NOTE: this is work in progress. I’ll be adding proper layout, screenshots, downloads, extra info, etc, as soon as I get enough time. All dates here are rough due to fading memory :o)
The games I’ve worked on that have made it onto the shelves of retail stores around the world.
Platforms: PS2, Xbox
Developer: Reflections Interactive.
Publisher: Atari.
Status: Released 2006.
My job title: Senior Renderer Programmer.
My contribution: Significant development work on the Xbox renderer; art/renderer/tools design/feature planning & art liaison; Xbox specific platform optimisation.
Link: http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/928570.asp?q=driver%20parallel%20lines
Platforms: PS2, Xbox, PC
Developer: Reflections Interactive.
Publisher: Atari.
Status: Released 2005.
My job title: Senior Renderer Programmer.
My contribution: Significant development work fire-fighting a newly designed and half implemented PC renderer for the PC port of Driv3r; PC specific optimisation (where possible within the severely limited development time available and working from console art assets); PC specific compatibility fixing.
Notes: I joined the company after the release of the console version of the game so won’t accept any blame for the original game :o).
Link: http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/561983.asp?q=driv3r
Platforms: PS1, PC
Developer: Warthog. Programming and art post-production outsourced to Creative Asylum.
Publisher: EON Digital.
Status: Released 2002.
My job title: Senior Programmer.
My contribution: Developed a significant amount of the PC graphics engine; some front-end/menu code; the ‘backstage’/bonus CD for the game; some PS1 graphics programming & CD device handling.
Notes: This was the game of a popular Italian TV show, and such was only released in Italy.
Link: http://www.spaziogames.com/content2/archivio/articolo.asp?id=672&zona=PC
Platform: PC
Developer: Magnetic Fields (main developer).
Developer: Creative Asylum (outsourced track artwork, a little additional programming and OEM management).
Publisher: Actualize (UK) / Electronic Arts (US).
Status: Released 2000
My job title: Programmer (Additional Programming).
My contribution: Programmed the in-game mini-map and a few other minor HUD elements; some graphics file format handling code for the front-end; and a little bit of consultancy regarding graphics features and OEM.
Link: http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/197963.asp?q=rally%20championship
Platform: PC
Developer: Creative Asylum (all in-game artwork, programming, level building, development management & co-design)
Developer: Minds Eye Productions (FMV rendering, audio, co-design, publisher relations).
Publisher: Hasbro Interactive.
Status: Released 2000.
My job title: Senior Programmer.
My contribution: Designed and developed the 3D graphics engine/renderer; developed the (Max & external) artist tools; developed the custom file system; developed most of the front end/menu system.
Link: http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/340777.asp
Link: http://www.nvidia.co.jp/object/pacman.html
Link: http://www.classicgaming.com/features/articles/bailey/
Platform: PC
Developer: The LEGO Group. In-game programming outsourced to Europress Software.
Publisher: The LEGO Group.
Status: Released 1998.
My job: Programmer.
My contribution: Developed the PC graphics engine; all of the ‘Coliseum’ area of the game (both PC and LEGO P-Brick/robot side); part of the communications layer between the game and the game and the programmable LEGO brick.
Notes: A significant part of the robot communication software I developed for Cybermaster also got used in the Lego Mindstorms product.
Link: http://www.geocities.jp/legofan_2/technic/cyber/cyber_4.htm
The games I’ve worked on that haven’t seen the light of day (at least in the form they were in when I last worked on them).
Platforms: PS2, Xbox, PC
Developer: Acclaim Studios Manchester
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment.
Status: Publisher went out of business 2003, game was close to alpha.
Job title: Programmer.
My contribution: Developed the 3rd person indoor & outdoor camera system (‘realistic’ sized rooms, collision detection/response, damping/smoothing, scriptable etc); some particle effect code.
Notes: A few months after Acclaim went out of business, Silverback Studios continued development of the game; it has since been released on PC & PS2 by Mastertronic.
Link: http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/pc/screenshots/interview-with-a-made-man-caf30b.html
Platforms: PS2, GameCube.
Developer: Warthog. Most artwork and around half the programming outsourced to Creative Asylum.
Publisher: THQ.
Status: Canned by publisher at alpha due to a drop in brand value and low GameCube hardware sales.
Job title: Programmer/Engine & Tools Programmer.
My contribution: system coding and 3D graphics coding (an amalgamation of Warthog’s Tusk technology and Creative Asylum’s Paradox technology); some GameCube engine special effects; art tools.
Link: http://uk.gamespot.com/ps2/sim/battlebots/index.html
Platform: PC.
Developer: Creative Asylum.
Publisher: N/A.
Status: Reasonable game design, game engine & interactive technology demo for a 3rd person shooter being hawked around to various publishers; never signed.
Job title: Programmer.
My contribution: Co-designed and developed the 3D graphics engine; designed and developed all art tools. The engine went on to be further developed and used in all future Creative Asylum projects, prototypes and pitches.
Notes: the engine was one of the first in the world to support hardware-T&L.
Platform: PS1.
Developer: Creative Asylum.
Publisher: Europress Software.
Status: Full game design and technical R&D completed. Game design wasn’t “family friendly” enough for publisher.
Job title: Programmer.
My contribution: PS1 R&D, some technical design and investigating whether we could adapt the Tommi Makkinen Rally engine for use in the game.
