UHACC Game Jam Team?

[herteljt]

So I would really like to participate in a game jam sometime. I've be aware of these weekend coding events for a while and I think they are a neat idea. I was thinking that perhaps our virtual club can plan to work together on something. We could use google hangout and other online tools to work together (those of us living in close proximity could actually meetup).

Two that are coming up are Ludum Dare http://ludumdare.com/compo/rules/ the first weekend of December and Global Game Jam http://globalgamejam.org/ during the last weekend of January.

I'm thinking we could work on something simple for the first go and try to play to the strengths of the team.

Any takers?

Edit: Looking at my schedule, the Global Game Jam seems like it would be doable. I think I'll be too busy to commit to Ludum Dare.

[akraut]

I'm definitely in to build something. I think @mystal has done the Ludum Dare before. Global Game Jam sounds like a good one to do. I'll get some git hosting going on this server for our code.

[BaseCase]

I definitely can't do the December one, but I would totally participate in the Global Game Jam! I've got that whole weekend free in January, so count me in

[mystal]

January's a long time away, but I don't currently have any plans! Putting it down on my calendar so I don't forget

Interested in any particular technologies or game genres? I recommend a very small simple game, especially since I've never finished a game jam.

[BaseCase]

I've messed around a little bit with HTML5 games (just using javascript and <canvas>), so that'd work fine for me, but I'm open to any tech people want to try. I've heard great things about Unity so that's another option. I agree about small I'm not very good at cranking things out quickly in jam-type situations so small is good!

[herteljt]

Awesome!

Well I'm putting the Global Game Jam into my calendar.

+1 million for keeping it small.

Since I consider myself a noob for pretty much any language I don't have a preference. I've messed around a little with some of the block-based programming languages recently (e.g., Has anyone played around with App Inventor? http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/), but I haven't done any significant text-based coding for a while.

I'm most interested in Android Apps myself. I think it would be neat to create an app that takes in some type of real-world input from a device and incorporates it into gameplay. For example, I was thinking about about an app where the player is in a room and fights creatures as they appear. These creatures are generated on-the-fly from the names of wireless networks that the phone detects as the player moves around in the real world.

I don't have any preferences about genre.

[herteljt]

I'd still like to do this. January was busy with school, but we're almost done now. I'm thinking that the end of June or middle of July would be a good time.

I found a site that lists a bunch of different game jams going on http://www.indiegamejams.com/

Are others still up for trying something?

[BaseCase]

I am definitely still interested in this! June/July are bad months for me for an as-yet-unpublicized reason but I'm down for participating in anything later on

[herteljt]

Let's aim for August then so that you can be a part of it. As it happens, August 21-24 is when the next Ludum Dare takes place. http://www.ludumdare.com/

[BaseCase]

Count me in for August Ludum Dare It overlaps by a couple of days with a tech conference I plan to go to (Madison Ruby) but that won't take the whole day and I'm sure I can juggle the two.

[herteljt]

Great! Who else is in? @mystal @akraut

[akraut]

Sure, I'm in. It'll be after I'm back from DEFCON.

[akraut]

Upon reflection on my current employment contract, I am unable to participate in the game jam.

[herteljt]

Sad panada

[akraut]

You have no idea.

[BaseCase]

I'll be unemployed so I can game jam twice as hard.

[herteljt]

Only a few weeks until the Jam! @BaseCase @mystal are you still in? Anyone else? @shinjikun34 @AriT93 @mongoose @elfstones

I think we should probably try to hammer out a few ideas about how we're going to approach it in terms of responsibilities, software, etc. I can create a new topic for it or we can just use this forum. Thoughts?

[BaseCase]

Yup, I am still in! I don't have any strong opinions about how we go about it. I've been messing around with Unity a little bit (and intend to dig in more in the next few weeks) so I'd be up for that. If we wanted to go a bit more in the OSS direction I've played around a tiny bit with http://melonjs.org/. But really, anything is fine with me!

[herteljt]

Awesome! I've been playing around with Inkscape a bit for a different project so perhaps we can use that to generate graphics. I'm fine with trying whatever language you want (though I'll probably be more of an ideas guy realistically).

They have a list of popular free tools on the Ludum Dare website if you want to see other possibilities. http://ludumdare.com/compo/tools/

I just read through the rules and I don't think there is anything there that I'm particularly concerned about. http://ludumdare.com/compo/rules/

[BaseCase]

OK, cool. I just read the rules and likewise am not concerned about anything in there

I think, if nobody else has strong opinions on tools, I'll see where I get in the next 2 weeks with learning Unity. I just googled "Inkscape Unity" and it sounds like it's easy to make sprites in Inkscape and import them into Unity's 2D tooling. And if I don't feel I've learned enough Unity come Jam time, we can fall back to MelonJS, which should be reasonably quick to get going with since I know JS pretty well.

Sound good?