Category Archives: Projects

Night At The Park – Game Jam Project

Art, Design, Games, Projects, , , , , , ,

Night At The Park was a team project I worked on during one of Edinburgh University’s Game Development Society Game Jam’s. My team consisted of myself, an artist and my friend Sangseo Lee.

The Game Jam began with a theme which was Shadows. Games were required to include that theme in some manner.

My role on this project was as a designer. In addition to spearheading the game play and mechanics design, I hand crafted the following two levels using the Tiled map editor with assets our artist made, as well as free resources on the net.

night_at_the_park_level_1
Level 1

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Selling A Tornado – Edinburgh University Project

Projects, Video, , , , ,

A couple of years back whilst at Edinburgh University, I had the fortunate opportunity to take a course called Informatics Entrepreneurship and Digital Marketplace taught by Dr Adam J Bock. I enjoyed the course so much I thought I’d give one aspect of it a special mention, the group project.

As part of the course, groups of students we were required to analyze an opportunity. My group which was myself, Anton Caius Gurgu and Marat Subkhankulov, decided to base our opportunity on Anton’s coursework project, which was creating a programmable tornado.

We looked at whether Edinburgh nightclubs would be interested in buying/renting this product (opportunity description). The most memorable part of our assignment was producing a promotional video for this product.

As a team of solely Computer Science students we hadn’t had much practice in film making. We went about creating this video by brainstorming, planning, considering video elements and scenes, and writing up a script (details). The result was in my opinion a decent job. Here is the video in all its cheesy goofy goodness!

https://youtu.be/YD55wK4EVx4

I think it turned out well.

A big thanks to Dr Bock for his course. It was one of my most memorable while at Edinburgh.

SASA Performance, Edinburgh 2012

Music, Projects, ,

A couple of years back I performed for Edinburgh Universities South Asian Student Association annual Diwali–Eid with a couple of guys. I finally got round to digging up the SASA Performance videos from Facebook/Youtube. In the first I’m playing percussion. My favorites moments were round about 3:08 and 4:50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0LPAtY2plM

In our second performance I sung backing vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FuJLgpV4Ec

As well as this I had the pleasure of collaborating with a couple of my Uni colleagues on a poster for this very same event. All in all, It was a good night.

Cave Troll Painting Guide – Games Workshop, Lord of the Rings

Art, Projects, , , , ,

Many years ago I used to play Games Workshops Lord of the Rings table top game. Naturally following this hobby I painted a number of models. One such model was the Cave Troll from Moria.

I spent awhile rummaging around the net for a good resource to remember how I painted the model and the best resource I found was from a Youtube channel which had a series of videos on how to paint a Cave Troll. I have written a summary to accompany the video series (paint name reference sheet).

Stage One: Assembly & Base Coat

To start first assemble your model, this involves:

  • Testing that joints fit together and filing them down if necessary (metal).
  • Making customization’s to your model and base as per your preference.
  • Gluing model parts together.
  • Attaching the assembled model to its base.
  • Applying a base coat of Chaos Black (can be done in White but I did it in Black).

Continue reading Cave Troll Painting Guide – Games Workshop, Lord of the Rings →

Hungarfen, The Fungal Horror – League of Legends Champion Design

Design, Projects, Writing, ,

Role: Mage/Support

Hugarfen is a manaless champion from the Plague Jungles who uses its health as its casting resource. I’’ve written a short introduction that I highly recommend you read before moving on to the champion description.

Appearance

hungarfen

This image is not owned by me and was sourced from here.

Lore

When writing Hungarfens lore I choose to be unconventional. My intention was to craft something with little less hand holding. I want to challenge the reader to make inferences while giving them the ingredients to do so. I want the reader to not just read, but think and discover. Hopefully I made that possible.

Lets get started, shall we!

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Hero of Allacrost

Games, Programming, Projects, , , , , ,

Reddit is where this story begins. Trawling around I joined the /r/gameDevClassifieds sub-reddit. A place of gathering for game developers advertising paid, and un-paid game project work.

By chance I came across a post asking for a game designer, to which I replied. Unfortunately the position had already been filled though fortunately additional help was happily welcomed.

allacrost_logo_medium

The project in question is Hero of Allacrost. Its an ‘open source single player 2D role-playing game inspired by classic console RPG’s, and I’m thoroughly impressed with the standard of this project. It’s use of BitBucket for source control, a Wiki containing lots of information/documentation, a forum, and welcoming project members! I’ve worked on this project for approximately a month, and my contributions to this project have been enhancements to the battle code.

