UW Game Development Club

This is a day later than usual. I bet you’re all hugely disappointed in me now. That’s ok. If you weren’t already it was probably inevitable. The next GDCIE will be Tuesday March 6, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035. We will be discussing:

Phone Story, by molleindustria
http://phonestory.org/index.html

So we are already done with our brief foray into Interactive Fiction for the term. We have our IF Jam coming up in a week and a half, so keep an eye out for more information on that later this week, if you’re interested (along with some links to more sources of inspiration if you want to check out soem more IF on your own).

Phone Story is a game about the production of smartphones. It was originally released on the Apple App Store, and banned a few hours later. You can read all about that, plus additional information on the game’s content and intent, on its website. It is now available for Android devices, jailbroken iOS devices, and has a web version that you can play on your computer. It will only take a few, maybe five, minutes to play through.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

Well, it’s time to come back to our weekly discussions now that reading week is over with. Our next GDCIE will be tomorrow, Tuesday February 28, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035. We will be discussing:

The Binary, by BloomEngine
http://bloomengine.com/binary/

and

Rematch, by Andrew Pontious
http://www.wurb.com/if/game/1114

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

A fire rages inside Fred St-Amour’s belly, so bright it reaches his eyes. This flame can heat arguments – as my boss at one point, it ignited a few between us – but the fire is also what makes him special: I have yet to meet a man more dedicated to improving games and pushing beyond fantastic.

But you probably have not heard of this fiery, thirty-something, father of two, alongside the Levines or the Howards, because Fred doesn’t do triple-A console titles – instead he evolves mobile and handheld in his day-to-day.  This web series is dedicated to exposing people like Fred, who has yet to see any of the limelight his passion and his work have earned.

So, I didn’t get this figured out as soon as I had meant to, which means you’ve had to wait a bit longer than I had let on to find out what we’ll be talking about after reading week. But no longer! The next GDCIE will be Tuesday February 28, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035. We will be discussing:

The Binary, by BloomEngine
http://bloomengine.com/binary/

and

Rematch, by Andrew Pontious
http://www.wurb.com/if/game/1114

So, a double feature. We have an Interactive Fiction Jam (IF Jam) coming up, so we’re going to be getting into some of that for the GDCIE. These two have a common element in terms of puzzle solving, though they both handle it a little differently. So we’ll maybe get a little compare and contrast going.

The Binary is browser based and very straight forward in terms of interface. Shouldn’t take too long to play through either. About 45 minutes seems like a good guess for playtime, though I honestly can’t actually remember how long it took me. Sorry.

Rematch, on the other hand, is a little more traditional, as far as IF goes, in its interface. So you’ll have to type commands in the game, but hopefully it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out how to play if you’ve never done an IF before. You’ll also need to run the game through an IF Interpreter to play it. Gargoyle (Windows, Mac and Linux)  is pretty decent and works with a lot of different IF formats. When playing you’ll probably want to use the Auto mode, which will automatically undo your last (and only) move when you lose (you’ll get the option along with the normal options to quit, undo or restart when you hit game over). I think it took me a little over an hour to beat the game.

Setting aside just a couple hours should be enough time to play through both of them.

We also have those two GDCIE bonus discussions coming up on the irc channel, the Tuesday (tomorrow) and Thursday of reading week. This will probably be the only reminder I do for them.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

We will be having our regularly scheduled Dev Night tomorrow, Friday February 17, 2012, at 7:00pm in our usual room of ML216. So if you’re not skipping town the first chance you get this reading week, you can start it off with some game development, or just general hanging out.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

Next week is reading week, so there will be no GDCIE proper. If you do not want to take a break from the discussions, we can have a couple bonus discussions during the break. Let’s say we have them on Tuesday and Thursday.

