Friday, November 29, 2013


We finally uploaded a video recording of the Intro to Game Programming Workshop that we held almost two months ago. The workshop was done with Java, since that's what the department teaches, and some of the topics we covered include: how to draw images to the screen, how to animate images, the concept of a game loop, how to listen to keyboard events, how to detect collisions, and more!


The workshop lasted for two and a half hours, when it was scheduled to last only two hours. The recording, however, is only a little over an hour long because we cut out a lot of empty segments, such as when we were waiting for participants to finish writing their code.

If you want to download the code from the workshop, we have three collections of files for you to use:

WorkshopGame_3pm.zip
This is the code that we had at 3:00pm when people started leaving. At this stage we had a simple window with a circle in it that moved around when the player pressed the arrow keys.

WorkshopGame_Finished.zip
This is the code that we had at 3:30pm, after we decided to stay late and add an enemy to the game. We figured out how to detect collisions between two circles, and we added logic to "kill" the player when they got hit by the big evil circle.

WorkshopGame_Pre-Workshop.zip
This is the game that we made while planning this workshop. The variable names are slightly different, but the main difference is that we added an image background to our level.

If you have any questions about the material covered in this workshop, or the source code, feel free to ask Livio at livio@interguild.org.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013


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, November 15th, starting at 5:30pm until midnight.
  • Where: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) building, room 105 (map below)
This will be our last game night of the semester! Also, this is a completely free event as usual, but please feel free to bring some money to donate to our food and to support the clubs!

Important Info

  1. Please RSVP using this form: http://bit.ly/IEEEGameNight.
  2. You can park for free in the parking lot by the ECE building (lot #3039) after 5:00pm.
  3. 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.
  4. In order to get to the bottom floor of the ECE building, please only use the South stairwell door, which will be left open.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

Friday, November 8, 2013


(Sfxr, speedy sfx generator.)

On Monday, we covered a variety of handy resources to use for our upcoming game jam. Here's list of the resourced we covered, highly useful for not only the game jam, but game development in general. All items here are free for most functionality, and are arranged in no specific order save for categories.

Before you jump into exploring these resources, note that 3D-related tools tend to have a much more significant learning curve, so we do not recommend attempting to develop a 3D game during the game jam without significant prior experience.

Update 11/8: added several new tools to our game development list, and categorized our tools into either the Rapid category or the Advanced category.

Game Development
Rapid:
Stencyl - popular 2D game-creation software with visual scripting and integrated physics engine.
Game Maker Studio - speedy game-development tool with extensive community.
Construct 2 - 2D game-development engine.
RPG Maker - popular program for creating JRPG-style games.
Advanced:
LibGDX - Open-Source Java framework for deploying on PC, iOS, HTML5, and Android.
Unity - strong 3D game-creation tool.
Ren'Py - Python-based visual novel creation engine, no prior programming experience necessary.
Pygame - popular Python extension for game creation.
Flash Builder - Fast IDE for flash games, using AS3.
Unreal Development Kit - complete 3D game-development engine. Beware: high learning curve.

Graphic
Rapid:
Tigsource Assemblee Competition Part 1 - graphics for sound assets for public use
GraphicsGale - highly useful and (mostly) free pixel art creation program.
GIMP - standard free open-source program.
Microsoft Paint- don't laugh! Paint is actually a very handy tool for quick edits.
Advanced:
Photoshop CS2 - this old version of Photoshop is now free! Note that Windows 7 needs special support.
Pixen - open-source pixel-art creator for Mac OS X
Blender - free 3D graphics rendering software.

Sound
Rapid:
Audacity - powerful open-source sound-editing program.
Sfxr - instant 8-bit sound effect generator. Check out bfxr for flash version and cfxr for Mac version.
FreeSound - huge database of quality sound effects, under a variety of references.
Incompetech - another database of free sounds.
Advanced:
GarageBand - powerful tracking/SE tool for Mac.
Acid Xpress - free music recording and creation software for Windows.

Misc.
Tiled - map-creation software for tile-based games.
MakeHuman - random 3D human model generator.
PolyCount - community for 3D art creation and game development.
ModDb - community for game modding.

Comment if you have more resources that you think fits on this page, and good luck if you are attending the Game Jam!

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