tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-226649912024-03-05T05:15:40.548-07:00MonkeyTimeRamblings about creating independent video games. MonkeyTime - Time for Fun!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-46863451509769556212017-04-30T21:06:00.001-06:002017-04-30T22:27:57.328-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - April 2017We had another wonderful Utah Indie Games Night this past Thursday Night. This time it was held at <a href="http://beau.broadviewuniversity.edu/">Broadview University</a>. They are a new host for our event, but they've been our local host for the Global Games Jam for many years, so we felt right at home. We had just under 30 people there so it was an average attended event, but it went much longer than normal, so there was certainly a lot of excitement and conversation going on.<br />
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We started the event with a presentation from the <a href="http://interactivedeli.webs.com/">Deli Interactive</a> guys, Nick Lives and Jordan Farr who gave and awesome postmortem for their successful game <a href="http://weneedtogodeeper.com/">"We Need to Go Deeper"</a>. It was Farr and away a Lively discussion about some of the things they tried and whether that was successful for them or not. š They mentioned their game started out as an overly complex B-movie themed robot game, but it quickly evolved to the multiplayer submarine game it is now. They mentioned the Jules Verne theme has been a big plus for them in it's appeal and in describing the game to others. They also had to switch engines from GameMaker to Unity as they soon discovered that GameMaker's networking code wasn't cutting the mustard. Unfortunately this added years of extra time to the development of the game. One of the big take aways from their presentation was to make connections everywhere you can during the development of the game, from YouTubers, to dev contacts, as you never know how those contacts can help push your game further, but those doors can open and help you move your game towards success. Also those connections can help foster and build a community around your game, so by the time you launch your game you have some built-in fans that will help push your game for you. Another takeaway they mentioned is to not take yourself too seriously, both with your engagement with your community and your normal development. Games are meant to be fun, both to make and play, so keep it that way. Lastly, they mentioned that release day is not a party day. You make likely have bugs that come to light once people start playing your game a lot. They had a ton of things they had to fix that first week, so be prepared for the floodgates upon release.<br />
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You can view their presentation slides <a href="http://monkeytimesoftware.com/WNTGD_Postmortem_UGG_Presentation.pdf">here</a>. <br />
You can watch their presentation <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO6cuQXot-Y">here</a>.<br />
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After the presentation we had our demos. I didn't get a chance to play anyone's games (except for one) this time as I was busy demoing my own VR game, Lord of Fire & Ice. The one game I played was a bullet hell prototype on a mobile phone by Chris. The touch controls worked very well and should also work well with a game pad controller. The other games that I'm aware of that were show are <a href="http://summonersfate.com/">"Summoners Fate"</a>, <a href="http://www.toadonfire.com/">"Toad on Fire"</a>, <a href="http://crashnauts.com/">"Crashnaughts"</a>, and <a href="http://www.synthesisgame.com/">"Synthesis"</a>. I probably missed some others though. As for my own game, I got some good feedback on it, and be making some appropriate changes. Also I will be adding a gesture system to it, to add some more variety as well as give you that feeling that "you're a wizard or an element bender like in Avatar".<br />
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As usual there was so much going on that it was hard to be a part of it all. I'm grateful for everyone that came and made the evening awesome!<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
<br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-24880992632202218332017-02-11T14:29:00.002-07:002017-02-11T14:29:29.789-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - February 2017After a bit of a hiatus, we had another good Utah Indie Games Night this past Wednesday night. The EAE department of the U of U hosted it again. We had around 30 people there, so it was an average event for us. We had a bit of a fiasco at the start as we were locked out of the room that we had reserved. I finally was able to track down someone to let us, but we got a late start as a result, however things went uphill from there.<br />
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We started the evening with a presentation from Adam Corey. He talked about the moderate successes that he's had in the mobile market. He's an artist by trade and he uses Stencyl to create his games, as it requires little or no programming (at least in the traditional sense). He got his start creating lots of little game jam games and eventually he took some of those further an released them to the IOS market. LavaBird was his game in the market. It got some press and was well received, but it soon disappeared in the the abyss of the store. His next game HueBall got featured and did moderately well. His latest game Level With Me, got featured eventually and has done moderately well also. Adam made a point that that's pretty much the only way to find success on the mobile market is to be featured. He tried other ways to boost his downloads, but being featured was the only one that worked well.<br />
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He also shared some best practices for the mobile market<br />
1. Accept the mobile world (it's not ideal)<br />
2. Time is currency (Your game has to be understood by players quickly)<br />
3. Prototype early (learn if it's fun or not early in the process)<br />
4. Be honest with yourself (don't ignore the red flags)<br />
5. Minimal marketing (Other than being featured most marketing doesn't help)<br />
6. Prepare for the abyss (Be prepared for failure)<br />
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You can view Adam's presentation slides <a href="http://monkeytimesoftware.com/Utah_Indie_Games_Adam_Corey_Mobile.pdf">here</a>. <br />
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There were a number of demos that were shown. Here's my quick take on the ones I saw.<br />
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<a href="http://nummels.com/"><b>Nummels</b></a> <br />
This is a cute puzzle platformer in the vein of Lemmings where you have to lead all the nummels to the exit. Love the cute graphics and it looks like it's coming along nicely.<br />
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<a href="http://crashnauts.com/"><b>Crashnauts</b></a> <br />
This is a same screen multiplayer area brawler where you try to frag all your friends. It come along way since I've seen it last and both the gameplay and graphics are looking very polished now.<br />
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/"><b>Spirits of Elduurn</b></a> <br />
Curtis showed the latest incarnation of Spirits of Elduurn, a puzzle game set in the same world as Siphon Spirit. It now has a bunch more levels and a level editor so you can create your own levels.<br />
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<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/468160"><b>Ancient Go</b></a> <br />
Chris was showing his version Go. It has a nicer interface than the vast majority of Go clients out there, but he uses the same servers so that you can play many of the Go players that are out there world wide.<br />
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<a href="http://d20studios.com/"><b>Summoners Fate</b></a><br />
This is a RPG card game for IOS. I tried my hand at it, but the monsters kept summoning more monsters and I got my butt kicked pretty quickly. It was fun, but definitely a challenge.<br />
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There was another platformer game that I didn't get a good look at, and I'm sure I missed another game or two. I also briefly showed the video for my global game jam entry, Alien Waves. It's a 360 degree wave shooter in VR, where you have to shoot red aliens with your red gun and blue aliens with your blue gun. You have to block their shots the same way. I'm hoping to take the game further and develop it into a more polished VR game.<br />
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As usual there were lots of great discussion happening also. Also as things died down Lyle and I started a game of penny hockey. I guess anything can happen at our game nights.<br />
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Thanks to everyone for making it an enjoyable evening.<br /><br />Viva la Indie!<br />
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<br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-50475172382170872702015-11-20T00:42:00.002-07:002015-11-20T00:42:35.105-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - November 2015<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
We had a good Utah Indie Games Night this past Tuesday night. The <a href="http://eae.utah.edu/">EAE</a> department of the U of U hosted it this time. We were down quite a bit in numbers, just over 20 people instead of our usual 40 - 50. I'm guessing this was due to people being busy due to the holiday season ramping up and some other similar events being so close to this one (namely Final Burn and Utah Unity Users Group).</div>
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Becky Pennock gave a great presentation on some logical approaches to visual design. She talked a lot about being able to concretely define your "Style" so that both artists and programmers will truly "be on the same page" and understand each other. All too often we'll hear the style described in terms of source material, such as it's like "Power Puff Girls" combined with "Teletubies". However such descriptions don't paint enough a picture to truly understand what the style really is. She mentioned that you need to be ultra-descriptive in terms of art fundamentals (Line, Shape, Form, Value, Space, Color, and Texture). So with Line, how thick are the lines on the characters? on the background? Are they thick then thin? Are they smooth or jagged? And with Shape, what shapes are used? Lots of sharp angles or more rounded organic shapes? And for what types of objects in the game? How about Value and Color? Does it use more vivid and saturated colors in the foreground to denote things you can interact with? And then perhaps colors with less saturation for background elements? Or some other form of visual hierarchy? Basically she mentioned it needs to be descriptive enough to really tell the artist what to do to create art with that style. She said this isn't easy but it helps a ton in eliminating confusion and time wasted on that miscommunication. </div>
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We had three demos that were shown. They were:</div>
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<b>CATastrophe</b></div>
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Kyle showed his homebrew game for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboGrafx-16">TurboGrafx-16</a> platform (Yes one of those early consoles.) I played his game on the TurboExpress handheld, which is one of the first portable gaming devices ever. At first I thought it was one of those Pip-Boy things, as it was just as big. Anyway his game was about a cat dodging water droplets that come from a giant shower head at the top of the screen. It looked really cool, and I'm sure that writing something for that platform isn't easy. You had to do lots of strange contortions back then to get the hardware to do what you wanted and still fit your program in a small amount of space.</div>
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<a href="https://www.indiespeedrun.com/2015wp/game/?game=652817"><b><br /></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.indiespeedrun.com/2015wp/game/?game=652817"><b>FeelRoom</b></a></div>
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Josh showed his monthly experimental game that he also entered into the Indie Speed Run competition. It's a game that sarcastically asks how can interactive blocks evoke any emotion? Obviously we know that even games with simple shapes can evoke emotions within us. In the game you have to guide a little corgi dog through a blocky maze with simple circles for coins and simple X's that can hurt you. Once you've collected all the coins, you win the game. However some coins are not so easy to get.</div>
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<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P96lQvHo_Wk">The Whisperer in Darkness</a></b></div>
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Nate was showing the trailer to his visual novel game, based on H.P. Lovecraft's novel by the same name. It definitely left you with some creepy vibes. He hopes to have it done sometime next year.</div>
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Thanks to everyone for making it an enjoyable evening. </div>
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Viva la Indie!</div>
Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-85767626479122234652015-05-22T17:52:00.001-06:002015-05-22T17:58:03.221-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - May 2015Well we had a couple of minor setbacks (issues with sound system and main speaker unable to come), but overall it was a successful Indie Game Night this past Wednesday. We had a good turnout of around 40 people, and <a href="https://www.uvu.edu/dgm/">UVU</a> hosted it again in room 404, but amazingly everyone seemed to find it okay. ;) There were lots of great demos and discussions happening, but unfortunately I wasn't able to catch them all (never was good at Pokemon).<br />
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Our speaker Adam Ames hurt his back and was unable to attend, so we watched the now legendary talk "Juice it or Lose it" by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho. If you haven't seen it, you can watch it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg">here</a>. The talk is all about doing little things that can enhance and bring more life into your game.<br />
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After that we opened the time to do game demos. Here's the ones I'm aware of (but I missed a lot of them)<br />
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<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/califerdd/spirits-of-elduurn"><b>Spirits of Elduurn</b></a><br />
Curtis showed me his PS Vita version of Spirits of Elduurn. It's a bit different from the PC version, which is more of a puzzle game. In this one, the main objective is to smash all the demons on the touch screen (using you fingers) before they get away. There is also one bomb to kill them all if you get overwhelmed. It was a very fun and simple game.<br />
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<a href="http://www.dubwarsgame.com/"><b>Dub Wars</b></a><br />
Joe showed me some of the new art from a new artist that will be going into Dub Wars. It looks great. He also mentioned that they'll be taking an elemental approach to weapons, so that sounds like it might be a great update to the game.<br />
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<b>Dungeon Goer</b><br />
Eric showed me his latest game, in the vein of his last Space Goer game. This one is a bit more Crossy Road like. The gameplay and blocky art are similar to Crossy Road, but this is in a dungeon setting, with spears and saw blades coming at you. Looks good thus far.<br />
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<b>MiniCiv</b> (working title)<br />
Steve was showing his mini Civilization like game. It's based on Civilization, but looks like pulls in elements from Settlers of Catan. I didn't get a chance to play it myself, but it looks like he's put a lot of work into the fundamentals and the AI. He had a mode where the AI's would just battle each other, and it was mesmerizing to watch.<br />
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<b>Mana Mania</b><br />
This game was done for the gospel app and game contest at the <a href="http://tech.lds.org/">LDSTech</a> conference last year. The portion I saw had you flying on a giant bee in space and you had to fly through a series of green rings (similar to a lot 3D flight games out there). It definitely had some interesting visuals.<br />
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<b>Lair of the Morlocks</b><br />
The <a href="http://www.indiedb.com/company/deli-interactive">Deli Interactive</a> guys made a short game for the <a href="http://itch.io/jam/the-public-domain-jam">Public Domain Jam</a>. Their game was a physics platformer based on The Time Machine by HG Wells. You are in the Morlock caverns trying to get your time machine back. You don't have any weapons, so you have to use rocks other things from your environment to kill the Morlocks. Then you have to find the keys to get to your time machine and win. I got a kick out of the ragdoll physics with the Morlocks. It was strangely entertaining to push the dead ones around.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wzroqd2OKg"><b>Simulacrum</b></a> (working title)<br />
