Super Adventure Land 3D has been infiltrated by a deadly virus, and it's up to you to purge it out of the system! Pixel Trouble is a 3D Platformer, set within the world of a retro adventure game environment. Taking control of the debugger Stream McFluffy, the player must construct platforms with his Pixel Gun to navigate around the levels, and must destroy all of the Corruption Cores in order to get rid of the virus once and for all!
Pixel Trouble was the final product that emerged from Ubisoft Acadamia, a semester-long prototyping competition that pitted 7 universities against each other, followed by the unification of the participants to make a complete game out of the winning team's prototype. It was developed over the span of 34 days with a team of 24 students, under the guidance of Ubisoft. The theme of the game was 'Corruption', and it was made using the Unreal Development Kit.
Primary Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer
Secondary Roles: AI Behavioural Design, AI Programming, Pathfinding Integration, Narration & Dialogue
As a member of the design team, my responsibilities were to establish the rules, mechanics, and objectives of the game, and to use those conditions to create scenarios and environments that would allow the player to progress through the game in an intuitive, fun, and sufficiently challenging fashion. I was in charge of designing the enemy mechanics and behaviour patterns, as well as devising combat-oriented scenarios.
On top of that, I was also responsible for integrating the pathfinding for all of the AI in the game, using Unrealscript and UDK's Navmesh tools. I also implemented the Flying Enemy's AI behaviour patterns using Unrealscript.
You can download the full version of the game here.
Facteur Geek Review: 8/10
In a high security prison, it's hard enough to stay alive, let alone maintain your self respect! Such is the case for Michael, a newly admitted convict framed for crimes he did not commit. Over his tenure in the Panopticon, he uncovers pieces of information that slowly shape the full picture of that which he was set up for. Fueled by his desire to find out the truth, he progressively becomes resentful, cruel, and conniving. The character learns to assimilate and form relationships with other inmates, and over time grows more secure in his environment. The prison is dysfunctional and does not encourage growth; it is a perpetual war, generated by the inmates' desire for power.
Panopticon is a point-and-click puzzle game, where the player must successfully integrate themselves within the prison's social hierarchy, gather information, piece clues together, and interact with the environment around them to overcome obstacles. It draws many gameplay elements from Monkey Island, while establishing an atmosphere heavily inspired by the prison themed TV series Oz.
This project was created as an entry for the Ubisoft Acadamia competition, which spanned over the duration of one semester. It was simultaneously completed as a Computer Science Project class for Concordia with a team of 5 people, consisting of Kirsty Beaton, Anton Kai Michels, Zoe Briscoe, Nicolas Cattanéo, and myself. It was made using the Unreal Development Kit.
Primary Roles: Gameplay Programmer, Level Designer
Secondary Roles: Localization Programming, Sound Integration, Lighting
In order to design the layout for Panopticon, I did thorough research on prison architectures and individual room layouts, to best establish the scale and believability required for our game. I created the main cell area and the washroom/showers. I also scripted various portions of the level to create the main quest line.
Alongside that, I also created a system that permitted the player to interact with objects and NPCs. It allowed us to provide the player with a rich environment to examine, and plenty of characters to talk to. All of the dialogues in the game were localized independently to improve modularity and maintenance.
On December 21st, 2012, the Mayan Calendar had predicted the fall of mankind. The worldwide cultural change to tree-eating vegetarianism combined with overpopulation had caused a race of sentient plant beings to rise and eradicate humans from the earth. To these new beings, we are simply a faded memory.
Today is the 12th day of the 21st month, in the year 2024. The Papayan calendar has now expired, and an ancient race of vegetable eating human zombies have been summoned by a mysterious group of Necromancers, to reclaim what is rightfully theirs!
Vegetable Wars is a 3D person Beat 'Em Up game which draws many gameplay inspirations from the Gauntlet series. The player takes control of a sentient bell pepper to fight off various Necromancers from its neighbourhood. Hordes of zombies stand in the player's path, however, with tombstones constantly reinforcing their numbers. This project was done with a team of 4 as an assignment for an Advanced Game Development class, consisting of Yu-Shang "Daniel" Lin, Kyle Chan Thim, Christopher Gee, and myself.
Primary Role: Tools Programmer
In order to facilitate content creation for Vegetable Wars, I created a map editor using Microsoft Windows Application Forms and XNA. It provides map size modification, terrain elevation/depression/flattening (using an aesthetic approach similar to SimCity), texture painting and rotation, and object placement. Additionally, it allows the removal or modification of placed objects, such as movement, rotation, and scaling. Maps made within the editor can be saved and loaded, and are compatible with the Vegetable Wars game.
I also implemented the collision detection and resolution within the game, constructing a Bounding Volume Hierarchy to handle NPC-to-Map collision, and using Sweeping and Pruning to handle NPC-to-NPC collision.
You can download the game here (requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0 libraries installed to run).
You can read the technical document here.
Redneck Resistance is a First Person On-Rails Shooter. The player takes control of a misinformed farmer hellbent on eradicating a race of peaceful visiting aliens before they rustle his chickens and drink his moonshine! The game takes many inspirations from Time Crisis, where the player must use his cover to dodge the aliens' attacks and reload, and reveal himself to shoot them down, but follows an art style that pays homage to Redneck Rampage.
The simplicity of the game's mechanics make it easy to pick up and play right away, yet the unpredictability of the combat locations, enemy behaviors, and enemy formations, coupled with a changeable difficulty setting, provides an adequate challenge to skilled players as well. The fast paced action-arcade style tests the player’s reflexes and aiming, and prove to be a nostalgic breath of fresh air. This project was done with a team of 3 as an assignment for an Introductory Game Development class, consisting of Christopher Gee, Yu-Shang "Daniel" Lin, and myself. The game is fully compatible with and deployable on an Xbox 360.
Yeehaw!
Primary Role: Gameplay Programmer
Secondary Role: Level Designer
Redneck Resistance was a really fun project to make! I was responsible for nearly all of the programming, including Animation, Raycasting, Collision Detection and Resolution, Menus, AI, and general Gameplay rules and logic. My approach was heavily object-oriented to maximize code reuse.
You can download the game here (requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and Microsoft XNA Framework 4.0 libraries installed to run).
You can read the game design document here.
Dodge This! is a Ninjas vs. Pirates themed dodge ball game, compatible for the Windows 7 Phone. Players may swipe towards the enemy to toss a ball, swipe away from the enemy to dodge, and switch between different teammates. It was created with a team of 4 aspiring game developers, consisting of Nico Corsale, Kam-Shang "Joe" Yip, Denis Maniti, and myself.
Dodge This! was a contest entry for the Great Canadian Appathon, a Canada-wide game development competition hosted by XMG Studio Inc. The contest stipulated that each team had only 48 hours to complete the game, that the game had to be developed on a mobile device, and that it had to follow the theme of 'Sports'.
Primary Role: Gameplay Programmer
I was responsible for programming multiple elements, including camera movement, character control, gameplay rules, and swipe to dodge. This was my first attempt at making an actual 'game', and it taught me many lessons on the importance of planning and team synchronization.