Nic's GameDev Site
Who Am I?

I'm a video game programmer, I graduated from Westwood College in 2007. I've had a job in the industry since October 2007. I'm a gameplay programmer, and work mostly with things like camera systems, player controls, input, physics and miscellaneous other gameplay features. Aside from work, I also spend a good amount of time working on an open-source game engine that I started called QuickStart Engine.

My main focus through school was 3D projects using DirectX and C++ or C#. I've also worked on projects using the Torque and Ogre engines, and have tested the Irrlicht and Unreal engines as well.

I've been recently using XNA a lot, this isn't because C++ is bad, or that C# is any better, it is because XNA is easier for a single person to produce results in a short amount of time. Learning C++ as your base is essential to most game programming, after that XNA is a good way to learn many other things that would take longer in C++. As such many of my demos are in XNA and you will need XNA to run them. This site doesn't get much attention ever since I've got my industry job, so bear in mind most of these were made while I was still in school.

Follow the navigation menu on the left to find my projects, samples, blog entries, XNA lessons, and further information about me.

Some of my most recent projects are listed below, and you can follow the projects link on left to find all of my projects.

PROJECTS

Mentorship - 'Infection' , 08-07-2007, C#, coded from scratch using the XNA 1.0r API, no engine

"Infection"
Alpha Release, 08-07-07

Features:
- 3D vehicular combat game
- Multi-player over LAN or Internet
- Full 3D Levels
- Custom built collision detection, physics, A.I., and all original art and graphics
- Multiple vehicles, weapons, powerups, and more

Info:
Infection is a multiplayer vehicular combat game in which you score points by infecting your opponents. Once you infect someone they become your minion, at which point you get some of the points they score as well. Minions can vaccinate themselves if they find the vaccines throughout the level, so you must constantly try to maintain as large of team as possible. The player with the most score after time expires wins.

< More information on infection >

XNA QuickStart Engine, 9-13-2009, v0.2, C#, XNA 3.1

QuickStart Engine v0.2

A 3D game engine for XNA Game Studio. Built on an entity/component system, and includes a camera, input, rendering, physics and terrain system. The terrain system contains a quad-tree setup for culling, among other things. The physics system integrates the JibLibX Physics Engine.

Visit the QuickStart Engine website for more information.

 

 

 

BombDizzle, 08-29-2007, C#, XNA, 2D Top-Down shooter game

BombDizzle
Prototype download now available!

Artwork - Derek Grasmick

Features:
- 2D Arcade-Style Shooter Game
- Non-stop action
- Weapons, and powerups
- Flippin' Sweet particle effects

Bugs: This version seems to have a bad path for the sound files. You may have to remove the sound calls to run. Sorry. If I weren't busy/lazy I'd do it. :)

Info:
This is a little side-project I did because it had been awhile since I did a solo-project. I'm 10 hours into the game, and I predict 10-20 more to get it finished. It is a fun game where you must shoot at enemies to collect points. Some enemies shrink when they hit the wall, and duplicate themselves. Some enemies will gravitate toward you, or come after you altogether. As the game goes on it gets faster and the enemies become more difficult. Grab powerups to save your butt, and some uber-weapons come in handy.

As far as the code goes I'm focusing very strongly on OOP. While the Infection project (above) is almost mostly OO, the project has been rushed due to time constraints and has drifted away from the original image we had (code-wise). Although this game is small and the project is short, I wanted the code to be as clean as possible, especially when it goes open-source. Anyway, I will be posting furthur details and more screenshots as soon as I can. Please note that the game is still in prototype and does not have victory conditions at this time.

RECENT SAMPLES

Normal mapping sample, 08-28-2007, v0.21, C#, XNA

Normal Mapping Sample

This is just a simple sample I setup while I was learning normal mapping, and thought I'd post it. For any details on the program there is a ReadMe.txt included in the download. Enjoy.