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PROJECTS.RICHARDMARKS.US

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PROJECTS.RICHARDMARKS.US


PROJECTS.RICHARDMARKS.US

HomeIntroGamesToolsGame EnginesOutroResumé
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HELLO, VISITOR. YOU HAVE LUCKILY STUMBLED UPON


MY PROJECTS


SCROLL DOWN OR CLICK THE BUTTON TO VIEW PROJECTS THAT I HAVE WORKED ON

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Explore My Projects
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Welcome to a curated compilation reflecting my portfolio of projects, showcasing
developments dating back to 1990. This collection offers a glimpse into my
creative endeavors, capturing a breadth of work that spans across time and
technologies. It is important to note that this selection is not all-inclusive
nor entirely representative of the entirety of my creations.


GAMES

Video games are interactive digital experiences where players often take control
of characters, engaging in various challenges or adventures within virtual
worlds. They are quite diverse, offering everything from casual puzzles to
intense action, and they're a popular form of entertainment that combines
storytelling, art, and technology.

GELDA

Drop into the wilderness and explore as Gelda, a young girl with a penchant for
adventure, and often trouble.

Created for the 2019 TVGameJam and inspired by Hilda the series on Netflix. The
game and all assets were made from scratch during the entire 12 days of
production. Credit for most visuals goes to my wife Rachel. I was responsible
for project management, implementing the game mechanics, the asset pipeline,
audio production, story editing, and final packaging and distribution processes.

I composed, recorded, edited, and mastered all of the music of the game using
Tracktion Waveform Pro, Apple Logic Pro, a MIDI keyboard, and the incredible EW
collective. You can listen to the entire soundtrack on my channel or by playing
the game itself.

At the time of this writing, there have been over 30,000 unique players and
10,000 repeat players. Thanks to the game jam community, the game gained a bunch
of coverage by youtubers, driving more and more players to check it out. It has
been fun to watch people enjoying Gelda.

Check it out on itch.io


CUCURBITA'S HALLOWEEN

You were warned not to venture into the dead forest on Halloween…

Developed using a modified build of the QuickJS game engine as a way to test the
capabilities, this little 2D action game was built in under a week and published
on Kongregate. I was responsible for the game design, the story, the
programming, most of the graphics, and the final packaging and distribution
processes. The music was composed by Daniel Felipe Guzman M. and licensed for
use by Bang Bang Attack Studios.

It is time to find your body and stop the evil warlock before Halloween is over!

Check it out on Kongregate



D10FP72HRGCE

The Evil Heart Federation is invading and you’re on the run in your
bucket-o-bolts cargo ship.

Within an intense timeframe of under three days, I meticulously crafted a
captivating space shooter. This game boasted upgrades, animations, dramatic
death sequences, explosive effects, and adversaries represented as 'Evil
Hearts.' Notably, it was designed with a compact 96x96 resolution, adhering to a
limited color palette stipulated by the competition's rules.

One of the significant innovations within this project was the development of my
proprietary binary sprite format, conversion tools, and rendering system. There
are no external asset files in the game. Everything is packed into the binary.
These custom tools and systems were instrumental in bringing the game to life
within the constrained timeframe of approximately 60 hours. This endeavor stands
as a testament to my creativity and technical prowess, serving as my entry for
the inaugural FlashPunk Game Competition.

Unfortunately, with the flash end-of-life declaration by Adobe, playing the game
is not as simple as it had been when I published it. I made use of the Ruffle
player to make the gameplay video. I may republish the game in the future.




WITCH COLOR

Witch Color Should I Mix?

For the second Pixel Weekend Jam on itch.io, this creation soared to a
commendable fifth place among 31 competing entries. I was responsible for part
of the game design, the programming, and the audio, meticulously crafting each
facet to ensure an engaging experience. My wife played a pivotal role, infusing
the game with visual allure through her stunning artwork.

The gameplay revolved around the captivating challenge of mixing vibrant potions
to unlock a spectrum of new colors. This mechanic enticed players to explore
various combinations, adding an element of discovery to the experience.
Leveraging SDL and the C programming language, I brought this concept to life.

Building games in a short amount of time is really fun and challenging.

Check it out on itch.io



SNAKES & APPLES

A classic snake-clone game developed in ActionScript 3, delivers a high-octane
experience filled with rapid action and voiced sound effects. Players engage in
the exhilarating challenge of collecting apples while skillfully avoiding the
snake's own tail. A true test of agility amidst the game's fast-paced dynamics.

What sets this game apart is its infusion of humorous voiced sound effects,
which add a playful touch to the intense gameplay. With its blend of speed,
strategy, and entertaining sound elements, "Snakes & Apples" remains a beloved
choice for gaming enthusiasts seeking an adrenaline rush and a dash of
amusement.




SAWD

1st-place winning complete RPG rendered in ASCII characters made in under 24
hours.

Welcome to 'SAWD,' the sensational ASCII RPG that defies limits! Crafted in a
lightning-fast 24-hour blitz, this game packs a punch with an immersive Manual
Name Entry Screen—think Final Fantasy nostalgia meets interactive ASCII magic!
Choose from Multiple Character Classes and brace yourself for a whirlwind of
adventure with our Random Character Generation System that ensures no two
journeys are alike.

