Hello and welcome to me ePortfolio webpage. My name is James and I’m in my fourth year of college studying Computer Science at DIT.

Current Projects ( 4th year Games Programming ):

Game Worlds

I’m currently working on an RTS style game with 3 other classmates as part of an assignment.

The end goal for the assignment is to enter the game into the Imagine Cup 2011.

The core aspect of the game is simple.

  • There are two players, with control over one island each.
  • There will be several other, AI controlled islands.
  • The objective of the game is for the player to gain control over as many islands as possible and defeat their opponent

Currently the game sports Games for Windows live integration which includes the use of voice communications and session creation and joining.

Games Middleware

I’m currently working on a solo project with ODE ( Object Dynamics Engine ) to create objects and trigger an explosion.

This project entails the use of:

  • Physics
  • Particle Systems
  • Object Creation
  • Joints

My own personal twist on this assignment is that the theme is Space. Since the simulation occurs on a moon-like surface I have set the gravity to close to Null.

Previous projects ( 3rd year Games Logic & Design )

Pacman

This solo assignment was created using the XNA 3.0 enviroment. The programming language used is C#.

The goal of the assignment was to recreate pacman as close to the original as possible.

This was my first gaming orientated assignment. My biggest problem with this assignment was creating the walls to contain pacman and the sprites.

I did however succeed in creating sprites and getting them to chase each other. I also got pacman to eat the special food which in turn caused the ghosts to run in fear, which is an important game mechanic seen in the original.

Gradius

My second assignment in this course. We were given a few options , such as recreating a game or making a new version of pacman , one with a twist. I decided to opt for the ‘remake a game’ option.

This assignment introduced me to game design documenting and game presentation. At several stages during the games development I had to give presentations on the current status of the game.