3/23/2015 - Developing in HTML5 and Roblox, Game Jam!

Hey everyone, just a few more days until our 2015 spring semester Game Jam! If you haven't already RSVP'd then you can sign up right here.

As for other announcments...

• Our next Game Night is Firday, April 3rd.
• Officer elections for the next academic year will be held soon. Look for an email.

Tonight we had two well-known members give talks. 

The first was an HTML5 talk by Rory. Some of the main points to walk away from his cherry blossom filled talk are:

• HTML5 is accessible everywhere.
• It's a great for prototyping; enabling you to dive straight into 2d development.
• Rory enjoys writing in Vim.
• Crafty - a JS game engine. Their site has some nifty code to get started with.
• JSFiddle - a browser IDE for javascript.
• Check out construct and impress (javascript frameworks) as well.

Rory helped walk us through all of this by making a brand new game involving a player controlled turquoise rectangle colliding with a big fat square, and all in just a few minutes! 

Our second speaker was Greyson giving a talk on his platform of expertise, Roblox. If you don't know what Roblox is then head on over to the Roblox site and check it out, To summarize briefly, it's an online platform to develop and sell/share games as well as play them (with 5 million people) in a very cubeoid setting.

The platform's functionality comes from the scripting language Lua. If you haven't heard of it before that's alright, but if you've ever even touched World of Warcraft, you'll have probably been in contact with it through the game's extensive, community-made UI addon library. It's also used in the popular Source game Gary's Mod.

Overall, developing in Roblox functions similarly to a toned down version of Unreal Engine or Unity without all the fancy-smancy graphical stuff. Without even knowing tons about coding you can hop right in and use the engine itself to prototype games. The best part of Roblox is probably the ability to publish a multiplayer game without writing a single line of raw networking code.

Greyson showed off Bed Simulator 2015 (I wonder if it's better than Rock Simulator), and how a game like it could be started through importing meshes and the models made by other members of the community.

Thanks for the talks guys!

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Spring Game Jam (for real)

Spring break is almost here, and I know we are all looking forward to a break from all of this school-stuff, but I wanted to remind everyone about our upcoming Game Jam. We will be hosting it on March 27th which is the weekend after we return from Spring Break. As usual, we will have free food for all participants during the weekend.

If you plan on attending (which you should be :P ) please RSVP here.

Last semester Cindy gave some tips on how to get the most out of a Game Jam, so I'll reiterate them here.

1. Talk to people who have participated before and try to find a group with them. Think of it as if it were a 42 hours apprenticeship.
2. Make sure you don't try and create Starcraft 2. Focus on a game with a small enough scope that you can get it working. Then you can add onto that if you have time.
3. Eat the free food.
4. Make sure to pace yourself. Don't try to stay up 42 hours programming because you'll start making terrible mistakes.

Hope to see you guys there!

                                                                                                                                                                   

As like last time you'll find more information below on the Game Jam written by our founder, Livio De La Cruz. ****The dates and contact information have been updated****

Once every semester, the GameDev Club holds an epic, multi-day, game-making marathon known as a game jam. During this event, students from all sorts of different backgrounds and majors come together to form teams and make an entire game in a single weekend. The game jam is definitely one of the most fun things you'll do all year, and it's a great excuse to broaden your skill set. Plus, there's free food all weekend.

Our next game jam will be on the weekend of April 4th, and this time the event will last for 42 hours so that you can have time on Sunday to get plenty of rest and catch up on any homework you might have.

• Starts: Friday, Mar 27th at 5:00pm
• Ends: Sunday, Mar 29th at 1:00pm
• Location: Electrical and Computer Engineering building, room 105
• As usual, it's a good idea to plan ahead so that you can minimize the amount of classwork that you'll have that weekend. For more information about the event, please read the rest of the post.

How does the Game Jam work?

Because the purpose of the game jam is to encourage students to improve and learn new skills, the game jam is open to anyone from any background and level of experience. For instance, the game jam is 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. Some examples of typical game jam themes are: evolution, color, artificial, etc.

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

Friday, Mar 27th, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm: many people will be transporting their computers, monitors, musical instruments, drawing tablets, etc., into the room. If you want to bring anything earlier, please contact Jonathan at jonwrightcs@email.arizona.edu

Friday, Mar 27th, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm: we're going to have a "social hour." During this time, participants will get a chance to eat 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.

Friday, Mar 27th, at 6:00pm: the theme is announced and everyone gets to work. This is when the 42-hour countdown begins, and then everyone's games will be due at 12:00pm on Sunday.

