Game Prototype Challenge v10 – Crab Nabber!

After a week of hard work, and lots of fun, I finally present to the world, the worst OpenGL game ever created. It was a blast to make, I improved my OpenGL and C++ programming skills , and I am proud of what I have accomplished in just a few hours a day for a week. The theme is Dreams and Collectables. Well, if you dream about this game, you might wanna see a doctor! The theme of collectables is accomplished, as you collect crabs, and eat them for health! W to move forward, S to move backward, A to rotate left, D to rotate right, E to eat a crab, and ESC to close. Eat crabs, stay alive, and hit all the bad guys to death. I might release a Mac friendly version in the coming days(but being as terrible as it is, I don’t think I can call it TOO friendly )

Download Link is down. Trying to fix it

Video Tutorials

Today I sent a link out to some interns which is a fantastic tutorial site that demonstrates the basics of OpenGL in C++ using GLUT, and thought I should share it. I definitely recommend it to any OpenGL beginners, especially because it covers setup on Mac(which I’m working on), Linux, and Windows operating systems.

Video Tutorials Rock Link

New Video of Some of My Work

Recently, ARB Labs was contracted through Endeavour Marketing

http://www.endeavourmarketing.com/

to create an interactive media display that uses the Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Camera and a head tracking algorithm, to be used at the 2011 Pan and Parapan American Games located in Guadalajara, Mexico. The display is used to immerse users into a three dimensional environment without the need for 3D Goggles/Glasses(I personally think it just looks bad ass wearing them). In the video link posted here

is a bit about the Ryerson Digitial Media Zone, but more relevant, is some clips of the software I developed being used in some clips, located around 0:34, 1:05, and 1:15. More videos will be posted as they show up!

Frameless Multitouch

Four months ago, I began an internship at ARB Labs Inc, as a programmer. Along with Video Game Related projects, one thing I  am working on is the world’s first Frameless Multitouch Window. How it works: Ground up gnomes and extinct squid oil!

Galaga – XNA 3.1

Galaga was a project that took us two weeks to complete, without team members. It was relatively easy, as we had covered a lot of the basics of XNA two weeks previous to it. My Galaga version made use of a points system, enemies spawning under certain conditions, a lives system, sound, parallax scrolling, projectiles, and a win condition. The objective of the game is to fly your spaceship, destroying every enemy in your way, until you kill the bosses at the end. If you lose your lives before then, you get a loss screen, and if you achieve victory, you get a win screen.

Brain Breaker – DirectX 9

Brain Breaker was a DirectX9 project that was done in a week long period. It was created as a compilation of the material covered in a three week course, about how to put graphics on screen, and some of the fundamentals of DirectX9. All of the art was original, done by the other group member, which was done in a day.  The objective of the game is to hit a Zombie’s head around the screen, using a bone as a paddle, so it can eat all the brains. This game showed the use of splash screens, movement of a player(the paddle), a life system(for the blocks), collision detection(paddle/ball, ball/brains), a pausing system, the use of sound effects and background music ,and a points and life system.

War Stars – DirectX 9

*1 - The player's Current score *2 - An enemy with AI *3 - The Player ship *4 - The number of screen-clearing-bombs the player has *5 - The Current position of the enemy that is on screen *6 - The current health of the Player *7 - The number of retries the player holds

This project was an attempt at creating a Galaga-esque space shooter. The project occurred over a one month period, and was completed by myself and three other group members. I was lead programmer, and took care of gameplay, the menu system, file reader for high score, and the Heads Up Display. What is unique about this game, is the appearance of being 3D, which it isn’t. All models were created in Maya, and then screen shots were taken after rotation, to make 2D sprite sheets.(A wonderful idea the group as  whole came up with) The player ship can rotate a full 360 degrees around its center, was intended to shoot the direction it was facing(but instead shoots at a 90 degree angle to the right), has a health system, life system, and scoring system which are all functional, and a spawn-enemy-button, which sends enemies driven by low level AI, that can die.

Resume

Here is a current Resume. Updated 26/10/2011

Justin Holdstock’s Resume (docx format)

Justin Holdstock Resume (doc format)

(there is an issue with this post where the resume can only be accessed from the front page, sorry for the inconvenience)

Mario – Java J2SE

This project was a rebirth of the world famous Super Mario Bros. franchise, as a class project. Myself and two other group members recreated the feel of Super Mario Bros., with our own levels. It included thwomp gauntlets, death jumps, and bonus levels. This was a project done in J2SE using Eclipse Galileo, and took three weeks to complete, with little struggle.