9/25/2012: Rapid Prototyping

The video recording of this meeting will be posted soon!

We started the meeting with project updates, where we displayed some really fun and creative prototypes that some of our members have made. The rest of the meeting was taken up by Livio's talk on Rapid Prototyping, which was also a surprisingly good explanation of design perspective and prototyping in general.

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GameDev/IEEE Game Night on Friday, the 28th

Once again, the GameDev Club is teaming up with the IEEE club to hold a game night! There will be food, and everyone is encouraged to bring their own games, snacks, TVs, computers, etc.

• When: Friday, September 28th, starting at 5:30pm until midnight.
• Where: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) building, room 105 (map below)

Important Info

1. Please RSVP using the form below (after the jump), or by clicking here.
2. You can park for free in the parking lot by the ECE building (lot #3039) after 5:00pm.
3. To drive to the Parking lot, you'll most likely have to get to 2nd St from Park Ave, because the intersection of 2nd St with Mountain Ave is closed due to construction (see map below).
4. 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.
5. In order to get to the bottom floor of the ECE building, please only use the South stairwell door, which will be left open.
6. 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.
7. In accordance to university policy, no alcohol, firearms, or weapons will be allowed.

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9/17/2012: Lots of News, Intro to Game Development

Here's the recording of last week's meeting. I'm still surprised we managed to spend half the meeting discussing all of the news and upcoming events that were going on. The second half of the meeting is Tyler's talk giving a brief introduction to game development, for those of us who haven't made a game yet:

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9/10/2012: "First" Meeting, Intro the Club

This is technically our second meeting of the 2012-2013 school year, but this is the first meeting that we were able to record. We decided to structure this meeting as if it was our first, because many people weren't able to attend the first meeting, and we received many new members since the previous meeting.

Christian Greyeyes did a great job with filming and editing this video. It's thanks to him that these recordings are much more watchable and enjoyable than last year's. But a side effect of this is that it took two weeks to upload this video. I personally think the extra effort is worth it.

This year, we'll be uploading our videos to the GameDev Club's YouTube Channel, which you can subscribe to. All of last year's videos are currently still uploaded to my personal YouTube account.

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Weekly Summary - Sept 15, 2012

In order to cut down on the number of emails we send out, we decided to try making a weekly digest email that should summarize everything that's happened with the club during the past week. I spent a good amount of time designing these emails to have really nice formatting and an easy-to-follow structure, but then I realized that we really should be posting these summaries onto the website so that incoming members can get a better picture of what's going on in the club as well. Coincidentally, the formatting of this message is also way better now that it's on a website as opposed to in an email.

Table of Contents

1. Club News
1. Next Meeting on Monday
2. Next Game Night on Sept 28
3. What Talks would you Like to See?
4. Are you on the Club's New Mailing List?
5. New Resources Page
6. We Might Become an Official ECE Club
2. Project News and Opportunities
1. IEEE Mortal Kombat Arcade Cabinets
2. New Club Gaming Server,  Admins Wanted
3. Microsoft Windows 8 App Challenge
4. ACM-ICPC, Next Saturday
3. Facebook Summary
1. To the Moon, now on Steam
2. Game Studies - Research Journal
3. Tough times on the road to Starcraft
4. Avoiding game crashes related to linked lists
5. The Six Most Infamous Puzzles In Adventure Game History
6. Steam Big Picture
7. 5 Graphic Adventure Game Goofs (and How To Fix Them)
8. A Call to Arms for Decent Men
9. Escape From Mount Stupid: Point and Click Adventures
10. Super Crate Box
11. Wii U Release Information
12. Game Development Bibliography
13. 35 Years of Console Launch Prices
14. Zynga counters EA's copyright suit with a claim of its own
15. Learning Games Initiative Research Archive (LGIRA)
16. Tales from the Video Game Archive
17. Closure, now on Steam
18. Microsoft's UofA Page

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Game Night #1 on Friday

Here's the schedule for the upcoming week:

Monday - Labor Day, no club meeting
Wednesday - Fall Club Fair
Friday - Game Night!

As usual, the game night will be held in the IEEE room (which is in the ECE building, room 105), and it'll start at around 5:00pm. If you have any trouble finding the room or getting in, please call the room directly at 520-626-7324. You may want to put that number into your contacts, just in case.

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Detonator (GameMaker Prototype)

Detonator is a puzzle game where the player tries to detonate all of the explosives in a level using only three matches. Zuoming Shi created this rapid prototype over the Labor Day weekend using GameMaker.

Click here to download the executable for Windows computers.

If the executable doesn't work for you, click here to download the original GameMaker project. You will also have to download GameMaker in order to run these files (the lite versions are free).

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Pogo Octo (iOS Game)

Pogo Octo is a surreal action shooter about "two unlikely vigilante octopuses." The game's action is contrasted with relaxing music in order to create a hypnotic experience.

This game was made over the course of a year by Scott Wilson, and it features music by Tyler Griffin (also known as Okat). Scott made the game using GameSalad.

Pogo Octo was recently released on Apple's AppStore for $0.99.

Most members don't know much about Scott, since he's mostly been following the club from the background. But stay tuned for future meetings, because Scott plans to give a talk or two about the things he learned while making this game!

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