Sunday, Mar 29th from 12:00pm to 1:00pm: At this point, everyone's games will be due! We'll present everyone's games and then the community will vote on which game they think was the best. After this, everyone will be free to go home, unless they want to help us clean up. After cleaning up, many of us will be going to eat lunch together at some restaurant, so you're encouraged to join us!

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. Some participants, 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.

Important 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.

IF IT IS A UA HOME GAME DAY: park in Zone 1!!!! This parking lot is very close to ECE and it is free on the weekend regardless of a home game. If you are having trouble finding parking, please call the phone number above!

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. Having your entire team take breaks together can make for some great team-bonding moments since you typically spend that time 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 making games, 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.

Map

If you need a map, we have one!

Questions

If you have any more questions, please ask Patrick Wilkening pwilkeni@email.arizona.edu, Helen Jones helenjones@email.arizona.edu, or Gregory Ksionda ksiondag@email.arizona.edu.

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A New Year and Another Game Jam EDITED

EDIT: 

Our GameJam is not going to be until March 27th and due to schedule conflicts and the trip to GDC we will only be having one this semester. Sorry y'all. =(

Just a few more days until our 5th biannu... I guess that's not true anymore. It has been requested that we add another Game Jam to the schedule this semester, so gosh-darnit we're doing it! On January 30th we'll be hosting our 5th Game Jam (the first of two this semester). Hopefully classes won't have ramped up, so it'll be a "relaxing" weekend to put together a game.
Last semester Cindy gave some tips on how to get the most out of a Game Jam, so I'll reiterate them here.

1. Talk to people who have participated before and try to find a group with them. Think of it as if it were a 42 hours apprenticeship.
2. Make sure you don't try and create Starcraft 2. Focus on a game with a small enough scope that you can get it working. Then you can add onto that if you have time.
3. Eat the free food.
4. Make sure to pace yourself. Don't try to stay up 42 hours programming because you'll start making terrible mistakes.

                                                                                                                                                                    

As like last time you'll find more information below on the Game Jam written by our founder, Livio De La Cruz. ****The dates and contact information have been updated****

Once every semester, the GameDev Club holds an epic, multi-day, game-making marathon known as a game jam. During this event, students from all sorts of different backgrounds and majors come together to form teams and make an entire game in a single weekend. The game jam is definitely one of the most fun things you'll do all year, and it's a great excuse to broaden your skill set. Plus, there's free food all weekend.

Our next game jam will be on the weekend of April 4th, and this time the event will last for 42 hours so that you can have time on Sunday to get plenty of rest and catch up on any homework you might have.

• Starts: Friday, Jan 30th at 5:00pm
• Ends: Sunday, Feb 1st at 1:00pm
• Location: Electrical and Computer Engineering building, room 105
• As usual, it's a good idea to plan ahead so that you can minimize the amount of classwork that you'll have that weekend. For more information about the event, please read the rest of the post.

How does the Game Jam work?

Because the purpose of the game jam is to encourage students to improve and learn new skills, the game jam is open to anyone from any background and level of experience. For instance, the game jam is 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. Some examples of typical game jam themes are: evolution, color, artificial, etc.

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

Friday, Jan 30th, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm: many people will be transporting their computers, monitors, musical instruments, drawing tablets, etc., into the room. If you want to bring anything earlier, please contact Jonathan at jonwrightcs@email.arizona.edu

Friday, Jan 30th, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm: we're going to have a "social hour." During this time, participants will get a chance to eat 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.

Friday, Jan 30th, at 6:00pm: the theme is announced and everyone gets to work. This is when the 42-hour countdown begins, and then everyone's games will be due at 12:00pm on Sunday.

Sunday, Feb 1st from 12:00pm to 1:00pm: At this point, everyone's games will be due! We'll present everyone's games and then the community will vote on which game they think was the best. After this, everyone will be free to go home, unless they want to help us clean up. After cleaning up, many of us will be going to eat lunch together at some restaurant, so you're encouraged to join us!

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. Some participants, 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.

Important 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. Having your entire team take breaks together can make for some great team-bonding moments since you typically spend that time 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 making games, 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.

Questions

If you have any more questions, please ask Cindy at cindytrieu@email.arizona.edu

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12/1/2014 - Finishing Up

Hey everyone,

I apologize for the time gap in blog posts, but I'm here with some final news for the end of the semester (wow, I can't believe it's the holiday season already).

For our December 8th meeting:

• We will be hosting a white elephant so bring a random gift that is $15 or less.
• Afterwards we will be having a mini game night
• Bring $20 to reserve your spot for laser tag on Friday the 19th

For those of you signed up to go to GDC please bring your $100 deposit if you haven't already. If you are unable to please contact Cindy Trieu cindytrieu@email.arizona.edu.

Some things to look forward to for the next semester...

