Walaber

08th Aug2011

Unreleased Ideas

by walaber

Here are a couple quick videos of things I was working on, but never turned into something worth releasing:

This was a first attempt at taking the ideas behind JellyPhysics, and turning it into a 3D soft body library. Simulating a single soft-body object in 3D isn’t too hard, but collision detection is another story. This demo was using axis-aligned ellipsoids to represent subsections of the object. it worked OK, but there are obvious gaps between objects when they collide.

This was from a demo that used controller input to directly manipulate joints on a human (a-la gymnast), but in full 3D. The control test was a success, but I never got around to making it into something more playable.

Category : unreleased

Tags : physics

12 Comm

08th Aug2011

JellyPhysics (library)

by walaber

This is the released source code to my “JellyPhysics” soft-body physics system, as used in JellyCar.

The system is designed around objects made up of closed shapes (they can be any convex or concave shape, just can’t cross itself) with spring forces that try to keep their shape- but allow them to deform as they collide with other objects.

From demo example (XNA version only)

The code is released with an unrestricted license – use it for whatever you want, however you want! If you make something cool with it, please let me know about it!

C# Version (for XNA, includes 2 demo programs)

C++ Version (vanilla C++, no demos)

Category : library

Tags : C#, code, physics, softbody, XNA

13 Comm

08th Aug2011

Gymnast

by walaber

Also built in XNA, this is another game (like “Walaber’s Trampoline”) focused on acrobatics. Gymnast features much simpler 2D graphics and gameplay, but incorporates a more direct control scheme designed around modern 2-stick gamepads:

Left stick directly controls the shoulder joint angle

Right stick directly controls the hip/knee joint angles.

Pull trigger to let go of the bar! (the gymnast will automatically grab onto bars when his/her hand hits one)

By just spinning the sticks you can make the gymnast do all sorts of interesting moves.

Another game witha built-in level editor, and replay feature, I also had a community site for user-generated levels and replays on my old website… maybe I can at least get those files hosted up here again when I find the time.

DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows)

[EDIT] Many people have asked how to play the game with something other than an Xbox 360 controller. No native support is in the game, but with a little creativity you can make nearly any input device work for the game by using glovepie… The game incudes glovepie script for keyboard controls in the download…

GLOVEPIE INSTRUCTIONS FOR GYMNAST

Category : Game

Tags : acrobatics, C#, gymnastics, leveleditor, physics, replays, Windows, XNA

22 Comm

05th Aug2011

JellyCar (Windows)

by walaber

JellyCar was my first project using Microsoft’s XNA framework. First I created a simple “soft body physics” system, mostly as a personal experiment.

When it worked, I tried to come up with a game to use it, and a transforming car came to mind. The original PC version followed pretty quickly after developing a level editor, and learning a bit about shaders (used for the various full-screen effects in the game).

JellyCar (originally titled “JelloCar”) has proven to be my most popular game by far. After the App Store was created, I made a free port of the game on iOS, which I then later pitched internally at my work at Disney, and 2 sequels have followed on iOS, JellyCar 2 (made with my input by an external team) and JellyCar 3 (created by me as my first project in my new job working at Disney Mobile).

DOWNLOAD (Windows Game)

DOWNLOAD (Windows Level Editor)

Category : Game

Tags : C#, leveleditor, physics, replays, softbody, Windows, XNA

4 Comm

05th Aug2011

WiiSticks

by walaber

This is a little “Devil Sticks” simulator for Windows designed for use with 2 Wii remotes (one in each hand – also works with Wii remote + nunchuck).

Not really a game, just more of a technical experiment and toy.

Newton physics at work again

The timing was apparently right on this one, as this has received more mainstream press coverage than anything else I’ve made

Featured in Japanese game magazine "Game Labo"

Category : demo

Tags : newton, ogre, physics, Wii, Windows

7 Comm

05th Aug2011

Walaber’s Trampoline

by walaber

I spent more time on this game than any other before or since… I grew up around gymnastics, had a trampoline at home, and so it was only natural to want to make a game about my favorite sport / physical activity.

Walaber’s Trampoline is an “action trampoline simulation”. It’s a fairly realistic gymnastic flip simulator, with a control scheme that allows you to do basically any trick possible in gymnastics. The trampoline itself is also physically simulated, and the bounce your character gets is actually entirely a result of the physics taking place on the trampoline bed.

