Sam - An Overview

Samuel Roberts is a British student studying computer science (with a focus on game development) at the University of Essex since 2008. In his spare time he tends to dabble in creating games, usually Flash-based due to familiarity with the technology, requirements and expectations around the Flash platform.

A Brief List of Games or Game-Related Projects

Most projects listed here are either Flash games (which will require the Flash player to play) or need to be downloaded.

Finished Projects

Throwbots (2011)

An entry for Ludum Dare 20, a 48 hour game development competition. Entrants are given 48 hours to create the game-specific code and all of the content for a game related to a topic revealed at the start of the 48 hours. The theme of this contest was "It's Dangerous To Go Alone, Take This!", which was not a simple theme to work with as it barely provided any constraints. It tied for 34th place out of 288 games. Further information is detailed on the competition entry page. The development log for the game can be found here.

More information can found on the competition entry page, where links to play the game are also included.

Physics-Based Puzzle Game & Solver (2011)

My final year project for my course at Essex University. It is a combination of two projects, the first being to create a simple physics-based puzzle game using JBox2D (based loosely off of Red Remover) and to create a means to solve and provide solutions for the levels defined using A* search.

The game is played by clicking on blue shapes to remove them from the screen. All red shapes and some green shapes are subject to gravity, and removing blue shapes causes these shapes to fall. The goal is to remove all red shapes by having them fall off of the screen, while not allowing any green shapes to fall off of the screen as well.

By pressing the Solve button, the game creates a solution to the current level and shows some statistics gathering the solution. Pressing the Show button after pressing the Solve button demonstrates the solution. It is worth noting that level 10 was intended to be near-impossible for the solver to solve, as it defies the expected level structure that the heuristics used expect.

An executable JAR and the source code and level definitions for this project can all be found in a zipped archive here.

Unnamed XNA FPS (2010)

An assigment for console games development, this very simple XNA shooter simply involves wandering around shooting spaceships (primarily because they were the only graphics provided).
The controls are the WASD keys, the mouse, and the left mouse button. Spaceships will attempt to seek out the player and seek health packs when they are sufficiently damaged, and the game is ended through death or winning the final level. Levels are advanced by destroying all ships on a level.
It may run incredibly slowly on your system as there is a significant lack of vertex buffer optimisation, due to both running out of time as the deadline approached, and the topic of vertex buffers not being considered with in any major depth in the course itself.

You can get this game here. In order to run this, you may need to get the XNA Framework Redistributable 3.1 (if you don't already have it).

FPS325 (2010)

An assigment for computer graphics, with the module code for the module being CE325 - hence the name for the game. Another FPS, this time written in C using OpenGL and GLUT. It is even more simplistic than the previous XNA FPS, but was written in a total of three days. However, it does suffer from a significantly crippling flaw - its running speed is dependent upon the speed of the computer running it. As such, it is likely impossible to run without manual editing of the speed constants in the main C file.

Help is provided in-game by pressing ?.

You can get this game here. It should include all files necessary to run it, as well as source and makefile. It runs on Linux. However it can run on OS X with a minor code change, assuming the appropriate libraries are installed. The line "#include <GL/glut.h>" should be changed to "#include <GLUT/glut.h>". Due to its processor-dependent running speed, it is recommended that constants with the word "SPEED" in them are adjusted depending on your system.

Asteroids Redux (2010)

The first game-based assignment for my degree. An implementation of Asteroids using Java and the Swing graphics system, but with several twists. The game now works with a "wave counter" - as time goes on, it decreases, and when it hits zero a wave of enemies of will invade the area you're in. You can fire with X and change your ship with C when above the spinning station in the middle of the screen.

You can get this game here. You will need a Java runtime installed to play it.

The Desert Obelisk (2008)

The Desert Obelisk was a Flash game created as an entry to the sporadically-held Casual Gameplay Design Competition, hosted by Jay Is Games/Casual Gameplay. It was entered into the fifth such competition, with the theme "Upgrade". It was created within two weeks and qualified to the final round.
It is available at several locations, including the original competition page, Kongregate and Newgrounds.

Unfinished Projects

Sometimes, for whatever reason (typically lack of time due to other commitments), some projects are unfortunately abandoned by the wayside. Rather than ignore them entirely, they are presented here with the disclaimer that they are not intended to be showcased as finished projects and likely never will result in finished products.

Bubble Game (2010)

A Flash game that was meant to be an entry into CGDC8, with the theme of "Friends", but unfortunately had to be dropped due to the increasing demands of university work. All there is is a very stripped-down demo with barely any graphics and only a minor fraction of the intended functionality.
Controls are explained on the page linked, and the aim is to collect all of your "friends" scattered in bubbles across the stage by leaping from bubble to bubble and bouncing off of walls, before moving to the goal.

It can be accessed on this site.

Bungee Grapple Adventures (2010)

A Flash game made in Flixel, much like Automata. It was made as a spur of the moment challenge to make a game in a day. After seven hours, this was as far as was reached. It does not fulfil some of the basic requirements to label it a game, but there are gameplay mechanics in place.. As with Automata, all graphical assets were created in Photoshop and sounds in CFXR.

It can be accessed on this site.

Automata (2009)

A first Flash game (or attempt thereat) made in Flixel, a library based on Flex and geared towards simple 2D pixel games. It was to be a multiple-character-based puzzle platformer game. Unfortunately, the project died due to demands of university and lack of a clear direction after a while. All graphical assets were created in Photoshop and all sounds in CFXR, a Mac port of SFXR.

It can be accessed on this site. This is a link to the SWF file directly.