←Alex Van de Sande’s wandering about

the Wall Maze

· University portfolio · Games · Originally published on wanderingabout.com

maze1.gif

Enter the maze

Game design and programming. While figuring out an algorithm for building a maze with only one right path, it became clear that in such a maze the walls would be a labyrinth of it’s own. Then it was a natural evolution transforming it into a maze whith special stairs and bridges so you could walk over walls or on the ground.

maze
maze 2
maze 3

For centuries labyrinths have been used for meditation. Taking the longest route to go through a short distance, priests would use that time to pray and think. Back then, no one had invented traffic jam.

I also used my long hours in traffic jams to read and think. So I found some funny things about them. The first is that in a true maze (a labyrinth with multiple ways) every point is reached through one and only one way. Another, is that to build one like that all you need is to start with a open circle and draw lines starting from another line and ending anywhere as long as it does not cross or touch any other. And finally I’ve realized that in a maze built like that, not only the space between, but the walls also form a true maze. Beyond programming the algorithm, I drew the character animation.

maze character
  • about: Made in 2002. Animation, programming, and algorithm in Adobe Flash and Actionscript.

Next

Laser Chess

The rule of thumb in the first year of college is: bend the rules to see how far they can go. The teacher asked the students to build a game with resin pieces, just so we would know how to mould in resin. We added dry ice, acr ylic tubes and a laser beam. Laser Chess is a strategy game for two player s. Each one has four semi-spheric pawns (molded after a hlf cutte billir ball) with a mirror face, and the game objective is to reflect the central laser beam until it hits the opponent’s goal, an acrylic tube which glows red when illuminated. The game was constructed on a 1.2 m (4 ft.) high table with a space under which there is a blue light and a solidified carbon dioxide vapour. For the…

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