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Acumen

WFG Retired
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Posts posted by Acumen

  1. bobjelly.jpg

    Job Title(s): Graphics Programmer.

    Joined: 11th July 2006.

    Department: Programming.

    Location: Montreal, Canada.

    Birth Year: 1981.

    Home Town: Montreal, Canada.

    Interests/Hobbies: Playing Games, Guitar/Bass, Mountain Biking, Watching Movies.

    Favourite Computer Games: Starcraft: The balance between the different races is really good. Also, each game played is unique in some way. Oblivion: The world is so huge and there's so much to do that you don't feel "stuck" in a game... but rather part of the world.

    Bio: Sebastien has been interested in video games ever since he got a NES as a child. Later, he learned a bit of programming on his own before entering college in computer science. He worked as a trainee for Ubisoft at that time on Rainbow Six 3 PC (using the Unreal engine).

    He graduated from the University of Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada) in 2004 and started working on the PS2 version of Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Since that game shipped, he's been working at Ubisoft Montreal full-time as part of the framework programming team. Their job is to create a low level library that can be used by game projects to work with multiple platforms, without worrying about the underlying details and differences.

    Sebastien also worked solo on his own game engine for the last 2 years (part-time). He is meticulous and good at learning new techniques in his own time. He has knowledge of multiple platforms (working with GC, PS2, PS3, Xbox & 360, PCs), low level programming (threading, networking, memory), memory optimisations, speed optimisations (knowledge of SSE/Altivec intrinsics), 3D maths, OpenGL and a bit of GLSL.

  2. Job Title(s): Animator.

    Joined: 7th July 2006.

    Department: Art.

    Location: Riedstadt, Germany.

    Birth Year: 1989.

    Home Town: Darmstadt, Germany.

    Interests/Hobbies: Trumpet, Soccer, Draw and Paint Pictures.

    Favourite Computer Games: Age of Kings, Warcraft 3, Paraworld.

    Bio: Christoph was born in the year 1989 in the small town of Darmstadt near Frankfurt in Germany. Since he was a small boy he liked to draw and paint things (including funny comics in his highschool physics lessions).

    Since 2005, he had made 3D art, especially game art, including www.glest.org mods. Christoph considers himself a good artist as well as a musician. He is really interested in history and loves to play historical real-time strategy games.

    Motto: "Der Horizont vieler Menschen ist ein Kreis mit dem Radius Null - und das nennen sie ihren Standpunkt."

  3. The trouble with that is that we'd have to maintain and represent multiple resources for an object, and also presents problems with the interface. (Normally you can just right-click a tree and the unit will harvest the wood; now you need a means to choose one resource over another.)

    What might work, though, is to do it in two stages ... Have a fruit tree and a wood tree. When the fruit tree is exhausted of Food, the entity is "killed" and the equivalent wood tree referenced by the fruit tree entity is spawned in its place.

    Obviously that creates a little more work on both sides of the artistic and programming fence. But there's nothing stopping you from having stand-alone fruit trees right now ... They'd just need fruit-bearing actors, fruit-picking animation (since they'd have to stand and reach to pick fruit -- which would also have an effect on the reasonable height of such a tree), and a special type of tree with Food content.

  4. Job Title(s): Gameplay Programmer.

    Joined: 6th July 2006.

    Department: Programming.

    Location: Toronto, Canada.

    Birth Year: 1985.

    Interests/Hobbies: Tennis, Swimming, Reading.

    Favourite Computer Games: Rise of Nations was so much fun to play online. For me I thought the game provided the right balance between a manageable economy and large scale battles.

    Bio: At time of writing, Dave is currently attending the University of Waterloo to complete a Software Engineering Degree.

    He has real-world experience with object-oriented design/implementation on large software projects (C#, C++, Java, MS SQL, XML, OGL), as both part of a team and individually. Dave is very meticulous, an adept learner, and an avid gamer with a passion for creating great games.

    He finds he always has to be learning something new and constantly challenging himself. Fortunately developing games provides you an endless opportunity to explorer unsought game designs and any imaginable world.

  5. bonk.jpg

    Job Title(s): GUI Programmer.

    Joined: 28th June 2006.

    Department: Programming.

    Location: Minneapolis, USA.

    Birth Year: 1966.

    Home Town: Minneapolis, USA.

