Visual CV : Games, Interactivity, Design + Teaching

Thomas Kearns | Visual CV

I recently had to put together a slideshow of work that was significant or relevant to the job I was pursuing/submitting for and thought I would share it with all of you.  Gives a kind of look at my background, post graduation from architecture school and into the present.  Not so much emphasis on my professional architecture work, but you can look at www.sndbx.com or www.mesh-arc.com if you want to see more of that.

Thesis: digital game beginnings

thesis: digital game demo 1 from Thomas Kearns on Vimeo.

This demo was built using the irrlicht graphics SDK, the bullet physics engine, irrKling audio library, and my simocc library for microcontroller communication.
For the past few weeks I have focused my attention (away from the physical game) at getting the foundation for the digital game working in terms of production pipeline, core systems, etc.

Specifically, as seen primitively in the demo:

the game is going to be 3rd person with a little big planet style camera, in which each obstacle can define it's own ideal view, to which the camera will smoothly slerp to (right now for testing, I have view quaternions being toggled by joystick)

the character is the demo md2 model for the irrlicht demo's controlled by a modified version of the bullet kinematic character controller, still have some orientation issues, but happy to have the player usable for testing purposes. (if someone wants to design a sweet character I’m looking for artists)

physics engine integration working pretty solidly.

and besides just having a kind of grey-box making pipeline, the crux of this demo is a not so apparent, but relatively sophisticated procedural environment system. using custom builder, factory, AI engine combo, new obstacles can be generated on the fly (right now based on time, or as in the demo, by button press).

Unlike a conventional tile based system the obstacles are nodes which possess x number of connections or edges which define variable parametric conditions, this is to allow the environment to grow in a much more organic way, not limited by a grid. At present there are only two node types, flat floors and a spawn point. This will soon be joined by fully animated, physically simulated platformer obstacles modeled in max and exported using my custom exporter. The essence of this system, which is largely in place though still buggy (overlapping obstacles aren’t eliminated yet) is an easily extensible, relatively intelligent, custom obstacle course generator.

views tied to obstacles, no overlap, and the QBert style obstacle tagging coming soon, then connectivity to the physical game ... the ultimate goal for this term (3 more weeks)

Loft Wall System

Originally developed by sand_box as a proposal for a residential client in Manhattan.  This dynamic wall system augments a pre-engineered electronically controlled high density storage system, by replacing the proprietary control system with a custom interactive control system which enables rich tactile responsiveness and procedural control for particular programmatic relationships.  The modular framework for the wall structure allows for a range of residential, commercial, or institutional programs to be contained.  By tracking the position of the wall relative to it’s context additional electronically controlled systems such as illumination, environmental conditioning, and entertainment can be activated or disengaged.  Developmental progress fell just short of realization with full construction documents, physical scale model prototypes, and electronics specifications.  Please contact me via sand_box  for inquiries or requests.

walls optional* | defibrillator

Video documenting the related projects of Walls Optional *batteries not included and Defibrillator by sand_box.  We completed these projects in 2002 and 2006 respectively.  The walls are currently in protective stasis ... will we ever see them again?