Knox Game Jam 2025 – Kickoff

April 4, 2025MeetingsKnox Game Design

Knox Game Jam 2025

Kickoff meeting

When: Friday April 4, 2024 7pm EDT

Where: Panera Bread on N. Peters Rd, Knoxville, Tennessee

Kickoff for ideas, brainstorming, and game development discussion
Goal: Make a game in 48 hours
Use any game engine or library
Unity, Godot, Unreal, GameMaker, MonoGame, SDL, Allegro, etc
Your game is your prize

Submissions

Submit your games here: https://itch.io/jam/knox-game-jam-2025

Theme

Here are some suggested themes. Make a game based on one of the following themes, or make something completely different!

Creation And Destruction
One Item, Two Actions
Night
A Small World
Symmetry
Dig Deeper
Alternative Reality
Running Out Of Space
After The End
Unusual Magic

During the kickoff meeting, we put the themes on a virtual gameshow wheel. We spun the wheel and it landed on Alternative Reality, which is the official theme for Knox Game Jam 2025.

Simulations – Knox Game Design, March 2025

March 29, 2025Links & Notes, Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

What is a simulation? Are simulations games? A look at simulations such as SimCity, Micropolis, and Conway’s Game of Life.

Links and Notes

Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/blob/master/simulations/conway/conway.c
Micropolis source code – https://github.com/SimHacker/micropolis
MicropolisJS – https://www.graememcc.co.uk/micropolisJS/
LifeWiki (Conway’s Game of Life) – https://conwaylife.com/wiki/Main_Page
djgpp – https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Simulations - Knox Game Design, March 2025

00:00 / 23:05

Sockets – Knox Game Design, February 2025

February 24, 2025Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

New Game Releasing this month

Check out the new game Shrine of the Forest God by Dustin, which will be released on Steam on February 28, 2025.

Monthly Presentation

How to create a simple client and server socket connections in Python to send network data. Demo of how to use socket code to implement a simple command line networked number guessing game in Python.

Links and Notes

- Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/sockets/python
- IANA port number registry – https://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xhtml
- Python – https://www.python.org/
- Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Sockets - Knox Game Design, February 2025

00:00 / 18:57

Drag and Drop – Knox Game Design, January 2025

January 29, 2025Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Explanation of how to implement drag and drop interface for games. Demos with source code include Unity (C#), MonoGame (C#), GameMaker (GML), and SDL (C).

Links and Notes

- Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/draganddrop
- Unity – https://unity.com/
- MonoGame – https://monogame.net/
- GameMaker – https://gamemaker.io/en
- SDL – https://www.libsdl.org/
- Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Drag and Drop - Knox Game Design, January 2025

00:00
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30:30

Solitaire – Knox Game Design, December 2024

December 30, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Overview of steps to create a Solitaire game in Unity.

Links and Notes

- Demo source code – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/solitaire
- OpenGameArt card front sprites – https://opengameart.org/content/playing-cards-vector-png
- OpenGameArt card back sprite – https://opengameart.org/content/colorful-poker-card-back
- Unity – https://unity.com/
- Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Solitaire - Knox Game Design, December 2024

00:00 / 38:30

Blender Normals – Knox Game Design, November 2024

November 28, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Explanation of mesh model face normals in Blender, which are imported into Unity. Steps to show normals in Blender and how to flip and recalculate normals.

Links and Notes

Demo project – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blender_normals
Blender – https://www.blender.org/
Unity – https://unity.com/
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Blender Normals - Knox Game Design, November 2024

00:00
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8:50

RPG Battle Damage – Knox Game Design, October 2024

October 16, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Analysis of how battle damage is calculated in role playing games (RPGs). How damage is calculated in traditional table top RPGs using dice rolls. Statistical analysis of outcomes of various dice combinations. Calculation of battle damage in the video game RPGs Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and Final Fantasy along with verification of damage outcomes.

