Encryption

Development Length: 5 Weeks
Role: Gameplay Programmer
Tasks: Implemented car controls, camera
systems, made weapons, and helped 
with AI and controller support

Encryption is an arcade-y car combat game set in a tron-esque environment. The game didn't quite live up to our initial hopes, but the things I learned from making it were very useful in future projects - plus, I got to make a kickass car controller that's fun to play with. The gameplay for this game was a blast to work on; it was my first time doing anything with a car, and figuring out how to set up that system was real fun. There were a lot of issues early on; for example, it took a while to figure out how to keep the car from constantly rolling over (pro-tip: program in stabilizer bars). However, by the end of the project, the car controller worked really well and getting it to feel like a virtual HotWheels toy was really satisfying. This was also the first time I really interacted, with a 3D camera system. The process of trying to make the camera follow the car reasonably well was a giant pain, and there's still some visual jank present, but the things I learned from that system have been invaluable on future projects. Aside from that, I got to design and implement some cool weapons and help with the enemy AI, which was challenging and imperfect (we opted to use a point-to-point system rather than a navmesh - big mistake), but ultimately a great learning experience. I also helped a bit with the controller support, the game feels best on a 360 pad.