Games/software that are on and off the wall!

Hire me!

I'm available for well-defined paid projects. Below is a list of some of the Torque projects I've worked on. Most of my graphics experence has been with Torque, but I'm up to work with other engines as well. Here is my full resume as well.

Paid work

Shelled

Shelled: Shelled is an artillery game that features cartoon graphics and multiplayer action! I did the following tasks:
  • Completed tank functionalty. Added falling/sliding physics.
  • Added the ability to loop the background ogg files from a point other than the beginning.
  • Modified the TerrainDeformer resource to change the terrain blending. This allowed us to create black craters in the terrain.
  • Modified GUI controls / tweaked GUIs and did some gameplay modifications.

"I hired Brian as an independent contractor for a 3D game application my studio is in development with. He did such a great job on the task that I have brought him back again and again to continue development in other areas. Brian has provided me with excellent, even programming work and constant, quality communication throughout. I highly recommend him for game or programming projects of any scale and scope."

The Nisha Chronicles

The Nisha Chronicles is a set of machinima films done by The Ill Clan for an alternate reality game promoting the Audi A3. I exported vehicles models and tweaked the vehicle physics. I also added the ability to do two wheeled vehicles to Torque.

"Brian was referred to me to help us complete our project quickly. His hard work on the vehicles freed us to concentrate on the other aspects of the project. I'd recommend him to anyone looking to speed up development on their own projects."

    -- Frank Dellario, The Ill Clan

VirtualWorld

VirtualWorld: This was a prototype for an online shopping and entertainment community. I did the following tasks:
  • Added support for the P5 Virtual Reality Glove to Torque as a new input device.
  • Created custom code to link the players arm in the game to the new data being sent from the glove.
  • Tweaked the joystick support.
  • Create a map of a "mall" with Quark.
  • Created small interactive items with Blender.

"Brian was instrumental in delivering the proof of concept for VirtualWorld, an online shopping and entertainment community. Our schedule seemed entirely unreachable and unrealistic until Brian came on board and singlehandedly assembled the prototype under budget and ahead of schedule. I would wholeheartedly recommend Brian Richardson to anyone seeking 3D or application development."

    -- Dmitriy Myshkin, Software Architect

fxFoliageReplicator for TSE
fxFoliageReplicator for TSE: A port of Melv's fxFoliageReplicator from TGE to TSE. This involved writing a fairly involved vertex shader to handle the billboarding and swaying. It runs very fast.

Debug Render Modes for Interiors in TSE
Debug Render Modes for Interiors in TSE: Re-enabled the debug interior modes for TSE. This involved adding more information to use the primitive buffers that the interiors use to render.

Other projects

Flash GUI Control
Helped Thomas Lund create a GUI control for Torque that uses the GameSWF library to display Flash movies. This control is used in Wildlife Tycoon Venture Africa and Steel Sentinels. I debugged the rendering code. I basically matched the OpenGL states that GameSWF library needed to what Torque uses. I also added script callbacks from GameSWF to TorqueScript and implemented mouse events. I also fixed some texture management issues.

Vehicle Physics
One thing I've spent a lot of time playing around with is vehicle physics. My "pet project" for learning Torque was a kart racing game. (I might revisit that!) So I've gotten very familiar with the WheeledVehicles in Torque. Here are the public vehicle mods I've done:
  • Airplane Physics – Replaces the FlyingVehicle physics model with a standard thrust, lift, drag, gravity model.
  • Wheeled Vehicle Gravity Mod – Allows wheeled vehicles to drive up walls and around loops
  • Wheeled Vehicle Two Wheeled Mod – Quick mod to allow 2 wheeled vehicles in Torque

Misc. Other Projects
  • Full Screen Shader in TSE, part of my Game in a Day entry. Silly little FPS, when you get hit you become invisible/more transparent. This was mostly a good testbed for me to play with simple shaders.
  • Flocking Algorithms – Example of flocking algorithms used in a game.
  • Simple Wheeled Vehicle AI – Allows a wheeled vehicle object in Torque to head towards waypoints.
  • Custom Torque Object – Spline based track. Implemented custom rendering and collision code to allow a user to use two splines to define a track. Project stopped because of collision issues in odd cases. I've been meaning to revisit it.
<>