Humans Attack - Team Awesome's Game Jam Entry

This game was made during our recent 48-hour game jam by Team Awesome, which was composed of Hunter Haynes, Rachel Brindle, and Sean Stephens. They started out with a very ambitious game idea: they wanted to make some kind of real-time strategy game with online multiplayer, and the central mechanic was built around allowing players to hack into parts of the game. It was about halfway through the weekend, they realized that their idea was impossible.

When Team Awesome decided to abandon their original game idea, they took an old particle-based system that Sean had worked on sometime ago and turned it into a game about zombies. The premise is that the player controls the waves of zombies (in green) and tries to use them to kill the humans (in blue). They loosely tied it to the game jam's theme ("Artificial") under the idea that zombies are artificial life.

People seemed to generally really like this game, and it was voted second place out of all of the games from the event.

Click here to play the game.
Click here to download the source code.

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Plants vs. Robots - The Red Team's Game Jam Entry

This was the winning game from our recent 48-hour game jam, and it was made by the Red Team, which included Cindy Trieu, Sean Grogg, Livio De La Cruz, and a little help from Joshua Djakaria. During that weekend, this team was pretty inspired by the Studio Ghibli films that they had watched recently, and they were even listening to the films' soundtracks while working on this game.

The main mechanic of this game is the ability to grow vines by clicking and dragging on them. Both the character and vine animations received a lot of praise, even though the rest of the game was relatively unpolished and had many glitches.

The funny thing about this game is that it's almost completely contradictory to the game jam's theme, which was "Artificial". If it wasn't for the one robot in the game (which was literally added in the last 20 minutes of the game jam), then the game technically wouldn't have qualified.

Click here to play the game.
Click here to download the source code.

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Photos and Stories from the Fall 2013 Game Jam

This semester's game jam was pretty awesome! We had 13 participants, and we made four games in 48 hours. Most of the returning participants agree that this game jam was a lot more fun than last semester's, and we were able to make four games in 48 hours.

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Freely Available Assets from Game Jam 2013

The artists participating in our Game Jam a week ago has allowed the club to release assets they produced during the Game Jam for free!

Get them here!

We would appreciate it if you cite Cindy Trieu for the CindyAssets pack, and cite Ky Tran if you use the KyAssets pack.

Since the premise of the game that the KyAssets pack is based from requires customization in body parts, each creature body comes with a sprite strip of 12 body parts that are already correctly positioned, assuming both the body and parts share the same origin point.

   

Enjoy!

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9/28/2013 - Video Recording of the Intro to Game Programming Workshop

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.

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Game Night on Friday, November 15th!

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.

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Game Development Resources

(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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10/28/2013 - "The Lost Meeting"

This week was pretty weird. We started off with a bunch of announcements about the upcoming game jam and a potential workshop that we're thinking of holding. We then spent a good amount of time talking about the talks that we're thinking of giving during the upcoming weeks. We listed all of our potential talk ideas on the board, and then we voted to see which talks had more interest around them.

Then starting at around 13:40, Josh started his talk about conveyance in game design. Conveyance usually refers to how well you can explain something to the player, and the term is usually used when talking about subtle, nonverbal ways to inform players. Josh actually decided to play an outdoor game for his talk, which involved us going outside for most of the meeting. This is why we only recorded the first 20 minutes of the meeting.

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48-Hour Game Jam on November 8th!

photo credit: gamedevhouse.com

The GameDev Club is holding its second game jam during the Veterans' Day weekend! We're hoping that having that Monday off will allow participants to still get homework done after the game jam is finished.

• Starts: Friday, November 8th at 5:00pm
• Ends: Sunday, November 10th at around 7:00pm
• Location: Electrical and Computer Engineering building, room 105 (the IEEE room)

Please RSVP if you think you might come. This is a free event, and there will be free food all weekend!

What is a Game Jam?

A game jam is a super-fun, multi-disciplinary event where teams try to make a video game in only 48 hours. The main purpose of the event is to challenge yourself and gain new skills, so the event is open to everyone, regardless of skill level or experience. The game jam is also a great opportunity for artists and musicians to work on a game project and to see what it can be like to be part of a game development team.

In order to prevent people from starting their games early, every game has to be made around a theme, which is revealed at the start of the game jam. These themes are usually vague and open ended, so you'll have plenty of room to come up with something creative. For instance, the theme for our previous game jam was "evolution."

If you want to get a much better idea of what the game jam is like, click here to read about how our previous game jam went.

