Void Control:

Gameplay Test

Framework:
Want to play a game with a friend but they don't have it installed? No problem … even when both of you are without internet access.

With Void Control, an app can host its own multiplayer clients, removing the requirement that every player install the game.

Using libGDX, I am building a multiplayer framework for past and future games which will run on Android, Java, and HTML5.

Implemented Features:

• Network play over TCP
• Network play through WebSockets
• Web Server to provide in-browser clients to local players
• Scanner to find local servers

Game:
Some players had difficulty adopting Pawney's Wrath's one-button control style and would switch to the multi-button layout. In Void Control, I will implement a more natural attraction-based system.

Hold the button to pull your player to nearby pillars. Use the momentum to slingshot yourself from pillar to pillar around the level. Thanks to classes at the University of Utah I can improve this system as it gets tested on my fellow students.

Features:

• Intuitive, one-button controls
• Cross-platform
• Local network play
• Host HTML5 clients for anyone to join the game

Online CT Viewer for Behavioral Experiments:

Runnable Demo

This CT viewer has been designed for convenient in browser use during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Features:

• Convenient functions for Windowing
• Many input options (keyboard, mouse, touch)
• Convenient user logging (scrolls, clicks, shaders)
• Use up to 20 scrollable images (many more if they're static)

Designed for research:

• Loads everything before the user can participate so that intermittent delays don't effect your results
• Stores clicks as well as records scroll behavior and windowing use
• Size can be in pixels, inches, or just grow to accommodate the available screen space

Compatible:

• Runs on the GPU as much as possible, providing a smooth experience on weaker platforms
• Control with scroll wheel, mouse/finger dragging, or keyboard (arrow or WASD)
• Divides up long periods of CPU work so that slower computers won't complain about an unresponsive script
• Edit config files to simulate weaker systems

Configurable:

• You mostly write (with tutorials guiding you) the flow of your own experiment in JavaScript/HTML
• Edit simple config files to change appearance and behavior of the viewer

Uses:

Williams, L. et al. The invisible breast cancer: Experience does not protect against inattentional blindness to clinically relevant findings in radiology

Collaborator:

Lauren Williams, Ph.D.

Pawney's Wrath:

	Full Version
	Trial Version

Fight with your friends no matter where you are.

Pawney's Wrath allows between 1-10 players on a single device. It doesn't matter if everyone has the game or not. If one person does, you can all play on their device.

Gameplay:

• Play with as many people as you want. If there is an empty spot around a device, another player can be added (most devices have a hardware limit of 10).
• Random levels that can have 2 additional layers of depth, increasing play area for a large number of players.
• Run, stop, turn, attack, jump, switch items, and open the menu with a single button.

Modes:

• Kill other players
• Kill bots which constantly respawn or come in waves
• Avoid being rammed and killed by the bots
• Capture nodes around the level
• Collect coins that drop randomly, or drop from kills
• Horde extra loot
• Odd man out
• …or any combination of these

Accessability Options:

• One button control system
• Adjustable game speed
• High contrast level options and game object highlights
• Adjustable level sizes (simplifies and zooms levels)

Pawney's Wrath is published on Google Play.
Further development is paused until Void Control's framework can support it.

GIMP plugin for plotting data on a map with a mercator projection:

Plugin and Sample Data

Take data from CSVs (I just converted mine from Census Bureau¹²³ spreadsheets) and plot it on a map (BYO…map).

This was technically created to make an image for a Visual Rhetoric assignment, however creating a tool wasn't part of the assignment so I'm counting it as a personal project.

Features:

• Projection skewing for a depth effect
• Customizable labels, colors, and sizes

Curious Origins:


Collaboration with a cognitive scientist on a 3D game called Curious Origins (Bands have self-titled albums all the time - there's no rule saying a game and studio can't share the same name).

This game will be built on top of my Void Control framework. The end goal is a free Android (and PC) game designed to teach children, or adults, the benefits of the scientific method and informed decision making. Unlike other educational games on the market, the lessons will be subtly integrated into the gameplay.

An example quest would involve the player searching for a lost dog:

1. Search for clues (make observations).
2. Make an informed guess about where the dog could be (form a hypothesis)
3. Try to find the dog (test hypothesis)
4. Revise guess based on new information (use evidence to form new hypothesis)

In the game, the player's first guess might be wrong. From these failures, they will gain more clues and use them to form new guesses. Unlike mainstream educational games which give players overt descriptions of the material and quiz them on it, Curious Origins gives players a simulated environment where they will be able to practice scientific thinking and learn the value of using credible sources for information.

Partner:

Lauren Williams MS

Chards:


Chess + Cards = Chards.

The artwork in Pawney's Wrath is based on a board game. The game is a modern-take on chess with several new features:

• Resource management
• Hidden moves
• Multiple moves per turn
• The option to have more players

Will you save your resources, spend them on new pieces or infrastructure, or use them to defend against possible attacks during another player's turn?

Anticipated release date: Summer 2021

Happy Birds:


You are falling through the sky and your parachute failed to open! Try hitting as many birds as you can on the way down to slow your descent.

This game was one of my very first (C++ and SDL). The Windows binary doesn't work anymore, probably because 32-bit Windows was more popular when the game was compiled. Thankfully, we live in an age with HTML5, so now it runs on everything.