Friday, March 14, 2008
Kung Fu Game Work In Progress
Video of my Kung Fu Action game so far. Working on some basic gameplay elements, as I continue developing and polishing, I'll show you some more. I really hope to polish it up and get some real art in there.
Forgive the programmer art for now, please :)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Programmer's Demo Reel
L: What makes a programmer, Mr. Lebowski? Is it.. knowing how to implement design choices?
Dude: Sure.. that and a keyboard.
I've cut together a sort of programmer's demo reel to show people while at GDC and further propagate the legend that is Corwin VanHook ;P. I think it turned out rather nicely. It drags in a couple of places but I think it's slightly justified by the fact that it is supposed to show technical prowess and not necessarily my artistic skills. We'll see when youtube gets it's act together and lets you view it. Let me know what you think!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Electric Lies
I hope everyone's doing alright out there, ;P. I haven't been quite as productive as I would've hoped but I feel a little bit like I'm off of my usual beaten path when it comes to programming and game development. Away from tutorials and engine structure articles, I'm in the thick of it and I have to figure out how to really make a game. Lately I've been messing around with getting a 2D character on the screen and triggering (+ playing) its animations correctly. I'm kind of gearing up for a playable prototype. Soon I'd like to have my character punch and kick with real collision boxes that work correctly and cause an enemy to react effectively.
But while this is my current major project (a 2D Sidescroller / Brawler I'm working on with my current Engine), I want to make sure I provide for the club as well and run an above average project over the next month. Why? GDC, my friends. Game Developer's Conference is coming up and there is much to do. The Westwood Game Development Club (basically me) is attempting to lead and finish a group project designed for its providing members to show off at the conference. If anything, it's a way to get people to notice you at the conference.
Well-- I'm about to collapse. I stayed up too late watching LOST (addictive show, I might add). Good night and good luck.
But while this is my current major project (a 2D Sidescroller / Brawler I'm working on with my current Engine), I want to make sure I provide for the club as well and run an above average project over the next month. Why? GDC, my friends. Game Developer's Conference is coming up and there is much to do. The Westwood Game Development Club (basically me) is attempting to lead and finish a group project designed for its providing members to show off at the conference. If anything, it's a way to get people to notice you at the conference.
Well-- I'm about to collapse. I stayed up too late watching LOST (addictive show, I might add). Good night and good luck.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Well, my last school term ended on the 20th, we had a LAN party on the 21st (7 hours of Crysis.. we had other games, we just didn't want to play them. Omigod hand-held tactical nukes.) and I turned off my brain for christmas. After the new-year, though, I renewed my programming addiction and made a little pong clone fairly quickly with the 2D Game Engine I'm building.
Since then I've decided to continue to improve my game engine. Today I've added a game state (or screen) management system. The base "screen" for this system encapsulates all of my engine in it, so that whenever you want to make a new game you can: Derive from it, make a new object associated with a texture, and add that object to "MyObjectManager". After that, you're golden, it auto updates and draws itself.
It's pretty cool since now I've implemented a simple pause menu into my game as proof that simple menu systems can be created very quickly and easily, allowing for even more polish in a quicker amount of time. If there's anything that impresses people more than explosions (aka particle effects ;P) it's polish.
So as I continue to work on learning games and figuring out how to do certain things, the goals that I accomplish may not particularly excite anyone who isn't acquainted with the challenges. However, when all my accomplishments come with a nice menu system and a little chrome (that doesn't take time away from developing the core), people will (hopefully) be more receptive.
I think it's a funny coincidence that I used to want to be a chef, and now I'm a programmer, mixing ingredients in a different way. In essence, I'm talking about Presentation.
In any case, the next term is starting-- I've got to organize events over the next couple of months to keep the club running and active, preparing for the Game Development Competition my school holds in March, and we all have GDC to look forward on Feb. 22nd! I'm very excited, things are getting interesting-- that's for sure.
Since then I've decided to continue to improve my game engine. Today I've added a game state (or screen) management system. The base "screen" for this system encapsulates all of my engine in it, so that whenever you want to make a new game you can: Derive from it, make a new object associated with a texture, and add that object to "MyObjectManager". After that, you're golden, it auto updates and draws itself.
It's pretty cool since now I've implemented a simple pause menu into my game as proof that simple menu systems can be created very quickly and easily, allowing for even more polish in a quicker amount of time. If there's anything that impresses people more than explosions (aka particle effects ;P) it's polish.
So as I continue to work on learning games and figuring out how to do certain things, the goals that I accomplish may not particularly excite anyone who isn't acquainted with the challenges. However, when all my accomplishments come with a nice menu system and a little chrome (that doesn't take time away from developing the core), people will (hopefully) be more receptive.
I think it's a funny coincidence that I used to want to be a chef, and now I'm a programmer, mixing ingredients in a different way. In essence, I'm talking about Presentation.
In any case, the next term is starting-- I've got to organize events over the next couple of months to keep the club running and active, preparing for the Game Development Competition my school holds in March, and we all have GDC to look forward on Feb. 22nd! I'm very excited, things are getting interesting-- that's for sure.
Friday, December 7, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
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
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
Sunday, September 2, 2007
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