Matt Brenner
Software Engineer
Software Engineer
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Projects and Pictures
Mario Mixed-Up
Mario Mixed-Up was the first group project that I worked on at Full Sail. The project was a 2 month 2D game which had to follow a guideline for content based on the genre of the game. For MMU I was responsible for the tile engine, level editor, enemy AI, animations, and project scheduling and team meetings. It took the classic Super Mario Brothers to a new level with updated graphics and new abilities such as the FLUDD pack.
-Tile Engine Engine rendering normally
Shown on the right my tile engine both renders the image for the object but also can render the type of collision that each tile is connected to. G for ground, B for brick, C for coin, PBC for a power block when jumped into gives coins, and a PBS which is a power block that contains a super star. The engine it's self is set up to load in from an XML file that my level editor spits out. It only renders the size of the screen to increase the frame count. My engine also handles spawning of enemies and making sure that all of the level resets when the player dies.
Engine rendering with collision data
-Level Editor
My level editor was my first solo experience with the wonderful world of C#. Given only 2 weeks to develop my engine and then port it to work in C# with my editor it was no easy task. But I've found working with .NET is really rewarding when you realize that what you imagine in your head for something to look like is stupid easy to make in C#. My level editor supports creating worlds of any size, saving and loading levels in XML and binary, placing tiles, removing tiles, multiple layers with parallax scrolling, placing enemies, and collision.
Placing tiles into the world
The level editors layout is quite simple with simple switching from placing object tiles into the world to placing collision tiles on top of those and even placing starting points, checkpoints, and ending points of the level. The collision system uses color coded abbreviated blocks to show what type of collision and object you wish to place. You can place in ground, environment, coins, every power-up in the game from fire flowers to the FLUUD pack. You can also place entrances and exits to pipe worlds and vines that Mario can climb up.
Placing collision into the world
-Animations and AI
Doing animations and AI for this project proved to be a daunting task. Our group originally consisted of 4 members but one of the group members decided 3 weeks into the project to take a leave from school and dumped his work onto us. I picked up his two main tasks of Animations and AI. The animation editor that I was handed was broke so I had to spend 5 days fixing that and the engine behind it was wrong so it wasn't very much fun. Me not being a graphics guy either didn't help at all. The enemy AI however was a lot of fun to do. We used a finite state machine so setting up spawning, movement and decision making, and dieing was very simple and fun.
Notice how the koopa on the left is approaching the wall. When he collides with the wall he will change his direction and continue walking.
-Recap
So in the end I'm very proud of MMU and what I have to show from it. I'm very proud of my group pulling together after losing a member and still putting together a solid game. I learned a lot from the process and it really excites me to know that when I get a job at a game company I'll get to do what I did for 2 months every day. The only real downer after the completion of the class was that we couldn't get our installer to work for the game. So we didn't get to show it to our family and friends out of Full Sail until the next break. I have the game for download here so you can give it a shot if you like. You can also download the Level Editor here. The .exe is inside of the folder for both and if you have any problems you can e-mail me. Contact Info
Return of the Living Homeless
Return of the Living Homeless was the first full game that I have ever worked on. We were given 2 weeks to put together a game by ourselves. I choose to make a parody of the South Park episode where the town is infested with homeless people. This is a simple move and shoot game with 3 levels and a boss battle. This game runs on DirectX and basically the entire project was to get our hands dirty and learn to use sound, input, and various other data structures.
-Gameplay
This game is really quite simple to pick up and play. As you can see there are 3 characters to choose from and there are also 3 levels of difficulty. Once you begin the game you can can move anywhere on the screen to avoid the attacking zombies. You can change the direction that you are shooting and move in any direction. There is scrolling so once you reach the middle of the screen you will begin to move across the world.
The other cool aspect of the game was the boss battle. This was my first attempt at doing states for an enemy. Basically when you start out he has a very lax tracking algorithm. As you hit him he gets a darker shade of red and his tracking becomes faster and he becomes more aggressive.
