Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Makeshift Portfolio


Until I can get enough coins to rub together and rent myself a little plot of the world wide web, this will have to do until I can get my own site sorted! 

Here are a few bits and pieces I've worked on.

Putting it all in one spot has made me realise how much time I've wasted not doing a great deal...... though I do have a couple of other projects in the planning stages, I just don't have much to show for them and can't share just yet. 

Any-who!

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Download - 3.2MB


#1GAM February Entry

An endless runner themed around new years resolutions.
Don't be tempted by cigarettes, beer and junk food. Eat healthily and you'll go far.

WASD controls, P to play, M to toggle music on/off.

This is by no means fully polished or complete. I have left out a number of extra mechanics due to the time constraints, the controls are not as good as I would like them to be and the enemies spawn rate need tweaking, just to name a few issues that would need revisiting.
This is certainly a concept I will be returning to it at some point to get it to the full game that I would like it to be.

Credits.
StaneStane, jivatma07 and fins- Sounds.
Me - Art, Design and Programming

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These are screenshots of levels I designed and built from the game I worked on with IndigoJam as part of Make Something Unreal Live 2012.

MSUL was a competition where the 4 teams who topped the Epic and Train2Game game jam back in November 2011 were challenged to create a game using UDK based on a given Fighting Fantasy book along with a game genre, targeting release for iOS devices such as iPad and iPhone.

We were given "Deathtrap Dungeon" and Action-Adventure.

"Deathtrap Dungeon is set in the fantasy world of Titan in the Allansia region, it sees you take part in the trial of champions testing your skills against elaborately fiendish traps and numerous bloodthirsty monsters searching for precious gems that will allow you to escape the labyrinth alive and becoming wealthy beyond your dreams."

"Sapphire" saw traps.

Gauntlet run in "Sapphire".
In the depths of "Sapphire".
The "Sapphire" level is a large water filled cave with a multitude of platforms and archways, the players goal being to reach the shrine at the bottom of the cave, solve the puzzle and gain the first of five gemstones that are needed to unlock the door to the exit of the Trial of Champions. 

The player has to get to levers that, when pulled, lower the water level in the cave enough for the player to be able to reach the next lever, until all 3 have been pulled and access to the shrine is granted.
There are a number of ways to navigate the sapphire cave between the levers along with various traps and enemies to tackle.

Game over screen.



I worked on level design, gameplay mechanics design and implementation, sound effects, front end design and implementation as well as working to help where necessary to plug skill/time gaps. Unfortunately, the game didn't get fully completed to the expectations of the IP owner, along with team members' dropping out of the project, so it was not published.

I have more work to show off from this project still to come, including another level, The Path of Enlightenment, some of the scaleform work I did and the trap mechanics I developed.

A sample representation of the some of the scaleform I created to help the player understand what to do in the Tutorial level.

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Logos

I made this logo for a friend's heavy metal band, Wings of Wengeance
This was a fun little side project where I also worked on their CD sleeve design.

This was made for a student project studio I was briefly part of, Umad Studios
Umad Studios were a group of Train2Game students that wanted to work on a game project to boost their portfolios.

A logo I made for SwanPR
There is another logo out there for Swan PR, but as they haven't published it, I won't either.

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My Marriage Proposal

This isn't strictly work, but this took a fair amount of time and effort and I like showing it off :)



"uBerMap".rar- 6MB
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Experience

Software.
Photoshop - Intermediate.
UDK - Intermediate.
Flash - Basic/Intermediate.
 GameMaker: Studio - Intermediate.
 Along with general all-round experience in standard office suites, Audacity, Paint.Net etc. Anything that I don't know, I can pick up fairly quickly.

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Time to Get Serious Mo'Fo'

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter
                            
I've got to drop the pounds, not only for the wedding but for our families future.

So my target, for now, is 100lbs.

Maybe I'll reach it, would be good to reach it before the big day, but that will be in just over a years time and while I think I can do it, I've been told it's not healthy to drop so much so quickly.

So I will be keeping this counter up to date and published so I have something that people can see and kick me in my podgy arse if I'm not shifting it.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Where the hell did a year go!?!

I can't believe it's almost been an entire year since my first post. Well, that plan to keep this up to date as much as possible has epically FAILed!!

To be honest, I had completely forgot that I had started this blog up until a few days ago. I haven't really thought about it as I hadn't thought about what was actually happening in my life, it's just life, I just let it get on with itself and get carried along the way. But I figured that's the same for everyone so someone may like to hear about what's going on in mine.

