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| Home >> Index Pages >> Informational Pages >> Discount Computer Systems >> News >> Applicants of Scholarship 2008 >> |
Computer EssayDirectron Scholarship 2008 Essay No. 131by Dave Struthers Current School: Senior at Sacramento Waldorf High School Intended School: Claremont Colleges (Pomona or Harvey Mudd) Intended Major: Mathematics and / or Computer Science There is a website in the midst of the uncharted geography of the World Wide Web called struthersgames.com. On average, less than five people per day make the arduous journey to its forsaken doorstep. Yet those five who do, those adventurous folk willing to surf the web, and take some risks, they alone find the veiled story of my life. I have been making games as long as I can remember. The first game I really loved was Chip's Challenge, a tile-based game of strategy. It came on my family's PC, which had Windows 95, and I played it incessantly, eventually beating each of the 149 levels. I was about ten years old at the time. Then I began designing my own, new levels on graph paper. Though it was impossible to play them, I still consider them my first experience with game design. Several years later, I myself dared to venture the web and downloaded a free Editor for Chip's Challenge. My game eventually had up to 250 additional levels that I had designed. However, I found myself discontent with the limits of chips challenge. What would it be like to have a second, "robot" player moving around the board? Thus, I progressed from merely designing games abstractly, toward a desire to implement my ideas. Around that time, my sister, who was an avid web-surfer, discovered a site called Neopets. Both she and I instantly became addicted to this new, marvelous site. In addition to allowing you to care for your virtual pets, Neopets had a great variety of games, challenges, and puzzles. But, most importantly, it allowed users to give their pets a homepage, designed using HTML. This was my first introduction to web design. I progressed from HTML to CSS and JavaScript, and the latter I learned through the book JavaScript for Dummies. Despite its name, this book taught me a lot, and showed me how to create a website. (I also learned, though never made games with, PHP and Perl.) My introduction to game creation was not traditional. Most game designers who make web games use sophisticated software like Macromedia Shockwave, which costs about $1,200. I did not have the money for that, so I was stuck with JavaScript, a poor alternative. After using JavaScript for two more major games (Maze II, Pyramids of Uorlon, and Rnixa's Secret), I grew tired of its limitations. I fervently sought an alternative - a way to make "real" games. One of JavaScript's main disadvantages is the fact that it executes differently on different browsers. Additionally, it runs very slowly. It was the beginning of December, and for my fourteenth birthday, my mother gave me a book called 3D Game Programming for Teens. I was overjoyed as I read it, realizing it described how to make games in executables ("*.exe" files). And they were 3D! What more could I ask for? Immediately I went online and got the product, Blitz3D. My mother, as my birthday present, even paid the $100 for it. Thus, I designed my first real game, Maze III, which I (thinking I was clever) renamed to Maze3D. A little more simplistic than my later games, but it was a lot of fun to work in 3D. Similar to Maze I it was significant only in that it got me started on the way to better games, such as my two later Blitz3D games, Rock Slide and Maze IV, shown below. However, Blitz3D made me program in Basic, which I did not like. I feel the language is too, how to put it, basic. I went to Google and searched for JavaScript equivalents, and found C++. C++ is a language that is object oriented, like JavaScript. However, the differences were numerous. It took me about four games before I really learned how to use it properly. Surfing the web some more, I found Allegro, a library for 2D games. Eagerly I downloaded the free product. Now I had all the tools in my arsenal! It was time to begin a full-time career in game creation. My first Allegro games, 2260, Cross-Fire, and Jump1 were not necessarily bad, but the programming certainly was poor. I actually consider Jump1 very fun. Certainly it was a landmark in my design ideas, as, instead of placing the map information inside the executable (as I did with Maze3D), I put it into a binary ".dat" file. In addition, I created an editor that allowed players (and me) to create or edit the levels. Then It began: Rnixa's Secret 2. This game was by far the most complicated creation I've ever made. It took a whole two years to complete, and I drew numerous graphics and tweaked the Jump1 editor to create three worlds. It remains my only came with characters and a central plot. Here's an example of all the options available in Rnixa's Secret. Additionally, I abandoned Blitz Basic and switched to the SDK, which worked with C++. Then I created 2261, the sequel to 2260. A little more sophisticated! But after the completion of RS2, I became overly exhilarated. I immediately went on to make a 3D version, Rnixa's Secret 3. This project ran into some very singular glitches and was promptly abandoned. It is, however, the only game I've dumped so far. Then I began my masterpiece, the resurrection of my first ever game, Maze I. I chose to put it in greyscale to stress its antiquity. Nevertheless, the simple graphics mask my most complicated program ever. Maze I has a very different, and more efficient, map format than its predecessors, and includes several never-seen-before features. A universal base class for all moving objects allows moving platforms to carry blocks, enemies, and the player around the level. There are warps, invisible walls, force fields, buttons, duplicators, and much more. And finally, last, but by no means least, the robot dude is back! I continue to make games and recently decided to make a two player game. Unfortunately, most of the time only one of the players seems to be able to move. But I haven't given up! The new game is called Jump3 and is a remake of my older version, Jump1. Don't ask about Jump2 - it was a 3D version that never really worked. Here's a screenshot of the new game, and a screenshot of my old game. Hopefully, you will agree with me that I have made at least some progress over the years. References: | Directron.com College Scholarship | |
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