Working for a fledgling start-up developer with just 7 staff (Creative Asylum) meant you have to do some bread & butter work. It may not be as glamorous as proper games, but it pays the bills.
Platform: PC.
Developer: Europress Software. Development outsourced to Creative Asylum.
Publisher: Europress Software
Status: Released 1999
My contribution: Improving & optimising the 2D sprite engine for low end PCs; developed all 2D graphics effects (wipes, fades, alpha, drop-shadows, etc); some puzzles/game-play work.
Platform: PC
Developer: Europress Software. Development outsourced to Creative Asylum.
Publisher: Europress Software
Status: Released 1998
My contribution: Improving & optimising the 2D sprite engine for low end PCs; developed all 2D graphics effects (wipes, fades, alpha, drop-shadows, etc).
Platform: PC
Launcher & Compilation: Creative Asylum.
Publisher: Vector OEM / Various OEMs (Asus, nVidia, etc)
Status: Released 1999
My contribution: Developed the launcher menu; reverse engineered/fixed broken installers for some of the game demos.
Platform: PC
Developer: Creative Asylum
Publisher: Creative Asylum / nVidia
Status: Released 1999 on the CA website, and (IIRC) included in one of the nVidia press packs.
My contribution: Sole programmer. Designed & developed the 3D engine; developed the art tools; coded & planned the demo.
Notes: This was a demo for us to experiment with and test the capabilities of H/W T&L. nVidia used the demo to show off the GeForce256 at some of their press events.
Once upon a time I was in the demo scene on the Amiga. It was fun way to meet fellow enthusiasts and also learn graphics & low-level programming. All the demos/intros I worked on were written entirely in MC68000 assembly language, almost all hitting the Amiga custom hardware chipset directly (after cleanly taking over from the OS). I was known as Trixter – originally in a group I started called Futura, and ended up in LSD. I was also a member of a few BBSes later on including Digital Candy and a few others I don’t remember the name of.
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: LSD
Status: Released 1993
Description: A music demo disk of the tunes left out of other LSD demos.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; proportional font system; disk/file handling; menu system; etc.)
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: LSD
Status: Released 1993
Description: An intro for one of Fish/LSD’s popular docs disks.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; proportional font system; ‘fizzy’ proportional text scroller; texture mapped sphere (hardware bending trick)).
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1993
Description: An intro released around the time the group I’d formed was falling apart; ironically this was the last Futura demo :o).
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; proportional font system; 3D engine (solid back-face culled objects; multi coloured, diffuse & fake specular light-sourced, fake alpha transparency/glenz tricks); scaled circle rendering; flicker free high-res/interlace.) Also a couple of logos.
Platform: Amiga – ECS only (problem with track-loader on AGA)
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1993 @ Quartz Summer Conference
Description: A track loaded/self booting music disk.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; font system; planar 3D effects; custom disk file system; low-level/custom MFM disk handling.)
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura. (V2 released by LSD).
Status: Released 1992 & 1993
Description: A bouncing jelly ball and a bouncing logo crammed into a 1Kb Amiga boot-block still capable of booting afterwards.
My contribution: All code. Compression/procedural data creation; tight-space programming techniques; filled ellipse rendering; compressed font engine;
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992
Description: 4 viewports showing different demo elements.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; font system; fake alpha blended 3D).
Platform: Amiga – ECS
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992
Description: A crazy/silly demo made by me & my mate Atrocity over the space of a single night.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player. (2D sprite engine; font system; sound reactive 3D graphics (filled rotating planes)).
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992 @ Quartz Summer Conference
Description: A simple intro with a some 3D dot/point object rendering and interesting text colouring effects.
My contribution: All code except ProPacker player. (Hardware sprite tricks. 3D dot/point object rendering. Etc)
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992
Description: An intro to announce 3D maps of various countries/continents where we had members and a new US BBS.
My contribution: All code except NoiseTracker player. (Planar 3D, text effects, etc).
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992
Description: A simple intro featuring a 3D dot routine and some half-bright effects. I think it was for a PD software shop.
My contribution: Mentoring and debugging for “The Welder” (aka Chris Hagley IIRC).
Platform: Amiga – all chipsets
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992
Description: A simple intro with planar 3D objects, simple blurring, some morphing dot routines, proportional fonts, and a few comedy effects.
My contribution: All code except ProTracker player.
Platform: Amiga – ECS
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1992 @ the Digital Party 1992 (I think)
Description: A track-loaded music disk.
All code except NoiseTracker player.
Platform: Amiga – ECS
Group: Futura
Status: Released 1991
Description: An intro to announce my arrival onto the demo scene. BOBs & 3D line drawing (albeit before I’d learnt the art of Z sorting and hidden surface removal :o)
My contribution: All code except NoiseTracker player.
Despite failing English at school (due to lack of interest because I didn’t see the relevance at the time), I’ve since gone on to have a few words of mine published.
The Evolution of 3D – Custom PC Magazine
Publication: Custom PC
Publisher: Dennis Publishing
Year: 2003
Description: I was commissioned to write a 3000 word article about the evolution of 3D graphics in PC gaming and how hardware graphics acceleration fits in.
Publication: Develop
Publisher: Intent Media
Year: 200?-200?
Description: I wrote the monthly 400 word programming column.
Platform: Amiga
Group: Anarchy
Year: 1992?
Description: A report/review of the Quartz Summer Conference (demo party)