So the last month for me was pretty hectic, I’ve been updating some design elements for Secret of Escape and doing my software day job, both have been battling to take the most of my work and free time but I’m keeping at ease. ut also been doing some extra stuff. I figured that since it’s been a while since I posted on here, I figured I’d show you all the two main things that I’ve made, but till now have only been mentioned on either my Facebook page or Twitter.

A* Pathfinding: Because why not?

So the basic story of this one is that a colleague of mine who also studies games programming was trying to work on his own A* Implementation as well, but was struggling on parts of the algorithm. So I figured I’d try myself, since I too haven’t attempted to write my own version for some time. My first attempt at it was back in first year University, and due to the poor resources I ended up giving up. It’s also very worthwhile that I at least get a working implementation done since Secret of Escape also uses pathfinding for some of the enemies.

After about two days of looking through online resources (I highly recommend anyone interesting in building their own to read this article) and help from some very helpful folks on Twitter, I successfully got a working implementation!

The source code is up online, the application was built using LibGDX but with a bit of tweaking the pathfinder and node classes could be used for other Java based engines. The classes are commented with all the steps for clarity.

View the Source Code

Clean Commuter

This is a grid based puzzle game where you use commands and functions to control cars to get them to parking spaces. The game used three computers connected to a server so each player controlled a car. The purpose of the game was to teach basic concepts of programming, problem solving and teamwork, while adding a small message on environmental awareness. The game was made for a nationwide school event called Blue Fusion, which students from schools around the Hampshire area came to compete against each other by playing games like Clean Commuter in order to gain interest in science, technology and maths.

I was the project lead in a team of five, as well as the person responsible for the in-game graphics and most of the rendering using LibGDX. We worked on the game for over five months and we were able to complete the game in time for the week long event. Unfortunately, due to copyright and licensing, the game will not be available for download from me on any site, but I hope you appreciate these screenshots.

So after today, things should be slowly going back to normal. I should be giving a few updates on Secret of Escape within a few weeks or so, I’m also considering doing the Insanity Jam, which is a small games jam where you make a game based on whatever you receive from the random game idea generator with the Insanity option on for totally bizarre ideas. But for now I’ve got some work to catch up on.

Talk to you all later!