Both of the two games I’m going to recommend discussing are commercial games, meaning you need to pay for them. They’re both very artsie games. Not particularly ‘fun’ games, necessarily, with maybe not a lot of ‘game’ in them. My advice would be to look into the games a bit to see if they’re something you might be into. If you don’t feel like they will be a worthwhile use of your money, then you can safely skip these discussions (that’s why they’re bonus). But if the games seem like your sort of thing, then you’ll have a chance to talk about them, and their successes and failures.

We’ll discuss:

Dinner Date, by Jeroen Stout (Tuesday February 21, 2012 at 6:00pm on irc)
http://thestoutgames.com/:DinnerDate
(currently 50% off on Steam for the next 16 hours or so, meaning you can get it for only $2.50)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/94000/

and

Dear Esther, by thechineseroom & Robert Briscoe (Thursday February 23, 2012 at 6:00pm on irc)
http://dear-esther.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/203810/
(this is the remake of a mod for Half-Life 2, so I suppose you could use the original mod for a sort-of-demo if you’re on the fence)

We’ll have the discussions on the club’s irc channel (#uwgdc on irc.freenode.net). Any questions, leave a comment below.

I have not yet decided what we will be discussing for the normal GDCIE when we resume after reading week, but I will let you know as soon as I decide, which will hopefully be sometime in the next couple of days.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

I almost forgot (to do this post), but then I remembered, so now I’ll remind all of you, too. The next GDCIE will be tomorrow, Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035. We will be discussing:

don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story, by Christine Love
http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/

Hopefully you’re not all too busy with tomorrow’s celebration of consumerism and can make it to the discussion. Am I really anti-consumerism, or just bitter because I’m single? You decide (that’s not what we’ll be talking about that tomorrow, we’ll be talking about the game).

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

Some of us Game Dev Club execs have experience in the traditional games industry, working for the man outside of the indie scene. We know a significant number of industry employees (artists, programmers, designers, producers) and we want to leverage these contacts for our club. Previously, we’ve tried getting speakers to come talk to our club, or we’ve hosted a podcast with them (both of which could come back, if there’s enough demand) but we wanted to switch to online articles, so we can have a steady stream of insider content that takes less time for both us and our contacts.

But here’s where our query comes in, something that applies to any content we do with industry insiders: what type of content do you want to see?

Back when we were all wee tots, insider information is something I cherished, because it was so rare to get a look behind the development curtain. But in an era of internets, blogs, and special editions, that curtain has been replaced with a massive window, letting those who look in the direction of our industry see the full Monty. Does insider info still matter? Do you still care?

We execs are a jaded bunch, and cannot come up with an answer. Any insider info is our day-to-day. But what about you, perhaps striving to break into the gaming industry? Do you care about the opinions of the people making the games you play? Do you care about them as people? Do you want to see articles detailing them? Or their job? Or their views? Or, even, their random ramblings?

Please, let us know in the comments, and we’ll do our best to make it so.

Well, we started the term going completely backwards. Now we’ve done a sharp turn, a loop, and have ended up somewhere else entirely. Hopefully this doesn’t leave you too lost to make it to the next GDCIE which will be Tuesday February 14, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035. We will be discussing:

don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story, by Christine Love
http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/

See? See? Not a roguelike. I didn’t lie. It’s a visual novel, so hopefully you’re not completely adverse to that sort of thing (though if you are, give it a shot anyway and come to the discussion and say why you didn’t like it). It also means that we’re finally playing the sort of game where it makes sense for me to give you an estimated play time. My first play through took me about three hours.

Interesting (maybe not really) fact: last year on the same date, during the GDCIE’s first term, we discussed another game by the same lady.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple

And, hey, look, it’s time to do my little reminder about the GDCIE tomorrow, Tuesday February 7, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2035, where we will be discussing:

DoomRL, by Kornel Kisielewicz
http://doom.chaosforge.org/

If this sort of game, all ASCII and Roguelike and so forth, hasn’t clicked with you so far, then fear not. I swear we will be discussing something else entirely next week. Honest. I’m not lying this time.

Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple