Unity Links
100 Things Every Game Student Should Know
MindSweep – Video Game Makeover
NES Tutorial (How to make an NES game)
Game Jam: THE RETRO CHALLENGE!
One Game a Month Challenge – Levi’s Page
Levi’s Knox Game Design Twitter List
Knoxville Game Developer Twitter List
Clara.io (Free web modeling tool)
Josh described a tool for brainstorming a game’s characters and story. I’ve found a site “StoryStarter” that sounds very similar you can read for more details.
First, you start with a table:
| Character | Setting | Motivation | Obstacle 1 | Obstacle 2 |
For each character you complete the columns using the following template sentence:
It is a game about [character] in [setting] who is motivated by [motivation] and must overcome [obstacle] and [obstacle]
Last meetup I mentioned we would be announcing a Techco AppCamp for teens, and we have!
Learn to build an application for your android phone or Tablet in one day. We will use the MIT Android App Inventor system. The App Inventor uses programming “blocks” to teach the concepts of programming. No earlier programming experience required!
If you or someone you know is interested, check out all the details on the TechCo Blog announcement for AppCamp.
Game jam:
MIT App Inventor:
Project Spark:
Look for a local Knox Game Design dev in a bundle at Indie Gala soon!
OpenIAB Information:
GameJam Entries:
In Progress Games by Members Mentioned:
Software Mentioned:
Audio / Video Gear Shown or Mentioned:
Other Stuff Mentioned:
Be sure to stop by your favorite coffee shop this week and grab the January 23rd, 2014 issue of the Knoxville Metropulse, with cover story featuring the Knoxville Game Design meetup and the game jam. If you can’t wait, you can also read the story online or download a PDF version that includes photos. (In case these link no longer work in the future we’ve made an archive copy of the story here). A big thanks to Mike Gibson (author) and David Luttrell (photographer) for their work covering the group and our participation in the game jam.
Our next meetup is February 9th and the topic is tentatively “music”. I’ve reached out to local musician Zack Parrish and he will be coming to the group for a indie game music Q&A but his schedule is packed so it won’t be for a few months. If anyone has a topic they would like to share for February let me know, if not we’ll go forward with “music” in a round table discussion style.
Show and Tell Links:
Unity 2D Links:
(Quick reminder, our normal meetup has been moved to next weekend and is in a special format for the game jam).
Some big things happening for local indie developers this month!
First, Levi D. Smith has released ANSI_GFX_ADVNTR on the Xbox 360. You can find the game under the Xbox Live Indie Games section on the Xbox 360, or send it to your console directly from the xbox.xom website. Here is a bit on the game from the press release:
Knoxville, TN – November 2013 – Levi D. Smith presents TTY GFX ADVNTR, his second game published on the XBox Live Indie Game marketplace. TTY GFX ADVNTR puts the player in the role of a hero who must defeat the dragon to save the princess.
The idea for the game was originally conceived through the game jam competition, where the theme was to create a game using a low level programming language in 48 hours. The game was inspired by BBS DOOR games of the mid-90’s, and it uses a graphical style of games that were played through a computer terminal (TTY). After receiving positive feedback from the Indie developer community, Levi decided to port the original game to the Xbox Live Indie Game platform so that it could be enjoyed by a wider audience.
As the hero, the player must battle monsters across five different lands to gain the experience needed to conquer the dragon. Long time RPG fans will find the battle system and mechanics very familiar. While on the adventure, the player will meet various allies who will assist the player in progressing through the story. Weapons and armor crafted by the blacksmith will give the player the needed power to complete the adventure.
Second, Chaosoft Games will be bringing EvilQuest to Steam! As part of the December 4th batch, EvilQuest was greenlit to be on Steam, the largest digital distribution site for games (it’s estimated that 75% of all digital games purchased for the PC are through Steam). I hear that Josh Ferguson has already commissioned a gold plated version of G1 Megatron appropriate to his new status in society.
KGD member Levi D. Smith took part in a game jam. The theme was a “Low-Level Jam” and contestants to create a game using a programming language or tool that does compile into a machine language. Using C, Levi created ANSI_GFX_ADVNTR a game inspired by BBS DOOR games of the mid-90’s. Check out the video below of the game with developer commentary: