nIXT
Freshman Project (DigiPen Singapore)

Summary:
nixT is a fast paced 3D "endless running" video game that places the player in control of The Ark, a ship traveling down The Tube. The player has to avoid all the obstacles and collect all the coins along the way to a new high score!

Role: 
Lead Designer and Graphics Programmer in a team of three

Tasks: 
  • Directed the design of the game and graphics technology
  • Used a 2D engine framework
  • Experimented and implemented 3D graphics using DirectX  on top of provided framework
  • Re-wrote the graphic, math,  object creation and collision parts of the framework to take advantage of the new dimension
  • Designed the UI and UX of the game

Reflections:
I wanted to make a new game that was different, something more action packed and fast paced, something that relied more on twitch reaction than sheer mental power. nIXT was originally designed as a 2D game where you dodge obstacles coming at you. However, that plan slowly moved aside when I started to play around with the framework (Alpha Engine) provided to us for the class. 

I grasped the underlying of the framework rather quickly, learned how it worked and, most importantly, how a game framework is designed and how it runs the game. I grew curious about the implementation of the framework itself and found a way to dump the framework's library file, as well as the symbol for the graphics device. After that, a whole new world opened up in the graphics department.

I had to prove by the first milestone, within the first few weeks of the semester, that my team and I could pull off making the game 3D. Through those first weeks, I learned a lot about how DirectX worked and how to use it properly. I quickly realized the framework provided to us was not capable of building a 3D game. I had to rewrite most of the graphics, math, object creation and collision parts of the framework in order to make it work for the game my team wanted to build.

Before DigiPen, I was always baffled by the notion that all those fancy graphics I saw on my screen when I played my game was made by code; cold, hard, over 9000 lines of code. After this, I've gained a solid foundation on a lot of disciples, like graphics and collision, that's required when making a game. This project quickly grew to be a challenge and I'm really happy how it turned out, and the knowledge I walked away from this project.
© 2014   Melvin Tan