Why We Play Bad Games (and Fire Emblem!)

This week, we talked about bad games.  And when I say bad games, I mean good games, that are also bad.  They're good not in spite of being bad, but because they're bad.  They're so bad, they're good, but they're still bad, but that's what makes them good.  Got it?

Here, I'll just link you to the slides from Miranda and Vincente's enlightening talk on the psychology of bad games, and you can see for yourself.

But that's not all!  This week, we also had a talk from our officer intern Dani Jaramillo!  She talked about Fire Emblem: Awakening, and how it became the most popular Fire Emblem game of all time, saving the series from cancellation.  The slides are here!

Finally, a few important announcements:

• It's not too late to sign up to go to GDC with us!  Just talk with our GDC trip planner, Joseph Corona.
• We're having one last game night this semester on Friday, December 2nd!
• In two weeks, on our last meeting of the semester, we'll be having a gift exchange!  Just bring a wrapped gift (under $15 please!) to participate.

See you next week!

Continue Reading

The Dos and Don'ts of Touch Screen Controls

Hi everyone!  Thanks for coming to this week's meeting to listen to my snobbish opinions about controls in mobile games.

In all seriousness, the meeting really was a lot of fun, with plenty of back-and-forth discussion and scribbling on the whiteboard as we tried to reach a consensus on an extremely challenging aspect of design: controls.  Specifically, designing a touch-screen control scheme for genres that were clearly not created with those devices in mind.  It's a difficult problem, and one without a "right" solution most of the time, but we were able to put together some fairly robust interfaces and learn what not to do in the process.

If you missed it, the slides are here!  Sadly, you'll just have the imagine the 10-minute segments of brainstorming we did for each genre.

This week's important announcements:

• If you're interested in going on our GDC trip and you haven't spoken with Joseph Corona yet, that is a thing that you should do!  Do that thing!
• We're hosting a game night this Friday, November 18th!  Come to the usual room starting at 6pm for board games, video games, and an exclusive look at the pinnacle of human achievement now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

See you next week!

Continue Reading

Fall 2016 Game Jam Wrap-Up

The Fall 2016 Game Jam was our biggest yet, with over 50 participants creating 15 games in 42 hours!  Needless to say, it was an overwhelming success.

The theme this year was...  CLONE

Firstly, here are links to every game!  (If we missed one, please let us know!)

• Bae Tower
• Clone Doctor (Windows | Mac)
• Clone Man
• Clone-O-Matic 2000
• The Cloning Orb
• Clown Theft Auto
• Double Helix
• Duality
• Duplicate:Complicate
• On Death and Dying
• Rebel Clone
• Star Wars Clone Wars Tower Defense
• Vindictive Rowing
• Wall Hero
• Yin-Yang

The winning game this year was Duplicate:Complicate.  Congratulations to the winners, and to everyone else!  Remember, you are all game developers now.  Pat yourselves on the back, you deserve it.

Secondly, due to an unprecedented number of musicians attending the Game Jam, we were able to put together... *drum roll* ...

The Fall 2016 Game Jam Original Soundtrack!

Thanks to all of the artists who contributed their music!

Finally, here are some photos from the weekend:

Opening ceremonies!

(Yes, that's a rowing machine.)

That about wraps it up!  Thanks to everyone who attended this year, it was absolutely wild.  See you in the Spring!

Continue Reading

Lessons in Designing Live-Action Games

This week, Freddy Pang gave a talk about Live-Action Games: Playing them, designing them, and running them!

First, a quick primer: A Live-Action Game is a game played not with code on computers or cards on a table, but with people in real locations!  The most popular LAG (an ironic acronym since, contrary to popular belief, real life does not have any network latency) is Humans vs Zombies, a game which pits a team of well-equipped, intelligent humans against a larger team of more primitive, but no less intelligent zombies.

Freddy's talk was framed around the design process of a HvZ-style LAG.  Thanks, Freddy!  If you want to know more, the slides are here!

This week's important announcements:

• If you're planning on going to GDC this year, we need your travel deposits!  Deliver $100 to Joseph Corona to make sure you can come.
• We're now accepting applications for an officer intern!  Want to get more involved with the club, learn how it's run, and possibly move into an officer position next year?  Apply now!
• Our next game night is next Friday, November 18th!  Come to the usual room starting at 6pm for board games, video games, or whatever other games you can think of!

See you next week!

Continue Reading

Special Halloween Meeting: Horror Games!

Happy Halloween!  In this week's exceptionally well-timed meeting, we talked about horror games, and what design considerations go into building them.  We definitely didn't do anything else.  Nope, just had a normal talk, and...

...oh, right.  That.

So Jeremy may or may not have played a game called Sonic Dreams Collection, possibly the most disturbing of all Sonic fan-games (yes, it does have competition).  If you're feeling exceptionally brave, the collection is free to download here.  Just... don't tell anyone we sent you there.

Back to sanity.  In our main talk this week, Jeremy and I talked about the design of horror games, and what makes them different from normal games.  Near the end, I did a case study of sorts on Five Nights at Freddy's, one of the most beloved and be-hated horror games of all time.  Does it do horror well, despite relying mostly on jump scares?  Yes, actually!  Is it a good game overall?  Um... kind of?  I'll let you figure that one out.  Here are the slides!

Finally, here are this week's important announcements:

• Deposits for GDC are due this week!  If you're planning on coming on our annual trip, email Joseph Corona at jdcorona96 (at) email.arizona.edu to arrange a $100 initial deposit.
• Galatea Studios, a game development studio right here in Tucson, is looking for a graphic designer!  If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, be sure to apply!

See you next week!

Continue Reading

GDC, Blender, and Game Jam Survival Tips

Buckle up, because this week's meeting was jam-packed with not one, not two, not four, but three talks about GDC, Blender, and this weekend's Game Jam!  That's a veritable gauntlet of talks.  In fact, it might just be enough to justify a adding series of headers to break up this blog post.

Talk #1: GDC Trip Information

Thinking about going on the club's annual GDC trip?  Talk to Joseph Corona!  He's responsible for planning the trip this year, and this week he gave a talk about all about the conference, the trip, and the secret machinations he's been working on all semester.

For the full information, the slides are here.  For now, there are two important thing you need to know: 

1. An initial $100 payment for all attendees will be required next month.  No pressure, but you should really be sure if you want to go by then.
2. Applications for GDC Conference Associates are open!  This is the most affordable way to attend, so be sure to apply if you can!

Talk #2: Blender for Beginners

Another Joseph, Joseph Scheidemandel, gave a talk/demo for Blender, the world's most popular and most intimidating open-source 3D modeling program!  He demonstrated how to create a simple 3D model and import it into your Unity project in what felt like seconds, to the slack-jawed awe of his fellow members.  Seriously, watching him work was a sight to behold.  Thanks, Joseph!

He also recommended these Blender learning resources:

• Blender Absolute Beginner Series
• Learn Blender in 30 Minutes
• Blender Guru (YouTube Tutorials)
• Gleb Alexandrov

Talk #3: Surviving Your First Game Jam

Finally, Cynthia and I shared some tips for the upcoming Game Jam, our semi-annual event where you can purchase our world-famous video-game-inspired jams and jellies  make a game in a single weekend!  Oh, that's this weekend, by the way.  If you didn't know that, then either I haven't been doing my job, or you really haven't been paying attention.  Hope to see you all there!  You can find our slides here.

A few more important announcements:

• Next Friday, October 21st will be a game night!  Bring games!  And friends!  Bring game friends!
• The following Saturday, October 22nd will be a Sandbox!  Bring sand!  And boxes!  Actually, no, don't do that.

See you next week!

Continue Reading

Fall 2016 Game Jam FAQ

You can get the basic info and sign up for the event right here!

What's a Game Jam?

You have one weekend to form a team and build a game! Game Jams are exciting and fun opportunities for students of all experience levels to engage in game development.

Do I need to come with lots of experience or a set team?

No to both! Even if you don't have any real game development experience, the Game Jam is the perfect place to get started and make your first game! As for teams, most participants show up without a team, meet people at the reception, and form a team right before the Game Jam starts.

When and where does the Game Jam start?

The event kicks off at 6:00 PM, Friday, October 14, in ECE 105 (Electrical and Computer Engineering, room 105) , but we encourage participants to come to the reception starting at 5:30, where they can socialize and form teams.

When does the Game Jam end?

The closing ceremony happens at 12:00 PM, Sunday, October 16. There, teams present their games to the judges and contestants, and we announce a winner!

Do I have to stay at the event for its duration?

Nope! Most teams do choose to stay at the event, but the only parts of the Game Jam that participants absolutely have to attend are the kickoff and the closing ceremony. On the other hand, the event runs continuously for its duration, so some teams choose to stay overnight!

What restrictions are placed on teams and their games?

We only ask that teams make new games, instead of working on existing projects. Reusing individual assets, such as existing art, code, or music, is fine. There is no restriction on team size, but we recommend having a team of 3 or 4 people, since larger teams can get unwieldy.

Wow, this is all really awesome! Where can I sign up?

We're glad you asked! You don't need to sign up in order to participate, but it helps us get a handle on attendance. The link for signups can be found right here!

Continue Reading

Mock Design Meeting: Duck Simulator 2016

Well that was fun.

Hi everyone! This week's meeting was a little experimental, a little weird, a little... dangerous. Okay, honestly the biggest danger was giving Jeremy finger cramps from typing so fast, but still, finger cramps are no joke, and can be a symptom of a variety of health issues stemming from a sedentary lifestyle. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, this:

Here's how it worked: We started with a basic Unity game, the very same one we created in the Unity workshop two Saturdays ago. Then we played out a mock design meeting, taking suggestions from members about features we want the game to have, and implementing them as rapid prototypes. While Jeremy furiously Unity'd changes into the game, I continued to take suggestions, all the while haphazardly assembling them into the bizarre hierarchical spaghetti graph you see on the whiteboard. Here's a closer look:

And so, what started as an abstract game about rolling a ball around to collect cubes became the heartwarming story of a mother duck trying to save her ducklings from falling off a cliff into a forest fire, while also being on fire herself. 10/10.

Just a couple important announcements this week:

• This Saturday, October 8th from 1-5 PM is our first Sandbox! Come and do... whatever you want, pretty much. This is your time to work on any projects, games or otherwise, that you just can't find the time to get done.
• The Game Jam is next Friday, October 14th! That's very soon, so clear your schedules and get hyped! A larger informational post about the event is forthcoming.

See you next week!

Continue Reading

Asset Creation Resources

Didn't get enough useful resources last week?  Want to know where to get art, models, music, and sound effects for your games?  Pow!  That was this week's talk hitting you squarely in the face, spilling its contents all over the floor.  It'll take forever to sweep all this stuff up.  We probably should have just handed it to you, instead of throwing it at you like that.  Sorry.

This week we're back with even more helpful resources, this time focused on assets!  Last week was all about design and development, but those don't add up to much without good assets to make your game as fun to look at and listen to as it is to play!  The asset resources we looked at tonight were...

2D Art

Photoshop

GIMP

Piskel

Paint.NET

OpenGameArt

Kenney

3D Models

Blender

3DTin

Textures.com

Unity Standard Assets

Music

BeepBox

MuseScore

Audacity

GarageBand

Incompetech

dig.ccMixter

SampleSwap

Ignite

Sound Effects

Freesound.org

Sonniss GDC Audio Bundle

We also made a game in Twine, everyone's favorite text adventure game engine!  The finished product is here.  Oh, and if you just want this week's slides, they're here!

Whew, that was a lot of linking!  You're welcome.

Now on to the important announcements!

• This Saturday, October 1st we'll be hosting a Twine Jam!  Sign up here for an afternoon of hanging out and making very silly things.
• GameDev T-Shirts are on sale!  For the next 2 weeks, you can get a cool blue shirt with our logo on it for $5!  As of 2015, that's less than a foot-long sub!
• We're starting a new thing!  Starting Saturday, October 8th, we're going to have Sandbox hours from 1-5pm on Saturdays that we don't have a workshop!  Use this time to study, work on game projects, or just hang out!

See you next week!

Continue Reading

Resources for Game Developers (and Hearthstone!)

Hi everyone!  Sorry the recap's a bit late this week.  It seems that classes have officially switched gears from "just show up and you'll do alright" to "I AM GXL'FWAJZ, EATER OF FREE TIME."  Typical college, amiright?

To kick things off this week, Jeremy gave a quick talk about the ingenious design of Hearthstone.  Is there a game you love, and want to tell us all about?  Sign up to give a talk today!

Afterwards, the officers talked about their favorite resources for getting started with game development!  If you're looking to start your own gamedev project, take note!  Here are links to every game engine we recommended:

• Unity
• Unreal
• Love2D
• Phaser
• GameMaker
• Twine

The slides for both presentations can be found here.

