Particle System XNA and C#

Hey guys. Thought I'd show you a video of some of my XNA work.
This is a 2D particle system that is essentially an emitter controlled by a mouse which shoots out particles. The particles themselves can have any image you want on them, right now they're generic circles.

Hey guys!
My, my, it's been a long time.
But then again, I guess it's a good thing because it shows I've been busy or at least so lazy that I've been disregarding my most favorite of blogspots! (You decide, my devoted non-fans!)

Anyway, I thought I'd make a little re-introduction / summary of what's been going on.

I'm Corwin VanHook, a budding game developer and programmer going to school at Westwood College in Los Angeles, California. I love playing video games, and I love that feeling of playing god, to some extent, when you create a world that behaves in new and exciting ways. I really love learning more and more about how to make games, and I'm doing my best in my spare time to better myself in that respect, so I hope I'll live up to my expectations of myself.

So I've been at Westwood for a little bit over a year now, and what do I think? Well primarily I've done almost all my general-education, and I'm a third of the way to a Bachelor's degree. Most of my class-time hasn't really regarded my craft thus far, but I'm now taking an intermediate programming class and my schedule looks to be full of primarily 'core' classes (that means all the things regarding what I love).

I've gotten a chance to really make my console programming skills solid, and exercise my skills regarding some 2D game engines (see Torque Game Builder (TGB, T2D)). I've also made some good friends, some of which will be graduating shortly, and it saddens me to see them go after I've barely known them, many of which are (or are going to be) very good programmers and designers.

I've made contacts in the industry through Westwood's inaugural 2D game competition several months ago, and also through Jason Seabaugh, who was the artist on S.P.I.D.E.R. (Jason now works at 7Studios, along with a programmer friend of mine, Tyrus Alexander!).

So all in all, school has been an exciting thing for me. I've had a lot of time to do a lot of cool things and I'm only 19.

On the programming side, I've just now started to make the jump to 3D game programming. It's really a daunting task, and I'm using Microsoft's XNA to soften the blow a little bit and help me understand core concepts better. With no one to really teach me the fundamentals of 3D right now, it's a little bit difficult, but it tastes all the sweeter.


Here's an example of my first 3D renderring (found the dinosaur on turbo squid's free section). A symbol of one of my first triumps in the area ;P


On other fronts, my brother just graduated LA Film School and finished his directorial debut with his thesis project: A Warrior's Death. It'll be on youtube shortly, and I'll let you all know.

I promise to post relatively soon with more 3D updates and all that goodness.
Write at you later,
~Corwin

Animoto Video

Game Competition update

Hey guys. I know I haven't updated in a while. I've been crunching with my team mates on getting SPIDER finished. I presented last week, even though we hadn't completed the game. The awards ceremony for the competition was on friday, and the judges (who are all very cool people in the industry) recognized our work. We were the only game who got recognized, out of the 3 or 4 games which didn't finish and still presented.

I'm really really happy with how everything played out. Even though we didn't have a complete game at that point, we were stil able to present what hard work we did put into it. And we are definitely continuing development of SPIDER.

As for the judges, they were John Say (of Say Design), Dave Kosak (of Fileplanet/Gamespy), and Dave Perry (Countless AAA game titles). It's been a huge honor to get feedback from these guys, who generously devoted their time to judging the competition.

And as for the game, when it's complete, we're going to start distributing it. Here's a gameplay screenshot:

I'm going into shock...

Have I mentioned how incredibly excited I am about BioShock? This game looks incredible to me, and 1up just released a 20 minute sort-of behind-the-scenes look here: 1up BioShock Special. This thing is definitely worth watching, it has some cool insights into the story of the game, and how it was developed. A game like this just says volumes with it's atmosphere, go check out the video guys. :D.

c0de m0nkeying around

Spent a large chunk of my day programming with guys from school. We're rushing to finish our project which is technically due on thursday. While I should've been sleeping just moments ago, my thoughts kept drifting to the code, coming up with solutions for specific problems we're facing. I'm sure this is the classic fight, a fight against resources. You can solve any problem with enough time, most likely. Ah well.

I'll be able to share with you all soon. I'm tremendously excited, but really taxed at the moment, so bare with me. I'm hoping you'll all have fun playing our game :).

