Games
In Summer 2008, I was a Software Engineering Intern at Maxis (EA). I worked on a recently announced Spore franchise project implementing camera controls, graphical features, AI improvements, and generally whatever odds and ends were necessary.
Additionally, I worked on four student games during my time in Ithaca. In order from latest to earliest, they are:
Comet: Fall 2007, XNA 2.0 (C#)
Role: Gameplay Programmer
Three things you should know about Comet:
- It was originally titled Coma. I stand by my position that Coma is a far sweeter name.
- It is pretty to look at. Don Holden is responsible.
- It is pretty fun to play (at least I think so). I’m partly responsible (though not totally)
It’s an arcade-style abstract shooter where the player controls a sentient comet and tries to expel mechanized invaders from the galaxy. It had two programmers: Don implemented graphical features while I put much of the gameplay, enemy AI, and enemy fog dynamics. Since the game’s main target platform was the Xbox 360, please note that it requires a fairly new graphics card for smooth gameplay on the PC. More screenshots are available on Facebook.
As far as gameplay innovation goes, it’s nothing huge. Chelsea had wider plans for adaptive difficulty and suchlike, but the time constraints and team size kept it down. I’m happy with what we accomplished in a semester 
.
STAGE IV: Spring 2008, XNA 2.0 (C#)
Role: Programmer, Designer, and umm… err… Writer *groan*
So… Stage IV. It was my personal project. The one I really wanted to do. When asked, I usually describe it as “a puzzle-less adventure game”, but that probably gives some false hopes. Maybe a better description would be a “a series of unfortunate mouse clicks”. It’s one of those games about which you say “Well, it’s not really a game, per se”. There’s a mostly-linear story concerning a man diagnosed with cancer, which already has progressed to the titular stage IV, also known as the “BANG! You’re dead!” phase. You play the role of one of four characters and progress your part of the story by choosing what you’d like to say. At any time, you can change character and see how the story goes from another perspective. Your choices of what to say impact how other characters react to you over the course of the story.
The idea sounded good in theory, but eh… I dunno about the result. The visual look I think worked out great. Sarah Brown, the artist/photographer in our group/pair, used live photographs that were composited together at runtime to create the fancy-sounding “dynamic scene”. On the other hand, the writing, done by yours truly, would likely be somewhere between abysmal and juvenile. And it came out more linear than I’d hoped, with your choices really meaning only so much.
Conversely, it taught me a fair bit about interactive stories, dealing with (relatively) large amounts of XML data, writing a GUI editor; and I can fairly say that every bit of the game programming (bugs and all) was my own doing. That counts for something, right?
I’m a bit afraid to say it now, but it was based on my own life experiences in Summer and Fall of 2006, in which my own dad fell victim to stage IV esophageal cancer.
MUSIC MONSTERS: Spring 2007, XNA 1.0 (C#)
Role: Gameplay Programmer
A fancy concept that… well… got halfway there . A platformer with a unique twist on skill growth. Chelsea Howe acted as designer. Essentially, she wanted a game where you could play music to the game in order to grow your avatar creature’s skills for the platforming levels. I was mostly responsible for the “play music to the game” part, so if you don’t like the music lab part, well, you know who to blame. Do you need to play “music”? Heck no… it feels a bit lost if you’re a mature player. However, I’ve noted that it’s pretty fun for tykes, at least when I was there to help them along. During one demo, they really began to understand how they could level up specific attributes. Magic, yah? Making the game was tons of fun, and I’ve no regrets for doing it.
The atmosphere is, IMO, quite excellent. Dr. DeMinor, FTW!
GUARDIN’ THE GARDEN: Fall 2006, GameX (C++)
Role: Gameplay and Some Systems Programmer
My first real-deal game. A “casual” strategy game in which you place various defenses about your garden in order to defeat an onslaught of pests. Probably the only game I’ve worked on so far that I’d classify as “fun” (that is, if you’ve been around on Earth for over 8 years; if not, see Music Monsters . Not exactly balanced perfectly (hint: scarecrows), but I found myself playing it a lot during development, which is always a good sign, right?
Developed using the old-as-time-itself GameX engine, it also got me acquainted with C++ and non-managed memory. Luckily, I was able to let my freshly bought knowledge fall into disuse for a year and a half after this project before suddenly needing it again to work on Spore! Gadzooks.
