Project Hermes Cancelled: May 2001 Est. Release Date: Q2 2002

Background:

Hermes was the code name of a new title under development at Lucas Learning. It was meant to be Learning's follow-up title to Super Bombad Racing, a frenetic multiplayer platformer for next-generation consoles.

As the Lead Programmer it was my job to spearhead the development effort and lay down the groundwork for the OpenGL-based engine. I designed and programmed a highly-optimized graphics pipe fine-tuned for the performance requirements of the LucasArts GL layer developed for use in Starfighter. By the time the project was cancelled, I had built on the foundations provided by Learning's Asylum library and worked on the integrated development of encapsulated technologies in the following areas:

1. Designed and programmed an OpenGL-based Rendering, Scenegraph and Object Store technology
2. Designed and programmed an asynchronous, multiple streaming, producer/subscriber data-independent Streaming Resource system
3. Managed the development of a Maya Exporter for # 1
4. Managed the development of a Max Exporter for # 1
5. Managed the development of a Character Animation system that supports blended animations, multi-weighted skinning, multi-textures, and a variety of other rendering features.
6. Managed the development of a tight physics library for simple newtonian operations
7. Managed the development of a reasonably good collision system for # 6
8. Managed the development of a bytecode compiling extensible scripting language for in-game control of everything from resource loading to character animation

It was with great sadness that I laid Hermes to rest. It was an invaluable product for honing my professional skillset, but the tragedy is that it was shaping up to be a really fun game in a genre subset whose potential is still untapped in the larger game market.

Statistics
Publisher: Lucas Learning Developed At: Lucas Learning Cancelled: May 2001 Est. Release Date: Q2 2002 Project Responsibilities: Lead Programmer Languages Used: C++, others... Technologies: OpenGL, Asylum, 3DS, Maya, Next-Generation Consoles...