Michael Short: My first post!

Tuesday 19 February 2008

My first post!

Hi. I have created this blog to share my ideas, developments and work with anyone wishing to read. If you wish to leave any feedback or general comments please do so. I will eventually get round to adding some code examples and discuss what I am developing at the minute.

I am currently studying my final year of a Computer Games Programming course and the University of Huddersfield. I have experience with Microsoft's DirectX 9 and 10 and XNA. I know how to program in Java, C# and C++ (my favourite).

My favourite area of games development is Rendering. I enjoy developing shaders, effects and strange rendering techniques. I feel it is a very visual aspect of programming, you can see your results almost instantly (providing it compiles).

My placement year was spent at Canalside Studios (www.canalsidestudios.com). During my time there I learnt a lot and we managed to obtain a contract with Microsoft to publish one of our titles on XBox Live Arcade!

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Career

Microsoft Lift London 2013 - pesent

Undisclosed titles.

Blitz Games Studios Ltd 2009-2013

All titles developed using C++, Blitz Tech and various middleware solutions

Yoostar2 - XBox 360/PS3

Yoostar2 is a game that puts the player in the movies. Using Microsoft Kinect and the PS3 Eye, the player is placed in various famous movies and is tasked with acting out their chosen role. Worked on special effects (lighting, shadowing, custom particle system), user interface, Kinect API and general gameplay programming.

All Star Karate - Wii

A fighting game where players can work their way through story mode or take each other on head to head. The player uses the Wii remote to perform various karate moves. I developed special effects for the game and worked on the front end user interface.

Virtual Playground 2008-2009

All titles developed using C++, Gamebryo and our fusion engine

Wine Tycoon - PC
Another tycon game where players take charge of creating and maintaining their own vineyard. Worked on various gameplay elements, UI and AI. Worked on graphical effects (extended batching system, soft shadow maping using PCF and VSM) and shaders (extended shader library) .

Alcatraz - PC
A tycon game where the player is in charge of Alcatraz prison and responsible for running a sucesful and trouble free prison. Worked on various gameplay elements, UI and AI. Worked on graphical effects (batching) and shaders (extended shader library) .

Eco Tycoon - PC
A tycon game where the player is in charge of creting and running a sucesful and eco friently country. Worked on various gameplay elements, UI and AI. Worked on graphical efects (HDR, Bloom, Toon Outline etc ) and shaders (started developing a shader library). Also implemented a new 2D rendering system for our windows using texture sheets (all elements of a panel are one one texture), and the window editiing tool for the artists.

Prison Tycoon 4 - PC
A tycon game (the 4th in the series) where the player is in charge of creating and running a sucesful prison. This was the first project I worked on with Virtual Playground. Worked on various gameplay elements, UI and AI.

Canalside Studios 2006-2007

All titles/packages were developed using Microsofts XNA Games Studio and C#

Khepri Particle Engine
A CPU based particle engine developed and used in virtually all games developed with XNA at Canalside Studios. A windows forms base GUI was developed so that designers could create emitters for the games. Was capable of rendering 8000-12000 on screen particles depending on other shaders/effects that were being used simultaneousily.

Yo Ho Kablammo - Xbox Live Arcade
Worked on shaders/effects, rendering and general gameplay. Multiplayer casual action game where a player takes control of a ship, collecting as many mines and power ups as posisble whilst trying to eliminate the opposition. Due for release on Xbox Live Arcade late 2008 after coming second in Microsofts Dream Build Play 2007 competition.

G3 - Xbox Live Arcade
Worked on shaders/effects and rendering. 3D Action Puzzle game where a player must traverse a constantly evolving 3D environment. Title was canceled.

Hexothermic - PC
Worked on shaders/effects. Casual puzzle game developed for PC. A player must explode as many atoms as possible within the allowed number of clicks. Unreleased.