This week we also have some important announcements:

• We'll be hosting a Unity Workshop this Saturday, September 24th from 2:00-4:00!  There, Jeremy will teach you how to use the world's most popular game engine.  If you're planning on showing up, don't forget to sign up here!
• First, there were stickers.  Now, there are T-shirts!  For only $10, you too can have one of our blue-tiful GameDev shirts, on the one condition that you never tell anyone that I just used the word "blue-tiful."
• This semester's Twine Jam is also coming up soon!  It'll be on October 1st from 1:00-5:00.  Come and make a text adventure game in an afternoon, no coding experience required!

That's all for now.  See you next week!

Continue Reading

Game Design Workshop!

This week's meeting was a game design workshop! After a brief presentation from Jeremy, we organized into groups of 5-7 and were challenged to create a physical adaptation of a video game in only 30 minutes, and using only notecards, pennies, and two dice.  Not an easy task!  But nobody said game development was easy.  Alright, maybe a couple people have said that, but no statistically significant number of people said game development was easy.

Warning: This post contains an indulgent number of photos.

Thanks to everyone who participated!  It was lots of fun seeing what you guys came up with.

In other news, last Friday's game night was a blast!   Nothing like an evening of board games, video games, and watching Monster Factory for some reason.

Did you think we were done with photos?  No, we're just getting started.

Lastly, here are the week's important announcements:

• This upcoming Saturday, September 17th, Chris Klimowski (that's me!) will be hosting a Phaser Workshop!  Phaser is a fantastic engine for making browser games, and I'll teach you everything you need to know to make your own!  There will sadly be no free food, but there will be lots of learning, which is almost as good.  Sign up here!
• We're looking for people to give talks this fall!  If you have anything you'd like to talk about, be it a game you like, a gamedev-related skill you have, sign up here!  Your talk can be any length within reason.
• This semester's Game Jam will be on October 14th-16th, making it the same weekend as Parents' Weekend.  Sorry, parents.

Continue Reading

Welcome Back!

Hi, everyone!  We hope you all had a great summer!  There's a lot to look forward to this semester in GameDev, whether you're a new member (in which case, welcome!) or are returning from last year (in which case, welcome back!).

At our first meeting tonight, we introduced ourselves and talked about the games we played over the summer, from Overwatch to... well, Overwatch.  Overwatch is apparently a very popular game.  A true tour-de-force of shooting each other in the face, or so I hear.

Anyway!  Jeremy was our presenter tonight, and he gave a brief overview of the what, why, and how of GameDev.  Thanks Jeremy!  The slides can be found here.

Lastly, members were invited to show off their summer game projects.  We saw games from club members made using Unity, Phaser, Love2D, Twine, Roblox, and even a Google Chrome extension!

In case you missed them, here are this week's important announcements:

• Our first game night is Friday, September 9th at 6:00 PM!  Join us at our usual location in ECE 104 for video games, board games, and games that will make you never trust your friends again.  In a good way!
• Now is the time to start thinking about whether you want to attend GDC this year!  Stay tuned for more information about our annual trip in the coming weeks.
• Most importantly of all, official GameDev stickers are here!  Now you can affix our new and improved logo to your favorite laptop, water bottle, notebook, or child, just like you've always dreamed of.

We'll be taking next Monday off for Labor Day, so our next meeting will be on the 12th.  See you then!

Continue Reading

Spring 2016 Game Jam FAQ

What's a Game Jam?

You have one weekend to form a team and build a game! Game Jams are exciting and fun opportunities for students of all experience levels to engage in game development.

When and where does the Game Jam start?

The event kicks off at 6:00 PM, Friday, April 8, in ECE 105 (Electrical and Computer Engineering, room 105) , but we encourage participants to come to the reception starting at 5:00, where they can socialize and form teams.

When does the Game Jam end?

The closing ceremony happens at 12:00 PM, Sunday, April 10. There, teams present their games to the judges and contestants, and we announce a winner!

Do I have to stay at the event for its duration?

Nope! Most teams do choose to stay at the event, but the only parts of the Game Jam that participants absolutely have to attend are the kickoff and the closing ceremony. On the other hand, the event runs continuously for its duration, so some teams choose to stay overnight!

What restrictions are placed on teams and their games?

We only ask that teams make new games, instead of working on existing projects. Reusing individual assets, such as existing art, code, or music, is fine. There is no restriction on team size, but we recommend having a team of 3 or 4 people, since larger teams can get unwieldy.

Wow, this is all really awesome! Where can I sign up?

We're glad you asked! You don't need to sign up in order to participate, but it helps us get a handle on attendance. The link for signups can be found right here!

Continue Reading