I WANNA MAKE VIDEOGAMES
Piers Bishop
WEBSITE OUT OF DATE
These are mostly tests, short projects, or old projects.
The main reason they're here is that most of them have at least one or some feature/s that I haven't had the occasion of implementing in another, larger, regular project. They'll probably be removed at some point in the future.
Do scroll all the way down, though, if you are curious enough. The last project here actually predates my videogame / CG studies !
Trying out minecraft's bloc-placing mechanics. Textures by me.
Bloc Builder Dec 2013
Well, this is mostly in just to show that I was interrested in making videogames long before my post-Bac studies.
It's the TPE I did for my year of Première. We went for something about Alchemy.
And, in what was considered quite an original move, we (I) decided to present it in the form of a videogame. Of course, our oral presentation added much detail to what was shown on screen, but the main ideas are there nonetheless.
I was getting quite familiar with RPG Maker XP, which I had discovered about two years earlier, and wanted to exploit it.
I had quite a few projects in RPG Maker XP, trying out things, using what was given to me in this software to do as I wished, exploiting eveything within my grasp to experiment with new gameplays, "events", which in this software follow a programming logic, and storylines, too.
I usually did quite a bit of the graphics myself for these, but for this project, knowing that the teachers wouldn't know what kind of software I used, I mostly went for the default texture packs, fabricating a couple of character sprites for me and my friends, a classroom cipset, and so on...
I had quite a few other projects done or prototyped in RPG Maker XP, some as "serious" projects, some as jokes, some as tryouts... But this Alchemy Project is the only one that made it through the ages and several computers' lives and many, many, many data transfers and sorting.
It has more of a sentimental value than anything else, I guess, but it also shows that this is what I've been wanting to do for some time.
L'Alchimie Apr 2008
A week-long project, where i was teamed up with some students who'd barely done any 3D or Photoshop at all. The plan was to show them the Videogame/CG course so they'd know if they were interrested to join in next year.
So we went for a shoot-em-up, where we play as a microbe who fires at any red and white blood cells, antibodies, sprem, lung tissue, and brains it notices.
The brain itself was supposed to be a boss of some kind, but my multiple life points script wouldn't work and I had limited time.
Basically, everything either done by me, or so-heavily-influenced-by-me-but-not-done-by-me-the-result-would-have-been-the-same-only-done-faster.
Dark Microbe Feb 2013
VideoGames - Various, Tests, and Older Stuff
Super Brick Invaders Nov 2014
Giving Unity classes to somebody, I decided I'd show how to make a basic "Space Invaders" and "Brick Breaker", and then mixing them up a bit, ending in the most epic game ever.
Smashing invaders with a ball and paddle ? Nope, SHOOTING AT BRICKS !
So I decided to try myself at a touchscreen gameplay and ended up with this.
At first I wanted to try doing a game for my iPhone, but quickly realised that I actually needed a Mac for this. So I decided to do one for my Samsung tablet instead.
As I said, this was mostly for trying touchscreen controls, no effort has gone into gameplay design or anything related. But the scripts I wrote for creating my own touchscreen buttons, and the one for dragging the ship around using a raycast, are I believe fully optimised.
This was also a test for a propper tablet shooting game I have in mind.
Touchy Aliens Dec 2014
Make Me Quack Dec 2014
Experimenting with Makey-Makey. Two players have to make each other quack, by touching each other, as many times as possible in under a minute.
No video here, just a beautiful piece of art.
Look At Me Feb 2015
A first test using Vuforia for Unity. Tried out a few things, mostly with different sized symbols, and figured that under a certain size, there's really no point (that's the other symbol you can see a bit lower in the video). But in the end, that means I don't need a VR-specific CV, just the standard one works fine.
Vanitas Mar 2015
Experimenting with Unity5 rendering, Reflection Probes, and Image Effects.
I added the possibility to move the skull and bananas around so i could have a look at the dynamic reflections on the wall and ground.
I also experimented with a bunch of image effects to add a bit of bloom, tweak the color balance, add a bit of noise and AO, etc...
The main idea is quite obvious, being stuck in a labyrinth plunged in darkness, being only able to see what is withing a certain range, and not through walls.
It's interresting to see how lost players feel, and how they don't think about the overall layout of the labyrinth.
Even after quite a few plays through this unseen maze, people won't think about what they've been through, but only about what is immediately surrounding them and which direction they need to go.
The maze doesn't change over time because it doesn't need to : the player's refusal to memorize the path (s)he's been through, and to rather refer to one's more basic instincts, removes all need for the maze to change.
In fact, having the maze change over time would even serve as a justification for the player to have trouble working his/her way around. I wanted to show how the fault here lied within the player, who'd inevitably fall to wall hugging in order to reach the goal.
The video probably isn't very representative of this though : I was the person playing and I know the layout of the labyrinth, no matter how hard I try not to be influenced by that knowledge.
I've had the idea for this project for quite some time now, but couldn't do it because I didn't have access to a Unity Pro license, and the whole idea depended on shadows.
Since Unity 5 came out, it has given everyone access to these previously pro-only features, so I could finally make this. I probably could've made this anyway in any number of cheaty ways, but this was by far the simplest.
I used my dungeon generator for the labyrinth's base, then tweaked it by hand in order to correct the few random-induced abnormalities in the generation.
Lightyryrinth Mar 2015
Experimenting with Unity's ragdoll system.
Song credits to The Weather Girls.