Here’s the latest Hero of Allacrost gameplay footage.  Check it out!

Get Games Middle East Launch

Programming, Projects, , , ,

Get Games is part of Mastertronic a company that my company’s parent company Red Stallion Interactive is in negotiations to merge with. Red Stallions developers have since been tasked with an exciting project.

get_games_me_logo

Over the past few months I’ve been working on enhancements to their online platform, as well as duplicating a digital store for the Middle East.

get_games_homepage

At present the project has involved re-hauling the language assets across the website, implementing right to left formatting, and performing general maintenance tasks such as updating the websites YouTube libraries. Going forward we have some exciting new features in the works including the integration of local Middle East payment methods such as OneCard, CashU and CrediMax.

The localisation phase of the project was completed a short while ago, and Get Game ME was officially launched last weekend. The launch included dispatching a newsletter as well as well as promotions through Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Take a little time and check it out, you might find yourself a good deal!

Red Stallion Gaming – Android

Programming, Projects, , ,

Shortly after joining Red Stallion Gaming, a video game publisher in Bahrain. I started developing their Android mobile application.

rsi_logo
Red Stallion Gaming’s Parent

When I got my hands the app it was setup to communicate with a Web API, could only perform simple login and game download. There was plenty of work to do, and my efforts in this project were most notably:

  • Redesigning a new look and feel for the app.
  • Improving the login feature, as well as adding social media integration’s, for sign in and sign up.
  • Adding purchasing functionality with payment methods such as PayPal and Red Stallion Gaming virtual currency.
  • Adding a SQLite database for persistent storage to significantly reduce the data requests to the server, and improve the users experience.
  • Adding Wishlist, Library, Forgot Password and Search features.
  • Adding basic DRM measures.
  • Implementing a procedure, with built in token refreshing, of communicating with the existing API and a newly developed API to collect data for a smooth user experience.

The result of all this work was me completely redesigning, refactoring and implementing the mobile application. It’s been a lot of hours of work, but its finally released!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

There’s lots more work to do on it, and in the mobile side of the company, but I’m happy to say that we’ve taken our first step.

 

A House For Two

Drabble, Projects, Writing,

“Sir?”

John roused himself; he had drifted off after the clerk had emphatically given her unwelcome opinion. “Just give me what I want” he’d said bluntly. Disheartened the clerk slowly retreated.

A brawl ago, John declared to his wife that he despised these delusions; but she scarcely listened anymore. Had she ever? Could it change? Was it him?

She insisted that every weekend he drag himself to a store. Sentenced to collect the next latest and greatest distraction. He blamed her, she blamed him. A house for two strangers.

Today would be different.

Trudging home there were bridges to cross.

house_for_two

Unpacked

Writing this I wanted to experiment using ‘vagueness’ with implications in the confines of a drabble. Since both are a challenge to an amateur such as myself, from the vacuum that is my consciousness, my greatest concern is whether the balance is right to allow for those implications. Perhaps it’s about time I unpack it a little.

The subject matter is hollow marriages, with three main ‘topics’.

The first is the store. It is intentionally vague/generic to convey the view that the stores are an analogous collection of material distractions that they use to ‘fill’ their hollow marriage. The protagonist is at the point where he is disconnected and can’t make distinctions anymore.

The second is around the state of the marriage. I very lightly touch on concepts like self-blame, blaming the other, breakdown of communication, delusions between the couple, and the delusions they sustain for society.

Finally the last, is the final sentence designed to allow room for interpretation, where the two main factors are the concept of ‘house’ vs ‘home’ (up until that point I’ve only made references to a house) which requires some cultural understanding, and the second is the bridge.

The bridge serves for interpretation in either/both a literal and metaphorical sense, it’s up to the reader. In an attempt to put it concisely, I see the final sentence as touching on the struggles of dealing with a hollow marriage. Will he or will he not cross the bridge(s) to home? Is the essence of the question though there are a variation of other states that a reader might consider. Such as, despite his will, can he? Does the bridge have to lead to her?

Euler, Golem of The Great Library – League of Legends Champion Design

Design, Projects, Writing, , ,

Major Faction: The Desert Empire
Minor Faction: The Enlightened

Role: Tank/Support

When reading the following champion description please keep in mind that this champion has three forms. To get an idea of what the forms are when reading his abilities, read his W ability description first.

