Hello Leadwerks World
Entry posted by Chris Vossen ·
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In the recent weeks Leadwerks has leveled up by joining the Sacramento State University Center for Entrepreneurship (CBA) and after much scanning of the talent tree, Leadwerks has recruited a new intern.
With that, I am proud to introduce myself (the intern) to the Leadwerks Community. My name is Chris Vossen, I am a recent graduate from the University of California: Santa Cruz with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science: Computer Game Design. During my senior year, five programmers and I joined up to create Journey to the Sun (JTTS) a three player puzzle adventure game for the PC. By the end of the year, our team had expanded to twenty three members (6 programmers, 13 artists, 4 sound designers) and we went on to win the UCSC game awards for audience choice and best audio. When I wasn’t wrangling artists, I was in charge of our games AI, pathing, particle effects, and designed half of the levels. It was an amazingly fun project that will be ported to the Xbox 360’s Indie Game section in the month to come. Here is a brief look at JTTS:
It is such a pleasure to be aboard the Leadwerks team; I have only been here for one week and my brain already hurts. It will be a challenge to uphold the high coding standards set, but I’ve never been one to give up.
My first of many tasks will be implementing a mind blowing particle system. Particle effects hold a special place in my heart, to me they are the glitter of videogames. Don’t have a 3D model for your enemy? Make it a particle effect smoke monster! Characters punch animation looks off? Throw a crazy particle effect in to cover it up! Trees look bland? Make a falling leaf particle effect! I cannot count the number of times my team used particle effects to add a burst of magic to our game.
I am currently researching existing particle engines and finding a load of fun features to implement but I would love suggestions and input into what other users find exciting. Please post these on the particle systems’ feature request page:
http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/4687-particle-systems-feature-requests/
I have been an avid gamer my entire life. As a child my parents were adamant in their stance of “We will never buy our kids videogames.” Thus my gaming career began on my uncle’s hand-me-down Atari 2600 playing endless hours of River Raid, Combat, Pitfall, and Warlords. Then one faithful day in 1991 my parents purchased a one dollar raffle ticket for a school fundraiser with an unknown prize and gave the ticket to my older brother. Little did they know that the grand prize was a new Sega Genesis with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog and as fate would have it my brother won that raffle. Ever since then my path has been set. Videogames are my career now and I would have it no other way. It is amazing to be here working at Leadwerks and I’m excited to hear from anyone and everyone in the community!
Favorite Games:
League of Legends (MOBA) [My main champion is Janna…the power of the wind]
Hero’s of Might and Magic III (Strategy RPG)
Flying Dragon 64 (Fighting)
Super Smash Brothers Melee (Fighting)
Gladius (Strategy RPG)
Perfect Dark (FPS)
Ogre Battle 64 (Strategy RPG)
Shinning Force (Strategy RPG)
River Raid (Best Atari Game)
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