    Interests/Hobbies: Riding the Harley. Steaks on the grill. Dinner parties. Model trains in nearly every scale. Renaissance reenactment as actual historical characters. Wine, especially Oregon Pinot and Italian Piedmont Barolo. Inclement weather (there is nothing interesting about a sunny day). Hiking at the Arboretum. Programming, creating, and delivering beautiful code that is easy to read and understand. Attending the opera. Period films. Watching Sherlock Holmes, Cadfael, Poirot DVDs. Listening to obscure music. My wife. But not necessarily in that order.

    Of my own volition I do not own a television, a microwave, or a dishwasher. I am a staunch believer in good manners, a good glass of scotch, a good cigar, a good steak, and good friends. I have been know to make appearances at midwestern Renaissance Festivals as anything from Handsome Jack the Gentleman Pirate to the Earl of Hertford. I do not wear tights to the office. I narrowly escaped a medical career as a doctor (the melancholy misfortune of both my younger brothers).

    My wife is a motivational speaker and I graduated from a Catholic University, so as is to be expected, I question everything.

    Favourite Computer Games: Diablo and Diablo II. Warcraft I / Warcraft II / Warcraft III / Warcraft Frozen Throne. The *old* AD&D games. Rogue ~ from the ASCII days.

    Bio: Christopher is a Type A perfection that works full time (well... more than full time) in the digital signage industry, leading software, art, networking, and customer care teams. He is married to an adorable spitfire of a wife, who unfortunately travels for work, leaving him to his own vices and devices... whereupon he elects to program.

    Chris has a varied history in software engineering and large system design and implementation, all of which, in one way or another, relate to the development of games. He is proficient in a number of software languages, including C, C++, Perl, with extensive experience in 3D animation usage and development. He has been writing softare for 23 years, 18 of which have been professionally.

    He has worked in the military sector designing front-view simulators (SGI, C, C++, X/Xm, IRIS Performer); broadcast television designing weather simulation and animation products (SGI, C++, OpenInventor, X/Xm); 3D high-quality animation creating broadcast (NTSC) animation ( SGI, PowerAnimator, Perl, Maya, Composer); and the retail game industry designing and creating sports games (C++, Windows, DirectX).

    Motto: "Thought without action is a daydream. Action without thought is a nightmare."

  6. This was slightly before I joined the project, but as I understand it, other than the impressive voiceover which was provided by a third party, it was all done by WFG members (using Poser figures (I believe the Roman centurion was a heavily facial-morphed version of Daz's Michael 2) superimposed onto Bryce scenes, if I recall correctly), with Wyrmwood doing the sound, Jason doing most of the art.

    Pretty darn good for a first attempt, I have to say. It took a lot of man hours to put together.

  7. Just curious, why include both stone and ore? I'm guessing that stone is used for defensive buildings like outposts, fortresses and walls and that ore for units, technologies and the odd special building?

    Exactly.

    Stone is used wherever stone is needed (stone buildings, particularly walls, slinger and onager ammunition, etc). Some civs used more wood than stone in their construction (eg those rickety Celtic huts), so the importance of the resource can differ a bit from civ to civ. Ore is used as the basis for metals and currency, so it'd cover metal weapons and armour, expensive technologies, wages, costly commissions, and so forth. Ore is typically a lot more rare and stone a lot more plentiful (depending on the map's environment).

  8. All this is highly subject to change, especially during usability testing, and is not indicative of the final product, but at present:

    - Is the plan still to have millitary units be able to do civillian jobs?

    Yep.

    - What resources are there and how are they gathered?

    Food, Wood, Stone, Ore. (And Population/Housing.)

    (There were originally Metal and Gold, but since the mining technique and general function would have been almost identical, we opted to merge them into representative Ore which covers a range of minerals in their unrefined form, including bronze, silver, iron, steel, etc.)

    Food can be gathered from various sources (grain, meat, berries, etc). Wood from trees, Stone from rocks, Ore from mineral deposits (pretty standard). All natural resources are finite.

    - Will there be drop off points or will you dispense with them like Ensemble did?

    A little of both. At present, units gather resources at a site directly into the resource pool without physically taking them back home (and frankly, I don't think you really miss your gatherers shuffling back and forth and getting in each other's way). But there are also plans to require drop-off buildings in order to gather certain resources in certain areas.

