Programming in JavaScript + Valentine's Day Jam Showcase!

This week, our glorious leader Chris Klimowski showed us how he keeps his sanity while programming games in JavaScript. How does he do it? Well, it's mostly a combination of hard work, determination, and Phaser! Phaser is a lightweight, easy to use, and powerful game engine for producing your own browser games! Chris is a big fan of Phaser, and has used it to make multiple games, including Blast Down

If you're looking for a place to start, Chris has generously shared with us his starter project skeleton. Feel free to use it in all of your future Phaser endeavors.

But that's not all that went on at the meeting, we also got to show off the visual novels we made last during last weekend's Valentine's Jam! Check them out here! 

Special thanks again to everyone who participated! The winner (by popular vote) was the Skyrim dating simulator, by our man Riley Driscoll!

Here's a gallery of some highlights

Remember to sign up for our AI tutorial this Saturday in CSC 914 from 1 - 3 pm!

Sign up for the workshop here!!

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GameDev Club is Moving!

We have an exciting announcement to make!

After years of dwelling in various rooms in the ECE basement, we will be moving all of the club's events (weekly meetings, workshops, game nights, and Game Jams included) to the Gould-Simpson 9th floor!

This change makes sense for us since we are primarily a Computer Science-based club. All CS majors have after-hours access to the GS back door, and the being in the same building as our own department will make event planning much simpler on our end.

And so, starting on March 12th after we return from Spring Break, we will be meeting in GS 914 for our weekly meetings.

See you there!

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Creating your own Visual Novels and Dating Simulators!

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Man, I wish this was a video game!"

Have you ever played a video game and thought, "Man, I wish this was a book!"

What if I told you there was a medium that combined the best of both worlds? Enter the Visual Novel! A Visual Novels are interactive stories where you control the fate of the characters!

This week, resident VN expert Christi gave a talk about what makes Visual Novels so great, and what to avoid when making your own.

Then, Chris and Riley showed us just how easy it is to make your own visual novels using the fantastic application, RenPy! Thanks to everyone for helping us create that monstrosity...

Thanks for this masterpiece, Riley!

RenPy is a free, python-based game engine for creating visual novels quickly and easily. Even if you've never used python before, RenPy is an incredibly accessible tool for programmers of all experience levels. If you want to learn more about RenPy, check out their website! They have great documentation too!


If you're curious about making your own visual novel but don't know where to start, come to the Valentine's Jam! This coming Saturday, February 17th 1 - 4pm in ECE 104! bring your friends!

Sign up for the Jam here: Valentine's Jam Sign-up

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Start of the Spring Semester - Basic Game Programming and More!

Welcome back to another semester of Game Dev Club! I hope you all had a great winter break.

It's been a while since a real website post has come up, and for that, I do apologize. Here's what you might have missed at our meetings!

Basic game programming in Love2D - During this meeting, Chris Klimowski and I programmed a simple galaga-style game in the game engine Love2D. Love2D is a simple, flexible, and free engine written in lua! Still curious about this powerful little engine? Check out it's website!

Love2D Download page

The Love2D wiki has really great documentation, so if you have any trouble with lua syntax, it's a great place to check first

Love2D Wiki

Implementing Co-op in single player games / Successful horror elements - This two-part meeting was put on by our wonderful interns, Emily and Stephanie! These talks went over some of the pitfalls involved in tacking on Co-op elements, as well as what makes horror games so, so terrifying. To cap it all off, we combined what we learned to brainstorm frightening co-op horror experiences.

You can find a link to the slides here:

Implementing Co-Op into Originally Singleplayer Games

Horror Elements


EVENTS THIS SEMESTER

The Valentine's Day Jam will be held February 17th in ECE 104 - Make dating simulators and other fun Valentine's Day-themed games!

The Spring Game Jam will be held April 6th!

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Belated 2017 Game Jam Wrap-Up!

Fall semester, you participated in the 2017 UA Fall Game Jam! All of your submissions were amazing, as always.

This semester's theme was... ALCHEMY!

Here are all the games! Let us know if we missed any!

Ascend - An ambitious Metroidvania game!

Alchemy Dungeon - A halarious visual novel!

Alchemy Mama - An alchemy-themed cooking game!

AL-chess-EMY - Chess, but with alchemy!

Ether Pursuit - A frantic multiplayer potion flinging party game!

Downfall - A stylish platformer!

Razey's Bizarre Adventure - an RPG!

This Can Be Erased - A puzzle-platformer with different potions to play with!

The winning game this semester was....

"This Can Be Erased"

Congratulations to everyone who participated! You're all officially game developers now! 

Check out this photo album from the jam!

See all of you next semester for our 2018 April 6th Spring Game Jam!

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