Friday, October 29, 2010

Mansion

I'm currently working on a game tentatively called mansion about a boy with a flashlight. I've got some very cool technical things going on in it that I will hopefully be discussing here in the future. In the mean time here's a tools screen shot of one of the prototype levels that has been set up. I've got some fancy gizmos showing some important information that my rendering system uses:

The game will be 2.5D and I hope that it turns out well enough that the team feels like working on it beyond our current 4-week scope. Its got that cool "indie" feel that makes me want to sink some deeper themes into the game.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Software Rasterizer

I'm currently taking the grad level graphics course at MSU. One thing that's really cool about the class is that for the first project we implemented a rasterizer in software. Unfortunately, I totally lost half my work when my computer died 24 hours before the deadline, this resulted in me staying up until 4 am finishing the project, and you know - I wouldn't want it any other way.
Check out me rasterized teapot:

In the next several weeks I'll be expanding this to utilize a camera and Phong shading. I'll post the results (assuming it goes well).

A Glorious Return and a word on Optimism

So apparently I think it might be good to start talking to the wonderful abyss of the internet again, here in my dorm room at 2 AM. To be honest I wish I hadn't stopped, but maybe it took Meaningful Play last week to get my ass back into gear. I've missed out on giving everyone the lowdown on the awesomeness that was GDC 2010, as well as any discussion of games about squirrels, sheep, or minotaurs (significant parts of my endeavors since I disappeared from this blog).

I think maybe I had the urge to blog again because something is distressing me about the discussions I've had with designers hear at MSU after Meaningful Play. They're opposed to the guy that advocates games striving to be artwork. Few things have weirded me out more than design students, who I always picture as being overly optimistic about game design, being opposed to games as art. Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd like to think that aspiring game designers want to make games that have meaning, not "entertainment that is consumed much the same as a Coke." I know I'm still trying to be optimistic enough to think that there's potential for great art in game design.