My name is Simon Gorman and I am currently in 4th year of BSc Computer Science in Dublin Institute of Technology. Below are some of the projects I have been working on during my time in the Games Programming stream.
Final Year Project: Evacuation Simulation
The main goal of this project is to develop an AI simulation of the evacuation of entities from a 3D structure.
The first task of this project will be to utilize a suitable physics platform developed with the Havok Physics Engine to model destructible 3D structures. Basic physics (e.g. gravity, friction, acceleration, velocity) will be used to determine the behaviour of each structural 3D segment within the simulation. These blocks will be modelled into a structure suitable for the AI entities to traverse, however the structure itself will change depending on a set of destructive events designed to affect the way in which the entities may navigate the structure.
The second task will be to utilize multiple AI path-finding algorithms which will be used by the AI entities to traverse the various structures. These path-finding algorithms will be compared to determine the most successful algorithm. The criteria for the most successful algorithm will be decided by a successful evacuation (traversal) with the most “alive” entities and the least “dead” entities.
Arrival of an entity at a designated distance from the structure constitutes a successful evacuation. Failure to find a successful evacuation route, or “death” caused by the structure itself (e.g. collapsing walls, falling ceilings) constitutes a failed evacuation. Different “teams” of entities using different algorithms will be identified using team colours.
Development will be done with an IDE called “Microsoft Visual Studio 2008”.
Team Software Development Project: Scrabble
I was the team leader in a project to develop a scrabble game in XNA.
Games Worlds: Farmageddon
I am currently working on a game for the 2011 Imagine Cup with Chris Harrington called Farmageddon.
Farmageddon is a game which aims to teach the values of nutritional eating through the medium of zombie ultra-violence.
The player will play a Farmer who must protect his vegetable crops from waves of Vegetarian Zombies. If a zombie eats one of the players vegetables, the player will loose health and the zombie will gain a bonus. The bonus depends on the nutritional value of vegetable eaten. If all the crops are eaten, the game is over. When a zombie is killed, it will drop money and possibly items. This money can then be used to upgrade the Farmers weapons at the Shop. Farmageddon will be a 3rd person action game. The general framework for the camera movement can be seen below, including an almost lifelike depiction of a farmer made in 3DS Max…
Game Middleware: ODE Explosions
One of my current projects is to simulate explosions using the Open Dynamics Engine. A bus and rag-dolls can be spawned. Separate joint groups for the bus and rag-dolls determine the effect of the explosion.