Additionally this champion has no mana or energy rather his abilities cost health. This works from a lore point of view since it’s Euler’s spirit that is the source of amulet’s power, and mechanically as it helps offset his passive ability.

Appearance

A hulking humanoid figure, The Golem is a mountain of perfectly muscled sand standing several heads taller than any man. On its neck a pulsing amulet, an ancient artifact, a vessel containing the essence of a spirit. Euler’s spirit. The source of the amulets power.

GolemSandI do not own this image, it was taken from this website.

The amulet design is based off of the concept of Ancient Egyptian scarab amulets. Imagine the following as a base:

scarab_amulet

I do not own this image, it has been adapted from its original posting here.

The primary colors of the amulet are obsidian black, with gold lining that traces the outlines of the amulet’s key features. Namely the ankh and its patterns, as well the scarabs body, wings and its patterns.

The amulet’s major chain would follow the design of the scarabs wings. The major chain would be made up of two minor chains, one for each wing of the scarab. Each link of the chain would be a single part of a scarabs wing. Once the two minor links are connected they would form a chain of two complete connecting wings, the links mechanically functioning in the same manner as the links of watches metal strap.

The amulets head is the scarab, its body a golden lined ruby the size of a mans head. From within the ruby onlookers would behold brilliant rays of gold and white through the carvings on the ruby’s face.

Continue reading Euler, Golem of The Great Library – League of Legends Champion Design →

Chowder the Storm Crab – League of Legends Champion Design

Design, Projects, Writing, ,

Hey everyone this is my first time posting a champion on the forms. So here is an idea of mine and I’d really like to know what the community thought of it. Any and all feedback is welcome!

Chowder, The Storm Crab v3.2

Index

1. Appearance
2. Lore
3. Characteristics
4. Abilities
5. Abilities Notes
6. Capabilities
7. Countermeasures
8. Change-Log

1. Appearance

Here’s this great art by radiationboyy. It captures the bulky, powerful, yet lumbering sea crab style that I envisage for Chowder. As a small addition though I would add some chains to his claws for a better fit with his lore and Q.

phalanx_crab_concept_by_radiationboyy-d25fk1h

I do not own this art, for the original posting please follow the link below.

2. Lore

Worth their weight in gold, the deadly Storm Crabs of the Guardian Sea were a short-lived Noxian delicacy. Taken from the depths of the Guardian Sea to the bustling Ivory Ward Marketplace, such a prize brought Noxus’s lowly fisherman much needed respect.

Some say the crabs had learnt the ways of the storms when Runeterra was young, that’s why they lived in the heart of a seemingly endless one. Hearing the tales of the Storm Crab hunters, a promising young Noxian saw an opportunity to magnify his strength and end an indulgence that he saw as a sign of weakness. Arranging two ships he set off, and after two perilous weeks on the sea the storm was in sight.

He brought death, overseeing the systematic destruction of the Storm Crabs. When all the crabs were either slain or captured, he left, leaving the remaining petty work to his crew of weaklings. The crew gorged themselves on crab. Arguing amongst themselves about how to cook the last Storm Crab one dish stuck, Chowder, that crab took it as his name and as a reminder.

Having watched the annihilation of everything he knew and held dear drove Chowder insane, a mighty storm was brewing. With new found strength Chowder broke free of his chains, and with maddened frenzy shredded whatever was in his path, including the ship.

With nothing left Chowder roamed the seas indiscriminately destroying, soon becoming a threat to the trade routes of Blue Flame Island. Fizz the savior of Bilgewater sought out this new menace. On finding the it Fizz was capable enough to stave off its attacks long enough to communicate with the monster.

On Hearing Chowders tale and learning of his desire to find the young Noxian soldier, Fizz informed Chowder that what he sought could be found on the fields of justice. Thus Chowder joined the League of Legends to find and destroy that young soldier that started it all.

Continue reading Chowder the Storm Crab – League of Legends Champion Design →

Plan Recognition in R.I.S.K.

Design, Programming, Projects, , , , , ,

Whilst at The University of Edinburgh I self-proposed my final year project on Plan Recognition in R.I.S.K. I was supervised by Dr. Michael Rovatsos (an awesome supervisor I might add!). The research I did was fortunately noticed by the great folks over at the CREST Center UCL in their BSc Final Year Computer Science Project Competition 2013, and it had me shortlisted as a finalist.