• We will be having two Game Jams. The first one is right at the start of the spring semester on January 30th!
• More game nights!
• More meetings!
• Moar Game Dev!

Happy Holidays!

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11/1/2014 - Game Jam Please

Just a few more days until our 4th biannual Game Jam!!! This week Cindy was kind enough to give us some few tips on how to get the most out of Game Jam.

1. Talk to people who have participated before and try to find a group with them. Think of it as if it were a 42 hours apprenticeship.
2. Make sure you don't try and create Starcraft 2. Focus on a game with a small enough scope that you can get it working. Then you can add onto that if you have time.
3. Eat the free food.
4. Make sure to pace yourself. Don't try to stay up 42 hours programming because you'll start making terrible mistakes.

In addition to that Cindy played some Papers, Please. She actually did really well, and though one of her children got sick and her family had to go cold and hungry some nights, they were still alive by the time the meeting ended. While on the job she was hit on by women going to diva shows, she conformed to peer pressure on whether to deny or admit, and had her character randomly threatened.

                                                                                                                                                                    

Below you'll find more information on the Game Jam written by our founder, Livio De La Cruz. The dates have been updated.

Once every semester, the GameDev Club holds an epic, multi-day, game-making marathon known as a game jam. During this event, students from all sorts of different backgrounds and majors come together to form teams and make an entire game in a single weekend. The game jam is definitely one of the most fun things you'll do all year, and it's a great excuse to broaden your skill set. Plus, there's free food all weekend.

Our next game jam will be on the weekend of April 4th, and this time the event will last for 42 hours so that you can have time on Sunday to get plenty of rest and catch up on any homework you might have.

• Starts: Friday, Nov 7th at 5:00pm
• Ends: Sunday, Nov 9th at 1:00pm
• Location: Electrical and Computer Engineering building, room 105
• As usual, it's a good idea to plan ahead so that you can minimize the amount of classwork that you'll have that weekend. For more information about the event, please read the rest of the post.

How does the Game Jam work?

Because the purpose of the game jam is to encourage students to improve and learn new skills, the game jam is open to anyone from any background and level of experience. For instance, the game jam is 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. Some examples of typical game jam themes are: evolution, color, artificial, etc.

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

Friday, Nov 7th, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm: many people will be transporting their computers, monitors, musical instruments, drawing tablets, etc., into the room. If you want to bring anything earlier, please contact Jonathan at jonwrightcs@email.arizona.edu

Friday, Nov 7th, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm: we're going to have a "social hour." During this time, participants will get a chance to eat 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.

Friday, Nov 7th, at 6:00pm: the theme is announced and everyone gets to work. This is when the 42-hour countdown begins, and then everyone's games will be due at 12:00pm on Sunday.

Sunday, Nov 9th from 12:00pm to 1:00pm: At this point, everyone's games will be due! We'll present everyone's games and then the community will vote on which game they think was the best. After this, everyone will be free to go home, unless they want to help us clean up. After cleaning up, many of us will be going to eat lunch together at some restaurant, so you're encouraged to join us!

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. Some participants, 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.

Important 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. Having your entire team take breaks together can make for some great team-bonding moments since you typically spend that time 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 making games, 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.

Questions

If you have any more questions, please ask Cindy at cindytrieu@email.arizona.edu

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10/27/2014 - Play-Testing

The IGF student competition has its submission deadlines at the end of this week, so Zuoming, Cindy, Tyler and Mark were here to let us play-test their game and get some valuable - pretty much last minute - feedback. All around there were spouts of frustration, glitches being found, sheep being pushed off cliffs (and garbage cans), and pizza being eaten. Hopefully the team can squash some of those bugs and most importantly, come up with a name for their game, before the deadline. Good luck!

Announcements: Read this excerpt from Cindy's wonderfully worded email about the workshop.

"So I know I wasn't very clear about what time the Rapid Prototyping Workshop was, but it will be Saturday, November 1stat around 4PM. I say around because I will be coming back from Seattle! So please bear with me! I'll bring you presents, hahaha. But if you are interested, you do not have to know how to code to attend this workshop! This workshop is CODE-FREE. I will supply assets for you and we will be building a game together. :) 

To RSVP: http://goo.gl/forms/aDf5rOpk4l

To download Stencyl: http://www.stencyl.com/

And when the date gets closer, I will send you guys the assets that we will be using! We will be in ECE 105 for this workshop. Parking is free on weekends ( unless it's a game day... )."

Also, about the quickly approaching Game Jam!

"GAME JAM is coming around the corner! It's sneaking up on us like a wild animal on its prey... If you are interested in Game Jam, and now you know that you can go, please sign up! We need to know how much food to get for you guys, and how much space we need to accommodate.

