Populous II is a data-driven, vertical slice arcade game created in DirectX11 & C++. Created by a team of five in our ‘Game Engine Programming’ module, the project utilises an Entity Component System to efficiently simulate large numbers of unique game objects/entities.
Utilising a Data-Oriented Programming approach to the games back-end provided very high run-time performance, irrespective of the number of entities on screen. This implementation mitigates a problem present in the original Populous II, that being game lag when the number of NPCs gets too high. This, alongside the management of game builds playable and runnable on ‘clean’ PC’s and Arcade machines make this project a highlight of our Year 2, and gave us great understanding into studio and AGILE working environments.