The project involved the design and implementation of a plan recognition agent for the board game R.I.S.K. The implementation was done in a game called Domination, a Java version of the classic board game R.I.S.K. developed by Yura.net. Domination is freely available and you can download it through Sourceforge here.

domination

The agent that was created is based on Geib and Goldman’s Probabilistic Hostile Agent Task Tracker (PHATT).  Acting as an observer to the game it’s goal is to infer the unknown missions cards of players based their actions in real time. In my project report I evaluated the plan prediction accuracy of the agent with four experiments, the results of which I presented and analysed. I then went on to discuss the project outcomes and future work.

You can read my report here (brace yourself its a long read). Additionally the source code for the project is available from GitHub here.

Thrillseeker – Game Jam Project

Design, Games, Programming, Projects, , , , , ,

Thrillseeker is a game jam submission on the theme “You Are Your Own Worst Enemy” designed and created by my friend Sangseo Lee and I. The core mechanic of the game is that whilst flying close to passing asteroids gives you a higher score, doing so greatly increases your chance of crashing. It’s like Burnout in that the player is rewarded for high risk game play.

thrillseeker
In-Game Screenshot

To play it, download this zip file and run the executable inside (it’s a GameMaker exe file)!

Immunity – Game Jam Project

Design, Games, Projects, , , , , ,
immunity

White blood cells play a vital role for our health, without them we’d be easy pickings to the likes of even the common cold. Play a moment in the life of a white blood cell and battle against an ever growing hordes of viruses and protect the red blood cells to keep your heart beating. Even better, do it with a friend! Happy hunting!

Immunity is a coop game that I worked on with Sangseo Lee, for the Global Game Jam 2013 at Edinburgh. It took second place in the local competition and was noted by the judges for best design. At the moment it’s written in Java using the Slick framework and can run on Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris. Check it out at the Global Game Jam website here!

Cheesy Mushroom Pull Apart Bread

Cooking, Projects, ,

finished-bread

Here’s a great bread recipe for Cheesy Mushroom Pull Apart Bread that I tried recently. Now it’s great as is, but I decided to make a few changes. Instead I used:

  • Portobello Mushrooms.
  • Extra Mozzarella Cheese.
  • Black Olives.
  • 1/4 cup of butter rather than 1/2 cup.

Pre-Oven Pull Apart Bread
Pre-Oven Pull Apart Bread

The only thing I’d suggest when making this is to scoop out some bread from the inside of the loaf. More space = More filling! Additionally I suggest adding a decent amount of good quality olive oil into the filling area before placing it in the oven.

Nonetheless it proved to be a hit. So give it a try and let me know what you think!

Macadamia Shortbread with Lemon Sorbet, Strawberries and Syrup

Cooking, Projects, ,

macadamia-lemon-strawberry

This creation has three parts:

My friend Abdul Aziz and I first started with the Lemon Ice Cream the night before.

Lemon Ice Cream
Lemon Ice Cream Pre-Serving

We slightly deviated from the reciepe by stopping heating when the mixture had become silky smooth rather than a custard texture, the result; an ice cream with a similar consistency as a thick sorbet.

The next day we prepared the shortbread, preparing it an hour before we baked it. We made a small addition to the reciepe by adding about 100g more of butter to the shortbread mix.

Pre-Oven Shortbread
Pre-Oven Shortbread

Leaving it in the oven for about 25 mins, we prepared the strawberries and syrup while we waited. To make the syrup red, instead of dipping the strawberries in the syrup mixture to glaze them, we put the strawberries back in the saucepan and heated the sauce pan for a few minitues.

Strawberries and Syrup
Strawberries and Syrup

Plating was done first with a slice of the shortbread, then a slice of the lemon ice-cream with the syrup poured round it and strawberries for a decorative touch.

The result.

macadamia-lemon-strawberry-2

Enjoy!

So what do you think? Please let me know in the comments below!

Spider Queen and Company

Art, Projects, , , ,

Here’s an painting project I did several years back when I was playing Games Workshop Lord of the Rings table top board game. The models are the Spider Queen (without her swarms) and four Giant Spiders.

Spider Queen and Company

To paint these models I followed the Fall of The Necromancer Sourcebook painting guide on page 25, so a big thanks to Games Workshop for such a great book. Unfortunately it’s no longer available, but there are of course still ways to get a copy…

Continue reading Spider Queen and Company →