So in summary:

  • We're getting married, 05/07/2014 is the big day. 

                                                                  This is how I proposed.

  • I've been put in charge of organising the wedding, Alex has a bit of an attention issue so she will just be "supervising". I'm almost certain that this is going to get me in a lot of trouble..... on the plus side, I get to make a lot of the decisions :-D
  • I no longer work in retail (yey!), but I still don't work in the games industry (boo!). Working in a call center for a multinational trade merchants. The job isn't amazingly fulfilling but the hours are steady, money is ok and the future is secure.
  • I had been working on entries for the #1GAM (one game a month) challenge. I managed to "finish" one of them, but soon realised that it was something that I couldn't do on my own to a standard I would like and my efforts are best utilised by concentrating on my studies.
  • Currently working on another non-game related project, could lead me to either a great business idea or down a dead end road of stress and failure, so I'll keep that one quiet for now.
  • Alex is doing well in her new job as Website and Social Media Manager, so proud of how she's been dumped in the deep end and how brilliantly she is doing.
  • We now have a lodger, a friend of mine (now ours) for the past 6 or so years. He wanted to move to Ripon, we needed to save for the wedding/honeymoon/house and we had a spare room so that worked out nicely.
  • Now down to 2 rats, but have adopted 4 robo hamsters. A friend of Alex's was moving away and needed them to be re-homed, "They're all boys so no need to worry about breeding". They were not, luckily Alex re-sexed them and found that we had 2 boys and 2 girls before they had chance to mature and breed. These are now living in a multitude of cages in the flat, they have all developed some amazing climbing and escaping skills....
I'm fairly sure I've picked up on everything, though I have been known to be wrong, on more occasions than I'd like to mention.

I'll be making a concerted effort to keep up with the blog, it may not even be that interesting to most people but I'm going to do it anyway, just need to remember to do it this time :-P.

Friday, July 27, 2012

The Joys of Video Game Development



Ever since the Train2Game and Epic game jam in November 2011, I've had the pleasure and honour to be apart of a talented bunch of people in the form of IndigoJam, working on an IP that most only dream of thanks to the Make Something Unreal Live competition and the fine gentlemen of Fighting Fantasy.

That being said, over the last 9 months we have gone through a multitude of emotions, all the way from unbridled elation to inconsolable rage. All the while we have learned some valuable lessons and gained skills through a process that would only really present itself in a real industry environment whilst working remotely in our spare time, juggling full time day jobs as well as putting in many hours into a game that we had no idea would even make it to the light of day.
We got the chance to showcase these skills and our game along with the other teams competing in MSUL to the public and industry legends such as Cliffy B, Peter Molyneux and Sir Ian Livingstone during the week long Gadget Show Live at the Birmingham NEC in April. 


This was an unbelievable experience, not only was it the first time we had worked alongside the people in the flesh that we had worked with remotely for 5 months, but we also got to spend all day everyday working on the game, no life or day jobs getting in the way. Being a part of this was an amazing feeling and it really made it click that I am gunning for the right career path. 


Being able to (almost) fully concentrate and create something that will hopefully be played and perhaps even enjoyed by other people is definitely for me and that has made this whole rollercoaster experience worth while. 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Hello World!!


Welcome to my very first ever blog.


I've been told that blogging is a great tool to use for creating a presence and giving people an idea of what kind of person you are, something that can be great to give people an idea of who you are without ever meeting you.


But where to begin? A bit about me would probably be a decent start.


Well, my name is Leigh, I am a 27 year old Games Design student living in the kingdom of Yorkshire with my long term girlfriend Alex and our 3 pet rats. I work full time at a well known supermarket in produce distribution.


I've had numerous jobs in various sectors over the years, ranging from labouring on construction sites to accounts management in a big company, none of which have ever felt like a calling. Even when I went to university to study Quantity Surveying, he didn’t feel like it was something that he wanted to do for the rest of his life. I decided to quit and pursue a career in something that I truly love – video games. I was working towards a Train2Game Games Developer qualification but after working as a Developer/Designer on the DeathTrap Dungeon project with IndigoJam for the Epic and Train2Game Make Something Unreal Live competition, I realised that my aptitude, skills and enjoyment leaned more towards being a well rounded designer. Luckily I have been given the opportunity to switch to the Games Design course instead.


I have a great interests in most forms of media, music, TV, movies, sports etc but my true passion is for video games.

I plan on making this blogging lark a regular thing, topics and subjects are still to be decided but I hope they will all entertain and some may even inform, but I look forward to doing more and any feedback would be appreciated.

Until next time.