    - What is the general design philosophy: Do you consider the economic side of the game to be just as important as the millitary side or do you see it as something to do in between battles (Unfortunately far too many designers seem to be going for the latter.

    The key design principle is to reward the player for good tactical thinking and encourage strategic thought over mindless build-ordering. We want to avoid tedious, repetitive activity and instead focus on giving the player interesting decisions to make. To this end, managing your economy, technology and advancement is essential to your war effort. Personally I get the biggest kick out of the base-building side of an RTS game. :P

  9. Job Title(s): Gameplay Scripter.

    Joined: 3rd June 2006.

    Department: Programming.

    Location: Kansas City, Kansas.

    Birth Year: 1987.

    Home Town: Dallas, Texas.

    Interests/Hobbies: Riding motorcycles, writing orchestrated music, building computers and small robots, and being an audio engineer. I have a passion for biblical history, science fiction, and any good strategy game.

    Favourite Computer Games: Dragon Force for the Sega Saturn, Rise of Nations, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Armored Core 2, and Fire Emblem.

    Bio: Corin started coding when he was ten, on his 50mHz Xeos PC with Red Hat 6.2, and moved from there into the wild world of PC gaming and modding. He then discovered the joy (and pain) that is C++, and then game programming.

    At time of writing, Corin is a college student at the local community college, and works part time as a web developer and database programmer. He has been programming C and C++ for about eight years, and has a good handle of JavaScript, PHP and SQL. He likes to be in the dirt of things and figure out why they tick.

    Motto: "Nothing less."

  10. I loved this game when I was growing up. It was a true genre buster, with resource management, exploration, travel, combat, diplomatic/adventure elements by communicating with the various alien races. The dialogue is also far from ponderous and often amusing.

    And if you do ever need to take a break from the plot, you can play the Super Melee game (basically a skirmish mode where you pick a fleet of ships and can play them one-on-one against a friend or computer player).

    I truly have to rank it as one of the best games I've ever played. I was so pleased when I found this conversion about a year ago, since the PC version of Star Control II requires a lot of effort to make it work under modern systems.

    Also, this is primarily a port of the 3DO version of the game, which includes full speech (in a separate pack) and the option of a more console-oriented interface (big buttons instead of text labels), something that wasn't available in the PC version. On the whole they seem to be endeavouring to blend the PC and 3DO versions to get the best elements of both.

    There's also an affiliate group of musicians (Precursors) via that site that are remixing the game's music tracks.

    The only parts of the game that weren't ported were the intro and outro cinematics (which were licensed to a third party and so permission to distribute them could not be granted by the developer, Toys for Bob) and the title brand (which at time of distribution was still the property of Accolade).

    EDIT: Ah, it looks like the intro cinematic has been added since I last downloaded the conversion, as well as an options menu, better scaling algorithm, 10+ save slots, etc.

    Unfortunately the sequel, Star Control 3, was done by a different developer and truly lacked the flavour and atmosphere of its predecessor. But I'd highly recommend taking this free, legal port for a spin.

  11. Job Title(s): Audio Programmer.

    Joined: 30th April 2006.

    Department: Programming.

    Location: Orlando, Florida, USA.

    Birth Year: 1979.

    Home Town: Kansas City, Kansas, USA.

    Interests/Hobbies: Playing games, spinning records, performance tuning cars, ancient history, programming :)

    Favourite Computer Games: F.E.A.R., Battlefield 2, Warcraft 3, Civilization 4, Sim City 4, World of Warcraft (sigh)

    Bio: Gavin was born and raised in the Mid-western United States. In 2004 he relocated to Central Florida where he attended Full Sail Real World Education and received a Bachelor of Science in Game Design in 2006.

    His love for video games dates back to when he got his NES around 1986. Thusly prevented from ever again playing outside, video games quickly became his favorite pastime. After enduring a brief career in IT, he decided to pursue his childhood dream of making video games and has become an independent game developer working with the Wildfire Games Community.

    He currently works at the educational institution that taught him so much, and continues to learn while helping students develop their own game programming skills.

    Motto: "May the source be with you."

  12. Quick answer ... The bulk of the player's military forces (infantry and cavalry "citizen soldiers") gain promotions by killing enemies.

    Then you have a couple of legendary units ("super units", for lack of a better term) which are only available in the late game (such as Carthaginian elephant cavalry or the Persian Amrtaka). These don't gain veterancy and are expensive, but are very powerful.

    Both categories can benefit from improvement by researching technological advancements.

    As always, the design is subject to change at any time depending on what proves to be fun and feasible.

  13. Job Title(s): GUI Scripter.

    Joined: 4th April 2006.

    Department: GUI.

    Location: Durham, United Kingdom.

    Birth Year: 1985.

    Home Town: Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

    Interests/Hobbies: I play for my college squash team, watch DVDs (Although that's usually on the computer), I enjoy walking, going to the college bar with my housemates, gaming (most types), and playing the flute.

    Favourite Computer Games: Total Annihilation and Command and Conquer (Original) are two of my favourite games. They are the first RTS games that I played when I was young. My father and I used to play against each other most nights, and try to complete the main game at weekends.

    Myst is another favourite, as it really makes you think. It's one of the few games that have gotten me frustrated in a good way. If a game can get me passionate enough to stay up all night trying to work out the smallest of problems, then it's a good one. Tales of Symphonia and Skies of Arcadia are also favourites of mine, more for the amazing storylines that they have. Grim Fandango is also one of my best liked games, due to it's fantastic storyline and great humour!

    Timesplitters (2 and 3) are very high up my list also, as they have co-op missions, which allow me and my brother to play together, rather than fighting over who gets to play.

    Bio: Rich is a Geordie programmer, and currently a second year software engineering student living in Durham in the UK. Although still learning C++, he is a very capable programmer in OOP and a quick learner. He can use javascript, and has spent too much time on his course learning about XML.

    When not glued to his computer, he can be found either fending off sleep in a lecture theatre, or down at the squash courts. As far as computers go, he spends most of his day with one (be it for work or play). He's been messing about with programming since he was about 7, but made the jump to more professional languages when he was 18.

    Rich is a very cheerful, enthusiastic person. He enjoys problem solving and poking at a challenge until it's solved. He is pretty energetic, and doesn't like leaving things half-done. He's always trying to improve upon what he knows, especially in programming and games development, as it's ultimately his goal to be a professional games developer. Unfortunately, he's got a really corny sense of humour, but other than that, he's a really nice guy.

    He's a big fan of anime, and due to his TV breaking down hasn't watched English television in over a year. (Though he does enjoy watching DVDs on his computer.) He loves animals, and has had a lot of pets (although is currently without, as his landlord doesn't want any more chewed carpets!)

    Motto: "If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving's not for you."

  14. Job Title(s): AI Programmer.

    Joined: 3rd April 2006.

    Department: AI.

    Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

    Birth Year: 1984.

    Home Town: Oakton, VA, USA.

    Interests/Hobbies: I enjoy running, cooking, and socializing, in short. Until recently I was on the varsity track team as a sprinter, and I still enjoy casually running. I am a brother of the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity. I just recently got my own kitchen, so I have enjoyed experimenting with cooking and trading recipes with my friends. Since I have turned 21, I have typically gone out to socialize at the local bars on the weekends.

    Favourite Computer Games: My favorite computer game is a toss up between Starcraft, Age of Kings, and Warcraft 3. All have held a place in my heart for a while now, although I find myself playing Warcraft 3 more than the others. I used to play World of Warcraft, but stopped once I hit level 60 and did not want to be committed to a large guild and their schedule.

    Bio: He was born in California, and in the first ten years of his life moved to Alaska, Scotland, and finally to Virginia. This gave Kevin a broad perspective in life, which has subsequently helped him to relate to other people. He first became interested in computers during middle school: he would write games on his TI-83. He started programming C++ and later C during high school, and ended up at Carnegie Mellon studying computer science.

    As far as playing games, the RTS genre has always held his interest, and he has always dreamed of making an RTS or RPG with a strong economic element. As far as programming, he is most interested in studying and implementing artificial intelligence. This has taking him from studying game techniques to robotics to computer vision. He studied latin in high school, so he is also interested in the period of time surrounding the Roman Empire. Additionally, he is intrigued by the history of the middle ages. He has studied many of the topics related to game development - specifically A.I. and network programming.

    Kevin is a goal oriented person with good communication skills, and can work well without supervision. He excels in problem solving, which carries over to many aspects of computer science and discrete mathematics. He has extensive experience with studying algorithms and theory due to my background in computer science. He is fluent in C++, both from his studies and real life internships.

