[ t e m p e s t ] The game is a reworking of the old arcade classic, Tempest. For some reason, as in many video games, you find yourself piloting a spaceship shooting aliens. Are the aliens invading your home? Are you invading theirs? Doesn't matter. They don't look like you so you need to shoot them. You fly down a tunnel clearing out enemies as you go along. They drop power-ups and some form of power packs. Each level requires a certain number of power packs to be collected in order to advance to the next level. When collected, these power packs also accelerate your ship, causing the game to become more and more dizzying. My focus for this game is centered around trying to make the experience as visual stimulating as possible. The controls are very simple. The game challenges the mind to try to keep up with the dizzying speed and erratic colors presented. I accomplish this through a variaty of programmable shaders for the effects in the game, especially the surface of the tunnel itself.
[	feature list	]	spline-based tunnel proceedurally generated parameterized positions for all objects every point on spline maps to a 2D coordinate on the range [0,1] occlusion culling based on parameter space collision detection based on parameter space simple enemy ai data-driven level design data-driven rendering all render state defined separate from program define techniques for specific rendering tasks all state, pixel, and vertex shader code contained with-in modify and tweak visual appearance without recompiling hardware-based effects pixel and vertex shaders 2.0 stencil reflections object-based cross-hatched shading
[	work left	]	power ups game state control score keeping level switching content and style design more levels better models and texturing for objects image space rendering techniques particle system and point sprites
[	12.6.2002	]	added 2 screenshots. click for full size image.
			matthew m trentacoste matt@squarewithin.com http://squarewithin.com