Please RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1D0hD7Dm9QfLJQ6L_-ZrcSlVyTOie4CrCZ-COismj0SU/viewform "

Hope to see lots of people at these two events!

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10/20/2014 - Tile Art

Hi again, sorry this recap is a bit late. This [last] week our Final Boss (Cindy Trieu) gave a talk and demonstration on creating tile art in Photoshop CS2, Blender and Gimp. This comes in handy when you're creating a 2-D game and need to populate it with graphics.

Throughout the discussion our group had some heated debates about whether lava was better than forests or whether the wall should be grassy, viney, or grassy-viney. In the end, the answer still alluded us so we all decided that drawing Mario was the correct response.

Here is the followup video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFvsRvo_78Y

*For announcements see next [this] weeks recap.

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10/03/2014 - GDC and Competitive Balance

Hey all,

This week we went more in depth on our future trip to GDC in San Francisco. There are a few things to note about this...

If you would like to go on the trip then please sign up here. We will try to get funding from ASUA and the computer science department, but to qualify for this funding you need to fill out a CA application. Being a CA (Conference Associate) enable you to get a free all-access pass, significantly lowering the cost of the trip. We will also be trying out some fundraising ideas.


For the other half of the meeting Patrick gave a talk on balancing competitive games - Halo. He focused on a multiplayer game because he found that the ideas translated more easily to single player games than they would the other way around...


Tuning Knobs: These are areas that are easily to change technically and can have relatively easy to identify affects on gameplay. Crank them high when starting the balancing process.

Game Mechanics: With your tuning knobs turned up see which of the mechanics you actually consider fun and focus on those. Also, identify which mechanics are not fun or are overly complex.

Feedback: Player feedback is nice near the end, but remember that you can't please everyone and everyone is looking out for what makes the game most fun to them.

See you all next week!

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Game Night on Friday, October 10th!

The GameDev Club is teaming up with the IEEE club to hold another game night! There will be food, and everyone is encouraged to bring their own games, consoles, snacks, computers, batteries, etc. This Friday is a special day because it is the first Game Night following the release of Super Smash Bros for the 3DS.

• When: Friday, October 10th, starting at 5:30pm until midnight.
• Where: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) building, room 105 (map below)

As usual, the free food that we get is funded by your donations, so if you plan to donate, remember to bring some money.

Important Info

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

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10/06/2014 - Rapid Prototyping

This Monday evening our beloved ex-president (now vice) gave a talk on rapid prototyping. Pulling from his past experiences and especially his ongoing student IGF project, he went through the process and benefits of this development process.

Some of the things to take away from his presentation...

1. Prototypes are a great way to get an idea of how your brainstormed ideas will work as games.
2. They save a lot of time due to not requiring a lot of coding.
3. Set a deadline on each prototype.
4. Before starting, make sure to ask yourself, "what do I want to learn from this prototype?"

Next week Patrick will be giving a talk on gameplay balance. We'll also be talking about GDC, so if you plan on coming, or are interested in how the largest Game Developers Conference operates come join us!

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First Meeting of the year!

Hey everyone!

Welcome back to the beginning of another year of hard work, tears, and sleep deprivation! I hope you all had a wonderful summer, and I'm excited to tell everybody that the first meeting of the year is this upcoming Monday, September 8th in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building in room 105 at 5PM. So pretty much the usual time and place. 

For the first meeting of the semester, we'll be introducing ourselves to newer members. We then will be showcasing games that people have been making over the summer! If you made a game this summer ( or recently ), then send it to me! We'll show it off, playtest it, give you feedback, whatever you need! Even if it isn't done, we'd love to check it out and help you make it even better. So please email me at cindytrieu@email.arizona.edu and we'll show it during the first meeting!

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Game Night on Friday, May 9th!

The GameDev Club is teaming up with the IEEE club to hold the LAST game night of the year! Austin Wintory Jordan Wallet will be there!

 There will be food, and everyone is encouraged to bring their own games, consoles, snacks, computers, batteries, etc.

• When: Friday, May 9th, starting at 5:30pm until midnight.
• Where: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) building, room 105 (map below)
• RSVP: http://bit.ly/IEEEGameNight

As usual, the free food that we get is funded by your donations, so if you plan to donate, remember to bring some money.

Important Info

1. You can park for free in the parking lot by the ECE building (lot #3039) after 5:00pm.
2. 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.
3. In order to get to the bottom floor of the ECE building, please only use the South stairwell door, which will be left open.
4. 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.
5. 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, Zuoming at zuomingshi@email.arizona.edu, or Cindy at cindytrieu@email.arizona.edu.

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