    At time of writing, Kevin is a university student at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. He did his bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and is currently working on a Masters in Information System Management.

    Motto: "You never know unless you try."

  15. Job Title(s): Graphics Programmer.

    Joined: 22nd January 2006.

    Department: Graphics.

    Location: Melbourne, Australia.

    Birth Year: 1978.

    Home Town: Gippsland, Australia.

    Interests/Hobbies: Play guitar, soccer, gym. I read a fair bit; if not working then either at the pub or mate's place.

    Favourite Computer Games: Counter-Strike - fast, responsive, tactically challenging and great net-code. I've been playing for 6 years and I'm still not sick of it; best game ever! Period.

    Starcraft - Why.... everything about this game is perfect. Fun to play, great graphics and sound. Only let down by the fact that I was so bad at it.

    COD2 - Rather than being a game, its more of a war simulator. My favorite game at the moment.

    Tekken5 - Wow, a PS2 can render this! Best 3d fighting game ever!

    Bio: Paul started programming basic on the C64 when he was 10, writing really crappy programs but he still had fun :P Then, somewhere between the onset of puberty and 20, he stopped all computer related activities, finished high school and got his first job.

    Then, after realising that full-time work at McDonalds isn't an ideal career path (or much fun!) he enrolled in uni and completed a computer science degree.

    Now he's working full time as lead programmer for MedicVision in Australia. This company makes surgical training simulators, using specialised force feedback devices ... which is fun, but it's not games. :P

    Paul is obsessed with graphics rendering and learning all the latest and greatest techniques; he's always buying books and trying new things out. He does a lot of what he calls "discovery programming" (pick a technique or effect and attempt to implement it).

    His skills include 3D/OpenGL, C/C++ coding and design, Haptic/Force-Feedback design and implementation, DirectX (DirectSound, DirectInput etc), basic "programmer art" 3D modelling, animation and rigging, tools development (plugins for 3ds max, editing tools, etc), scripting (Lua, Python) and Embedding languages into C.

    Motto: "You have balls ... I like balls." - Terrorist, Team America

  16. Incidentally, if anyone out there has is familiar with the Max SDK and wants to help out, please fill out an application form on the website. We currently lack programming experience with this toolkit and MaxScript, and in order to finish 0 A.D. we need to upgrade our exporters with a number of additional features, including:

    • support for non-biped animatable objects (siege, ships) vertex skinning and attachment (using skin and simple bones - vs. physique and biped)
    • export simple 3dmax bones and bone animations (for quadrupeds, fish, birds, deer, sheep, elephants - anything nonbiped)
    • skin information (for vertex assignments to simple 3dmax boned animations)
    • vertex based animation (like how 3ds saves its animations - for things such as trees falling)
    • support for newer versions and other modelling tools such as Blender (our current exporters only work in 3ds Max R6)

    This task has been idling for many months due to lack of informed manpower, so if you can help out, we'd appreciate it and be able to get this game out that much sooner.

  17. It could be compared to how in Warcraft you upgrade your Town Hall to unlock other buildings. That also leaves the option of having different art for *only* the upgraded Civ Centres for the three phases (to indicate visually which phase an opponent is in), which is something that Warcraft does to indicate which phase they're in.

    Up to the artists, since that's where the work would be involved in creating these extra building versions, though based on their architecture/layout I don't think it would really work to make the Civ Centre look more fortified with each phase (and you could probably figure it out from which buildings are in the base ... If there's a Fortress, he must be in the top-level tier, etc).

  18. Job Title(s): AI/Gameplay Programmer.

    Joined: 10th October 2005.

    Department: AI.

    Location: London, UK.

    Birth Year: 1981.

    Home Town: London, UK.

    Interests/Hobbies: Play football; watch football; relax!

    Favourite Computer Games: World of Warcraft is a fantastic MMORPG and should be experienced by all gamers at some point. Recently received my PSP, so playing Lumines on that (which is fantastic Pro Evo, every version, on every console!)

    Bio: Oliver has six years of programming behind him in both C++ and Java. He has both a BSc and an MSc in Computer Science, with a distinct bias towards AI, mainly for the purpose of making use of this within a gaming environment. He is a fast learner and eagerly faces any challenge presented to him.

