M. Brandon Miller dot com

I'm in the process of gathering up code samples from my professional and academic adventures with hopes of formally beginning job application action tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's the end result of some of the code I wrote back at FIEA.


One of the ideas in the original pitch for Master Plan was to have the enemies analyze the vehicles players created to look for vulnerabilities.  This had a practical purpose of encouraging players to constantly build better vehicles, but it also had the thematic goal of making the player feel like they were the 'end boss' and that their opponents were the 'good guys'.


While this was originally pitched as a unique feature of the 'hero' at the end of the game, I actually wound up incorporating it in the enemy vehicle AI.  Each different type of enemy has a timer that starts each time the player launches a new vehicle.  Once a type of enemy has finished 'thinking' their squad becomes more accurate and they focus in on specific components of the vehicle.


The police squad cars in this video prioritize disarming the player's vehicle. They shoot off all of the machine guns arrayed on the 'arms' of this machine and then aim for the big laser on the top.


Later enemies have different priorities, like tanks who always aim for the player's cockpit or elite squad cars who try to snipe the highly volatile power sources that players can pick up along the way. 

In today's video I log a run through Master Plan, the final project of my FIEA cohort.  I'll have more to say later about the crazy story of how this project came to be.


For now, I'll just give a quick run-down of what this game is about.  In Master Plan you take on the role of Mad Scientist Supervillain who attacks the city and his heroic nemesis in his personalized mechanical engine of destruction.


At the start and near the end of this run-through, you can catch a glimpse of the vehicle editor used in the game.  All of the objects with glowing rings during the main game are components the player collects to use in that editor.  


Over the course of this play-through the vehicle becomes larger, more dangerous, and more garishly adorned with blinking lights due to the changes made by the player in this editor.


Conversely, these pieces can also be blown off of the player's vehicle by enemy attacks, allowing them to disarm and eventually destroy the machine.

Here's a video I put together of the five rapid prototype games (and one individual mini-game) from my time at FIEA.  

The music actually comes from Master Plan, our the final project.  

I cut off a bit of the UI in the Flash Games (and deal with some white space in the case of the bouncing ball game) so I could keep the whole video at a consistent level of HD shininess.  However, I'll have some more in-depth looks at the individual games later on.

The all-important resume is live in the 'about' zone.  I've also gone ahead and begun a listing of games.  Eventually, I'll try and link those in to blog entries in which I post videos and commentary on said games.


If I upload any of the old hobby games I did in my spare time pre-FIEA, or if I have sufficient spare time to whip up some new ones, I'll list those on that page as well.