This one is a futuristic platformer with pixel art graphics. There's vines to climb, platforms to leap on, pigeons to annoy, bombs to avoid, and little robot helper that helps you to float down slowly to safety. What more could you ask for? It's definitely unique and I had fun playing it.<br />
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<a href="http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-32/?action=preview&uid=39781"><b>Death Touch</b></a><br />
I didn't actually get to see this one, but Ben was there showing his Ludum Dare #32 entry. From his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anffEJ_ribI">YouTube video</a> it looks like it would be a lot of fun to play. BTW, Ben (<a href="http://www.heartbeaststudios.com/">http://www.heartbeaststudios.com/</a>) has created a lot of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/uheartbeast/videos">GameMaker tutorials</a> and even has a book out on <a href="http://www.gmlbook.com/">GML</a>, so you might want to check those out if you're a GameMaker dev.<br />
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I also noticed <a href="http://projectileentertainment.com/"><b>Momentum</b></a> and <a href="http://elderstargame.com/"><b>Legacy of the Elder Star</b></a> being shown again, and there were several others that I didn't get to see also, including one by some UVU students.<br />
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It was definitely a great evening. Thanks again for everyone making it wonderful!<br />
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Viva la Indie!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-50193213305229827432015-03-27T16:34:00.001-06:002015-03-27T16:34:19.537-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - March 2015We had a great Indie Games Night this past Tuesday evening. It was hosted by Neumont University and we had close to 40 people there so it was a good turnout. It was a good evening.<br /><br />Our planned speaker fell ill, and Jay Barnson offered to fill in at the last minute, which was extremely nice of him. However we had some technical issues with the projector so we didnāt get to hear his presentation either. So we went straight to demos after that.<br /><br />I think I missed some demos, but hereās the ones Iām aware of.<br /><br /><a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2015/games/crisis-kingdom"><b>Crisis Kingdom</b></a><br />Steve brought in his HTML5 base game jam game that he has polished up in to a full out product now. Itās a multi-player co-op single tablet game where you all are helping to defeat wave after wave of dragons that are threatening your village. You use some crafting mechanics to build up your stockpile of weapons that you can then launch at the dragon one it appears.<br /><b><br />Space Goer</b><br />Eric brought in his mobile space survival game. Itās sort of like "Crossy Road" in space. You have a ship that fires at a constant rate and you have to move between lanes to avoid enemy ships, though you can stay in a lane and hope your shipās weapons will take out an enemy before you reach it. The longer you survive, the faster your ship goes and the harder it gets.<br /><br /><a href="http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/loose-cannons/39975/"><b>Loose Canons</b></a><br />Adam brought in his fun four player, single screen platform brawler. This was a very action packed game with both shooting, punching, and jumping mechanics. The pixel art is great and there were no shortage of people playing this game.<br /><br /><b>The Chosen Ones</b><br />Tyran showed off his roguelike jumper puzzle game. The character in the game will run and jump automatically, and you donāt affect the character directly. You only can place items to help your āchosen oneā get from platform to platform, such as blocks to jump off of, fans to help blow the character higher, or ice to help slow him/her down. Itās in itās early stages but seem like a solid concept.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwYhUBzY0Ag"><b>Mechcommander Remake</b></a><br />Matt showed his Mechcommander remake using the Unreal engine. In this RTS there is no resource building, just immediate battles of equivalent armies. Not being an avid RTS player, Matt had to help me with learning the controls, and I died pretty quickly (as expected), but it looks like his game is coming along nicely.<br /><br /><a href="http://flamewarriorgame.com/"><b>Flame Warrior</b></a><br />I didnāt get a chance to play the newest build of Dariusā space combat game, but Jay indicated itās been vastly improved and that it will probably have a name change soon.<br /><br />As the final part of the evening a number of us had a special meeting to discuss organizing an event that will hopefully help improve our larger game development community here in Utah. Nice to see the gears in motion for it. Canāt really say much more about it as most of it is still very much up in the air at the moment.<br /><br />It was definitely an awesome evening. Thanks everyone for making it so!<br /><br />Viva la Indie!<br />
<br />P.S. Jay's writeup of the event is <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=8636">here</a>.<br /><br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-4230775708770457282014-11-08T15:47:00.000-07:002014-11-08T15:57:37.782-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - November 2014We had a great Utah Indie Games Night this past Thursday. It was hosted by the <a href="http://eae.utah.edu/">EAE</a> department at the U of U. Our turnout was a bit down from our recent events (just under 30 people), but it was still a great evening.<br />
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Paige Ashlynn and Beck Pennock of <a href="https://twitter.com/teamtripleslash">Team Tripleslash</a> started off our evening with a presentation on some things they learned from attending GDC, PAX, IndieCade, and SLC Comic Con. In a nutshell they said attending those events was about meeting people and establishing relationships. Thus attending the dev events before the event and the parties after the event were just as important as the event itself. They also mentioned that PAX and IndieCade would be the best events to attend as an indie as they are the most friendly to indies.<br />
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After their presentation we opened the time up to demos, and I actually brought a demo this time. I've been working on a small mobile infinite jumper type game called Jungle Jump. Essentially you are a monkey jumping up onto different platforms. Some are stationary, some move, some disappear after you jump on them once, and some simply break when you hit them. I got some good feedback on it, and I hope to have the game to market by the end of the month.<br />
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The other demos I have seen in one form or another prior to this, and the all were shown at Comic Con, so they are looking quite well. Darius was showing his real time strategy space battle game, "<a href="http://flamewarriorgame.com/">Flame Warrior</a>". Looks like he's put a ton of work into it lately. He hope to be done with it by the beginning of next year. Jay showed his latest RPG "<a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?cat=18">Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrat</a>h". I only got to see if for a bit, but he was showing off his new cleaned up GUI interface. It's looking very nice. Josh was showing his shmup called "<a href="http://elderstargame.com/">Legacy of the Elder Star</a>". I really love the cartoony art and the sword dash mechanic (something very satisfying about that). And lastly Lyle was showing his two player co-op puzzle game called "<a href="http://www.togetherthegame.com/">Together: Aman & Saif</a>". I only got to play it for a moment, but it seemed very solid.<br />
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And as usual there were tons of conversations, old friends, and some great moments. Another great evening. I always get pumped to work on my indie projects after this.<br />
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Viva la Indie!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-62905108959404448792014-08-02T12:28:00.000-06:002014-08-11T13:44:24.407-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - July 2014<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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What an awesome Indie night we had this past Thursday. There were over 50 people in attendance, which made it rather cozy down in Ninjabee's basement. Thanks once again for them hosting the event.</div>
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Michael Purser, Ninjabee's PR guy, started off the evening with a presentation on doing marketing at conventions, like PAX and Comic Con. He spoke directly from his experience so the information was very relevant and useful. Also timely as a number of indies are doing a combined booth thing (mega-booth) at SLC Comic Con in September. He mentioned a lot of considerations you need to take into account above an beyond the cost of the booth, such as shipping of physical items (which can be expensive), and paying for convention power and internet. They really gouge you on internet, so it's best if you can get by without it. He also said you want to extend your reach outside of the booth as much as you can. Doing things like getting large displays or large signs up high. You want people to see your booth from far away. Also you should try to always give them something, like a card with your business website and maybe a key-code for your game or demo. Also raffle tickets to give away items can be helpful as well. He also spoke a lot about being mindful about your booth location and layout within the booth as well, so you can make it inviting.</div>
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After that we opened the floor to demos, and man the room filled up quickly with tables and computers. As usual I wasn't able to see all the demos, but here's the one's I was able to see or got a glimpse of.</div>
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<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/kana-match-learn-japanese"><br /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/kana-match-learn-japanese"><b>Kana Match</b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/CaliferDD/kana-match-learn-japanese" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"></a></div>
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Curtis was showing his now completed Match 3 game that teaches some Japanese letters. The art is very clean and readable and I liked his mechanic of showing time running out via a water level running out.</div>
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<b><a href="http://peter-califergames.deviantart.com/art/Raiders-of-Elduurn-Game-Overview-456250713">Raiders of Elduurn</a></b></div>
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Peter was showing his three player card game that's based on the world of Siphon Spirit. He's hoping to have it ready to show at Comic Con. It's coming along since I've seen it last.</div>
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<a href="http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38953.0"><b>Script Kiddies</b></a></div>
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Austin showed his two player hacker battle game. It has some great pixel art. The basic premise is you have to infect your opponents computers and keep your computers healthy. If you can successfully infect all of his machines before he can clean the viruses you sent, then you win.</div>
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<a href="http://www.eidolongames.com/blog/?p=214"><b>Flame Warrior</b></a></div>
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Darius has added a bunch of new art and a nice UI, since I saw his space battle game last. He's also </div>
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added a helpful tutorial level. He's trying have something to demo by </div>
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<a href="http://www.fueledbyrockets.com/"><b>Crashnauts</b></a></div>
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This was made in Unity by three brothers, Marc, Mike, & Nate. It's a 4 player arena battle game that's played with controllers on the same screen. Simple game-play to just frag your opponents with different weapons and rack up points. You re-spawn soon after you die so the play continues. You also have to watch out for falling rocks as well. This one looked like a lot of fun.</div>
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<a href="http://projectileentertainment.com/"><b>Momentum</b></a></div>
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This game looks absolutely stunning! The visuals are top notch. It's a skill based marble game where you tilt the level to move the ball from start to finish. It's starts out easy but the difficulty ramps up soon to more and more challenging levels. Some seem very masochistic. It has an addictive quality to it that make you want to keep on trying.</div>
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<a href="http://lostcodestudios.itch.io/kittens--kobolds"><b>Kittens and Kobolds</b></a></div>
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This was a game originally written for the Global Games Jam in January. They are going to be changing the art around but keeping the premise that the world changes based on your actions. They are going to add some dynamic music to reflect that.</div>
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<a href="http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/TSS.html"><b>DROD: The Second Sky</b></a></div>
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Mike just released the last in the D.R.O.D. series. I didn't get to play this one, but it looks great, like all of the games in the series. I noticed it had lots of great voice overs, and Mike mentioned that there is tons of story in this one since it is the last game. He wanted to bring the story to a final conclusion.</div>
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<b>Lycan</b></div>
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I caught a glimpse of this game. They had four players on four laptops networked together. It looked like the objective was to turn humans to werewolves (if a werewolf) or turn werewolves back to humans (if a human). I'm assuming the game ends when everyone has been converted to one team.</div>
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<a href="https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/hell-s-peak"><b>Hell's Peak</b></a> </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a href="https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/hell-s-peak" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"></a></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
I noticed some people playing a board game called Hell's Peak. Didn't get to see it much, but according to the site, it's a single player game where the object is to dethrone the devil.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
It was a great evening with a great presentation, some great games, and some great conversations. It always gets me pumped to finish my own projects.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
Viva la Indie!<br />
<br />
<br />
EDIT: Jay's writeup can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7710">here</a>. </div>
Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-17220823878342349892014-05-30T23:21:00.001-06:002014-05-31T12:14:46.912-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - May 2014<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->We had another
awesome Indie Games Night this past Thursday night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a little over 40 people there so it
was a good turnout.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks again to <a href="http://www.uvu.edu/dgm/">UVU</a>
for hosting the event and thanks also to everyone for coming and making the
night great!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
We started
the evening with an awesome presentation by Josh Sutphin of <a href="http://www.third-helix.com/">Third-Helix</a> on
"Starting an Indie Games Business".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He talked a little bit about the nuts and bolts of starting an indie game
business, and also about how to maybe do that full time. That's the dream
right? He also talked about how to pick up some contract work to help fill in
the gaps as the reality is you might not make enough on your games to pay the
bills. At least initially. He also talked about that dirty little secret about
going indie that not many seem to discuss and that is one of the motivation
trap. That is after first going indie your motivation is very high and you're
on cloud nine, but after a while you can get distracted by other things, because
"Hey, I can do whatever I want now. There's no boss". So you can find
yourself squandering your time and not really getting anything
accomplished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it can be hard
to pull your motivation back up after falling into this rut. He talked a lot
about how to set boundaries for yourself (and others) so you can keep a good
routine going and make forward progress on your business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had a lot more good points that he shared.