How can any gamer not get excited? It's StarCraft 2!

Alright, so I wasn't ever a hardcore StarCraft fan, but it's one of those games you could just go back to over and over again. It has a lot going for it in simple replayability. User made maps added a whole new dimension. It was one of the games that brought RTSs into the main-stream, and changed the gaming landscape.

So... yesterday, when StarCraft 2 was announced in South Korea, people went nuts. Apparently it's being designed by Dustin Browder (known for some pretty high profile RTSs like LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth II, and C&C: Red Alert 2), so there's a lot going for it.

There's a couple of things I want to mention-- first of all, the videos and screenshots for SC2 look amazing, but I'm not seeing a lot to say "This is a new StarCraft". It's almost as if they're content with remaking StarCraft and graphically overhauling it. Well, we can only hope that gameplay will be drastically different, while maintaining what made it great.

Second of all, upon watching the gameplay & art trailer on their website (www.starcraft2.com if you're interested) something occured to me. Some of the art looks a lot like they're working on expanding the world to not just encompass StarCraft2, the RTS. Is a "World of Starcraft" in the works? It sure makes sense. Blizzard's made more money than god on WoW, maybe WoS is the next step. It might not be out for a few more years, but that's fine. The release of WC3 with WoW was very similar, and we'll see where it goes next.

I am awake. Alan Wake. I am A. Wake.

(Click the picture to see full-res version)

I wanted to talk a bit more about what could be my most anticipated game in the coming months, Alan Wake. A.Wake is being developed by Remedy Entertainment, a Finnish company which is well known for it's atmospheric action-packed Max Payne series. It's being described as a 'Psycological Action Thriller' about a horror author who visits the small town of Bright Falls in an attempt to cure his insomnia. Alan's nightmares come back but this time, they're in the real world and they're after him. There's a lot of depth story-wise, including a mysterious woman who proved to be Alan's inspiration. All that's well-and-good, and I can't wait to experience what's sure to be an excellent story... but:

Here's the kicker. This game is going to be entirely free-roam, and in a huge environment resembling the American North-West. Hmm, GTA: The Shining?

Here's a video of what Remedy's got so far. Yeah, most of it's a demonstration to sell people on Intel, but the video is rather impressive regardless. Give it a look, it's worth your time.

An update, and this year's great games.

Hey everyone. Been busy with all that good school stuff ;D. Although none of my classes include programming just yet, I've been getting busy with some of the guys at school. We're developing a unique 2D-puzzle game for the Westwood College SoCal game competition. I'm really proud to be working on it, and I wish I could share some screens but I don't think it'd be prudent ;D. Don't worry, I'll post all of the information once it's finished (we're shooting for the end of May).

Last month (seems like forever ago) we visted GDC in San Francisco. What a wonderful way to get yourself energized about the industry you wanna work in? We got to meet a lot of cool people and do some cool stuff (especially with Microsoft's XNA). I can't wait to go again next year.

And now to the main chunk of this post.. I sit here thinking to myself: Man, there are a lot of awesome-looking games coming out by the end of the year (hopefully). Let's run through 'em.



Bioshock (Irrational Games)
Man, does this game look awesome. Just exploring the flooded, art-deco interiors will be a treat for me. Crazy water-effects, creepy and interesting A.I. and character design make it look way better. I can't wait to dive-in.




Alan Wake (Remedy Entertainment)
This has got to be one of the most underbuzzed game this year. Alan Wake looks kind of like Silent Hill meets GTA: Next Gen. Awesome atmosphere combined with that go-anywhere style gameplay everyone seems to dig. Plus it's the guys who did the Max Payne games. Favorites of mine, to be sure :).




Mass Effect (BioWare Corp.)
New, next-generation space-epic trilogy from the makers of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Just I, not II)! Can you say OMIGODZ? For sure, I know you can. Because, if you're like my friends and I, you can't wait for this freakin' game to come out. I don't think I need to say any more...


Alright, sure. There are other games coming out, big hyped ones too (Halo 3 anyone?). But these are the big three. And more are gonna come along. I'll post new stuff I find interesting about these in the future.

See you around.