Circus Frenzy

Project Summary

Circus Frenzy is an arcade style game where the user must reach their objective without being captured by Bongo, a killer clown, using classic WASD + mouse first person movement controls. The game ends when Bongo reaches the player, or the player reaches the police car at the far end of the street. This game relies heavily on lighting techniques to create a creepy atmosphere. Some of the technical features displayed throughout this project include first person camera control, particle effects, bump mapping, bloom/halo effects, and shadow mapping. This project was completed in a 2-person group with equal efforts towards creativity and coding.

My Role and Experience

Circus Frenzy was my first attempt at implementing an arcade style game using C++ and the OpenGL rendering library. My primary responsibilities were to implement first-person camera control, bump mapping, and shadow mapping for the 3d models. I also got experience creating and changing 3d models using softwares like Blender, which were then utilized throughout the Circus Frenzy world.

I credit Circus Frenzy as the hardest and most rewarding project I worked on while at UCSD. Neither me or my partner had any prior experience in game development, but we chose to go beyond the scope of the final project to really test ourselves. I think it was a valuable experience to put myself in an uncharted situation because I was able to test the skills I already had and, when I got stuck, I learned how to overcome the challenges I was facing. It took a lot of hard work, Google searches, and YouTube tutorials, but I am proud of how the Circus Frenzy game came out.