If you want to watch his presentation you can find it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSOR9VPHrUc">here</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then we got
into our game demos as usual. Here are the ones that I was able to see, but I
know I missed a bunch.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://peter-califergames.deviantart.com/gallery/49621053/Raiders-of-Elduurn"><b>Raiders of Elduurn</b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Peter was
showing his new card game based in the world of Elduurn (Siphon Spirit). It's a co-op game for three players and where you are battling boss monsters. Everyone has different skills and abilities that they can use to kill the monster before they monster kills them. He'll be posting a free print-n-play version of the game soon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Super Wall
Ball</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
This was a
cute skill based tablet game where you play as a turtle and try to keep a ball in motion by
repeatedly kicking it against a wall. You have to get the timing and rhythm down
in order to do this. It has a frustrating but addictive quality to it, sort of
like Flappy Bird in that sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
finally got to 10 volleys back and forth before I gave up. I really loved the cartoony art.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.cameron-hughes.net/parallaxwip.html"><b>Parallax</b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cameron was
showing his exploration game called Parallax. I was blown away by the visuals. It looked incredible. There are doors that will teleport you other parts of the island. I believe it was built with Unity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://winkanimation.blogspot.com/2014/04/wip-for-void.html"><b>The Void</b></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Andrew showed his creepy Unity game where you are in a house that has been haunted by ghosts. The game play is similar to "Gone Home" where you can move around, pick up and examine objects to figure out what is happening. The game is set at night and it's raining outside. You have a flashlight but can turn lights on in the house, but the lighting is still low, which definitely sets that creepy mood.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smash-and-dash/id859234769?mt=8"><b>Smash and Dash</b></a> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I saw this
one a bit second hand, but was told that this mobile game was created in only
80 hours. I was very impressed as it seemed very complete and polished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a game similar to Geometry Wars where
you have to move around and destroy your enemies while avoiding their bullets. Also it's already been released on the iOS app store now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Goblin Dash</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
In this mobile
Unity based game you play as a hero with a sword that has to encounter a hoard
of goblins one after another. You have both blocking and attacking moves in
upper, middle, and lower directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
goblins will give you a slight hint as to where they will attack so you have to
be quick to block and then counter their moves, so that you can slay the goblin
and move onto the next one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was very
impressed with the art and game play.</div>
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<a href="http://blog.califergames.com/2014/05/indie-game-night.html"><b>Japanese Match-3 Game</b></a>
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Curtis has been working on a match-3 game using tiles with Japanese characters on them. It's meant to help people learn the sounds and meaning of each character by repetition. Every time they get three matching tiles together, the sound of that character is said aloud. The English equivalent of the character is also shown.</div>
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/723103016/together-amna-and-saif"><b>Together</b></a></div>
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Lyle was showing his co-op game "Together". I didn't get a chance to play it again but he has a Kickstarter for the game that just barely started. So go back it! </div>
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I know Vince, Jeff and some others had some games they were showing but I didn't get a moment to see them. As always there was so much happening and not able to absorb it all. What a great time to be an indie.</div>
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Viva la Indie!</div>
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P.S. You can find some other write-ups of the event at these links</div>
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<a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7452">http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=7452</a></div>
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<a href="http://blog.califergames.com/2014/05/indie-game-night.html">http://blog.califergames.com/2014/05/indie-game-night.html</a></div>
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Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-25178547526294841592014-03-28T21:30:00.000-06:002014-03-28T22:31:16.731-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - March 2014Wow we had another awesome indie games night last night. We had a little over 40 people in attendance so that was a good turnout. Thanks again to <a href="http://www.neumont.edu/">Neumont University</a> for hosting the event, and a big thanks to <a href="http://www.gootechnologies.com/">Goo Technologies</a> for sponsoring pizza for the evening. Thanks also to our Kickstarter panelists, those showing demos, and everyone else for coming and making the event awesome!<br />
<br />
We started the evening off with a discussion panel on "Running a Successful Kickstarter". Lyle Cox was our moderator and Paige Ashlynn and Jaron Frost were our panelists. Paige is from <a href="http://tripleslashstudios.com/">Tripleslash Studios</a> and their game is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tripleslash/magnetic-by-nature">Magnetic by Nature</a>. Jaron is from <a href="http://www.fridgecrisis.com/">Fridgecrisis Games</a> and his game is <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/723489754/villages-a-construct-and-conquer-card-game">Villages</a>. The guys did an awesome job of dishing out some great info. Here's some of my take-aways (tips) from the panel:<br />
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- When converting viewers into backers, show that you are capable and show yourself in the video to humanize the project.<br />
- Use social media to get hype going, and start months before the actual kickstarter kick-off.<br />
- Try to get some cross promotion going with other Kickstarter projects.<br />
- Make sure to add extra float to budgets to account for unknowns<br />
- Keep physical rewards small and manageable<br />
- Be conservative on stretch goal<br />
- Don't over promise and under deliver; Do under promise and over deliver instead<br />
- Ask for more money than you might think to at first (don't sell yourself short)<br />
- Kickstarters are LOTS of work, so be prepared for it<br />
<br />
And if you missed the panel, you can watch it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYDVOVCtyEU">here</a>, thanks to Jaron and his wife. (There's a few minutes missing from the end, but nothing big). You guys are awesome for doing that!<br />
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After the panel, Brett Unzaga of <a href="http://www.gootechnologies.com/">Goo Technologies</a> gave us a short demo of their HTML5/WebGL engine that is now out in open beta. They're looking for people to give the beta a try, so if you'd like to do that head on over to their site, create an account, and start creating something awesome with it.<br />
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I didn't get to see many of the projects; just a handful as I got involved in some really great conversations. I say a couple of new projects and a couple of older projects that are making progress. I don't think I can do them justice, so I'm not going to even try to enumerate them this time. There were definitely a bunch of awesome ones there however.<br />
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I talked a bit with the <a href="http://raptorcircus.com/">Raptor Circus</a> guys and I love their concept. They are focused on those indies that want to turn their games into a profitable business. It's an area where our Indie Nights have fallen short, so it's nice to see them fill in this gap. This is certainly a group I want to be involved with, as I've been spinning my wheels on my <a href="http://monkeytimesoftware.com/">MonkeyTime Software</a> business for way too long.<br />
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We also talked about dealing with the motivation drain as an indie. It's something I'm well acquainted with and have had some success in overcoming here and there, but far from every time. It's something I still struggle with, and it's something that every indie faces at some point. Josh S. mentioned this is like the "dirty little indie secret that no one talks about", and I'd have to agree with that. The indie community doesn't say much about that. They tend to focus on the upsides of being indie and not so much on the downsides. Yes folks, it does take more than just uploading your tiny game to the iOS appstore. The riches don't magically come flowing after that. <br />
<br />
Anyway it was definitely another incredible indie night. Thanks everyone for making it awesome!<br />
<br />
Viva la Indie!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-91824098794848867622014-01-31T17:55:00.000-07:002014-01-31T18:10:45.621-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - January 2014We had another amazing Indie Games this past Wednesday night. I didn't get an accurate count, but it looked like close to 40 people were there. Definitely was a great night filled with pizza, presentations, lively discussions, and lots of games! Thanks once again to <a href="http://www.ninjabee.com/">Ninjabee</a> for hosting the event.<br />
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Spencer Buchanan gave an awesome presentation on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHealth">mHealth</a> and games. In his new job he's been partnering with doctors and nurses to produce games that help people learn about and cope with their serious illness. The big take away I got from his talk was he mentioned that when working with people outside the industry there needs to be a respect for each others strengths and expertise in order for a project to succeed. The doctors shouldn't question your game design decisions in the same way you shouldn't question the doctors methods either. Each has to respect what the others bring to the table. He did an awesome job with the presentation and had a lot of good info to share.<br />
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After Spencer's presentation we opened it up for demos. As usual I probably missed a few of them. Here they are:<br />
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/spiritsofelduurn/"><strong>Spirits of Elduurn</strong></a><br />
Curtis showed this flash puzzle game that uses the Mythology from <a href="http://www.califergames.com/siphonspirit/">Siphon Spirit</a> . It's a puzzle game where you have to move a pair of spirits (one black, one white) in tandem to collect energy and then defeat the evil dark spirit. Sometimes the moves get tricky as they could kill one of your spirits and you need both of them to complete the level.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://sagaheroes.com/">Saga Heroes</a></strong><br />
Eric has added caves and the like since I saw this game last. It's an OUYA RPG game set in the <a href="https://www.playsaga.com/">Saga</a> universe and it looks very polished. I played it for a while and finally made it to the cave levels. The lighting works very well on those levels. He's done an awesome job with it thus far.<br />
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<strong>Together</strong><br />
Lyle's co-op puzzler now has a name and some really awesome art. I believe it still had programmer art, last time I saw it, so it looked like a totally different game with this new art. The idea is you work together to solve the puzzle via a series of doors and switches. You also have to pick up all the objects before the exit will open and you can finish the level. I played this a bit with Curtis and I kept dying. Luckily Curtis was able to come and rescue me. As long as one player is alive they can resurrect the other and you both can continue. I really like the co-op aspect of this game.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://www.dubwarsgame.com/">Dub Wars</a></strong><br />
The Dub Wars guys were there showing off a new build of Dub Wars, that now works with the <a href="https://www.leapmotion.com/">LeapMotion</a> controller. So "yes", it now has guesture control. I tried if for a bit and although it was a bit more sluggish than a standard controller, I could definately see someone getting into this as it kind of makes you feel like a "Grandmaster DJ" controlling the game.<br />
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<strong>Space Combat Game</strong><br />
Darius has been hard at work on his space game combat game. I noticed he now has a targetting system in place and it can fire missles at the enemy ships as you glide past them. Looks like it's coming along.<br />
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<strong>EverAvatarQuest</strong><br />
Ben has been working on a multiplayer RPG that uses Xbox avatars. So you can play as "you" in the game, and not the limited set of characters that you have in other RPGs. He had a questing system in place where you can buy/sell weapons (and really big swords I might add), talk to bots to get them to join your crew, arm them, and then go out and kill vicious animals. He built it in XNA and hopes to finish it off, even though XNA is dying.<br />
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<strong>Candy Defender Saga / Redacted</strong><br />
Jay showed his One Game a Month entry / Candy Jam entry. It's a quick Space Invaders clone that he built to teach himself the <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/studio">GameMaker: Studio</a> engine. At this point it looks, feels, and plays much like Space Invaders. However I know he has plans to swap out the art (such as the alien ships becoming lawyers) so it fits the theme for the Candy Jam, which is a protest against recent trademark trolling.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/happy-candy-pirates">Happy Candy Pirates</a></strong><br />
I also took a little bit and showed my latest entry from the Global Games Jam. It's entered into two other game jams as well, that were happening at the same time (The Candy Jam and GMC Jam). In the game you're a pirate looking for treasure, but along the way you encounter red and blue candy that switches the world between happy and sad. In the happy world the red doors are open and harmless bunnies roam around, but in the sad world the blue doors are open, and the bunnies are now dangerous skeletons. Also if you stay in the happy world too long, the bunnies start multiplying which means there will be more skeletons to face in the sad world.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2014/games/mental-institution">Mental Institution</a> & Ro-Bee Cop</strong><br />
Rhett was showing off his entry in the Global Games Jam, Mental Institution, a game about a guy trying to escape an asylum. He was also showing a prototype of a new game called Ro-Bee Cop that he's making in <a href="http://gamesalad.com/">GameSalad</a>. Apparently he's taken a liking to that engine, and since Rhett is primarily an artist, I can see the "no programming" aspect of the engine appealing to him.<br />
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<strong><a href="http://www.magneticbynature.com/">Magnetic By Nature</a></strong><br />
I noticed the <a href="http://tripleslashstudios.com/">Tripleslash</a> guys were there showing off their latest build of Magnetic By Nature. I didn't really get a chance to try it out again, but I know they are getting very close to a release.<br />
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<strong>Board Game</strong> (Name in flux)<br />
Vince was there with a board game he's been working on, and he had several people playing it with him. Apparently it's an evolution of the Narwhals and Unicorns game that he worked on with Spencer and showed at our Indie Night a couple of months ago. I didn't get a chance to sit down, get into the details and play it, but it looked like the players were enjoying it.<br />
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During the evening Steve brought out a <a href="http://www.gamersnexus.net/news/1274-gigabyte-brix-pro-steambox-ces-2014">Gigabyte Steam box</a> and let people try it out. I tried using it for a while and the controller definitely has a much different feel to it. It's something that will take me some more time getting used to. Though I was getting better with it in my short exposure to it. I know that Valve is going to be changing the layout of the physical buttons to make them more like a traditional D-pad and X/Y/A/B buttons. That should help some, but I would still like to have an analog stick on the left. I'm okay with the touch pad on the right as it acts like a mouse, which I see being useful for a lot of Steam games. Anyway it was still usable and I could see people liking it.<br />
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Again it was an awesome evening. Thanks to everyone for helping to make it incredible!<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
<br />
P.S. You can find Jay's write up of the event <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=6960">here</a>.Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-23632752767768198922013-11-25T22:46:00.000-07:002014-01-31T18:01:38.318-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - November 2013Okay I've been negligent in getting my writeup of Indie Night done, but here it is. We had a good Indie Games Night this past Wednesday evening (11/20/2013). It was an average turnout with a little over 30 people in attendance. Thanks again for the EAE department of the U of U for hosting this.<br />
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Vladimir Chopine of <a href="http://www.geekatplay.com/">GeekAtPlay</a> gave a great presentation on Concept Art and started his presentation off by showing samples of his and his daughters work. He also contended that the most important part of your game is not the art, code, or game play, but rather the "story". He also made the point that even with abstract games like Tetris there is still a story there. However it may be the story that we as the play are putting into the game ourselves. He then mentioned that concept art (and art in game) can tell a story. It helps communicate the story of the game as well as the vision and feel of the game. It's certainly needed to unify that vision for a team making the game.<br />