Schedule

On Friday, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm, many people will be transporting their computers, monitors, musical instruments, tablets, etc., into the room. If you want to bring anything earlier, please contact Livio at ldelac01@email.arizona.edu.

Then, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm, we're going to have a "social hour." During this time, participants will get a chance to eat some free dinner, talk to other participants, and most importantly, form teams. People also use this time to prepare their workspace so that they can work more closely with their team.

At 6:00pm, the theme is announced and everyone gets to work. This is when the 48-hour countdown begins, so everyone's games will be due on Sunday at 6:00pm.

Most people will go home during the first night so that they can get some sleep, and this is especially convenient for those who live on campus. Others, however, like to bring in sleeping bags and toothbrushes so that they can sleep in the room. We will have multiple officers on duty throughout the entire event so that we can keep an eye on everything and to make sure that nothing gets stolen or damaged.

On Sunday at 6:00pm, everyone will stop working, and everyone will get a chance to look at all of the games that have been made. We'll also start cleaning up and helping everyone get ready to go home. It's also likely that we might all decide to go out to some restaurant together for dinner (the food would not be free in this case).

Tips and Advice

Important: Please put the room's phone number into your phone contacts: (520) 626-7324. If you ever get locked out of the building during the event, you can then call this number and we will send someone to let you in. We will likely have poor cellphone reception throughout the event, since we will be in what is essentially the basement of the ECE building. This is why we insist that you call the room phone because that will be the most reliable. Also, the poor reception will eat away at your phone's battery, so you might want to bring your charger.

You should be able to get free parking in the parking lot next to the ECE building starting at 5:00pm on Friday. Parking on campus is usually free during the weekends, unless there's a big event such as a home football game.

Also, please plan to take a lot of breaks. It's not healthy to sit in front of a computer for more than a few hours at a time, so use this as an excuse to get up, go outside, and get some sun. One of the best things that we did during the last game jam was to have the entire team take breaks together, which made for some great team-bonding moments as we would just spend the break time goofing around and having fun.

And finally, don't get discouraged if you don't have a lot of experience! Usually half of our participants are new to game development, and the game jam is actually a great environment to learn how to build your first game. The constraints of the event will teach you how to focus on the most important parts of your game, and you'll get to more clearly see how your work gets translated into the final product.

Also, don't forget to RSVP!

Questions

If you have any more questions, please ask Zuoming at zuomingshi@email.arizona.edu.

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10/21/2013 - "Takeaway & Theme" or the design of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

This week, Dylan gave an hour-long talk about The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. He talked about several other games as well, including FTL, Gone Home, and Shelter (which we played at the end of the meeting), but the underlying idea that tied the talk together was what Dylan called "takeaway," or your ability to take away something meaningful from your experience with a game.

It was a very engaging and interesting talk. If you ever wondered why some people love Majora's Mask so much (or why others find it so strange and nontraditional), this talk does a great job of explaining it, while still keeping it accessible to those who haven't played the game without too many spoilers.

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10/14/2013 - Orange U. Blue Postmortem, and the alternate reality game SPY

We started the meeting by announcing the new three-week competition, which starts today. We spent a good amount of time talking about the rules of the competition and how the submission process works.

Then at 7:15, Livio started his presentation about one of his old game projects, Orange U. Blue. This game was made for the club's previous three-week game competition, and the talk went over what went right and what went wrong with the project. It's a good example of what a small, first game project looks like.

Then at 27:00, Dylan started talking about SPY, which is an alternate reality game where you take on the role of a secret agent and you try to complete missions throughout your everyday life. It's intended to be played on college campuses, and much of the game is focused on trying to figure out who's a spy (who's playing the game) and who isn't. We learned about the game when we were contacted by the lead developer of the game, and you can play the game for free if you register on the game's website with your university email address.

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Intro to Game Design Workshop this Saturday!

This Saturday, the GameDev Club will be holding a game design workshop. This will be a hands-on introduction to the field of game design, and you'll learn some great skills about how to apply good design perspectives to your game projects.

When: Saturday, October 19th, from 1pm to 3pm.
Where: Gould-Simpson building, room 942

Click here to RSVP!

This workshops assumes that you've had little to no exposure to the field of game design (or any design field), and most of our time will be spent on small design exercises that will try to teach you how to think like a game designer. If you're interested in a career as a game designer, or if you've ever wondered what the profession was like, then this workshop will help you see what kind of skills this job requires.

(You can also take what you've learned in this workshop to increase your chances of winning our Three-Week Game Competition.)

Don't forget to RSVP!

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