About me
I got a diploma in IT in 2004 (92/100) and I graduated in IT applied to Music in 2008 (105/110).
I worked for almost one year for a bank as AS/400 developer and then in March 2009 moved to Ireland.
I worked as QA Language Tester, my first job in the video game industry. After that amazing experience, I decided then to apply for he MsC in Digital Games here at DIT.
Programming is always been a passion rather than a school subject, as well as music. I’m deeping into C++, C#, Java and scripting languages (LUA and Python). I also have a good knowledge of Web development (HTML, Php, CSS, Javascript, MySQL) and I’m exploring open source software under Linux for music production.
theEnigmaComplex
Yes, unfortunately the MsC is coming to and end and this will be our last project. We’re working on a multi-player adventure game, called theEnigmaComplex. Checkout our Facebook page, our blog or our official website for the latest updates.
Tunepal.org
I’ve been asked to work on the new version of tunepal.org. I’d like to thanks Bryan once more for taking me on yet another great project. Lots of Php, Java and MySQL.
Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2010
I’d really like to thanks Bryan for bringing me into Nikola’s project ImagiNote. We won the Irish finals and we represented Ireland at the world finals in Warsaw, Poland.
Glendalough
I was chosen to be the lead designer for one of the projects for the second semester: it consists of recreating a virtual real looking representation of Glendalough and implementing some game play elements using the CryENGINE 3. My role is to make sure that everyone has work to do and the deadlines are met. We used Assembla, a scrum based agile development web application, which keeps track of team members’ activity through tickets and progress of the project thanks to milestones definition. In addition, I modelled and textured some assets for the level and implemented some of the game mechanics using the engine flowgraph editor and LUA scripting.
Game programming
For the game programming course during the second semester I ported some of the code written in C++ by my lecturer into XNA. I used the Microsoft’s framework also for my final project (left picture): three of the ships are patrolling the area moving through way-points. If they see an enemy within a certain range, they stop patrolling and start chasing him until it’s destroyed; once the area is clear, the resume patrolling. The enemy is spawn with a click of the mouse, and moves randomly in the area (it’s actually delimited by invisible cube). The patrolling squad is formed by a leader, while the other two members follow. To shoot the enemy, the squad member check first for optimal range and alignment with the target (i.e. avoiding shooting when the enemy is in range but under or behind). The AI is implemented as a state machine; the movement is coordinated using some of Craig Reynold’s steering behaviours.
The picture on the right shows path calculation using an optimised version of the A* algorithm. The small spheres represent the navigable nodes, while the red lines show the path calculated. The challenge was to port the code from C++ to XNA, where some of the standard library structures are not implemented. Comparison between execution times of the two algorithms haven’t been made yet.
Predator
I decided to follow, as elective course, Animation and for the final project, being a sci-fi fan, I modelled and textured a predator. Here are some screen-shots of the rendering and the mesh. I also built the skeleton for animating the model from scratch.
Video review on serious games
This is a video review I’ve done on serious games: what they are, how they are useful, some examples and thoughts on the future of serious gaming.
The rescue of Faust
For the second game we moved into the digital domain. Using Game Maker we developed an adventure game inspired by the novel of Thomas Mann. The player actually plays the writer, who is a friend of Faust; one day he receives a letter in which Faust tells him he’s in great danger and needs help. Thomas move at once and is welcomed at the train station by Faust’s butler. From there on Thomas is on his own. We used mouse gestures to control most of the mechanics of the game: a square to explore an area, a circle to hurt enemies, a line to stop bullets. The player has to solves puzzles and fight enemies in a smart way, taking advantages of the environment. Sometimes the player is taken into a parallel dimension: some actions are required in order to unlock, for instance, a door on the other dimension. Original music has been composed for the game. The executable is downloadable here.
Unpopulous
This is the first game we worked on. It’s a board game inspired by Peter Molyneux’s Populous, one of the first god-game developed in 1989. It’s turn based and players, as in the original, have to try and destroy the adversary. Every building produces mana points, which can be used to move peasants, move pyramids to create flat land, upgrade buildings or unleash disaster. Every building, depending on the size, spawn a peasant after a certain amount of turns; unlike the original game, the player must decide where to move the peasants and where to build. The most challenging aspect was to actually produce the pyramids: we created a 3D model and then we used a 3D printer for the pieces (we’d like to thank DIT in Bolton Street for the printing).
