Welcome to my website

Hi, I am a 25 year old programmer from Ireland. I am currently travelling around Asia for the next 5 weeks or so due home in September! You can follow myself and Mary's progress across Asia on my travel blog. I was living in Sydney for the last 8 months, working with Lynch Consulting/Learnosity Australia. I have completed an MSc in Computer Games Technology in the University of Abertay, Dundee and a BSc in Computer Science in University College Cork in Ireland and have a first class honours/distinction in both the courses. My hope is to work in the games industry in the future with my primary interest being in the field of AI. To this end I have completed two courses in AI, one in classical AI techniques and one course 'AI for Computer Games'.

My Masters thesis 'Enhanced NPC Behaviour using Goal Oriented Action Planning' has been uploaded to my site. The dissertation involved developing a GOAP and FSM system and placed in a game scenario where experiments were carried out between the two. Comparisons were made on three levels, the first was based on the results of the games i.e. how the systems performed against one another in the Domination, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Last Man Standing game modes. The second comparison examined the two systems from a technical perspective and investigated how each system performed from a memory management, CPU usage and efficiency standpoint. The final comparison considers the merits of the two systems with respect to ease of management, flexibility and re-usability. Squad behaviour when conbined with each of the system was also analysed and this was taken into consideration in the outcome/conclusion of the dissertation.

You can get a copy here.

I've had an article published by GameCareerGuide.com about a college project I participate in called Blok Wars, have a look

Gamasutra mentioned the article, a first for me getting mentioned on their site! Link

AI experience

I have used various AI techniques in my demo work, for my first game the religious first-person shooter I developed a finite state machine and pathfinding solution for the AI.As part of coursework for the MSc in Abertay, I created a simple 2D game that used Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms to land a spacecraft. The fuzzy logic controller for the game alters the thruster force being applied to the spaceship to land it safely below a certain velocity. The genetic algorithm creates populations of spaceship actions(i.e. thruster direction and force magnitude), simulates applying them to the spaceship and through mutation and reproduction creates candidates that land the spaceship by applying the correct sequence of actions.

For a group project, I implemented the AI for a Lego RTS game. This involved developing an overall master AI to control the building and strategy manager, group AI logic to control the behaviour of groups of units in a way that mimics a real-world command structure. Individual AI for units was done using a simple finite state machine. I also created an influence map which the Master AI reads and uses to direct groups of units. I also helped develop the pathfinding for the individual and groups of units.

As part of the DirectX module in Abertay I created a racing game that involved AI opponents. The AI races around the track following one of two racing lines while also targetting and firing rockets at other opponents. The AI for this game involved finding a way of representing a track to an AI oppponent and developing a system for them to follow it while also targetting pickups in the process. The targetting of the player uses raycasting to determine which opponent is in sight before eventually firing.

These are my core experiences so far in the field of AI but for my Master's project I plan to implement a goal-oriented action planning(GOAP) system. The game will be a simple 2D game that mimics the Double Domination game from UT2004 and agents will be controlled by FSMs, GOAP and have squad tactics built in. Blackboard and working memory systems are also going to be the subject of investigation for the masters. The goal of my Masters is to investigate the use and benefits of using GOAP in games.

Other Experience

I have experience in several languages and OSes(in no particular order) : C/C++, Java, DirectX, Ogre3D, PHP, ColdFusion, PHP AGI, HTML, CSS, Ajax, Flex, XHTML, SQL, Javascript, Unix/Linux/Mac OS, Asterisk PBX, VRML, X3D, XML and XSLT.
Completed courses in Multimedia, DirectX, Mathematics for Computer Games, Games Marketplace, Game Design and Development, Console Game Development, Artificial Intelligence(Classical and for Games), Databases, Software Development, Computer Systems, eCommerce and web development, Information Retreival, Virtual Reality and various other modules that go back further than two years.
I also have limited experience using 3DS Max, setting up and using plugins for DirectX, Ogre3D, Ageia PhysX and RenderWare Graphics. I can do some basic UV texturing, know the principles of key frame animation(can sorta animate basic shapes) and built the world for my Rac'em game.
I have experience using Photoshop and can create and manipulate textures using it. While I'm not a pro, I know how to use layers, most of the tools in it and can find my way around it quite well. I am attempting to learn more about it all the time.
Another tool I am very familiar with is Visual Studio 2005, I've setup various projects for it (DirectX, RenderWare, Ogre3D and a few others) so have plenty of experience with getting includes, project and linker settings setup and working correctly.
See my portfolio section for further details on my experience and previous projects.

Please not that this site still under construction!

In-game action from a Lego-based RTS project called Blok Wars.

For this project I primarily developed almost all the enemy AI, the building and unit construction logic, some pathfinding algorithms and the UI appearance.

Below is a quick video of the game in action

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