I was the porirotor of the Helios Game Engine and Toolset, a comprehensive set of reusable libraries, framework and tool chain for authoring 2D and 3D games.  A data driven and integrated authoring environment provides for rapid and flexible game development production.   By providing intuitive visual interface and automation through the authoring tool; maximizing code and module reuse through the flexible and modular architecture; and by pushing the nuances of building a game from programmers to designers and artists;  Helios makes building great games faster, easier and more cost effective.

Mesh Map Tool -  specific tool within my engine for creating and editing mesh-based 2D levels. Vertices can be welded, deformed, colored, the tool supports splating of 4 textures. Additionally, a weight parameter can be assigned to each vertex. Weights can be used for wind and water deformation, etc.

 

I architectured and wrote this Game Engine With Eric Dalrymple.  Tim Sandwell wrote the Differed Shader Rendering system. Recently, I have learned to use Unity.  Unity is pretty slick compared to our custom engine, but it is remarkable how closely we resolved to many of the same design solutions.  It is also cool to see how they solved some specific problems that Helios has not solved.    This is the game engine that powered my Company.  We have produced 9 games with this engine:

 

Games Made With Helios

 


Game Engine Features and Specs
- OpenGL ES, Metal, Direct3D
- C++ based
- Supported platforms:  Mac, Win8, iOS, Android, Blackberry
- Orthogonal and Isometric tile map support
- Pluggable physics integration (out of the box integration with Box2D)
- Scene management
- Resource management system
- Game Center and Facebook Integration
- Multi-input support: Mouse,Keyboard, Game Controller, Multitouch screen and accelerometer
- Custom command based scripting system
- Lua based scripting
- Platform abstraction for extensible platform support

- Custom font rendering
- Comprehensive math and geometry API
- Sound and video playback and streaming
- Multiple texture format support

 

Rendering

  • Differed Renderer Pipeline
  • Full Screen Post Processing Effects (Bloom, distortion, etc)
  • Level Of Detail

Animation And FX

  • Skeletal animation system
  • Retargetable animations 
  • Event calling from animation tracks
  • Animation blending

 

GUI Widgeting System

  • Customizable and extensible
  • Visual drag-drop-editor editor 
  • Auto layout functionality

Game Features

  • Foliage simulation system
  • RPG Quest System

 

 

Game Objects

  • Component driven system
  • Visual Game Object composer
  • Visual Component Editor
  • Debugging tools
  • State machine controller

Various Features

  • Terrain System
  • Particle system
  • Cut Scene playback
  • Sprite animation system

The Authoring Tool

  • Font editor
  • Sprite and animation editor
  • Skeletal animation editor
  • Physics editor

 

- Particle System Editor
- Tilemap editor
- Height map Editor
- Level Editor
- Spline and curve editor
- Drag and drop scripting authoring
- Image and texture manager
- Extensible plugging and export system
- Datatable editor
- Device manager
- Asset pipeline