About
My name is Ben Humberston, and I’m currently a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. I came here to study computer science, but I’ve since fallen in love with game development. I love a lot of games today, but I, like many others, believe that games need to expand past their current genres in order to gain cultural worth. Not that I want to bash every game out today, but I’d say a good 9/10 of all the “hardcore” games you see today are the electronic game equivalent of Mountain Dew 
.
I’ve worked on 4 student game projects during my stay in Ithaca:
- Fall 2006: Guardin’ the Garden: Role: Gameplay programmer. Description: RTS-lite title where the player uses hoses, scarecrows, and other silly defenses to fight back attacking waves of pests. Designed by committee… no but in a good way! The original concept was Sean Francis-Lyon’s, but pretty much everybody on the team helped flesh it out.
- Spring 2007: Music Monsters: Role: Gameplay programmer. Description: Experimental music-platformer where the player uses musical input via their keyboard to influence their critter avatar’s abilities. Designed by Chelsea Howe. I was mainly responsible for the “Music Lab” implementation.
- Spring 2008: Stage IV: Role: Programmer, writer, designer. Description: Experiment in interactive storytelling with the aim of creating a game that addressed the difficult subject of a family death due to cancer. Based on my dad’s own death from cancer in Fall 2006, I’m not sure whether I’m glad or sad I made it yet. I’m glad to have “expressed” my feelings about his death in my own way; on the other hand, the game design and writing aren’t what you’d call world-class stuff. Looked great, though, in my opinion, with the photographic art style. “Designed”, and I do use that term loosely, by yours truly, with art (visual and audible) by Sarah Brown. Should be up on the GDIAC gallery sooner or later…
- Fall 2008: Comet: Role: Gameplay programmer. Description: Arcade-style abstract shooter where the player controls a sentient comet and tries to expel mechanized invaders from the galaxy. Designed by Chelsea Howe, with art by Joyce Lee and art by Matt Whaley. This project had two programmers: my partner implemented graphical features while I put together much of the gameplay, enemy AI, and enemy fog dynamics. Since the game’s main target platform was the Xbox 360, it requires a fairly new graphics card for smooth play.
In Summer 2008, I was in CA and worked an excellent 12 weeks for an internship on EA/Maxis’s SPORE.
I’m graduating in May 2009, and lord knows what I’ll be doing after that just yet. I’m hoping to find a job soon.