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After Vladimir's talk we opened the floor for game demos. I believed I missed a couple of them, but here's the ones I saw.<br />
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<b>CyberHeist</b><br />
This one is a two player co-op game. One plays as the hacker to open doors and give directions to the other player. The other plays as the thief/spy that infiltrates to get the item or data they are after.<br />
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<b>Bug Out</b><br />
This is an interesting mix between Galaga and Arkanoid. The game play is similar to Arkanoid where you have a paddle and break bricks with a ball, however instead of bricks they are space aliens (like in Galaga). Occasionally one alien will break off and try to attack your ship/paddle.<br />
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<b>Spectrum Specter</b><br />
A retro looking maze game with four different colored walls. There are different buttons that change your characters color and you can move through walls of that color. There are also enemies of different colors to watch out for, and they too can move through walls of their same color. The object is just to survive as long as you can.<br />
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<b>RoboHobo</b><br />
Josh Jones showed his <a href="http://0hgame.eu/">Zero Hour</a> game jam entry. You give directions to a hobo whom you hope to convince not to commit suicide and stay alive. There is food there which he'll need to eat to not starve and of course he can die if he goes over the cliff.<br />
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<strong>The Preordained Spot</strong><br />
Josh also showed his entry from the <a href="http://latterdaygamejam.com/">Latter Day Game Jam</a>. The object is to find where the golden plates might be buried.<br />
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<b>Avatar Paint</b> (Working Title)<br />
This one is a interesting puzzle game where you have to paint the ground with different colors to match the goal pattern. You can only switch colors by moving to a color changing space (sort of like a paint can space). Often you'll have to paint and repaint a space several times to reach the desired pattern.<br />
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It was a great evening. Hope to see everyone at the next one!<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
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(EDIT: Added the name to Josh's second mini-game)<br />
<br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-90472846479379728512013-09-30T17:25:00.001-06:002013-09-30T17:27:55.504-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - September 2013Well, I've been negligent in getting this posted, but here it is. We had another great Indie Night this past Thursday night, with there being around 40 or so people in attendance. I was also a bit late to the event myself (which is very unusual) as my flight home from JavaOne in San Francisco was delayed an hour and I drove straight from the airport to the event. Luckily I wasn't later than that.<br /><br />We did something a bit different this time around. Instead of a formal presentation we did an informal postmortem for our first annual indie game jam. A number of us shared some things that went well or didn't go well and what we learned from the jam. I was able to produce a game with a lot more content this time around, so it was a personal success for me. I also shared some thoughts on how important it is to use tools that you know as you don't have time to learn them in a game jam setting. I've done some jams with the intent of learning an engine. I did get some learning done in those instances, however I didn't get much of a game done. Another guy shared his experience of how some constant team battles prevented them from getting their game done. It's unfortunate when things like this happen, but it was a learning experience for them.<br /><br />We then opened up the time for game demos, and I didn't get to see many of the games shown (not even close). Here's the two that I saw.<br /><br /><b>D.R.O.D.: The Second Sky</b> - Mike Rimer<br /><br />Mike's been hard at work on the next installment in the DROD series. It has the same dungeon crawling puzzle mechanic that fans of the series like, but it's now showing a much bigger world, including a map screen that shows the various dungeons, and a new underground train or subway that gets players between dungeons. There's also a storyline that explains why the dungeons are "growing". There are also some new game play elements, such as tiles that restrict your movement to only one direction, and something called a temporal split token. That token lets you essentially clone yourself and replay your past moves to help you solve certain puzzles. Sort of a Braid-like game play mechanic. The game looks awesome so far.<br /><br /><b>Siphon Spirit</b> - Curtis Mirci<br /><br />Curtis has been hard at work on a level editor for Siphon Spirit, which is definitely a huge addition to the game. His hope is to allow players to create and share their own levels, so that players will have more to enjoy after completing the game. It's coming along nicely and it certainly should be something a normal user can use. <br /><br />As usual we had tons of great conversations about the industry and more. It's a great time to be an indie.<br /><br />Viva La Indie!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-8843416059640015572013-09-24T17:15:00.000-06:002013-09-30T17:44:44.733-06:00JavaOne 2013I'm at JavaOne for part of this week. Past couple of days been learning about some new and not so new Java technologies. I found Java ADK and Nuvos interesting as they are some cross platform APIs that can create iOS and Android applications using Java. Could be some interesting things happening there.<br />
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Attended one session on creating games with JavaFX. Couple more like it coming tomorrow. Looks like it's getting more and more possible to REALLY make games purely in Java. Of course there's always Minecraft too (parts are done in Java, but I believe it still has some native pieces right now).<br />
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Definately some interesting technology coming down the pike. I'm off to a session on teaching Java with Minecraft and Greenfoot.<br />
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Ciao for now!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-44891160970441722202013-07-31T22:47:00.000-06:002013-07-31T22:50:41.541-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - July 2013We had another awesome Indie Games Night last Tuesday night. We had around 40-50 people in attendance. The <a href="http://eae.utah.edu/">EAE department</a> of the U hosted the event. Again a big thanks to them.<br />
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We began the evening with presentation from Lyle Cox on "Creating Intrinsically Rewarding Games". He began with a discussion about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs">Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs</a> and how different game motivations fit into the various levels. For example most sandbox games fit in the Self Actualization level as it feeds the creative element very well. He also got into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory">Self Determination Theory</a> a bit. With this he mentioned a study where it was found that too many extrinsic rewards in a system can actually reduce the intrinsic rewards that one gets out of an activity. In the study there were three groups of children. In the first group the kids were asked if they wanted to color and if they did they would give them a certificate (an extrinsic reward). In the second group the kids were asked if they wanted to color and weren't told about the certificate, however a certificate was given to them if they did color. In the last group they were just simply asked if they wanted to color. They found that the last group had the most motivation sometime later and the first group had the least. This is because the reward was contingent upon doing the action. They would only color if they got the certificate and not for the fun of it (the intrinsic reward). While it's not completely clear how we can use this when designing games as everyone is motivated by different things. Lyle definitely gave us some "food for thought" and some things to consider when making game design decisions.<br />
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After that we broke out into smaller groups for the game demos. There were a bunch of demos being shown that night and I know I missed a bunch. Here's the one's I caught.<br />
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<a href="http://eae.utah.edu/press-and-media/pe-press/"><b>Patient Empowerment Game</b></a> - EAE dept<br />
The EAE department of the U partnered with some physical therapists to design a game to help kids fight cancer. The game is built in XNA, runs on a PC, and uses PS3 Move controllers to play the game. The game can be calibrated to respond to more or less movement based on how sick the patient is. Supposedly this will help get gain some of the motivation and movement needed to help them battle their disease. There's 5 different mini-games that each use a different motion, and the downtrodden superhero in the game gets stronger as the game progresses (a metaphor for the patient getting stronger). <br />
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<b>Co-Op Puzzle Game</b> - Lyle Cox<br />
Lyle also showed off his game that he's working on. It's a two player game where you play as a boy and a girl that need to work together to solve the puzzle in the level to open the exit. Each level has a different puzzle that involves picking up coins, avoiding nets, activating switches that open or close hedge walls or reverse the direction of one-way fences. Also you have to avoid a killer Tribble on some levels. Okay the stand in art looked like a Tribble, although it may be something else in the final game.<br />
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<b>Space Combat Game</b> - Darius Oderkirk<br />
Darius showed his progress on his turn based space combat game. Last time I saw it, it wasn't much to see visually, but now it's got a lot more art now and looks like a game. It's apparent that he's been working hard on it. It's a game about building your fleet, exploring, and fighting enemy fleets.<br />
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<a href="http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=34502.0"><b>We Need to go Deeper</b></a> - Deli Interactive<br />
This game is co-op rougelike/exploration submarine game that takes place in a Jules Vern like world. You and one or two friends work to manage the sub to take it into ever deeper and more dangerous waters. One person will be manning ship navigation while the others will be fixing leaks, maintaining engines, or firing torpedos at sharks or giant squid. The game is written in GameMaker and can be played on a single machine with split screen on on separate PCs with a networked connection.<br />
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<a href="http://equalizegames.com/"><b>Equalize</b></a> - Rainblade Studios<br />
This one is an iPad math game with a Tetris like mechanic. The idea is eliminate the rows by dropping the current number in the row to get the row total to equal the goal for that row. On the first level the goals are all zeros, but as the levels get higher the goal could get higher or lower. Also the speed at which the numbers fall also increases as the levels go up. I'm not really into math games, but this one looks like it could get intense fast.<br />
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There were a bunch of demos that I didn't get to see. I know that Bullet Train Hell, Siphon Spirit, LinkRealms, and Magnetic by Nature were shown, but I didn't get to see them. I'm sure there were a bunch of other that I missed.<br />
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As usual I'm amazed at what everyone is working on. It was nice to have some great conversations and reconnect with friends.These events always gets me excited and energized to work on my own projects. Currently I'm working on a point-n-click adventure game in GameMaker. Stay tuned for more on that.<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
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BTW Jay's writeup of the event can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=6286">here</a>. Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-5342761284656526772013-05-31T17:43:00.000-06:002013-05-31T17:45:08.534-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - May 2013We had another awesome Indie Games Night last night. We had around 40 people in attendance, so a pretty good crowd. We even had a special guest attend last night, Renaun Erickson. He's the game evangelist for Adobe. He was in town on some other business and heard about our little event and decided to come and also sponsor the pizza and soda. We definitely appreciated that.<br />
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Adam Helps gave an awesome presentation on Curves. He had some great animations that brought the concept of Bezier curves to life. I knew a bit about them and had used them in prior projects, but this gave me a deeper understanding of how and why they work the way they do. Adam tried to keep the math and the formulas to a minimum and I was able to follow it, although I admit it was stretching my brain a little. My math muscles have gotten weak.<br />
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We had a second short presentation with the guys from Helium Interactive (a group of UVU students that have now formed their own company). The demoed their awesome game called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upyfOgyCdHo">DubWars</a> . Itās a top down shooter that fires the weapons in sync with the dubstep music. It was built with Unity and is can currently be played on the OUYA store. <br />
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As for the demos, I normally list and discuss each of them, but there were so many that I missed and I didnāt take great notes, so Iām not sure I can do them justice. However Iāll mention some things here. One game that captured my eye (and lots of others apparently) was āMomentumā. Itās game in the vein of Super Monkey Ball or Marble Blast, however instead of you moving the ball through the level, you tilt the whole level to get the ball to move. Itās similar to the old wooden maze games where you tilt the maze to get the metal ball past the obstacles to the end, but itās even more similar to the more modern <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perplexus-Maze-Game-PlaSmart-Inc/dp/B002NPBT50/ref=pd_sim_t_1">Perplexus Maze Game</a>.<br />
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Tyler brought in his <a href="http://www.oculusvr.com/">Oculus Rift</a> and many of us tried the standard Unity demo out with it. It was amazing putting it on and looking around this virtual world. However the controls for the demo moved you around at unrealistic FPS shooter game speeds. There were times my brain was getting confused between the motion my eyes were seeing and the signals from my inner ear saying just the opposite. I could only handle just a few minutes of it, before feeling some nausea. Perhaps something at a slower pace might be easier to handle. Or perhaps if it was combined with a hydraulic motion platform which might help keep visual and inner ear signals synced.<br />
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I saw a number of other demos, including a kidās coloring book app and racing game for mobile tablets. I saw Bryanās <a href="http://playasteria.com/">Asteria</a>, which is coming along nicely. Mike was demoing a version of <a href="http://drod.caravelgames.com/%E2%80%8E">D.R.O.D.</a> Jay demoed Frayed Knights 2 a bit. I even demoed my simple Chameleon Chow Down game near the end. There were so many more games that I only caught glances of or completely missed. There are times I wish I had multiple copies of myself to be able to catch everything thatās happening. <br />
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As usual there were some conversations happening as well. A lot of discussion surrounded the Oculus Rift, the OUYA, the Xbox One, and the like. I also found out that GEEX has morphed into something bigger this year; itās now the <a href="http://www.saltlakecomiccon.com/">Salt Lake Comic Con</a>. Looks awesome! Definitely some promising times ahead for us Indieās.<br />
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Viva La Indie!<br />
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P.S. - Jayās writeup of the evening can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=5998">here</a>. Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-45099118108181316522013-03-21T00:36:00.001-06:002013-03-27T17:44:21.181-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - March 2013We had another awesome Indie Games Night last Tuesday night. We had just over 30 people in attendance. Neumont hosted the event and made pizza available. Thanks Neumont!<br />
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We began the evening with a presentation from Adam Ames, the founder and editor-in-chief of <a href="http://truepcgaming.com/">True PC Gaming</a>, on how to work with the gaming press. He's very passionate about this topic, and his presentation showed that. He had tons of info that he dispensed to us, and he had tons left that he didn't get to because of the time. The main take away points that I got from his talk were:<br />
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<b>#1 - Be Professional</b>. You have to look, sound, and act the part if you want to be taken seriously by the press. Adam get tons on emails from individuals<br />
<b>#2 - Believe in Yourself</b>. Show confidence and enthusiasm in your abilities and the game you are making. If you don't believe your game is great, why would the press think so? <br />
<b>#3 - Be Persistent</b> - If something doesn't work out the first time, keep at it. If one door doesn't open, try another. Don't be afraid to ask; sometimes large doors can open just by asking. If something bombs, then learn from your mistakes and and try again, even if that means starting from scratch again. Keep at it and eventually the right doors will open.<br />
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After that we broke out into smaller groups for the game demos. I think I missed several games, but here's the ones I saw (or noticed).<br />
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<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gimogames/monster-guru"><b>Monster Guru</b></a> - Evan Munro (<a href="http://www.gimogames.com/">Gimo Games</a>)<br />
This one is an iOS game being developed by a few students. They had a successful Kickstarter for it last year and Evan is the one that showed it to me. The game is about discovering, capturing and training monsters. The game can be played based on your real movement in the physical world (when you move the character moves), but it can also be played in a traditional way as well. The art is first rate. As you move around the world new section open up, and you can find new monsters in that area. <br />
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<b>Japanese Arena: Kana</b> - Curtis Mirci (<a href="http://www.califergames.com/">Califer Games</a>)<br />
Curtis showed me the progress he's been making to his Japanese learning game. It's starting to look like a more fully realized game now. He showed me some of the dialog in the lessons, and he's infused it with a lot of humor to add interest. It reads more like a cut scene with two characters talking to each other, which is more interesting than having a narrator talk to the user directly. There are "Quiz Attacks" at the end of a lesson that earn them points. He also showed me a new mode where the player is given an audible word and then they have to construct the word with the Japanese characters. There is also a practice mode where they can do the reverse, where they link together characters and the computer says the word. It's coming together. Also in addition to all this, Curtis is also working on a press release system for indies. I'm sure he'll have more info on that later on.<br />
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<b><a href="http://gamejolt.com/games/action/save-the-princess-dragon/12088/">Save the Princess, Dragon! </a>& <a href="http://gamejolt.com/games/shooter/star-reacher/12939/">Star Reacher</a> </b>- Spencer Lee (<a href="http://www.ugleegames.com/">UgLee Games</a>) <br />
Spencer has been participating in the <a href="http://www.onegameamonth.com/">One Game A Month</a> competition and he showed me his first two entries. His first entry, Save the Princess, Dragon!, is a Zelda like game where you are a dragon that has to save the princess. You can use fireballs and your claws against enemy blobs. There are keys to be found to unlock doors in this expansive dungeon crawl. The second entry, Star Reacher, is a side scrolling shooter game with tons of defenses to destroy and multiple obstacles to avoid. He developed both of these using GameMaker as these had to be created quickly.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.bimey.com/">Bimey</a></b> - Tim, Ben, & Garrett<br />
This is a Unity game being created by a few guys. It's a platformer game about a cute rabbit that has to save the forest from zombified animals. It's still in it's early stages and still rough, but it has improved since I saw it last. This time they were showing an OUYA based build of it and I controlled the rabbit with an OUYA controller. Very cool! I had to jump over pits, grab crates, and then throw them at zombie worms before they got me. <br />
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<b>Space Combat Game</b> - Darius Ouderkirk<br />
Darius has been hard at work on a tablet game about turn-based space combat game. In the first phase you equip your ship with a ton of different options, that effect the attributes of the ship, such as shielding, maneuvering, fire power, etc. Then in the combat phase you have to plan out your moves with real physics. You set the direction and thrust for the turn and the game gives you a visual indicator where you'll end up at the end of the turn (and the next if you hold course). You have to avoid asteroids and other obstacles, and if you get close to an enemy ship, an automatic firefight will ensue.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQDGWEnni4g">Bullet Train Hell</a></b> - Chris Tart (<a href="http://logicdrillgames.com/">Logic Drill Games</a>)<br />
Chris has finally released his awesome Bullet Train Hell game on iOS. Congrats Chris! He was showing an OUYA port of the game on an actual OUYA dev kit. He's confident that he'll have it ready to go for the main OUYA launch date in June. I think that's one I'm going to have to pick up once my OUYA arrives, and the store opens.<br />
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<a href="http://www.warcommand.com/"><b>War Command</b></a><br />
I didn't really get to talk to these guys very much, but their game is an iOS trading card war game. It combines deck building strategy with physical war game strategy. They brought in a physical board and physical cards to play the game. They are planning to release this both as an iOS app and as a board game. The art they have on the cards is amazing and it seems like they are nearly done with it.<br />
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<b>HexLocked</b> - Tyler Wright<br />
I noticed that Tyler had brought his Tetris like game with shapes made from hexagons. I didn't get a chance to talk with him about the progress he's made on it, but it was looking good from what little I saw.<br />
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As usual I'm amazed at what everyone is working on. It always gets me excited and energized to work on my own projects.<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
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P.S. - You can also read Jay's writeup of the evening <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=5647">here</a>.<br />
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EDIT - You can now find Adam Ames' presentation <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPo7khHy1U">here</a>. Enjoy!<br />
<br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-48286912951235549332013-02-01T16:46:00.002-07:002013-02-01T16:53:24.803-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - January 2013We had an awesome Indie Games Night last night and I counted over 50 people in attendance so it was a good sized crowd. It was certainly "cozy" at times in <a href="http://www.ninjabee.com/">Ninjabee's</a> downstairs room. <br />
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<a href="http://caseydockendorf.blogspot.com/">Casey Dockendorf</a> kicked off our evening with a presentation on "Contracting Artists for Indie Game Projects". He spent some time discussing how to find artists for your game projects (such as public events, schools, and internet forums), as well as how to find contract work from an artists perspective. Casey has done years and years of freelance work, so he had lots of insight to share with us. He also mentioned the axiom with art that you can have any two of good, cheap, fast, but not all three. Which holds very true (and not just with art, but other work as well). He also discussed the varied ways to pay your artists, such as a rate per piece, or rate per hour, or lump sum for the whole job. There is also the option of trading work for work in some cases. He also mentioned the option of paying artists by royalties, however since this rarely pans out, most artists are not going to be interested in such an option. Lastly he discussed how you can better communicate your ideas to your artists, as phrases like "make it cooler" or "make it sexier", are very vague and ambiguous. One suggestion was to make a comparison to other similar works to help give the artist a mental picture of what you have in mind. Also the scope (size / amount) of work should be communicated as well as the kind of art needed (concept, production, or marketing art).<br />
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Then we opened the floor to our game demos. We had bring in some more tables as we had a lot of them. I'm aware of 13 demos that were shown, but I could easily have missed some.<br />
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<b>Love & Space</b> - Rachel Helps<br />
This is a visual novel that is written in renpy. It's about a couple that falls in love and moves across the galaxy to a new planet. When the game gets going in full swing, you are planning out your day and more of the branching story unfolds. The game has has some great visuals and is off to a great start.<br />
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<a href="http://playasteria.com/"><b>Asteria</b></a> - Bryan Livingston<br />
Asteria is a 2D space platformer game which Bryan describes as a cross between Terraria and Metroid. No pick axes, just ranged weapons and mining tools only. It's written in C# and XNA and he plans to use MonoGame to create Mac, Windows 8, iOS, and Android versions of the game. He has some great visuals in the game, but he is still looking for more freelancers to help him finish it off.<br />
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<b>Bombs In My Eyes</b> (BIME) - Tim, Ben, & Garrett<br />
This is a cute platformer about a rabbit (named Bime) that gets bombs implanted in his eyes by the villian who's turned some of the forest creatures into zombies. Bime has to save the forest by killing of those zombies. It's being made in Unity and it has some cool cartoony art and animations. I also like the subtle marketing in the name "bime" (pronounced "buy me").<br />
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<b>Attraction</b> -<br />
This is a platformer game about robots, that has an unual movement mechanic. Besides the usual run and jump you can also use magnets in the level to either attract yourself towards or repel yourself from. It's in it's early stages but seem off to a good start.<br />
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<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marr-obert-skyes-world-of-yor/id587191125?mt=8">Marr: Obert Skye's World of Yor</a> </b>- Chad & Jared - BlueLid Labs<br />
This is an awesome iPad game built in Unity and takes place in Obert Skye's World of Yor world. <br />
Available now first of eight? games tower defense<br />
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<a href="http://www.kongregate.com/games/BlueLidLabs/daemon-amor"><b>Daemon Amor</b></a> - Chad & Jared - BlueLid Labs<br />
I didn't get a close look at this one, but it's also done in Unity by BlueLid Labs. You play as a little demon that takes over for cupid and spits love on the unsuppecting humans below.<br />
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<b>Stick Fighter</b> - Tommy<br />
This cool Street Fighter like game, but with stick figures. It was fun to both watch and play. There's something about stick figure violence that makes me smile. <br />
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<a href="http://killscreendaily.com/create/video.php?submissionID=180"><b>Super Dungeon Bros</b></a> - React Games / Eric Wiggins<br />
Eric brought his OUYA dev kit to show off Super Dungeon Bros. This is a 3D co-operative 4 player dungeon hack-n-slash kind of game. The team put it together in about 12 days using Unity and they've done an excellent job on it. It was made for the OUYA create Game Jam <br />
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<b>Saga Heros</b> - Eric Wiggins<br />
This is Eric's personal project (also made with Unity). It's a 3D RPG game similar to SAGA where you go around and kill beasts that attack you. The visuals are superb and it looks like this project is off to a great start.<br />
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<b>Elemento</b> - <a href="http://www.flatredball.com/">Vic Chelaru</a><br />
Vic was showing his Match 3 like puzzle game that was running on a Windows 8 tablet. There are several different tiles, each one a different element, earth, wind, water, & fire. Each level is puzzle where you have perform a limited number of actions to clear the board, such as changing the element, swaping tiles, adding a tile (plus one above it), etc. It's very polished and well done<br />
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/siphonspirit/"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></a> - Peter Anderson<br />
Peter showed of some more changes with Siphon Spirit. Mostly these are polish items, like a mouse button graphic to help people realize they can click to continue, and some improvements to the tutorial levels. He's also added more cutscenes as well. He mentions that they hope to start a Kickstarter soon to raise some funds to help with music and art to finish the game. Hopefully that goes well for them.<br />
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<a href="http://www.linkrealms.com/"><b>LinkRealms</b></a> - Herb Flower<br />
Herb was there demonstrating some new additions to the LinkRealms universe, and he showed how easy it was to create a bot AI in their custom editor. He created a complete AI in about 15 minutes, live at the event. Very impressive.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flexitris.com/"><b>Flexitris</b></a> - McKay Salisbury<br />
I didn't get a chance to see McKay's new additions to flexitris, but he was there showing it to a number of people.<br />
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It was a great evening. As usual I felt that so much was happening I was missing some good conversations, but I'm grateful for the ones that I was a part of. So until next time...<br />
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Viva la Indie!Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-38737720050877467632012-11-16T16:19:00.001-07:002012-11-16T16:19:49.739-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - November 2012We had another fantastic Indie Games Night last night, with almost 40 people there. There was a bunch of cool stuff happening. Let's get into it.<br />
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<b>"Stage3D: This ain't your Grandpappy's Flash"</b> - Tom Beatty<br />
Tom Beatty gave an awesome presentation on the capabilities of doing 3D in flash (via Stage 3D). He showed some awesome examples of what can be done with it. I'll have to admit that many of those examples blew me away. You can see them for yourself <a href="http://decheck.com/indie/">here</a>. At the beginning of his talk he listed a bunch of Pros and Cons to using flash (such as being slow and can't be used to create complex games), however by the end most of those Cons were not applicable at all when using Stage3D with Flash.<br />
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He mentioned that you don't need the expensive Adobe tools to create Flash games; you can use a free tool like <a href="http://www.flashdevelop.org/">FlashDevelop</a> instead. He also mentioned several frameworks that can be used. <a href="http://gamua.com/">Starling</a>, which is 2D framework that Angry Birds uses. There were three 3D ones, <a href="http://alternativaplatform.com/en/">Alternativa3D</a>, <a href="http://away3d.com/">Away3D</a> (his favorite), and <a href="http://flare3d.com/">Flare3D</a> (which is pretty expensive). In all it certainly looks like Stage3D has breathed a lot of life back into the Flash platform.<br />
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After Tom's presentation we opened it up for some game demos. And as usual it seems I may have missed some, but here's was I was able to see.<br />
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<b>Japanese Game</b> - Curtis Mirci<br />
Curtis of Califer Games was there showing off the latest build of his Japanese teaching game. The game starts out with a lesson on a character and what it means. After that you can engage in a battle to test your knowledge of what you just learned. There's also some items that you can use to heal yourself if you are getting too many answers wrong.<br />
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/siphonspirit/"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></a> - Curtis Mirci<br />
Curtis also showed Siphon Spirit again. Apparently Peter has been adding more cutscenes. This game is ever getting closer to completion.<br />
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<a href="http://rainbladestudios.blogspot.com/2012/09/concept-art.html"><b>SPACE Episode 1: The Old Man and the Escape</b></a> - Jordan Goulding<br />
Jordan of Rainblade Studios showed his top down arena shooter that is very "Smash TV" like. It was running on an iPad using virtual joystick controls. I'm not sure how far along it is, but it looked very polished and the controls looked very responsive. The basic idea is simply to elimiate all the robots so you can escape the room and then move to the next room and do it all again. <br />
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<a href="http://www.zefyriegaming.com/screenshot/art-work-for-shoshone-adventure/"><b>Shoshone Adventure</b></a><br />
Some students at the U have been working on game to help teach about the Shoshone language and culture. It's a top down Adventure/RPG type game where you play as a Shoshone brave on a quest. During the game the player will learn Shoshone words for different things like wolf, bear, and fire, and they'll have to use that knowledge to be able to unlock more areas of the game.<br />
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<a href="http://www.psych.utah.edu/Converse/html/Converse.html"><b>Converse</b></a><br />
This is an unusual student game. It was developed for the psychology department at the U. I don't how to exactly describe it other than it's sort of a card game about dating. It seemed kind of like <a href="http://www.positech.co.uk/kudos2/index.html">Kudos</a>. In the game you are taking a girl on a date and you buy her dinner and play cards to match her conversations. The more successful you are at that the more swag points you earn (to buy stuff) and the happier she'll be. Then if she's happy enough you can continue with a second date (and so on).<br />
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<b>Top Down Shooter</b> - Brett Unzaga<br />
I didn't get a good look at this one., but Brett has been working on a top down sci-fi themed shooter made in Unity. Looks like it's off to a good start.<br />
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<b>Antibody</b> - Greg Squire<br />
I took a moment to show Jay the current version of my shmup called Antibody. I didn't quite feel up to showing it to the whole group last night (partly because not a lot has changed since last time, but mostly because I was just simply tired due to some overtime at the day job). I've added a level selection screen and some refinements to the weapons. However it's still got a long way to go. Hopefully I can make a lot of progress on this over the holidays.<br />
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I was surprised there were so many games incorporating educational elements in them. It's nice to see that. I overheard part of a conversation where it was mentioned that an educational game ought to be "fun" first and "educational" second. I also agree with that sentiment, as I've seen "edutainment" titles that have tried to slap a "fun" layer on top of a heavy educational under-layer and it didn't work. It ends up being neither fun nor educational. <br />
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As always it was a great evening and helped renew my own excitement. There was definitely a lot of great games and great conversations going on. The fun didn't want to stop, and even a session of "Magic: The Gathering" broke out towards the end of the night. <br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
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BTW, Here's some other write-ups of the evening<br />
<a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=5179">http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=5179</a><br />
<a href="http://rainbladestudios.blogspot.com/2012/11/indie-game-night-november-15th-2012.html">http://rainbladestudios.blogspot.com/2012/11/indie-game-night-november-15th-2012.html</a>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-49875308244855504632012-09-26T16:41:00.000-06:002012-09-26T17:11:50.426-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - September 2012We had an incredible Indie Games Night last night! We held it at Utah Valley University (UVU) which is a new venue for us. We had close to 50 people in attendance so it was a great turnout. It became "standing room only" fairly quickly.<br />