    He has good knowledge of Java, C++, XML, POP11, Prolog, HTML and other programming languages, and is always willing to give and receive help.

    He is currently working full time in tech support whilst looking for a job as a software developer.

    Motto: "You'll never walk alone."

  19. Job Title(s): Gameplay Scripter.

    Joined: 10th October 2005.

    Department: Scripting.

    Location: Topeka, USA.

    Birth Year: 1977.

    Home Town: Everywhere (USAF brat).

    Interests/Hobbies: Hockey, playing with My dog, spending time with my family.

    Growing up in Germany and visiting Southern Italy (my Uncle was stationed there) gave me an appreciation for architecture and cities built centuries ago, with rich histories and cultures.

    Favourite Musician/Band: "Me First and the Gimme Gimme's".

    Favourite Computer Games: Top Ten:

    10. X-Com - The atmosphere, the turn-based strategy, researching and upgrading items. I really love this game and come back to play it often. (Thank you DosBox.)

    9. Desert combat Mod (Battlefield 1942) - I don't play a ton of FPS games, but of all out there, I like this the most because of the A-10 in the game, the helicopters, and all my friends can play it (low system requirements) .

    8. Spider Solitaire - I can't play games not already installed at work. I work 12-hour shifts, watching a computer system. Ergo, I play this game, a lot. I do find it relaxing, refreshing and challenging.

    7. Captain Magneto - This early Macintosh game was awesome and innovative. The part I loved most about this shareware title were the TV-like commercials inserted to beg you to register the game.

    6. Katamari Damacy - The Open Levels, the crazy objects to collect, and continually finding surprises.

    5. Heroes of Might and magic II - The cartoonish graphics, turn based levels and city development. I enjoy the army collisions on the hex-based map (Civ II almost made the list).

    4. Starcraft and

    3. Warcraft II - The comedy inserted throughout, cartoonish graphics, online play all help to place these games as my favorite all-time RTS games (Warcraft III was good, but I prefer the clean graphics of II).

    2. Bolo - This 16-player tank game was my first real LAN experience. I enjoy the complex simplicity where I could learn and teach the game quickly, but it takes forever to master techniques and moves. I still have interesting and unique battles and learn new moves and base-building strategies.

    1. Nethack - When I play this game, I can play for minutes, hours, days or weeks, depending on how I feel. The furthest I have managed to reach is the Elemental Plane of Water. I enjoy the challenge of the game, and that it's turn based and can stay in the background while I do other tasks. It plays on almost every system.

    Other top games not listed: Masters of Magic, Doom, Civilization II, SimCity II, Donkey Konga, Ancient Art of War.

    Bio:

    Dan was an "air force brat" (born, raised and transferred) living in several states and countries before being planted in the midwest. He attended the University of Nebraska where he discovered beer ... his grades dramatically accelerated towards absolute zero. His future wife found him and rebuilt him, better, stronger, faster, and spending much less than 6 Million Dollars.

    After graduating from Nebraska he worked for several state agencies in Kansas as a computer programmer before finding a home at the Payless Shoe Source Corporation. He is currently employed as a full-time computer operator in the corporate Data Center, with plenty of free time to contribute during the 12-hour night shift.

    "What I do is sit and watch multiple computer systems to make sure they are all working properly and nothing catches fire (the Halon 1301 we have costs 3x my salary, so stopping one halon drop during a false fire alarm every 3 years pays my keep). I watch mainframe systems, networking equipment, windows boxes, linux boxes, unix boxes, I reset passwords, and I provide support for programmers stationed in India. Twice per week I print reports to keep our company in regulations with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Usually this is about 2 hours of work, and I sit the rest of the time trying to beat being bored. About once or twice per month, something breaks/is upgraded/screws up/stops, which makes a lot of work for me. I lead an exciting life."

    Dan has a B.S. in Computer Science (Minor and fluent in Russian) and three years experience in programming C and C++; one of his bigger projects is located at: http://kic.kdhe.state.ks.us/kic/. His job provides him with a ton of time, energy and desire to contribute code to a project and learn from peers in the industry. He knows most SDKs and scripting languages, and is a fast learner.

    What he is hoping to take from this project is a sense of accomplishment, and more in-depth knowledge of game design and implementation. The one thing he really misses from programming is being able to point at something and say that "I helped make that possible".