Mario Mixed-Up was the first group project that I worked on at Full Sail. The project was a 2 month 2D game which had to follow a guideline for content based on the genre of the game. For MMU I was responsible for the tile engine, level editor, enemy AI, animations, and project scheduling and team meetings. It took the classic Super Mario Brothers to a new level with updated graphics and new abilities such as the FLUDD pack.-Tile Engine Engine rendering normally
Shown on the right my tile engine both renders the image for the object but also can render the type of collision that each tile is connected to. G for ground, B for brick, C for coin, PBC for a power block when jumped into gives coins, and a PBS which is a power block that contains a super star. The engine it's self is set up to load in from an XML file that my level editor spits out. It only renders the size of the screen to increase the frame count. My engine also handles spawning of enemies and making sure that all of the level resets when the player dies. Engine rendering with collision data
-Level EditorMy level editor was my first solo experience with the wonderful world of C#. Given only 2 weeks to develop my engine and then port it to work in C# with my editor it was no easy task. But I've found working with .NET is really rewarding when you realize that what you imagine in your head for something to look like is stupid easy to make in C#. My level editor supports creating worlds of any size, saving and loading levels in XML and binary, placing tiles, removing tiles, multiple layers with parallax scrolling, placing enemies, and collision.
Placing tiles into the world
The level editors layout is quite simple with simple switching from placing object tiles into the world to placing collision tiles on top of those and even placing starting points, checkpoints, and ending points of the level. The collision system uses color coded abbreviated blocks to show what type of collision and object you wish to place. You can place in ground, environment, coins, every power-up in the game from fire flowers to the FLUUD pack. You can also place entrances and exits to pipe worlds and vines that Mario can climb up.
Placing collision into the world
-Animations and AI
Doing animations and AI for this project proved to be a daunting task. Our group originally consisted of 4 members but one of the group members decided 3 weeks into the project to take a leave from school and dumped his work onto us. I picked up his two main tasks of Animations and AI. The animation editor that I was handed was broke so I had to spend 5 days fixing that and the engine behind it was wrong so it wasn't very much fun. Me not being a graphics guy either didn't help at all. The enemy AI however was a lot of fun to do. We used a finite state machine so setting up spawning, movement and decision making, and dieing was very simple and fun.
Notice how the koopa on the left is approaching the wall. When he collides with the wall he will change his direction and continue walking.
-Recap
So in the end I'm very proud of MMU and what I have to show from it. I'm very proud of my group pulling together after losing a member and still putting together a solid game. I learned a lot from the process and it really excites me to know that when I get a job at a game company I'll get to do what I did for 2 months every day. The only real downer after the completion of the class was that we couldn't get our installer to work for the game. So we didn't get to show it to our family and friends out of Full Sail until the next break. I have the game for download here so you can give it a shot if you like. You can also download the Level Editor here. The .exe is inside of the folder for both and if you have any problems you can e-mail me. Contact Info
Return of the Living Homeless
Return of the Living Homeless was the first full game that I have ever worked on. We were given 2 weeks to put together a game by ourselves. I choose to make a parody of the South Park episode where the town is infested with homeless people. This is a simple move and shoot game with 3 levels and a boss battle. This game runs on DirectX and basically the entire project was to get our hands dirty and learn to use sound, input, and various other data structures.-Gameplay
This game is really quite simple to pick up and play. As you can see there are 3 characters to choose from and there are also 3 levels of difficulty. Once you begin the game you can can move anywhere on the screen to avoid the attacking zombies. You can change the direction that you are shooting and move in any direction. There is scrolling so once you reach the middle of the screen you will begin to move across the world.
When you get into the game you will see that your bullets do damage to the enemies. As you hit them and take their health, they turn red. The darker shade of red they are, the closer they are to dieing.
The other cool aspect of the game was the boss battle. This was my first attempt at doing states for an enemy. Basically when you start out he has a very lax tracking algorithm. As you hit him he gets a darker shade of red and his tracking becomes faster and he becomes more aggressive.
-Recap
So for my first game I am really proud of what I made. The sounds and input were a real pain but getting all the aspects together made me really proud of what I accomplished. I also see that I've come along way as a programmer. If you are interested in playing it you can download it here. The exe is inside the folder.
So for my first game I am really proud of what I made. The sounds and input were a real pain but getting all the aspects together made me really proud of what I accomplished. I also see that I've come along way as a programmer. If you are interested in playing it you can download it here. The exe is inside the folder.
