The Sophomore Year Rundown..

Since I have some down time as I begin the final week of my Sophomore Year here at Ringling, I figured now would be a good time to do my rundown of all the awesome stuff I've been making this year! First up is...

1. Dynasty ~ The Board Game

This Best of Ringling 2014 Honorable Mention, Dynasty is the second board game I've designed. (The first one I made while in Middle School) After playing a bunch of last year's games, I found that, while pretty, many didn't play at all. My goals going into this project were to A) Mainly make sure it played as well as a board game you'd buy at Target and B) Make it look like it belonged next to the likes of Parker Bros. and Hasbro board games at Target! You can check for yourself if I succeeded with this downloadable version of Dynasty!

2. Low-Poly Modeling & Texturing Tests

These are a couple of my first attempts at modeling and texturing low-poly stuffs in a game engine! My classmates got a real kick out of placing random McDonalds kiosks in their levels!

Then Spring Break happened and I got a little bored so I created a new desktop background for myself!

Funny story how this came about: I was at my friend's house for a barbeque when we decided to play Derps & Dragons. (It's like regular Dungeons & Dragons except you can be/go whatever/wherever ya want!) I had never played before and this is the character I made up! Hilariously, besides having the least amount of weapons(none) and items(lint, and a bottle), he became what my friends described as, "God." We stopped playing when I took over the main villain's flagship which basically put me in control of the villain's entire operation. Not bad for my first time playing, not bad at all!

And now, the big one..

Aw yeah! When school resumed after Spring Break, we hit the labs HARD. This was our main project this semester where we had to make a character, a car, and a fully playable level! Every day, when I didn't have class, I was in the labs working from 9am to 10pm. That's a 91-hour work week!

The racing game is being entered into a contest for the chance to be shown off on the E3 2014 Show Floor. I hope we win!!

3. The Sophomore Spin-Out 2014 Logo

The game's logo (shown above) was created by me for a small contest held by our teachers. Students could enter logo designs for the game which were voted on by the entire graduating class. I was lucky enough to have my design chosen as the winner making it the official logo for the game! It took about seven hours to create.

4. The DeLorean DMC-12

Modeling one of the most iconic cars of the 1980's (or any iconic car, for that matter) isn't easy, and I liked it that way. I figured that having a car that many people know would help me get more feedback than I normally would. Fortunately, I was right! This car was one of the lucky few to be shown off and playable in The Best of Ringling 2014 Show.

5. DeLorean Character ~ DMC Doyen

There were two main criteria for this project: A) Be an anatomically correct human and B) Look like he would be someone who would drive my car. To fit this, I made my character a DeLorean doyen! All of the DeLorean-brand gear was designed by me. DeLorean doesn't actually make any of it.(though, they really should!) The character project was finished a couple of weeks after Best Of, so they weren't in the show. Fun Fact: He's wearing my belt.

6. Race Track ~ Mesa Vista

Mesa Vista is the crown jewel of all my projects this year. Besides being the biggest project of the year, it was fortunate enough to be one of the nine race tracks shown off and playable at The Best of Ringling 2014 Show!! There are like, 38 some-odd kids in my graduating class so this is a huge honor for me. My goals for this project were very similar to those on Dynasty: If it didn't play well I wasn't going to waste time making it pretty. Using this, I learned that my design philosophy is in-line with the style of Japanese game design: Gameplay first, graphics second.

Wow, in seven days I'll be halfway through my BA program! I have definitely learned a great deal and am very happy I'll have a break from working so hard. Here's to an epic summer and rest of the year!!

I'm-a go get a milkshake.

Until next time! ;D