2004-08 Chris Weiland: Storms and Legends

Storms and Legends

Chris "Hobbiticus" Weiland is a young but experienced Torque developer involved in many successful projects. He is a GarageGames Associate and worked as an intern here this summer. Read on to hear what this rising star of Indie development has to say about his many projects.

GarageGames: Chris, this summer you've worked on a number of very interesting and helpful projects while interning here at GarageGames. For example, you implemented new Precipitation code in Torque, which is very robust and can be used to create a number of high-quality effects. How long did it take you write the Precipitation code? The Precipitation code needed some love in general, but what specifically motivated you to work on it?

Chris Weiland: The precipitation code actually didn't take long at all - only about a week. However, the idea was brought up last summer, so I've had some time to think about how it would all work. I've also been working intensely with the engine for 3 years now, so I have a general idea of how everything fits together.

As for what motivated me, it just came up in conversation around the
office for some reason. I like graphics, and it was graphical, and I had a bunch of improvements in mind from the previous implementation; so, I jumped at the opportunity.

GG: You've also been working on a Particle Editor very recently. How are things progressing with that?

CW: That's another project that's been in development for about a week and is nearing completion.

I can spawn a Particle Emitter Node in front of the player, and from there you can do all sorts of cool things. You can set what Emitter type it's currently using, and assign different particles to that Emitter type. Then, you can edit the particles themselves using every script-exposed field.

Did I mention you could do this all in real-time? No more editing Datablock values by hand. With this, you can edit emitters and their particles in-game and see what you're changing right away.

GG: In addition, you've been a key contributor to the Real-Time Strategy Foundation Pack, which is soon to ship. What has been the best part of working on this project?

CW: I'd say the best part is simply proving that you can make an RTS using Torque. I don't know of many RTS engines out there, and of those that are available, I doubt you can get the source and the right to develop on them nearly as cheaply as with Torque. I've always been a fan of RTS games, so the entire project was neat to work on.

GG: You've interned with GarageGames for two summers now, and it's been a pleasure working with you. For those members of the community who don't know you well yet, share a bit about yourself. Where are you going to school, and do you enjoy it? What do you do in your "spare" time? And how long have you been programming?

CW: I go to Johns Hopkins University, and am majoring in Computer Science. I enjoy studying there-- the professors are great and the program has fairly loose course requirements.

As far as programming, I had my first brush with it in 3rd grade with GW-BASIC. Of course, back then all I could really comprehend was how to make the screen flash, and how to play a song using the PC speaker. After that it was 9th grade on the TI graphing calculators. I wrote the game "Dots", where you have a grid of dots and players take turns drawing lines, and you get a point for creating a box. In 10th grade I took a class in C++, and in 11th I started learning OpenGL on my own, and wrote a crude version of Tetris. Then, I got involved with Legends in 12th.

GG: John's Hopkins is a very impressive school. Do you have a solid idea what you want to do after you graduate?

CW: Not totally. I want to be a game programmer. I'm a hardcore gamer at heart, which is where most of my spare time has been going recently. I played Tribes 1 and Unreal 2004 competitively, and Warcraft III on the side.

So, I know I want to get into game development, but I don't know how yet. I know a few people that want to start up independent game studios, but doing so takes capital, which may only be found in a day job at a large studio. Hopefully, I'll have time to get started in Indie development while still in school and have enough going for me to continue after I graduate. I realize the need to set realistic expectations though.

GG: How did you come upon the GarageGames community, and why did you decide to license Torque?

CW: It all comes back to Tribes. There were more than a few Tribes 1 players that were disappointed with Tribes 2 (me included). A group of us decided to create a similar game on the Tribes 2 engine, namely Legends, which of course required lisencing Torque. Two years later we had a prototype, and had a strong beta test, but with the upcoming release of Tribes: Vengeance, the project has stalled out due to lack of motivation.

However, through the years, I've learned of TON of things I never would have if I had not gotten involved with the GarageGames community. Now, here I am interning at GarageGames for the second summer in a row, working with the people who created my favorite game of all time.

GG: Besides all you've gotten finished this summer, what kinds Torque projects have you worked on in the past?

CW: Last summer, I was heavily involved with the documentation project and in between write-ups, I was able to start work on the OpenGL graphics layer for TSE (not that it got very far). I also donated terrain bump-mapping code to the community. Other than that, most of my time has been spent working on Legends.

GG: All of the above makes it sound like you're more than a little busy. Yet, somewhere in the last couple years, you've continued to find time to devote to Legends. Legends is very fun, I'm a big fan. What are the plans for this game?

CW: Sadly, plans for Legends have been getting bleak. The Legends team all got betas for Tribes: Vengeance, which is turning out to be a ton of fun, at least for us. Also, since the whole point of Legends was to create a Tribes-like game, and since there is a professionally-made Tribes-like game coming out in the near future, there isn't much point to continue on, at least for now.

Maybe in another year or two, when Tribes: Vengeance dies down a little, we'll get back to work on a TSE version of Legends.

GG: We look forward to it! Legends already looks awesome and plays great. A TSE version is a very exciting prospect.