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Greyson Richey gave us an awesome presentation on the business side of HTML5 Development. He mentioned a number of tips to optimizing your HTML5 games, such as not pre-loading everything up front. He talked about different approaches to monetizing your HTML5 games (which are mostly the same options for monetizing Flash games or other online games). He also got into talking a little about browser support for HTML5 and market penetration. The Q & A part almost erupted into a Flash vs HTML5 argument, but that's to be expected as that's still a hot topic. All in all he presented some very useful information.<br />
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After the HTML5 presentation we began the game demos. I believe we hit a new record on the number of demos being shown. I counted at least 12 demos being shown, but there were more that I wasn't able to see. Part of that was because I was showing a game demo myself, so I had less time to see what else was going on. Here's the demos.<br />
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<b>Antibody</b> - Greg Squire<br />
Yes I'm finally unstuck! After several years of just spinning my wheels, I'm back in the game (pun intended). I showed off my game Antibody, which is now using the Game Maker Studio engine. This is now the third engine for this game. I started this game years ago with the Torque Game Builder engine, but I soon ran into a lot of trouble with that engine, so I switched to using BlitzMax. Soon after that I found myself facing some family issues that took more and more of my time, which zapped both my time and my motivation, so I began working less and less on my game. Eventually I was at a virtual standstill. I now have gotten myself unstuck from all that (that's a whole other story in and of itself), and I've begun porting what I had to Game Maker. I switched to Game Maker as it's becoming very cross platform (it now supports Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, & HTML5). Anyway the game is still in the early stages but it's nice to start feeling "movement" again.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.saltvalleytally.com/campaign/detail/262">The Incredible Baron</a></b> - Victor Chelaru<br />
Victor was showing game that his team put together for the Salt Valley Talley. It's a side-scrolling RTS game where you have an army of creatures battling slugs and other enemies.<br />
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<a href="http://www.adventuretimegamejam.com/submissions/2-when-sneezles-attack"><b>When Sneezles Attack</b></a> - Rachel Helps<br />
Rachel showed off her game that she created for the <a href="http://www.adventuretimegamejam.com/">Adventure Time Game</a> jam earlier this month. It was text adventure created in Twine which featured characters from the popular Adventure Time cartoon series. I played it for a bit and found myself immersed in that world for a moment. I've often felt that text adventures (interactive fiction as it's called now) could be more powerful than graphical point-n-click adventures purely because they evoke the power of the mind to create the visuals. Perhaps this is the same reason why it's easier to sell a dream on Kickstarter, than an actual finished game. People will always "imagine" the game to be better than the finished product.<br />
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<b>Mini-game from <a href="http://www.saltvalleytally.com/campaign/detail/276">Tot Voltus</a></b> - Darius Ouderkirk<br />
Darius showed an interesting puzzle game made of hexgon pieces (faces) in a hexagon configuration. It was meant a mini-game used to gain favor with guards as part of his larger stealth RPG, Tot Voltus. You had to slide the pieces around in three different directions to basically rackup "happy points". You'd try to get rid of red angry faces while getting as many happy and really happy (blissful?) faces as you can on the board. Basically it's like the puzzle equivalent of talking your way past a guard by gaining his favor.<br />
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<b>Egg Game</b> - Mike Whitaker<br />
Mike briefly showed me an mobile game they've been working on about tending and hatching baby eggs. It was a Time Management type game where you have to look after more and more eggs and collecting more and more different eggs and hatch-lings. It was very cartoony and cute, and the collection aspect of the game could hook a lot of players in (it worked for Pokemon anyway).<br />
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<b>Nimbus</b> - UVU Student Project<br />
Nimbus is UVU student Project that is in it's early stages. It a game about tending to different planets by helping things to grow. It has a very different play mechanic where you play as the water and have to guide the droplets to the ground to help trees and plants to grow. And in so doing, you repopulate the desolate planet, bringing it back to life. <br />
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/siphonspirit/"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></a> - Peter Anderson<br />
Peter was showing off some of the latest changes he's made to Siphon Spirit. He's added a few tutorials levels that help teach people how to play it. I'm not a big fan of tutorials, but for a game with very different game play (such as this one) it's certainly warranted and maybe even needed. He's also added more cut-scenes and added more motion (and thus more life) into them. <br />
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<a href="http://thesycophant.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/caverns-of-khron-releasing-soon/"><b>Caverns of Khron</b></a> - Mike Santiago<br />
I watched someone play this game for a while and it looked really fun. Mike did pixel art for the game. It was a retro platformer with lots of traps and enemies at every turn.<br />
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<a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=4751"><b>Frayed Knights2</b></a> (tech demo) - Jay Barnson<br />
Jay was demoing the tech he's using to created Frayed Knights 2. He's using the Unity engine and has a tool he built to quickly create dungeons. He tried to make it as easy to create as drawing the dungeon on graph paper. I only got a glimpse of this, but it looks like he's succeeding at this so far.<br />
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These other demos I only got a glimpse off, but they were ones that have been shown at our gatherings before<br />
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<a href="http://www.flexitris.com/"><b>Flexitris</b></a> - McKay Salisbury<br />
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<b>Hippie Shooter </b>- Rhett Akers<br />
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<b>Tank Raige Arena</b> - Nick Terry<br />
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Here's some other demos that I'm told were there, but I didn't get to see them personally.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZyEbpgWHWA"><b>Arena Tactics</b></a> - Daniel Harrington<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.saltvalleytally.com/campaign/detail/202">Mayflower: The Seeker</a></b> - Mike Daly<br />
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<b>Mosaic</b> - Trent Baird<br />
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<a href="http://www.morphosisgames.com/wordpress/"><b>iPhone Prototype</b></a> - Chris Evans<br />
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As always there were some great discussions going on. Also someone spread out on a table some art from the game <a href="http://www.saltvalleytally.com/campaign/detail/272">Cape Chronicles</a>. I think even that added a lot to the evening. I've often thought it would be a great idea to have a sort of mini game art show in conjunction with this event. It would be another way to show case their work and not just "in game" as it currently has been.<br />
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All in all it was a wonderful evening and it got me "jazzed up" to work on my own projects more.<br />
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Viva la Indie!<br />
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P.S. Jay's writeup about the event can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=4947">here</a>. Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-59109467414772183442012-07-27T21:04:00.000-06:002012-07-27T21:18:51.477-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - July 2012<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
We had an another awesome games last night. We had just under 40 people in attendance, so it was an average turnout. Neumont hosted the event this time and it was awesome! Their site worked really well for the event. We had pizza and the formal presentation in their lecture room next door to their game lab. After that we had four games up on big screen TVs for the demo portion, and a couple of others on laptops. It worked awesome! Thanks again to them for hosting it!</div>
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We started the evening off with Josh Jones giving a presentation on Experimental Gameplay. Josh is a programmer at SmartBomb Interactive and the head of the local chapter of the IGDA. He's also been very involved in the indie scene and has created a bunch of experimental games of his own. He made some good points on how most industries have had an indie scene that helps drive the industry forward. Video games is no exception. It's usually the smaller indie games that are willing to experiment and try something new. He contends that without experimentation and innovation, the industry would stagnate and die. I agree with him on that. He also mentioned the difference between indie games, art games, and experimental games. Experimental games are those games that try something new. It could be new gameplay, new control methods, new art styles, etc. The definition of what an indie game is has been debated a lot, but typically these are games are made independent of a publisher and are usually made my small teams doing doing their own thing. Indie games are more likely to be experimental (because they are usually smaller and lower budget), but mainstream games can be experimental too. Art games are games where the focus is more on conveying a message or feeling (the art part) than on the gameplay part. Often art games can be experimental as well. Josh also went on to name a bunch of prominent experimental games like, "I Wish I Were the Moon", "Passage", "Every Day the Same Dream", "We the Giants", etc. He also mentioned how some experimental games go on to become full blown games, such as "World of Goo" (which started out as an experimental prototype called "Tower of Goo"). Further, he mentioned the awesome website <a href="http://experimentalgameplay.com/">ExperimentalGameplay</a>, which was started by some MIT students and was later opened up to the general public. Josh posted a bunch of links from his presentation <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/utah-indie-games/browse_thread/thread/889a6480ba9b53fd">here</a>.</div>
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After Josh's presentation we broke out into game demos. There were eight demos that I'm aware of, but I could have easily missed some.</div>
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<a href="http://www.califergames.com/games.php"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></a> - Curtis Mirci </div>
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I made it a point to talk to Curtis this time as he's usually gone by the time I make the rounds on demos. Anyway he's been hard at work working on Siphon Spirit now that he got March to the Moon released. I'm sure he felt that it was literally a "march to the moon" to get there, but congrats to him on making that acheivement. Siphon Spirit has been coming along. There has been a bunch of cut scenes and additional art added to the game since I saw it last. It's looking really polished now. The story really seems to add to the game and helps tie the gameplay and levels together. </div>
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<b>Japanese Coaching Game</b> - Curtis Mirci</div>
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While I was talking to Curtis, he briefly showed me his Japanese Coaching game that was designed to help you learn to write Japanese characters. It was originally made for the DS, but he's a bit fed up with his current engine and has been porting the game to his own engine.</div>
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<b>The Escape</b> - Josh Jones</div>
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This was a quick experimental game that Josh and another guy put together in about 12 hours. The game uses a platformer mechanic, but they played with the idea of dynamic binding of the controls. The game guess what you are trying to do with the controls and if the user confirms the question asked to them, it will bind that action to the control the user used. It was definitely a different approach to controls.</div>
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<b>Unnamed 2D Engine</b> - David Setser</div>
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I talked to David and he's working on his own 2D engine (written in C++) that he started on his own. He had a graphics class that got him excited about creating his own engine. It's in it's early stages so it isn't much to look at, however he hope to be able to use his own engine for some of his future projects. He also wants to open it up to others to use as well.</div>
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<b><a href="http://www.rhettcandy.com/comics.html">Hippie Shooter</a> </b>- Rhett Akers</div>
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Rhett was showing off his game Hippie Shooter that he had started back when he was a student a ITT-Tech. It's a completely politically incorrect game on many levels, but extremely fun. You are essentially a Redneck guy defending your cabin from tree hugging hippie invaders. You have few different guns, explosives, and other power-ups you can use to defend your cabin. There are exploding bunnies that set the hippies on fire. It's hilarious and I was laughing for most of the time I was able to play it. I loved it.</div>
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<a href="http://linkrealms.com/"><b>LinkRealms</b></a> - Herb Flower</div>
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Herb showed some gameplay videos of LinkRealms up on the large projection screen. It was cool to see some of the new content that they added to it since I saw it last. There were Man-eating Venus Flytraps, Minotaurs, Rock Monsters, Skeleton Demons, and more. It's looking way awesome!</div>
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<b>Bullet Train Hell</b> - Chris Tart</div>
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I didn't get to talk to Chris much, but he was showing Bullet Train Hell again. He mentioned that he's mostly been working at marketing the game at this point.</div>
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<b>Markorian Library</b></div>
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I didn't get to talk to the creators of this game, and I only saw a few glances of this one on a big screen. It was set in some sort of library and was running in the Blender Game engine. </div>
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Of course there was lots of networking and lively discussions going on. So much so that the conversations continued in the parking lot, even after we left the building. Good Times! It was a super evening as always and I came away renewed and pumped up to work on my own projects. I hope to be ready to show my game Antibody at the next Indie Night in September. So you all can hold me to that.</div>
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Viva la Indie!</div>
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P.S. Jay's write up of the night can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=4706">here</a>.</div>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-64557251821293891262012-05-30T20:02:00.002-06:002012-05-30T20:46:49.557-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - May 2012<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We had an awesome games night. It was very inspiring. We had just under 40 people in attendance at my last count. There were moments when it felt like there was standing room only. Quadruple Kudos go to <a href="http://www.ninjabee.com/">Ninjabee</a> this week, as they hosted Indie Game night, provided pizza for the event, did the presentation for the evening, and they are sponsoring the movie showing tomorrow night! Bravo Ninjabee!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">We started the evening off with Steve Taylor giving a presentation doing a Game-In-A-Day (GIAD). Steve has been a long time advocate for doing GIADs, and for good reason, as they've had a lot of good outcomes come out of the process. In fact, their first GIAD game called "Rome" (yes they did build Rome in a day) went on to become their most successful set of games for them to date; A Kingdom of Kefllings and A World of Kefllings. Another benefit that he mentioned was that by taking a break from your current project, it will give you the extra motivation you need to progress further on it. I've participated in three game jams and I can attest that that is true. I've always came away from those events with extra drive to work on my game again. He also mentioned the concept of "throwing your hat over the fence" or putting some "skin" into the game. Meaning you need to be more personally vested in your project by having other people hold you accountable for your progress. The more you have to loose, the more you'll make an effort to "not loose".</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Steve also talked about their recent GIAD event a few weeks ago. They ended up doing two games "Curse Of The Space Mummy" and "Drawrmy". It was a bit of a departure from the other GAIDs that they've done, as they used HTML5 instead of their internal engine. But isn't that the point of a GIAD after all; "to learn something". Sounds like it was a success for them. Here's a couple of blog posts on their GIAD event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://blog.ninjabee.com/2012/05/game-in-day-game-descriptions.html" target="_blank">http://blog.ninjabee.com/2012/<wbr></wbr>05/game-in-day-game-<wbr></wbr>descriptions.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://blog.ninjabee.com/2012/05/mission-accomplished-2-games-in-11.html" target="_blank">http://blog.ninjabee.com/2012/<wbr></wbr>05/mission-accomplished-2-<wbr></wbr>games-in-11.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Some of the engines that mentioned during the presentation were:</span></div>
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<a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/"><span style="font-size: small;">Scratch</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.scirra.com/"><span style="font-size: small;">Construct</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.alice.org/"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=22664991">Alice</a> </span></div>
