LZorro Studios
Portfolio
Shipped Titles | Games | Movies / Animation | Other Projects
|
QUICKHIT NFL
Football
QUICKHIT NFL Football is a free-to-play football game that runs right in your browser. The game is more of a coaching sim (as opposed to the direct control style of the Madden series), where you pick your play and the players on the field act accordingly. Earn enough Fantasy Points in-game to raise your Coach Level, which lets you improve your players, buy new plays or sign Legends to your team. I worked as a QA Tester on this project. I was responsible for writing the test plans and schedules for the QA team, participating in the daily scrum meetings, filing bugs and working with developers to resolve them, and maintaining the testing environments. © 2008 - 2011 Quick Hit,
Inc. All rights reserved. QUICKHIT, the QUICKHIT logo, QUICKHIT Football,
QUICKHIT SPORTS and XL SPORTS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quick
Hit, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. © 2010 NFL Enterprises. Team
names/logos/indicia are trademarks of the teams indicated. All other
NFL-related trademarks are trademarks of the National Football League. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
|
Hooping
Hooping is a 3D space racing game. Players fly customizable spaceships through a series of obstacles along a course of “hoops”. The player can turn the ship in all three dimensions, instead of moving along a flat track as in most traditional racing games. I worked on the technical development of the game, where we used Terathon Software’s C4 Engine and C++. In addition to working a lot on the game design, I worked on the ship’s control and movement, the pointer arrow in the HUD display, and the pirate and gravity (e.g. planets and black holes) obstacles. Visit the Hooping website for more details. View the trailer on YouTube here. |
|
Barricade
Barricade is a cross between survival horror and tower defense. The inspiration comes from the fact that no normal person would have access to the arsenal of weapons typically found in zombie apocalypse games. The goal is to use benches, kiosks, etc. to construct barricades to keep the zombies (and gremlins, salesmen and Girl Scouts) at bay, until help can arrive. The player can also use items to make traps, such as electrified doors and Molotov cocktails, should the horde get too close to your fellow refugees. I designed and created all of the character models and animations, which in turn somewhat set the art style as a whole. I also drew the game splash screen, as seen here on the left. Barricade earned a fake $300,000 investment and was awarded Most Novel, Best Sound and Best Sound (audience), as judged by a panel of industry professionals. Visit the Barricade website for more details. |
|
Climate Connections
The project was sponsored by US FIRST, with the intent to distribute it for the FIRST Lego League robotics competition. Climate Connections, named for the theme of the 2009 competition season, is a card game designed to teach middle-school students about issues concerning climate change. Players take on certain roles (such as Real Estate Developer or Environmentalist) and act as a leader of a region of the world. They need to build Power Plants to sustain their population of Citizens, and vote on Policies which affect gameplay. But their actions cause an impact on the environment, which could lead to catastrophic Events (e.g. Smog, Erosion, or Drought). The game was created both as a physical card game and a computer game – written in Java, utilizing Java Monkey Engine. I was heavily involved in game design and testing, and co-developed the code for the computer game. Unfortunately, while the physical card game is pretty much finalized, the computer game still needs a lot of further development, and our time and resources were drained. We are investigating some kind of print-on-demand option for the physical card game. Read more about the project here. |
|
Notebook Runner
Notebook Runner is a “reverse platformer” – the computer handles moving the character, and it is up to the player to alter the course. The system recognizes shapes drawn with the mouse to create objects such as platforms, ladders and springs. The game was written in Java using Java Monkey Engine. I came up with the principal game design. The other members of the team wrote the AI, physics and pattern recognition, so I worked mostly on “the other stuff” – the level designs and file protocol, the HUD and art assets. Play the game and read more about it on this webpage. |
|
Elementist
Elementist was envisioned as a 3D puzzle game. The player takes on the role of a wizard with a magic gauntlet, which holds special orbs. Each of these orbs controls one of the classical elements: fire, water, air and earth. The orbs can be combined to control other aspects of the environment (e.g. air + water = ice, earth + fire = lava). Objects in the world can be affected by the matching element. For example, the player could project a stream of water to turn a waterwheel, or control some rocks to create a bridge. The game was written in C++ using Terathon Software’s C4 Engine. I was lead designer, and I co-developed the game with my tech partner, working on the trigger recognition (knowing when the player is in range of a valid object), element matching, element selection and particle effects. Unfortunately, with the time constraints of the project, we weren’t able to get many puzzles or animations into the game, so the whole thing is more of a tech demo/proof of concept than a game. Still, Elementist won the class “Most Novel” honorable mention, and received $25,000 in pretend-money investment out of a $1 million pool, as judged by a panel of faculty and industry professionals. View the project webpage here. |
