

	2010		NavMeshes

	2009		Overlord 2

	2007		Overlord

	2005 2004		Mecha-Tron

	2003		Ablaze V.I.

	2002		Morph Cube

	2001		LDEye

	2000		Roboman

	1999		Photon 3D

	1998		Talx

	1997 1994		Ablaze

	1993		Stracon 2

	1991		Stracon

Overlord

Title screen

My professional involvement with the Overlord project started very early on, right after Triumph Studios signed with Codemasters. Initially, we converted and finalized the basic tool-chain from Triumph's previous Age of Wonders series from Delphi to C++, for better performance and the necessity to develop cross-platform for the Xbox 360.

Overlord is primarily a single player action adventure game set in a fantasy world, laced with a dark sense of humour. The main differentiating factors were: playing the 'bad guy' Overlord (= user avatar) and that the majority of interactions with the game world are done 'indirectly' using an army of 'Minions' (= software agents). An essential gameplay mechanic is 'sweeping' whereby the user can move the army of minions completely independent from itself in order to have them attack distant targets and/or perform other sorts of interactions with the environment.

My work on the Overlord project focussed primarily on gameplay development:


Core gameplay mechanics		Player avatar control, target-locking, Minion controls.
Game A.I.		Behaviour systems for software agents:
	Navigation	Dynamic obstacle avoidance, path-finding, A* algorithms.
	Visibility/perception	Target acquiring and prioritizing, simple group dynamics.
	Interaction	Agents that push buttons, push objects out of the way, team-up to carry large objects around, agents that rescue and revive their fallen comrades.
	Combat mechanics	Chasing, surrounding, enemy avoidance, attacking blind-spots, jumping and grabbing onto other agents to deal damage, defending the Overlord, auto-aiming.
Physics		Collision detection, projectiles, pseudo-physics (for gameplay).
Dynamic environments		Generic state objects for creating levers, bridges, collapsible buildings, etc.
Scripting		Exposing gameplay functionality using Lua.
Tool programming		Many gameplay features were data driven, providing hook-ups for script-events and sound-effects, maintenance.
General performance		Optimizations and troubleshooting.

Because of my early involvement and the relatively small team with which Overlord was developed, I participated on many smaller aspects of the game engine in its entirety as well. Actually, it was due to the flexibility of all team members that we were able to solve major issues rather 'ad hoc', and complete the Overlord project on time and within budget.

Initially, Overlord was launched in 2007 for PC and XBox 360 in Europe and America. A DLC expansion named 'Raising Hell' was released early in 2008 separately for these platforms. Later in 2008 a PS 3 version was released world-wide (also in Japan) with the expansion integrated into it (the PS 3 port was done by an external company).