MINER

This is my latest game programming project. It features an old
miner who wields a pick and makes a good living collecting
minerals from Mother Earth.

Like all of my programming projects, I used the wonderful and
free programming language, Euphoria.It was made for my own
amusement, and is largely unfinished, like most of my
programming projects :)

Current features of the game engine include: split-scrolling
with three separate map layers (like GBA or SNES games), a
256-color palette, pixel-perfect collision detection between
the main character and the environment, real-time bitmap
rotation for picks and hammers, and foreground tile
discrimination to place characters in front of, or behind
certain tiles.

Time permitting, I will continue to improve the game,
making it possible to dig into different kinds of bedrock,
collect and view a wide range of minerals, fight off wild
animals and countrymen, and gain experience.

RandScape

It's kind of difficult to explain this game. The landscape is
generated randomly, but is always the same. That is, if you go
in a certain direction, the landscape will go on forever, without
repeating. If you come back to a place you had been before, it
will be the same as it always was. When you load the game
again, it will be as it was before. This is all due to the same
random seed which is called constantly. No level editing has to
be done with a game engine such as this, for it is all automatic.

The tiles are placed by calling on a random variable using XY
coordinates for reference. The tiles are chosen based on an
evaluation routine which determines what kind of block goes
where. Four adjacent tiles are tested, and a single block is
placed according to the findings. This allows for more a
complex landscape with corner and edge blocks, not just
simple square blocks.

Eventually, I hope to make a complete game based on this one.
It wouldn't be too hard to make it possible for certain doors to
be placed automatically throughout, ones which lead to new
areas.

A note about my programming projects:

These projects were created for my own amusement. If you are
*really* interested in obtaining one of these games, e-mail me,
and I will try to post all the files. Some further correspondence
may be required to troubleshoot any possible problems which
may arise.

Concrete Cat

Here is a concrete cat I sculpted back in 2003. It stands about
three feet tall.
Basic concrete techniques were used. First, a rebar armature was
built and covered with chicken wire (thin screen with hexagonal
holes). Chopped up styrofoam was placed within the chicken wire,
and a mortar mix was applied in three layers. The final layer was
carved, while green, with a plastic butter knife and smoothed with
my rapidly-shriveling fingers. Word to the wise: use gloves when
working with concrete. If you get any concrete on your skin and it
becomes irritated, you can neutralize it with vinegar. It's stinky,
but it works!

Click on each image to see a larger view.