ORANGE.

The game features character creation, a full story mode with different challenges, and even some very simple multiplayer features.

This game (along with “Gymnast” still get me the most emails from other gymnasts and acrobats, thanking me for making a game that they love

DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows)

Category : Game

Tags : acrobatics, gymnastics, newton, ogre, physics, replays, Windows

24 Comm

05th Aug2011

Stunt Playground

by walaber

This was my first real project using Ogre. It’s a very open-ended vehicle stunt playground (hence the name). You can drive around doing stunts (flips, long jumps, etc) in an arena with a variety of props and vehicles.

Kickin' up dust...

The game featured a simulated engine (with torque curve and transmission), which was an interesting thing to learn to code for me at the time.

the most noteworthy thing about the game, however, was it’s editor and replay system. The editor used live physics (gravity turned on) while editing, making building levels a lot like playing with blocks, stacking them up, etc. You can save and load your creations (and easily share them via email etc), and a few fan sites even sprung up for sharing levels.

When driving you can also turn on a “camera” and record your action. You could then play it back with full speed control (forward, slow motion, reverse, etc), and view from a variety of camera angles. You could save and load replays as well.

Here is the “official trailer” I made for the game:

DOWNLOAD LINK (Windows)

DOWNLOAD LINK (OSX)

Category : Game

Tags : leveleditor, newton, ogre, physics, replays, Windows

0 Comm

04th Aug2011

Shichinin No Himesama (七人の姫様) aka “Seven Princesses”

by walaber

Yet another Game Creators contest entry, this one didn’t get properly finished before the deadline. The idea was to make an on-rails shooter where the characters would turn into ragdolls when you shot them. That much did eventually work (sort of), but the tools I created to camera scripting and character movement were very cumbersome and buggy, and as a result the final product is pretty shoddy!

Don't shoot the princess!

The idea was to have 7 princesses to save… each would be in peril by some evil samurai, and you basically had to shoot them before they got to the princess. I can’t remember if all 7 princesses made it into the game or not

The complexity of the project made me realize that I had outgrown Dark Basic, and so I got off my butt and decided to learn C++ (I had coded a bit in C before in high school). My search for an engine brought me to the fantastic Ogre rendering engine, and my next several games were written with Ogre + Newton physics, starting with Stunt Playground.

For posterity, here’s the download link below.. as usual, probably won’t run right on modern Windows / hardware…

DOWNLOAD LINK

Category : Game

Tags : darkbasic, leveleditor, newton, physics, Windows

0 Comm

04th Aug2011

Connect More

by walaber

Another Game Creators competition entry, this was for a puzzle game competition. Being a fan of physics, I came up with a match-3 style puzzle game, where the balls are all physically simulated, and you “shoot” balls into play, which also knocks other balls out of play at the same time.

Get 3 balls (or more) of the same color to touch, and they disappear.

It didn’t place in the competition, but I think it turned out rather well. This was also my first foray into making a bitmap font, and displaying the individual characters by manipulating UV coordinates.

As usual, this is an old Windows game that may no longer run properly on the latest Windows version / latest hardware drivers.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Category : Game

Tags : darkbasic, newton, physics, puzzle, Windows

0 Comm

28th Jul2011

Ragdoll Monkey Bowling

by walaber

After discovering the “Newton Game Dynamics” physics library, I wrote a simple wrapper to integrate it into Dark Basic. At the time Newton had a special joint system for making ragdoll characters, and I worked out a way to use that to control a skeleton in Dark Basic, and this is the game idea I came up with to use all this new stuff

I was particularly proud of the monkey model I made for this game, it was based on a stuffed animal that I owned.

Hanging on my his feet

Interestingly, writing code to properly tally and display bowling scores turned out to be the hardest part

DOWNLOAD LINK

Category : Game

Tags : darkbasic, newton, physics, Windows

3 Comm

Unreleased Ideas

JellyPhysics (library)

Gymnast

JellyCar (Windows)

WiiSticks

Walaber’s Trampoline

Stunt Playground

Shichinin No Himesama (七人の姫様) aka “Seven Princesses”

Connect More

Ragdoll Monkey Bowling

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