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Local student designs game for Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace [Mt. Vernon Register-News, Ill.]
(Mt. Vernon Register-News (IL) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 23--MT. VERNON -- Michael Hicks has created a world with his own ingenuity and a little help from his online friends.
Hicks, 18, is celebrating the recent release of a video game he created, called "Honor in Vengeance," available on the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace, in which a Martian colonist patriot must protect his or her planet from Earth's forces trying to take back the colonies.
"It's like a third person view of a ship," Hicks said about the game's point of view. "I had a lot of influence from Star Wars Rogue Squadron on Nintendo 64; it has that kind of feel. I had to learn a lot of physics to do the camera angles."
Since its release on the Indie Games marketplace, "Honor in Vengeance" has been downloaded about 4,000 times, he said.
"It's really cool," he said.
Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said more than 23 million people use Xbox Live in a letter dated Feb. 5, 2010, on the Xbox Web site.
Hicks said the game, like others on the Indie Games marketplace, is a smaller version of a game, but he wanted to make with the level of detail of a larger game.
The senior at Mt. Vernon Township High School taught himself not only physics and the math needed to create images in his game, but since seventh grade has taught himself how to use programs like Microsoft Visual Studio Express and Adobe Photoshop to create video game images.
Hicks said he made his first simple video game in eighth grade.
"I taught myself," he said. "I spent years and years doing things myself and using Google to look at what other people were doing. I bought a few books, too."
Hicks created the 2D graphics and all the music for the game, as well as the script, but had a little help with voice acting, 3D graphics and the sound effects, he said.
"Back in grade school, I made friends with a bunch of people on a Star Wars Web site," he said. "When I was thinking about the voices, I was like, 'I should have these people help out.' I wrote out all the dialogue and they e-mailed it to me."
In addition to his fellow Star Wars fan friends, Hicks met a person online who offered to create the sound effects, he said.
He said he hopes to be able compensate the people who helped him if the game does well on the marketplace, but he is waiting to see if it will make money.
Though he spent at least a year planning the game and eight to nine months creating the game, he said he didn't spend any money on the creation of the game.
"I did a lot of planning," he said. "I didn't have a whole lot of resources, so I wanted to best use what I had."
People who use the Xbox Live service with their Xbox video game console have the ability to download games from Indie Games for Microsoft Points. "Honor in Vengeance" is available for 240 MSP, or about $3, Hicks said.
Hicks' mother, Dee Hicks, said she is very proud of her son for creating the game.
"I'm surprised," she said. "It's been a long time coming. He found out about the marketplace, and he said, 'I have to be 18!' He turned 18 on January third and he was so excited."
Though Hicks is still in high school, he said he found it easy to balance his time between homework and working on completing "Honor in Vengeance."
"I got my hard classes out of the way," he said. "I did a lot of weekend work."
Dee Hicks said high school hasn't been very challenging for her son.
"He plays the guitar and trumpet," she said. "He struck a nice balance between (making the game and school.) He gets great grades, so I can't complain."
He did use some skills he learned in school on the game, however. He composed all the music for his game, he said, using his musical knowledge from marching band and playing the guitar.
"I did most of that in a program called Fruity Loops," he said. "I did all electronic music, because I thought it would fit the theme of the game best."
Hicks said the biggest challenge for him in creating the game was learning the math he needed to know to draw the graphics properly.
"I dropped out of math in high school, so I had to do some independent study and research," he said. "Once I got my head around that, it was pretty much a straight run."
Hicks plans to attend Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., in September, to study game design.
He said he hopes the experience and knowledge from creating "Honor in Vengeance" will give him a leg up in his studies at the university.
"A ton of Web sites picked up on my game, so I hope it looks good to say I already created a game," he said. "Hopefully, it will open a few doors."
To see more of Mt. Vernon Register-News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.register-news.com/.
Copyright (c) 2011, Mt. Vernon Register-News, Ill.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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