Photos from the Spring 2014 Game Jam

This semester's game jam was so awesome that this post probably won't be able to do it justice. The theme for this game jam was flowers, and so everyone had to make a game that tied to the theme in some way within 42 hours. There were around 16 participants and about four non-participants. Fortunately, there was a healthy number of both frequent participants and newcomers, and they divided themselves into five teams.

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4/7/2014 - The GDC Rant Panel

We dedicated this week's meeting to talking about our club's trip to GDC. We organized the meeting like a typical GDC rant session, where everyone who went to GDC (all eight of us) sat at a long table in the front of the room. We each took turns talking about our favorite parts of the trip, what we learned, and advice for attending next year.

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Game Night on Friday, April 11th!

The GameDev Club is teaming up with the IEEE club to hold another game night! There will be food, and everyone is encouraged to bring their own games, consoles, snacks, computers, batteries, etc.

• When: Friday, April 11th, starting at 5:30pm until midnight.
• Where: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) building, room 105 (map below)
• RSVP: http://bit.ly/IEEEGameNight

As usual, the free food that we get is funded by your donations, so if you plan to donate, remember to bring some money.

Important Info

1. You can park for free in the parking lot by the ECE building (lot #3039) after 5:00pm.
2. The doors for the building (as well as the elevator) close at around 6pm, so call the IEEE room at 520-626-7324 if you're locked out. It's best to add that number to your contacts, just in case.
3. In order to get to the bottom floor of the ECE building, please only use the South stairwell door, which will be left open.
4. While we've never had any incidents before, the clubs are not responsible for damaged, lost, or stolen valuables. It's generally good practice to label your things to make sure they don't get mixed up.
5. In accordance to university policy, no alcohol, firearms, or weapons will be allowed.

University Map

Below is a map of where the ECE building is. To view the map in another window, click here.


View Larger Map

Questions

If you have any questions, send an email to Livio at ldelac01@email.arizona.edu.

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Volunteer Opportunity for a Charity Game Project

Last week, Juan Cuadra came to our meeting to talk about this really cool project that he's working on to make some kind of interactive play experience for child patients of the Diamond Children's Hospital at the University of Arizona Medical Center. If you're interested in helping out with this project, please email Juan at: juan.cuadra7@gmail.com

Here's a quick summary of the project (this is my summary of the meeting, not a list of what Juan's looking for specifically, so if you have questions, please ask him directly):

• The goal of the project is to create something that will allow kids to play some kind of game without having to touch any toys or controllers or anything (which is an important safety precaution when dealing with patients). The display will use cameras, sensors, and projectors to make the game work, and there's an opportunity to make the game work with the Kinect.
• The project is mostly undefined and currently seeking funding, so if you were to get involved, part of your responsibilities will be to help define the project further, much in the same way that a game designer would define a game project, and it will likely involve doing some user research so that you can better understand the space that you're working in.
• In addition to the game design work that needs to be done, there is also engineering work to do, such as programming, art, sound, etc.
• There's also work to be done on the setup of the display. The technologies that will be used for the cameras and sensors are still to be determined, and you'll also have to figure out how to program for that technology.

Like I said during the meeting, you can probably get course credit for working on this project by pitching it to either a CS or SISTA professor as a potential research project. If you have questions about the specifics on how to do that, you can talk to either me (ldelac01@email.arizona.edu) or Zuoming (zuomingshi@email.arizona.edu)

So if you're interested in volunteering for this super cool project, please contact Juan Cuadra: juan.cuadra7@gmail.com

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3/31/2014 - Roblox talk, and Volunteer Opportunity

During this week's meeting, Greyson gave a talk about how he has been making money by making games on Roblox. Click here to download the slides from his presentation.

We also had Juan Cuadra from Pima Community College come to give a presentation about a new charity-based game project that he's starting. It looked like an awesome project, and he's looking for students who are willing to volunteer their time to help work on it. Click here to read more about his project.

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