Remember, we have this end of term social Artemis thing tomorrow, Tuesday July 31, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. So take a break from studying or whatever you might be doing tomorrow and spend some time pretending you’re manning the bridge of a spaceship with the rest of us.
For best results, bring your own laptop. Since the captain doesn’t actually interact directly with their terminal, we can probably make do with one less laptop than crew members, through magic or something. It’s a windows based game, but the FAQ mentions that people have had luck running it under WINE, but I have not tried this myself. It’s also easy to run in a virtual machine (it doesn’t have very steep requirements or anything).
You also will not need your own copy of the game. Captains will have a copy to share with their crew (but if you’re running a crew outside this event, support the devs and buy it).
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
So, the term is over now and we have one last thing coming up. We’ve pushed our end of term social back a bit. It’s going to be Tuesday July 31, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. Yes that’s the middle of exams. But, hey, take a break from studying to come and spend the evening hanging out with all the other fine aspiring game developers. The current plan is to play a bunch of Artemis (the spaceship bridge simulator (that’s bridge as in the command room of a ship, not the card game being played on a spaceship or a bunch of spaceships spanning a bit of water or whatever)), with the main screen up on the projector. If enough people show for two ships, then we’ll try to find another empty room to get a second crew set up (projector and all).
In other, maybe somewhat related news, we will be postponing the retry of the community jam until a future term. That’s the slightly more diplomatic way of saying we’ve decided that we’re not going to try running the community jam again this term after all. Apologies if this upsets anyone who might have been looking forward to it. If it does upset you, then feel free to use your preferred communication means to yell at us (no bricks through windows though, please). I guess this just hasn’t been a great term for jams.
But, yeah. End of term Artemis. You should come to that.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
It’s almost over. What a depressing time of year. The final GDCIE of the term will be tomorrow Tuesday July 24, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. We are discussing:
Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now (B.U.T.T.O.N.), by the Copenhagen Game Collective
http://brutallyunfairtactics.com/
We’ll be playing the game at the discussion, as we do with these multiplayer deals. Should be a good time, and hopefully won’t result in many injuries.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
The last dev night of the term is happening real soon, this weekend, on Friday July 20, 2012 at 7:00pm in SLC2143. Might be a possibility of snacks. It might be a good time. You might find it a good chance to be productive. Or not.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
A huge thanks to everybody who came out to see my talk yesterday evening about HTML5 game development. As promised, I have uploaded the source to GitHub. The online demo is still online as well. If you have comments or questions, you can throw words at me on Twitter.
GitHub page: https://github.com/noffle/rocket-tag
Playable Demo*: http://stephenwhitmore.com/UWGDC/game/index.html
Again, thanks for coming out! Have a great rest of term!
–
Stephen Whitmore
* Note that I can’t promise the demo will remain online long-term.
I hope it doesn’t make you too sad (at least a little sad is good), but this next will be the last GDCIE of the term. It’s going to be on Tuesday July 24, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. We’re going to be discussing:
Brutally Unfair Tactics Totally OK Now (B.U.T.T.O.N.), by the Copenhagen Game Collective
http://brutallyunfairtactics.com/
This is, *gasp*, a commercial game (real cheap though). But it’s also a multiplayer game (in fact, it’s a physical party game about pressing a button). Which means we are going to be playing it at the discussion. So you don’t need your own copy, or need to play it on your own beforehand. This will hopefully be a fun discussion, as is how I like to end the term. Hopefully it doesn’t end with anybody grievously hurt.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
Ha ha, oops. I totally forgot about posting this reminder, though I did not forget about the actual discussion. So, yes, the next GDCIE will be today, Tuesday July 17, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. We are discussing:
Sunshine Boulevard, by Willow Palecek
the rules
The Secret Lives of Serial Killers, by Willow Palecek
http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/the-secret-lives-of-serial-killers
So, there’s that.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
Squeee. I’m excited. It’s Paper Jam time, and just in case you all wanted to know the theme, here it is:
Theme: Regret
Subtheme: Life
There you go, you can start brainstorming, and possibly drafting some rules, now. We have ML216 booked from 10am until 10pm tomorrow (so, basically all day). So, we’ll meet up there in the morning or whenever to start jamming and playtesting and all that good stuff. The Paper Jam will end at approximately 9:00pm on Saturday July 14, 2012, so that’s roughly 24 hours from now.
If you’re getting started tonight, and want to to talk ideas with people before actually meeting up tomorrow, we can use the club’s much neglected irc channel (see the About page). I’ll make an effort to sit on the channel for a while this evening.
I and the club have a few materials that will be at the Paper Jam, such as dice and paper and cards and jam and whatever. But if you know any materials you’re going to want to use in your game, or you think would be useful in general, the only sure way to have access is to bring them yourself. You can also share with others, too.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple
The wealth of technologies and horsepower that lies underneath the hood of a typical 2012 web browser is pretty staggering. There was a time, not too long ago, when the status quo of brower-based gaming was effectively defined by Adobe Flash (and perhaps a smattering of Java applets). With the rise of HTML5, the Canvas tag, and the powerful WebSockets, a new dawn of browser gaming, devoid of proprietary plugins, has begun. Exciting times indeed.
Strongly in line with this dramatic piece of prose, I will be holding a talk next week on the topic of game development using HTML5 technologies. In particular, it will home in on the use of HTML5 Canvas (via Cocos2D-JS) and WebSockets (via Socket.IO) in creating multiplayer games. The talk will not be overly concerned with the underlying theory, and will focus very strongly on the practical construction of a multiplayer game in an hour*.
As a bit of a divergence from the typical approach of hands-off talks, those in attendance who bring laptops will be able to quite literally test and play the game while I’m developing it. I expect to be writing code for much of the hour, while narrating my actions and taking questions along the way. This is all, of course, to demonstrate how easily one can put together a real-time multiplayer web game in a very short period of time.
The talk will be held on Thursday, July 19th at 7pm in MC 2017. See you then!
–
Stephen Whitmore
(For the curious, or those who wish to follow the game remotely as it is built, the URL will be here.)
* -Ish.
I’ve gone and realised that this next discussion will the the penultimate GDCIE of the term. That’s a little bit depressing. I think I need a hug. At any rate, this next discussion is going to be happening Tuesday July 17, 2012 at 6:00pm in MC2017. We will be discussing:
Sunshine Boulevard, by Willow Palecek
the rules
The Secret Lives of Serial Killers, by Willow Palecek
http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/the-secret-lives-of-serial-killers
Thematically, it’s a little outside of the areas I’m used to, but maybe the chance to pretend we’re not all terrible people will be refreshing.
I sort of wanted to run this discussion before the Paper Jam (which is happening this coming weekend), for a bit of inspiration and the like, but this is the way things worked out. This is an interesting sort of rpg, where the rules basically just look like structured improve. We’ll be playing it at the discussion, so don’t worry about trying to play it beforehand. If you don’t think you’re up to this sort of role-playing, then you also needn’t worry. There should be more than plenty to discuss here on a purely conceptual level without needing firsthand knowledge of how it actually plays.
Nothing left to say,
Jonathan Semple