Links and Notes

Dragon Warrior (NES) Formulas v1.0 – https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/563408-dragon-warrior/faqs/61640
Dragon Warrior/Items and Equipment, StrategyWiki – https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Dragon_Warrior/Items_and_Equipment
Attributes, Dragon Quest Wiki – https://dragonquest.fandom.com/wiki/Attributes
List of character statistics, About Dragon Quest Wiki – https://dragon-quest.org/wiki/List_of_character_statistics
Final Fantasy Game Mechanics Guide – https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/nes/522595-final-fantasy/faqs/57009
The FF4 Battle System, Free Enterprise Wiki – https://wiki.ff4fe.com/doku.php?id=battle_mechanics
Final Fantasy IV Weapons, The Final Fantasy Wiki – https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_IV_weapons
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

RPG Battle Damage - Knox Game Design, October 2024

00:00 / 25:32

NFTs – Knox Game Design, September 2024

September 28, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Overview of how to use NFTs (non fungible tokens) in games, including how to mint tokens, specify trait values, and using OpenSea API to read NFT data into a game. Demo of Unity RPG game using NFTs for equippable weapons.

Links and Notes

Blockchain RPG demo – https://github.com/levidsmith/KnoxGameDesign/tree/master/blockchain/BlockchainRPG
OpenSea API – https://docs.opensea.io/reference/api-overview
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

NFTs - Knox Game Design, September 2024

00:00 / 17:40

Blockchain for Game Development – Knox Game Design, August 2024

August 26, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Proof of concept demonstration on how to implement a blockchain to track game currency and purchase of game items. In this demonstration, the blockchain is created in PHP on a Fedora Linux virtual machine running in Virtual Box. The block chain is pulled into Unity through C# networking code. Regular expressions are used to parse the blockchain to return the user’s game currency and items purchased.

Links and Notes

Creating a blockchain with Javascript – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqczFZr124&list=PLggJAWhpyrRxKmetiP3RdTa7VAbGaXWub
SHA-256 standard – https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.180-4.pdf
RFC3339 – https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3339
ISO8601 – https://www.iso.org/standard/70907.html
UUID – https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9562
Setup VirtualBox VM as server – https://www.howtogeek.com/122641/how-to-forward-ports-to-a-virtual-machine-and-use-it-as-a-server/
Unity JSON Serialization – https://docs.unity3d.com/2020.3/Documentation/Manual/JSONSerialization.html
Newtonsoft JSON parser – https://www.newtonsoft.com/json
NFTs at Magic Eden – https://magiceden.io/
NFTs at OpenSea – https://opensea.io/
Gaming NFTs at OpenSea – https://opensea.io/learn/nft/gaming-nfts
Ethereum blockchain – https://ethereum.org
Ethereum transactions – https://etherscan.io
Polygon blockchain – https://polygon.technology
Polygon transactions – https://polygonscan.com
BitCoin blockchain – https://bitcoin.org
BitCoin transactions – https://mempool.space
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Blockchain for Game Development - Knox Game Design, August 2024

00:00
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51:50

Exploring NES Memory – Knox Game Design, July 2024

July 27, 2024Podcast, PresentationsKnox Game Design

Demonstration of how to use the FCEUX emulator memory tools to determine the memory location of in-game variables, such as number of coins. How to set a breakpoint with the Hex Editor to find the 6502 assembly code that is executed when a memory location is changed. Analysis of assembly code for awarding an extra life when 100 coins are collected. Verification of OpCodes used. RAM Search for alternate searching of NES memory for specified values.

Links and Notes

FCEUX – https://fceux.com/web/home.html
Super Mario Bros memory map – https://www.romhacking.net/documents/345/
FCEUX Hex Editor – https://fceux.com/web/help/HexEditor.html
6502 Opcodes – https://www.pagetable.com/c64ref/6502/
Podcast theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Exploring NES Memory - Knox Game Design, July 2024

00:00 / 14:35