see console.cpp which works as well as the PTK implementaion.
Maggiz
Dev Time: Weekend
Goal: Devolp a Game around the Theme attraction. No pre-exsisting code allowed.
The first weekend of code was a bit crazy. The weekend is something I run for Northumbria and others to make a game in a weekend. This theme was randomly selected but it did let me draw from 72 Magnets failures and make a better project. The concept worked but I lost some valuable time on organising the competition. The Ready State is also map editing mode which I left in. This is the current prototype being used from my Game Cube project.
Conways Game of Life
Dev Time: Overnight
Goal: Demonstrate the Game of Life for my podcast
AI is possible the thing that gets me most excited with computers. Emegent behaviour is why magnets, physics, simulation, and simple games facinate me. Anything where I can see behaaviour not intended by the creator is a joy. The code for this project was trivial but the project itself focus on my passions.
Pong on Flight 68000
Dev Time: Five Weeks
Goal: Learn Flight 68k
Programmed in Flight 68000 Assembler as a method of learning low level game architecture. Made use of low level timer interrupts and interface to potentiometer. Display through Minicom on Linux terminal.
Raiders of the Lost Block
Dev Time: Weekend
Goal: Devolp a game based around the 1 button joystick
The second weekend of code shows the competition can improve and get more people involved. I made a edgy call in deciding to learn and use chipmunk (a 2d physics simulator) in a weekend. I had never used a physics API before thinking they are too big for little games but this was the perfect match. The goal was making a game where you navigated around by stick to things.
The failure of the game in two parts, firstly using a new tool in "crunch" and secondly fixating on a little problem involving going around corners and the lack of ray casting tests in chipmunk. While it impacted the game I learned a lot from it and I'm currently using chipmunk more and plan on looking at 3d physics sims such as bullet I the near future. I learned a lot from this little project.
I hope to revisit the idea at a later date.
Roids
Dev Time: Overnight
Goal: A simple class exercise for space invaders
A simple class exercise. I used it to test some different methods of controling the ship.
Sand Trap
Dev Time: 48 Hours
Goal: Devolp a game based around swarms in a limited time peroid. No pre-exsisting code allowed.
My first use of PTK a 2D API I have come to love for its simple realibility. The game was also my first limited time devolpment entry into a competition like LD48 or GDC72. I focused on getting a complete entry and succeed. In retrospect the idea would have worked better in 3D as I could have used surface deformation to make the worms.
Strange Attractors
Dev Time: Very quick
Goal: Test some swarming behaviour with the mouse
A little test written shortly after the Sand Trap game on a different way of doing swarm behaviour.
Maze Game
Dev Time: 2 Days
Goal: University Assignment, make a projet using 5 design patterns
The project was around design patterns and was boring. So a Rheno Lindique and I decided instead to make a game which would generate an n-th dimensional maze and use design patterns. The algorithim works for single solution n-th dimensional mazes but we limited it to 2 for the game. The design patterns needed to be shoe-horned in but we found a valid use for most of them. The project however did not finish despite large amounts of coffee. Despite the lecturer failing us, we managed to later over turn it for an A. One of the few bits of code I managed to retrieve (through a friend) from my South Africa days. Uses SDL as it needed to demo on Linux.