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<a href="http://unity3d.com/"><span style="font-size: small;">Unity</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash.html"><span style="font-size: small;">Flash</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/studio"><span style="font-size: small;">GameMaker</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">You can do one yourself or with friends or as part of a more formalized game jam. The advantage of doing it with a group is you can feed off the energy of those around you. Here's three organized events that were mentioned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://globalgamejam.org/">Global Game Jam</a><a href="http://globalgamejam.org/" target="_blank"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://geexshow.com/nindex.php">GEEX</a> <a href="http://geexshow.com/nindex.php" target="_blank"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.ludumdare.com/">Ludum Dare</a> <a href="http://www.ludumdare.com/" target="_blank"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I would encourage everyone to participate in a GIAD event or the like. It can be a great learning process. They certainly have been for me. Also Spencer Lee from our group made me aware of <a href="http://nagademo.com/">National Game Development Month</a> next month, so there's another opportunity to participate in that sort of process. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">After Steve's presentation we broke out into game demos. There were six demos that I was aware of, but I could have missed some.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VQMVSISKhQ"><b>Skylantis</b></a> - UVU Students <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VQMVSISKhQ" target="_blank"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Some students from UVU were showing off their Unity game that they've been working on for over a year now. It's a game about a robot trying to save his friends in a steampunk world. You have to get around the floating islands, via a series of switches, fans, and use of a magnetic grappling hook. There's robot crabs you have to destroy, and later a boss in a room with spikes that you need to get past. I was impressed with the main robot character which has a lot of character; it even waves at you when you stand still for too long. They've done a great job with it so far. They mentioned that there will be a Kickstarter happening for the game soon as well. I hope it does well for them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>HEXLocked</b> - Tyler Wright</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I played Tyler's flash game HEXLocked. It's a Tetris like game, but it's based on hexagons instead of squares. The pieces that you have to rotate and move are a bit different, but the same mechanics of rotating, moving, and dropping them into place still apply. Also instead of a line that you are clearing at the bottom, it ends up being a 'V' shape. It was a bit challenging the first time I played it, but by the second or third time, I was starting to get it down more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.califergames.com/home/siphon-spirit/screenshots"><b>Siphon Spirit</b></a> - Peter Anderson <a href="http://www.califergames.com/home/siphon-spirit/screenshots" target="_blank"></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It's been a while since I last played Siphon Spirit, and it's definitely come a long way since then. There's a ton more visual polish in the game. The story is interleaved between the levels and serves to teach you how to play as you go. In playing this game I was reminded how bad I am at some action games (I'm more of an adventure / puzzle game sort of person). I had trouble getting past the first boss as I could never seem to absorb enough energy to get past the first boss. I had so much trouble that Peter helped me out by modifying the level slightly to add more available energy to the level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Unity Prototype</b> - <a href="http://www.natestoker.com/">Nate Stoker</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Nate was showing a small prototype that he put together in Unity. He mentioned it was learning project for him, so he could learn some other aspects of Unity. He had a pig character as the player character, but it will be replaced by a cow character later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv0rwcJDzn8"><b>March to the Moon</b></a> - Curtis Mirci</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Curtis had to take off before I could see his changes to "March to the Moon", however we did talk for a bit and he mentioned that is has been submitted to XBox Indie Games now. So this means that it will soon be ready to be purchased and enjoyed. Congrats Curtis for making that huge milestone!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><a href="http://www.flexitris.com/">Flexitris</a></b> - McKay Salisbury </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I didn't get a chance to see the progress that McKay has made on his Flexitris game, but he was there showing it to everyone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Of course there was lots of networking and lively discussions going on. It was a super evening and I came away renewed and energized as usual. In fact, so much so, that I'm officially "throwing my hat over the fence" to have another demo to show to the group in 4 months time. So you all can hold me to that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Viva la Indie!</span></div>
</div>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-70492096023164553002012-04-02T23:35:00.001-06:002012-04-02T23:35:13.730-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - March 2012This writeup is way overdue, so this will be quick again. We had another great Indie Games Night this past Thursday night. The EAE department of the U of U hosted in their space on campus and it worked out well. We had an average turnout around with just over 30 people there. This is down from the last few we've had, but it was kind of nice to have a more intimate feel at the event again for a change.<br /><br />I gave a presentation on Building a MAME Arcade Cabinet. I made it it short and sweet so that we could get to the real heart of the event, which is the showing of demos and networking. It was a stripped down version of a presentation I gave at ITT-Tech three years ago. And while it was technically not related to game development, I felt it was related enough and of enough interest to the group. I think it was well received. I brought in my control panel from my cabinet in and had it hooked up to my laptop and the projector, and let people try it out throughout the evening. Seems like Dragon's Lair was the game of choice for most of the evening.<br /><br />As usual there were lots of good discussions and demos being shown. Here's the demo's that I saw:<br /><br /><b>Tower One</b> - Student Project<br />This one was a student project that looked interesting, but is in its early stages. It was a Unity based game and the game play was very similar to the old game Nebulus (aka Tower Toppler or Castelian). You basically need to transverse your way to the top and avoid the "baddies".<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C0ZxyP3Q-0"><b>Heros of Hat</b></a> - Damean Lyon and team<br />This is a big team project by U of U students. It's a cute 3D platformer with co-op game play. It was designed as an Xbox game to be used with controllers, and up to four players. I was really impressed with the amount of art and polish they already had in the game. In the game your player can wear different hats that give you different abilities. The archer hat give you arrows that you can shoot at enemies, and you can also ride them to get over hard spots. Another hat gives you bombs to destroy enemies or even launch you upwards to hard to reach platforms. And another hat gives you a fire attack. There are even some bouncy mushrooms that looked really fun. They reminded me of the bouncy mushrooms in Mario Kart Wii.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezdf7Tyzyjs"><b>Curse of Shadows</b></a> - Student Team Project<br />This was made by several students from the U. It was essentially a cartoony 2D platformer with a Ninja / Stealth theme. You only have the ability to stun your enemies from behind, so you have to use stealth as much as possible. However when you are in the radius of a light, you can enter the world of shadows and become your shadow. In shadow mode you are invisible to the real world, but you are also visible to shadow monsters (kind of like when Frodo put on the Ring). You have enter and exit shadow mode at the appropriate times in order to get through the levels<br /><br />BTW, both Heros of Hats and Curse of Shadows should be coming to XBLIG soon.<br /><br /><b>Ruins of Bufana</b> (working title) - John Moore<br />This is a 2D puzzle platformer made in GameMaker. To get through the single screen levels you have to use your wits to use switches to open doors and panels, jump over ledges, avoid spikes, and throw stars or use your sword against the enemies. It looked very fun and challenging.<br /><br /><b>Tank Raige Arena</b> - Nick Terry<br />Nick and I got talking about GameMaker so he showed me an early version of Tank Raige Arena, back when it was based on the GameMaker engine. I didn't realize he had started with GameMaker, but I was impressed with what he could do in 3D with it, as most GameMaker games are 2D.<br /><br /><b>Bullet Train Hell</b> - Chris Tart<br />Chris showed me his latest build of Bullet Train Hell for the iPhone; which is almost complete. He's added some more visual polish, such as wispy lines to create a wind effect. I played it for a bit and it's very challenging; of course much of that is by design as Chris loves to make them challenging.<br /><br /><b>March to the Moon / Siphon Spirit</b> - Curtis Mirci<br />I noticed Curtis showing his soon to be released March to the Moon (and also Siphon Spirit) again, though I didn't get a chance to talk to him about his progress. I know he is getting close to releasing March to the Moon.<br /><br />Again it was an awesome evening<br />
<br />Viva La Indie!<br /><br /><br />Jay's writeup about the event can be found <a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=4151">here</a><br /><br />Also here are the resources from my presentation that I promised to post.<br /><br />Book - Project Arcade<br />Written by John St. Clair<br /><a href="http://www.projectarcade.com/">http://www.projectarcade.com/</a><br /><br />Websites<br /><a href="http://www.arcadecontrols.com/">http://www.arcadecontrols.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.mameworld.net/">http://www.mameworld.net/</a><br /><a href="http://www.buildahomearcade.com/">http://www.buildahomearcade.com/</a><br /><a href="http://cosmicjive.net/arcade/super/index.shtml">http://cosmicjive.net/arcade/super/index.shtml</a><br /><a href="http://retro.ign.com/articles/867/867066p1.html">http://retro.ign.com/articles/867/867066p1.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.klov.com/">http://www.klov.com</a> (The IMDB of arcade machines)<br /><br />Parts Suppliers<br />Happ Controls - <a href="http://www.happcontrols.com/">http://www.happcontrols.com/</a><br />Groovy Game Gear - <a href="http://www.groovygamegear.com/">http://www.groovygamegear.com/</a><br />Ultimarc - <a href="http://www.ultimarc.com/">http://www.ultimarc.com/</a><br />OzStick - <a href="http://www.ozstick.com.au/">http://www.ozstick.com.au/</a><br />eBay ā <a href="http://www.ebay.com/">http://www.ebay.com</a><br /><br />Pre-Built Solutions<br /><a href="http://www.xgaming.com/">http://www.xgaming.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.mameroom.com/">http://www.mameroom.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.gamecabinetsinc.com/">http://www.gamecabinetsinc.com/</a><br /><a href="http://www.custom-arcade.com/">http://www.custom-arcade.com/</a><br /><a href="http://dreamauthentics.com/">http://dreamauthentics.com/</a><br /><a href="http://globalvr.com/products_gac.html">http://globalvr.com/products_gac.html</a> (Ultracade)<br /><br />Emulators & Front Ends<br />M.A.M.E. - <a href="http://www.mamedev.org/">http://www.mamedev.org/</a><br />Daphne - <a href="http://www.daphne-emu.com/">http://www.daphne-emu.com/</a><br />HyperSpin - <a href="http://hyperspin-fe.com/">http://hyperspin-fe.com/</a><br />MaLa - <a href="http://malafe.net/">http://malafe.net/</a><br />MAMEWah - <a href="http://mamewah.mameworld.net/">http://mamewah.mameworld.net/</a>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-49455622158875055162012-02-02T08:33:00.000-07:002012-02-02T08:33:03.105-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - January 2012Okay this may be a rather quick post again. We had another awesome Indie Games Night last night, with about 60 people showing up. We had a new host this time, Neumont University, and it was an awesome venue to have it at. They brought in pizza and the room had some awesome big screens on which we could present our demos. That worked very well.<br />
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We started the evening off with a presentation by Les Pardew of Funium on the Digital Media and Entertainment Act which they are trying to get through the legislation process here in the state. The act would establish a fund which could help fledgling media companies to get off the ground. The fund won't be built from taxpayer money, and it will be mostly used to help build infrastructure to the film, music, and games industries, and thereby spawn more economic growth and in turn bring more tax revenue back to the state. At least that's the basic idea. He also brought along the creator of the bill, Jeremy Christensen of the Film Fund of Utah, and also Carl English of the Utah Technology Council, who is a backer of the bill. It seems like this could be a good thing overall for the games industry in Utah. I'm not sure how much it will help the average indie just yet, but it seems there are some possibilities for small teams that have proven themselves a little bit.<br />
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After the presentation we began the demos. Here's the ones that I saw, but I'm sure I missed some.<br />
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<b>Sayeeds Three Day Pizza</b> - Jarod<br />
This game was a UVU student project and it looked pretty good. It was a 3D platformer using Unity. The idea is that you are delivering pizzas in the desert and you have to use dust devils to move up/down. Also there are crickets to watch out for too.<br />
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<b>Lone Gnome & Infinite Ammo</b> - Paul Milham<br />
Paul showed me a couple of HTML 5 games that he's been working on. Lone Gnome is a puzzle game where you create a path through the level by clearing out gems and what not. You can only clear objects when you hit them in the right direction.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.gotoandwin.com/game/halloween-panic/">Halloween Panic</a> & SOPA / PIPA</b> - Mike Whitaker, Edgar Nielsen<br />
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The guys from <a href="http://www.cerbercat.com/">Cerbercat</a> were there showing Halloween Panic again and mentioning that they are making a mobile version of it. It's a fun game of trying to save trick-o-treaters from hoards of gouls, ghosts, etc. Also they showed me a funny political game called "SOPA / PIPA" where you fire your SOPA or PIPA weapon at pirates, and try to minimize the "collateral damage". It had a good message of you will always have more innocents affected by SOPA and PIPA than pirates.<br />
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<b>Bullet Train Hell</b> - Chris Tart<br />
Chris brought the latest version of his game to show off. He's making an android port of the game now and he showed me some early screens of it on his android tablet.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.linkrealms.com/">LinkRealms</a></b> - Herb and Dan Flower<br />
I didn't get a chance to talk to Herb and Dan about their progress on LinkRealms, but I saw some screens from afar and they had a bit of a crowd around their game. The big addition seems to be in Player versus Player combat being added. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRy2y3N1t8w"> Here's a taste of what's new</a>. <br />
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<a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2012/herb-and-hamster"><b>Herb and Hamster</b></a> - Josh Jones and Crew<br />
Josh and some of his team showed off their game that they made at the Global Games Jam this past weekend. It's an interesting cooperative play game about a little guy named herb and his giant hamster<br />
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<b><a href="http://califergames.blogspot.com/2012/02/time-for-some-beta.html">March to the Moon</a></b> - Curtis Mirci<br />
I didn't get a chance to see Curtis' latest version of this game, but it had quite a bit of a crowd there for a while, and I heard a lot of laughs coming from that area. It looks like it was a success.<br />
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<b>Vector Out</b> - Nuemont Students<br />
I briefly saw on the big screen a game called Vector Out, which I'm assuming was a project done by some Nuemont students. It looked to be a shooter game in the style of geometry wars<br />
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<b>Tank Commanders</b><br />
Jay mentioned in his blog a game called Tank Commanders, which is one I missed. Perhaps this is the one that Chris Evans showed. I was hoping to see that one, but wasn't able to.<br />
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Also this past weekend was the <a href="http://globalgamejam.org/">Global Game Jam</a>. I participated again and there were over <a href="http://globalgamejam.org/og/games/16892/list">12 games</a> made by 50 people at our local <a href="http://globalgamejam.org/sites/2012/igda-salt-lake-city">Salt Lake site</a>. It was really awesome. I did something a bit different this time and ended up working on a board game with another smart guy (Daniel Hadlock). I think it turned out great. Several of us stayed afterwards and played a round, and there was a lot of laughing and we could tell that everyone was enjoying the game, which is a good sign. The game is called <a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2012/escape-infinity">Escape from Infinity</a> and is a Print and Play game. You can print it out and play it if you'd like.<br />
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It was a great evening.<br />
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Viva la Indie! <br />