Engage in heart-pounding One-on-One Encounters featuring items, skills, and the
thrill of a probabilistic chance of escape and reward. The blend of Random and
Scripted Battles keeps you on your toes as you navigate through a world brought
to life in stunning ASCII art.

Prepare for a gaming experience like no other, complete with Items, Equipment,
Magic, Inns, Shops, and Scripted Story Events. Seamless Realtime Keyboard
Navigation Controls make your journey effortless, while Custom Multi-State
In-Game Menus and Savegame Support for up to 3 Simultaneous Games add
convenience to your heroic quest.

Dive into 'SAWD'—the game that redefines the boundaries of ASCII gaming,
offering depth, innovation, and a world of excitement within its compact ASCII
universe!

Yes, the description for this one was written by ChatGPT. It made me laugh so
hard, that I chose to include it verbatim.




MILLIONAIRE

The perfect escape during those installation wait times

This console-mode game, crafted in Ruby, puts your luck to the test. Dive into
the thrill of virtual bets on dice rolls, aiming to amass a fortune of
$1,000,000. Will you play it safe or take calculated risks to reach your
millionaire dream? With its simplicity and addictive gameplay, "Millionaire"
promises to turn those mundane waits into thrilling moments of gaming
excitement!

Check it out on GitHub



TOOLS

These programs, essential in game development, serve diverse purposes and exist
in various forms. Ranging from straightforward scripts and command-line tools to
comprehensive applications, they cater to specific needs within the game
creation process. Some streamline simple, repetitive tasks, while others are
comprehensive software packages providing a complete suite of features, offering
developers a spectrum of options to suit their unique workflows and
requirements.

TEXTURE SIZE FINDER

Texture Size Finder is a Python script I created to quickly find the best
texture size for images. It figures out the smallest power-of-two dimensions
that work well for textures. It's handy for developers working on graphics
applications or games, making it easier to optimize textures for better
performance and compatibility.

Powers of two, like 2, 4, 8, 16, etc., are crucial in video game graphics due to
their role in texture sizes. Textures, the 'paint' for game surfaces, are
arranged in grids. Using sizes that are powers of two helps computers,
especially the Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), process these textures
efficiently. These specific sizes fit neatly into the GPU's structure, akin to
organizing books on a shelf of similar sizes for easy access. This alignment
reduces memory usage and speeds up processing, ensuring smoother, glitch-free
game visuals while optimizing performance behind the scenes.

When I crafted this script, the choices for determining ideal texture sizes were
limited. Back then, the tools available were scarce, and I found myself in need
of a quick solution for this precise task. So, I created this script to fill
that gap—something that could swiftly calculate the best power-of-two dimensions
for textures. While nowadays there might be more options on the market, this
script was my personal answer to a problem I faced firsthand.




SPRITE SHEET SLICER

Sprite Sheet Slicer was born from a personal necessity when I lacked internet
access while honing my gamedev skills. Crafting this command-line tool in C
filled the void, allowing me to efficiently slice large images into uniform
cells to fit the workflow that suited me best.





GAME ENGINES

A game engine is essentially the core software that game developers use to
create video games. It's a specialized toolset that provides various
functionalities like rendering graphics, handling physics, managing audio, and
implementing artificial intelligence. Think of it as a foundation or framework
upon which games are built.

Instead of starting from scratch each time, developers use a game engine to
streamline the process. It offers pre-built systems and libraries that allow
them to focus on designing the game itself rather than reinventing the wheel
with each new project. It's a bit like using a template or a set of tools to
construct a house—developers utilize the engine's capabilities to shape their
unique gaming experiences.

EASY CONSOLE

Easy Console was a deliberately constrained retro game engine written in C using
the Allegro 4.1 multimedia framework. It functioned as a self-contained Fantasy
Computer executable, processing plain-text source code resembling a fusion of
x86 CPU assembly language and Pascal syntax through a virtual machine emulator
runtime.

A fantasy computer emulates the charm of 8-bit computers and old-school consoles
within a game engine or virtual machine. It challenges developers to operate
within limitations—such as color palettes, sound channels, resolution, and
memory—popularizing its use in retro-gaming and game jam communities.

The "ECVME" operated with a single-threaded execution model, capable of
supporting up to 32 individually-controlled 8x8 pixel sprite graphics on a
160x200 pixel display. Additionally, it supported C-string formatted text
printing and played back ogg vorbis encoded audio files, managing a background
music stream channel and two sound effect channels. The engine responded to four
directional keys and two action keys.

The included "shoot.prg" demo introduced the user to a small space shooter game
playable on the console. You may watch a video here. Regrettably, the original
source code met an unfortunate end during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was
lost.



TINY DUNGEON TECH DEMO

Really fun to play with

Tiny Dungeon, a technical showcase developed using Allegro and C++ over a decade
ago, featured a built-in world editor toolset and a runtime play mode for
immediate playtesting. After successfully getting the demo working, I eagerly
recorded and uploaded a video to YouTube, only to face a devastating hardware
failure that destroyed my computer before I could create any backup of the
project. It was a hard lesson learned about the importance of safeguarding work
in the world of digital creation.




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