|
Ranachura the Woodland Warrior
Ranachura
is a standard platformer game with side-scrolling
shooter elements. The player takes on
the role of Ranachura, a ninja frog out to protect
his friends and family from the evil Ninja Masters. The game was inspired by classic games such
as Sonic the Hedgehog and The game won Best Overall, Most Fun, Best Tech, Audience Choice and a $500,000 pretend investment out of a $1 million pool, as judged by a panel of faculty and industry professionals. The game was created using YoYoGames’ Game Maker. I worked mostly on the platforming functionality of Ranachura, including jumping, swimming, collecting items and using weapons. Due to the limited schedule we had, we could not build the game we had envisioned. This serves more as a single level, a taste of what we had planned, which admittedly was probably a bit more than a freshman-level course could afford. Download the game here (3.6MB, ZIP, Windows). Press F1 for game controls. |
|
SnowMunch
A submission to the 38 Studios Massachusetts Game Challenge 2009. I acted as designer and programmer for this game, written in YoYoGames’ Game Maker. The main character, Munch, is running late to work at 38 Studios and has to clear the driveway of snow. However, there’s a terrible Blizzard outside, continually blowing more snow onto the ground. There are also pesky neighborhood kids that throw snowballs at Munch! Download the game here (8.5MB, ZIP, Windows). Press F1 for game controls. © 2008 38 Studios, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The “Munch” and related characters herein are the trademarks of 38 Studios, LLC and are reproduced with permission for use in this portfolio. |
|
Porcupine and
Balloon are Friends
This is a project that I worked on for Global Game Jam 2009. The goal of the game is to reunite Porcupine with his friend, Balloon. Both traverse the maze simultaneously and collect powerups that affect their size and speed. I have gone more in depth about the design and implementation about the game in my blog. I worked on the code of the game, implemented many of the functions including movement, special moves, object collection, and multiple view screens; and helped the others on the project in using YoYoGames’ Game Maker, which we used to develop the game. The game has evolved quite a bit since its original implementation. The latest version available as of this writing is version 7.0, which you can download here (~85 MB). As stipulated by the Global Game Jam rules, the source code for the game is also made publically available. |
|
Define Yourself
The constraint themes for this year were “deception”, “abstraction”, and “rain, plain, or Spain”. Using those, our team built a game that was an abstraction of college; where the choices of how you spend your time at a university effect the kind of person you become by the time you graduate. This is a two player game (or one player with two controls) written in C# using AngelXNA, an open-source port of the Angel prototyping engine. You can read more about the game and how I felt the project went in this blog entry. The game itself is available for download here (~2MB), and should work on most PC systems. |
|
Punk is Dead
Fewer constraints this year, the main one being “extinction”. Our game is part platformer, part Guitar Hero- inspired musical rhythm matching game, which follows Pixxie Sprite in her quest to save punk rock music from those that would destroy it. The game was built using the Akihabara game engine. My main contribution was writing the system that handled keyboard input and making sure it aligned properly with the music. The GGJ project site is here, though what we have uploaded there isn’t quite complete. We are working to getting a stable first-playable game available, so check back soon! |
|
3 Things Game Jam
The rules of the contest were that the game had to include three things: an image of a pineapple, the phrase “TOO MANY GHOSTS!”, and the sound of a train engine as provided by the GDC. The game was created during the game jam session of one day, quickly implemented using YoYoGames’ Game Maker. The character moves to the position where the player points the mouse. Along the way they must avoid ghosts and collect pineapples to load onto the train. When the train is full, it leaves, unless there are too many ghosts. Ghosts can be eliminated by collecting machine parts and bringing them to activate the machine. Download the game here (~1.6MB). |
Final project
for WPI 
Final
project for WPI 
Final
project for WPI 
This is a project for 
This is a project for 
This game was a winning entry for the |
Androcles and the Lion