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<br />Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-80350225423929201502011-12-02T03:19:00.005-07:002011-12-02T03:34:14.783-07:00Utah Indie Games Night - November 2011<div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Okay this might be a rather quick blog post as work and home duties have been keeping me pretty busy lately and it has delayed my write up.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">We had another great Utah Indie Games Night this past Tuesday night. <a href="http://www.ninjabee.com/">Ninjabee</a> hosted it once again after a bit of a sabbatical. They are in new digs now and their new place worked well to hold the event. We had between 45-50 people there</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Lee Baker from <a href="http://www.sandmanstudios.com">Sandman Studios</a> started off the evening with a presentation on some of their experiences making visual effects and flash games. They got their start doing contract special effects work for TV and film. They did the effects for Pushing Daisies and a whole host of other TV shows and films. They've also done a whole host of flash games to promote products and larger games. He showed a bunch of demo reels for things they've done and it certainly was impressive. Lee also mentioned that it's pretty hard to find investors/publishers for your projects when you are first starting out, as you haven't really "proven yourself" yet. In my mind that underscores the reason for doing indie projects. You don't need people telling you what your project should be and what it should look like; you can do it yourself.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Afterwards we opened the time up to game demos that people brought. I'm sure I missed some, but here's the one's I know about.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">D.R.O.D. 4</span> - Mike Rimer - <a href="http://caravelgames.com">Caravel Games</a></div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Mike has been hard at work on the next game in the DROD series. He's holding a contest for fans to guess the name, so we're calling it "DROD 4" for now. He did let me say that there is a letter "L" somewhere in the name. I got a small look at the game and it appears to be back to the traditional DROD game mechanics, however much of the game is above ground so there are some different level settings like water, forest and swamp. Mike mentioned that there are some puzzles that utilize the water by pushing things into it. There are also levels where you can call on soldiers to assist in battles. Apparently large battles is a big part of this new version of DROD. The game looks to be nearly complete, and he's done a great job on it. It think the fans will be pleased. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.appbrain.com/app/me-and-my-zombies-lite/gigabitdragon.mamz"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me and My Zombies</span></a> - Andrew Draper & Matt Radley</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">I spent a bit of time with these guys playing their Zombie game. This is a turn based stragegy game for the Android platform. The main object is to trap and destroy the Zombies before they get to you (a budding necromancer). You can put up fences to block them or fire at them if you're close enough. You can also have duels with another necromancer (perhaps a friend playing as player 2). The lite version of the app is available now on the android market.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a href="http://www.califergames.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Siphon Spirit</span></a> - Peter Anderson (also Curtis Mirci and Dave Matney)</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Peter was showing the latest version of Siphon Spirit on his new tablet PC and was using the stylus to move the mouse around (pretty cool!). He's added some new animations as well as some enhancements to levels to make them more balanced and interesting.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><span style="font-weight: bold;">HTML5 Prototypes</span> - Admiral Potato</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">I didn't catch his real name, but "Admiral Potato" showed my some small HTML 5 demos that he's worked on. He had one demo using an "Asteroids like" game mechanic and using a visual style similar to Geometry Wars. I haven't delved into HTML 5 much yet, but I was impressed with what can be done with it.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.flexitris.com/">Flexitris</a> - McKay Salisbury</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">McKay was showing Flexitris again. Not a lot has changed since I've seen it last, but he mentioned that he's been added tutorials to the game.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bullet Train Hell</span> - Chris Tart</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">I only saw Chris' game for a little bit. He's been adding an in game level editor to the game. That way he can tweak the different levels right on the device (instead of making changes on the laptop; recompiling; and then pushing it out to the built in </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://moodle.flyuvu.com/sandbox_2010/mobilemedia/game/flightSchool.html">UVU Flight Simulator</a> - Nathan Stoker</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">I didn't get to see this one, but I spoke to Nathan about it for a bit. This a flight simulator that UVU has been putting together. Nathan has been doing a lot of models for the project. Looking good so far. It's built in Unity, so you can click on the link above and play it.<br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tankraigearena.com/">Tank Raige Arena</a> - Nick Terry</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Nick showed Tank Raige Area again, but I was unable actually see it this time around.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><a href="http://vazor222.com/linetastic/linetastic.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Linetastic</span></a> - Josh Jones</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Josh showed his quick game he did at GEEX for the Game-In-A-Day event.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">I noticed that Alan Atherton was there showing a game, but I didn't get to see it (so I don't know what it's name or what it was about).</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">As always there was some great conversations going on, including one about the game engine called <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu">Scratch</a>. It's a project that M.I.T. put together and it's purpose is to help kids (and even adults) to learn how to program. It's similar to Game Maker or Construct in some ways, and it has a visual language that consists of putting blocks together. Apparently it's pretty powerful to use, and a couple of guys have had their kids write games with it. It appears to be a great learning tool. You should check it out.<br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Anyway things went really well. Our next one should be towards the end of January.<br /><br />BTW - Rachel's write up on the evening can be found <a href="http://thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com/2011/11/november-utah-indie-game-night.html">here</a>.<br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: small; ">Viva la Indie!</div>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22664991.post-9233412428753640192011-09-30T20:16:00.013-06:002011-10-03T09:34:59.297-06:00Utah Indie Games Night - September 2011<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family:arial;font-size:small;" >Wow, last night was AWESOME! We had a really great turn out (over 50 people) and it was an enormous treat to hear from Tracy Hickman, a renowned game designer and best selling author. He had a lot of wisdom to impart to us, and I felt like a sponge just soaking it all in. I certainly learned a lot from his presentation on "Story and Meaning in Games".<div><br /></div><div>Tracy started his presentation on how story gives meaning to events. He mentioned that the news is done in a story format these days because story can communicate meaning. A pure journalistic approach would be communicating just the facts and then letting the reader decide. However the media likes to give "the story" so they can help shape our thoughts and opinions about the events, and thus sway our thinking towards their agenda.</div><div><br /></div><div>He described different kinds of story structure in games from a linear type to more of a branching type used in games, with both hard and soft boundaries to help guide the player and plot to flow in a general direction. He also went into differing types of characters, and how you can boil them all down into eight different types. Four of those types are "driving" characters that help move the plot along, and the other four are mere "passengers" that come along for the ride. It's interesting to note that in some stories the main character doesn't have to be a "driving" character, and he used "To Kill a Mocking Bird" as an example of this.</div><div><br /></div><div>He also discussed the four different through lines within a story. He mentioned that games do a good job of presenting the "Objective" and "Main Character" through lines, however they don't yet do a great job at presenting the "Subjective" and "Impact Character" through lines within a story. Because of this, stories within games can fall a little "flat". There does seem to be some truth to this, as I haven't been impacted nearly as much by stories within games, as I have been by stories within film and prose. I'm not an avid fiction reader, but from my own experience I can say that stories within the written word have taken on more meaning to me than stories within film, and then to a lesser degree, stories within games. I think this is in large part because my own imagination fills in those gaps, and the visuals from movies or games just can compete with that. Perhaps it's just that storytelling within games hasn't had enough time to "catch up" to where storytelling is within film, as film has had a lot more time to advance as an art form than games.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Tracy ended with a thought on how his books have impacted others and likewise our games could effect and change the world as well. I know we probably don't think about that much, as we ascribe ourselves as being mere entertainers, but we have the potential in our art and craft to touch lives (hopefully for the better). When I look back on my life, I can remember stories within books, movies, and games (mostly adventure games for me), that have filled my life with more meaning and have a special place in my heart. Those "stories" have had a powerful impact on my life, and I think we sometimes underestimate the power of "story". I think we have a responsibility as game designers to imbue our games with more meaning, and touch the lives of others in a positive way.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Apparently Tracy also offers classes on storytelling, both online and in-person. So if you're looking to just improve your storytelling abilities or are looking to write own novel and publish it to the world, you can find some help from Tracy on his site at <a href="http://www.scribesforge.com/" target="_blank">http://www.scribesforge.com/</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Also you can catch Tracy's presentation </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-A8sV6Ja8A">here</a><span style="font-style: italic;">. (Note the video is flipped) Kudos to Ben Benson for making this available, and kudos to Brad Baker for helping to bring Tracy to our event.</span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>After Tracy's presentation we moved to the U's Xbox lab for our demos. We had so many demos happening that I wasn't able to see them all, but I'll mention the one's I saw and those that I knew where there. I'm sure I missed some and I apologize that I wasn't able to get to them. Here's the eleven that I know about.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://frayedknights.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Frayed Knights</span></a> - Jay Barnson</div><div>Jay was there showing off Frayed Knights for the last time, as he has finally reached that milestone that many of us want to achieve, and that is finishing and releasing your game. Congrats Jay; I'm jealous now (as I still haven't released anything yet). I also hear that there was a celebratory cake given to Jay in commemoration of this event. I was a bit late to the event and didn't see this happening, so I'm thinking at this point that the cake was a lie. ;) (You Portal players know what I'm referring to here.) Anyway Kudos to Jay for reaching this milestone.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.bunzaga.com/wrds/NerdWord.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">NerdWord</span></a> - Brett Unzaga</div><div>Brett had an interesting game that is sort of a hybrid of Scrabble, Boggle, and the falling tiles game mechanic. It's an online game where you try and beat the scores of other players. Everyone has the same game board for that day, so it's fair. The tiles are Scrabble like by having different point values, and the object is to construct words with the different tiles like you do in Boggle. Once you've constructed a valid word, those tiles are removed from the board and any tiles above those removed tiles will then slid down into play. The person who constructs the highest point value set of words at the end of the day is the winner.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://smote.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Smote</span></a> - Bryan Livingston</div><div>Bryan's game "Smote", has come a long way since I saw it last. I played it for a bit and there are some real graphics in there now; not just a bunch of white blocks as it used to be. It's sort of a hybrid between an RPG and a top down shooter. I love the art style he has going with the stubby little anime characters; it's very cute and endearing and fun too. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Multifarious</span> - Devin & Dustin Jenson</div><div>I only got to see this iPad/Android game for a brief moment. It's being made by two brothers and they've done a great job so far. It's a physics puzzle game of sorts where you have to tilt the iPad to move blocks and/or balls to their final destination. It starts simple but then gradually adds more objects that you have to manipulate at the same time. It can be frustrating when have to tilt the iPad to slide a block to the left, but not so much that another ball will fall off a teeter-totter. They are using Adobe Air to power their game. I think it's a great game so far and I hope it does well for them once they get it to market.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0YRp-YGOhM"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Faerie Alchemy</span></a> - Ben Benson</div><div>Ben works for <a href="http://subsoap.com/">Subsoap</a> and has been working on an iPad/iPhone puzzle game that combines Tetris and Match3 game mechanics. It looks very near completion and he's done a great job on it. It took me a moment to figure out the controls on his mac laptop for the game, but I imagine that since its a game for a mobile device that the touch controls would be much more useful. The game is also written in Monkey and that piqued my interest as I've played a bit with that language a bit and I'd like to use it for a future mobile game project.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://vazor222.com/cardwood/cardwood.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CarWood</span></a> - Josh Jones</div><div><div><a href="http://vazor222.com/cardwood/cardwood.html" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family:arial;font-size:small;" ></span></a>I wasn't able to get to Josh's latest experimental game at the event, but I was able to play it a bit later. The theme this time was "Story Game" and its a Ninja vs Robots type game, however you are half ninja half robot, so you don't really fit into either world. On his blog he mentions that "two AI agents determine the dynamic elements of the story", which seems like a unique approach to AI, instead of the usual one master AI controller.</div><div><br /></div></div><div><a href="http://califergames.blogspot.com/2011/09/normal-difficulty-levels-finished.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">March to the Moon</span></a> - Curtis Mirci</div><div>I got a brief look at the progress Curtis has made on his hybrid RPG and vertical shooter. He's been making "crazy" progress on it and he's nearly complete with everything. He's added a bunch more weapons, abilities, and art since I saw it last. Kudos to him for making some rapid progress on this. (Again I'm jealous.) Also I noticed that both Bryan and Curtis are making RPG/Shooter hybrids. Are they working together on something? Hmmmm?</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://linkrealms.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Linkrealms</span></a> - Herb & Dan Flower</div><div>I noticed that Herb and Dan were showing LinkRealms again, however ran out of time before I could see their new changes. They are always improving their MMO, so I'm sure it's just getting better and better.</div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bullet Train Hell</span> - Chris Tart</div><div>Chris was showing his awesome Bullet Train Hell again. I only got a glimpse of it but it looks like it's coming along nicely.</div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tile Factory 2</span> - Jonathon Duerig</div><div>Again time was short so I didn't get to talk to Jonathon about his sequel that he's making, but I think it's cool that he can leverage some existing code and art for his new game. You can find the original one <a href="http://armorgames.com/play/6771/tile-factory">here</a>.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-crysis-of-cthulhu">The Island of Cthulhu</a></div><div>I didn't get to see this student project which is apparently a Crysis mod, but judging from the video and screenshots on the modDB site, it appears that they are doing a great job with it.</div><div><br /><a href="http://moodle.flyuvu.com/sandbox_2010/mobilemedia/game/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">UVU Flight Simulator</span></a> - Nate Stoker<br />Nate showed off a flight simulator that he did some of the models for. I didn't get a chance to see this at the event, but was able to play it a bit later on. It's built in Unity and web enabled. It looks really good.<br /><br /></div><div>All in all it was a wonderful evening. We were truly fed some sage wisdom from Tracy and we saw some incredible games in development. I'm always amazed and humbled at the talent of the indies here in Utah. We definitely have an awesome group. I can't wait until next time.</div><div><br /><br /><br /></div><div>Viva la Indie!</div><div><br /><br /></div><div>BTW, here are some other write-ups of the evening</div><div><a href="http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=3369">http://rampantgames.com/blog/?p=3369</a></div><div><a href="http://thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/utah-indie-game-night-september-2011.html">http://thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/utah-indie-game-night-september-2011.html</a> (Part 1)<br /><a href="http://thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/utah-indie-game-night-september-2011_30.html">http://thepretentiousgamer.blogspot.com/2011/09/utah-indie-game-night-september-2011_30.html</a> (Part 2)<br /></div></div></div></span>Greg Squirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00431279774889931769noreply@blogger.com2