A while back, I posted a postmortem for my game, Lucky Shot. In it, I mentioned that one of the aspects that was most well-received was the AI. I myself found this amusing — while it was a good system, it was incredibly simple, only a small step above the enemies you see in a game like Super Mario Bros. So how did the enemies move so smoothly? A lot of it has to do with the movement system, and that’s what I’m going to cover in this article.

Before I get started, though, I’d just like to say that this likely won’t be anything new to anyone who’s programmed a physics system in a game before — in fact, if you have, you will likely see this as overly basic. And it is. This is meant more as a beginner’s introduction and as a showcase on how some very simple ideas can lead to some very nice behaviour. It does, however, require some knowledge of high-school level math and physics.

Continue reading Behind Lucky Shot Part 1 of 2 – Smooth Moves →

Hey there folks! For those who don’t know me, I’m Gabriel, former VP of the club. You may have seen me popping into meetings fashionably late, coming from my PEY job. This post kicks off a short 3-part series about my GMD game from last year, Lucky Shot. These entries were originally written for my personal blog, Kronopath, and the future entries will be thrown up simultaneously on both sites. So now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let’s get started!

During the last GMD, I created a retro-gambling-shooter game, Lucky Shot. It won the grand prize in the judged competition, ranked fourth in the public showcase, and was generally well-received. And of course, more than anything else, it was a great learning experience.

Last year was actually the first time the club ran the public showcase. We held it during the Computer Science Student Union‘s game night, and to take full advantage of it, we gave out feedback forms, asking people to rate each game and write a few words about it. I found that the reactions we observed and the feedback we got were even more valuable than the prizes given out. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how people enjoyed the game.

Continue reading Lucky Shot Postmortem →

University Of Toronto Game Design And Development Club
President – Francesco P.C

How The Video Game Industry Deals with the Digital Divide

For my Computers and Society course (CSC300H1) we were instructed to create a blog about the digital divide. The entire class was put into service learning groups and went out to help the community and learn about the digital divide.

Continue reading How The Video Game Industry Deals with the Digital Divide →