The theme for our project was Myths and Folklore, and I chose one of Aesop’s fables, “Androcles and the Lion” (or sometimes, “The Slave and the Lion”). In it, Androcles escapes from his master, only to wind up in the company of a lion. The lion has a painful thorn in its paw which Androcles removes. The lion is grateful, but soon they are captured. The Emperor sends Androcles to the arena to be eaten by lions. But as it turns out, then lion sent after him is the one he saved! The lion protects Androcles, and the Emperor has no choice but to let them both free. I completed this entire project myself, including adapting the story, texturing with Adobe Photoshop, modeling and animation with Autodesk Maya, and editing with Adobe Premiere Elements. View the movie here (173 MB, AVI, 2:30). |
|
The Perfect Crime
A little story about a pair of hamsters looking to steal a delicious snack. The project was done in Autodesk Maya and Adobe Premiere. I co-wrote the story, modeled one of the hamsters and many of the smaller objects, animated about half of the scenes, and edited the film together. View the movie here (204 MB, AVI, 1:04). |
|
Second Leap
A parody of the television series Quantum Leap, where Dr. Sam Beckett ends up in the virtual world, in the middle of a love triangle and a potentially life-threatening situation. Principal filming was done with Fraps within the Second Life environment, sound work with Audacity, and editing with Adobe Premiere. I wrote and directed the film, as well as acting as both the real and virtual Sam Beckett. View the movie here (2 GB, AVI, 9:25). |
|
Waking Dreams
Waking Dreams is the story of Asha, a young woman with a rare medical condition where she experiences realistic hallucinations. She tries a new medical treatment, but the hallucinations worsen, and she can’t tell what’s real and what’s not anymore. Principal filming was done with Fraps within the Second Life environment, sound work with Audacity, and editing with Adobe Premiere. I worked on the filming and editing, as well as some of the voice acting. View the movie here (3.2 GB, AVI, 15:00). YouTube version: Part 1 Part 2 |
|
EWE-F-O II
This was something of a sequel to a previous class project, where a pair of sheep find themselves in the possession of an alien spaceship, and go for a joyride through the galaxy. In this story, the two sheep BoBo and BooBoo find themselves stranded on a distant planet and find their way home with the help of the resident alien sheep, who believe them to be their god-like saviors. Modeling and animation was done with MetaCreations Infini-D, special effects were done with Adobe After Effects, and editing with Adobe Premiere. I worked on a little modeling (the sheep’s communicator and other assorted objects), some of the animations (some parts of the montage scene at the 9:32 mark, and when the sheep return home, starting at the 12:41 mark) and in special effects (in particular I designed the “wormhole effect” and the God-sheep call). View the movie here (213 MB, Quicktime, 17:31). YouTube version: Part 1 Part 2 |
Humanities Sufficiency Project for WPI
HU 3910 A08: Humanities Practicum: Animated Short Film.
Final project for WPI AR 3000 C08:
Final project for WPI IMGD 200X A07: 
Mid-term project for WPI IMGD 200X A07:
Final project for CMPSCI 551: 3D Animation
and Digital Editing (UMass, Fall 2000)|
WPEye.net My Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) for WPI. WPEye.net is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed for WPI Admissions. The goal of the game is to explore alternate forms of advertisement by engaging high school students interested in attending WPI in an interactive fiction. We also wanted to try a different kind of story not yet fully explored in ARGs, namely romantic comedies. The premise of the game is a student-run website providing an inside look at daily life at WPI, but one student, having a crush on a fellow female student, decided to impress her by challenging her friends in competitions, with the help of the players. I acted as producer for this project, organizing team meetings and making sure content deadlines were met. I also helped with puzzle design and writing the story. Read more about the project here. |
|
SpecOps Infiltration: ON ICE! A prototype of a game, designed in the WPI B09 IMGD Master Class about Experimental Game Design, as taught by Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games. Since this was a class on game design, all we really have is a simple design document and a bare-bones prototype (as written in Flash by my partner Skyler Clark). The game is about a Solid Snake-like character who has to infiltrate the enemy complex in a remote frozen wasteland. He’s equipped with ice skates and a grappling hook, which he can use to augment his movement as well as grab and fling nearby enemies. The Prototype – use the arrow keys to slide, and click the mouse to use the grappling hook. |
|
Alternate Delusions
This is a webcomic I started as a hobby back in 2001. It’s a creative outlet, a way for me to develop my artistic and story-writing skills, and have some fun doing it. The story is of two college students who find themselves in a parallel dimension, where they find they can create anything they can imagine and travel anywhere in the universe. From there it’s a series of adventures: meeting aliens, becoming superheroes, using magic. On a meta level, it’s part fan fiction, part parody of a variety of subjects in comics, television and pop culture. Read Alternate Delusions here! |
Last updated: March 28, 2011
© 2008 - 2011 Tim Volpe. All rights reserved.