    Motto: "Not now; I'm busy."

  20. Job Title(s): Gameplay Scripter.

    Joined: 30th September 2005.

    Department: Scripting.

    Location: New York, USA.

    Birth Year: 1986.

    Home Town: A small town in NY, USA.

    Interests/Hobbies: I love RTS, and Action games ("Age of" series, Halo, Worms 3D, WoW), developing and working on new software, and, yes, ancient history (actually just about all history up until 1850ish).

    I still enjoy working with robotics (usually software). I regularly attend a robotics club in CT where I sometimes give presentations about new developments in robotics software.

    Favourite Musician/Band: I don't have a favourite band per se ... I prefer instrumental (Hans Zimmer, Marty O'Donnell, etc).

    Favourite Computer Games: This is a tough one... I suppose it would have to be Age of Kings. Great gameplay, never crashed on me (that I can remember anyway), large variety, strategic. Halo's also nice ... good when I need to unwind a little.

    Bio: Walter have been programming in a variety of languages for 10 years now on several platforms. For the past 3 years he has been programming in C and C++ creating indie games for the PC and Palm OS www.waltsgames.com.

    He began programming about 12 years ago on an Atari 800XL. After the Atari, he moved on to programming in BASIC for a 286. Later he worked for several years in Pascal mostly writing robotics software. During this time he created a C based compiler for robotics and competed several times in the Trinity College Fire Fighting Robot Contest (where he took 8'th place 2 years ago).

    About 5 years ago he began to get back into game development and began learning OpenGL and C. After trying to create several top-down action games, he switched to Palm development.

    After creating several games for that platform (including an Action game called "Armor Attack") he once again moved back to the PC and developed (and actually finished) "Hands to Quarters", an RTS game set in the 18th century and written in C.

    Shortly after that he began (and finished 1.5 yrs later) a C++ Action/Adventure game "Armada 2250", which featured among other things, a custom made scripting engine, an OpenGL graphics engine, and a multiplayer mode (using WinSock).

    Recent projects include a new RTS/RPG game and Small C++, a C++ based compiler designed for robotics and other embedded systems.

    He has also written several technical articles for magazines like Nuts & Volts and Circuit Cellar, the latest of which was entitled "Programming the Palm".

    At time of writing, Walter is enrolled at a 4 year college majoring in Computer Science (and currently planning to also minor in History as well).

    Motto: "It is a bad plan that cannot be altered." - Publilius Syrus

  21. Job Title(s): OpenGL Programmer.

    Joined: 25th September 2005.

    Department: Graphics Programming.

    Location: Orlando, Florida.

    Birth Year: 1985.

    Home Town: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

    Interests/Hobbies: Spend as much time not thinking about coding as possible. That includes spending time with my girlfriend or watching television/playing games.

    Favourite Musician/Band: I'm a metalhead, so: The Haunted, Arch Enemy, Machine Head, Origin, Nile, Tom Petty, Opeth, Megadeth.

    Favourite Computer Games:

    • "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" - Awesome story and gameplay. I love RPGs. Leveling up is an awesome common gameplay aspect that just keeps me coming back for more.
    • "Empire Earth" - I loved playing this game because of the different epochs.
    • "Warcraft III" - My favorite RTS. I've played so many countless hours of this game it's ridiculous. The user created maps and games like towerdefence and DOTA added so much to the multiplayer of this game. What a great fanbase!

    Bio: Will grew up in Amish country in Pennsylvania and took a big risk to move to Orlando to pursue a degree in gaming. After getting used to living with people that cannot drive and living with hurricanes he's dreaming of another state to reside in, but realises it will be awhile until he does leave. Will loves indie game development and hopes to continue his plan for historic world domination!

    At time of writing, he's a fulltime student at Full Sail in Orlando, FL, studying for a Bachelors Game Design and Development student and about to graduate next month. I\'ve been planning on future independent projects that I can work on in my free time before and after I finished school.

    Will has been coding for about 3 years now (C/C++ for 2), and worked on two big games while at school. One had a 3 month development window and the current one has a 5 month (2 for preproduction and 3 for production) dev window. He is experienced in OpenGL and DirectX, has a passion for Gameplay programming, and enjoys working with a team (even if he cannot see them in person).

    Motto: "Don't pout; a bird might poop on your lip."

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