About
Games
Events
Facebook Group
Steam Group
Google Group

Upcoming

All Events

Recent

More Events

News

Now you can preview a game before submitting it!

This should help a lot with that keyboard stuff. I'm sorry it took so long.

Little keyboard keys!

Now you can put little button things on your game pages!

Check it out: WHOA.
<kbd>W</kbd><kbd>H</kbd><kbd>O</kbd><kbd>A</kbd><kbd>.</kbd>

When you're posting a game, there's code you can copy and paste. That said, read on if you want to do anything sophisticated.

Beginner: Buttons

To make a regular button, just wrap a letter or phrase in keyboard tags, like so:

Press Shift to jump.
Press <kbd>Shift</kbd> to jump.

Advanced: Invisible buttons

Let's say you're using arrow keys:

↑
←↓→ to move.
<kbd>↑</kbd>
<kbd>←</kbd><kbd>↓</kbd><kbd>→</kbd> to move.

That won't do. Shift the top button over by adding an invisible button before it.

↑
←↓→ to move.
<kbd class=invisible> </kbd><kbd>↑</kbd>
<kbd>←</kbd><kbd>↓</kbd><kbd>→</kbd> to move.

(Tip: If you get confused, click and hold on an invisible button to make it temporarily visible: right→←there.)

Double advanced: Boxed buttons

Let's say you want to include arrow keys in the middle of a sentence:

Press ↑
←↓→ to move.
Press <kbd class=invisible> </kbd><kbd>↑</kbd>
<kbd>←</kbd><kbd>↓</kbd><kbd>→</kbd> to move.

That won't do. Keep the buttons all on one line by putting them in a box.

Press ↑
←↓→ to move.
Press <kbd class=box><kbd class=invisible> </kbd><kbd>↑</kbd>
<kbd>←</kbd><kbd>↓</kbd><kbd>→</kbd></kbd> to move.

So, to recap:

  1. <kbd></kbd>
  2. <kbd class=invisible></kbd>
  3. <kbd class=box></kbd>

You can see them in action in the two example games, MOVE RIGHT and Kill the Bunnies.

Don't worry, you don't have to memorize this stuff; when you're posting a game, there's some code you can copy and paste.

Leveling Challenge Winners!

Scratch that actually two games leave.

Both teams win! Both teams get prizes! I don't fully understand either! Hooray!

We will not be taking questions; this press conference is over.

Have fun on your finals!

Leveling Challenge Voting

Two games enter. One games leave.

There were two submissions to the Leveling Challenge, and the creator(s) of one of them will win ~fabulous prizes~. And you get to decide which/who!

Play both games:


Planes of Steel


Existens

Vote whichever way is most convenient for you:

  1. Comment on the Facebook post.
  2. Reply to the Google Group post.
  3. Mail your vote anonymously to sjsugamedev@gmail.com.

To vote for Planes of Steel, say "I vote for Planes of Steel!"

To vote for Existens, say "I vote for Existens!"

Now play them and vote!

If you didn't attend the meeting today,

Read the absolutely outstanding summary written by the absolutely outstanding Kristi.

(I added a teeny bit of formatting on top of the original's.)

The Leveling Challenge!

Don't forget that the leveling challenge has already begun! The theme for this game challenge is, as you may have guessed, leveling. This can mean whatever you want it to mean as long as you are prepared to defend the meaning. You could have a game with a character that gains levels, or build a structure with multiple levels, or simply progress from one level to another.

The official challenge page is up right now so don't forget to submit your works-in-progress so we can see how your game is shaping up!

The deadline for the challenge is Dec. 1st and we will be looking at any prototypes that are ready at this Thursday's meeting.

Get crackin'!

The Digital Game Museum is having a fundraising tournament!

It's at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, on the 19th, from 3pm to 10pm. Here's more details at Eventbrite.

Source Engine Workshop!

Hallo! The Game Dev Club is hosting a workshop on the Source Software Development Kit (SDK) this Tuesday, November 8th. It will take place in the Art Building in room 241 and is expected to run from 7:00-10:00pm. This workshop is intended to give an overview of how to work with the tools provided (for free) by the Source SDK and how you can use these tools to get started on making your own game levels and mods. We will try to make it informative for both artists and programmers, but it is also open to anyone with an interest in making games.

A more robust explanation of the event and the software you'll need is over yonder in our "Upcoming" sidebar ------------->

Oh, and don't forget to bring a computer! (We've got a number of desktops in the room, but there probably won't be enough for everyone.)

Check it out, new digs!

The beta website is now the main website!

If you have suggestions or ideas, I set up a Google Moderator page, where you can suggest things and vote on them, anonymously or nonymously. Go vote on what you think I should fix first!

Kill the Bunnies, etc.

I have been kind of silent on here because I have been working on the next version of this website, which supports GAME UPLOADING and is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. This is the kind of thing you don't really need to care about, but if you've been like "man, why is there no news, I don't know when the next meeting is", that is the reason.

Kill the Bunnies

Today, during the meeting, I demonstrated KILL THE BUNNIES, a thoroughly distasteful and very simplistic Pong clone. I moved kind of fast, and those of you who paid attention might not have been able to keep up, and THAT'S OKAY. The important thing is that you are sort of more oriented now than you were before, a little bit!

You can play kill the bunnies by going to the page that I just hyperlinked there, did you see it? ^ That has a .zip file which includes a .exe, which is a GAME you can PLAY, and a .gmk, which is Game Maker's native file format.

You can open the .gmk by downloading Game Maker from yoyogames.com oh hey more hyperlinks. (Don't worry, it has a free version. I've been using it for almost a decade.) Game Maker itself includes a tutorial when you first open it, which is super handy! You can learn pretty much everything that I demoed today from that tutorial.

More Learning

If you missed today, or you feel really nauseous after attending it, I have good news: There will be a longer, less disorienting tutorial session in the near future!

On the weekend of September 31st, probably either on Friday or on Saturday (it's not decided yet), you are invited to bring your laptops and install Game Maker, and I will manually walk you through the steps to creating a simple game. You can make Pong, or anything the heck else if you don't feel like Pong, within the bizarre-and-sometimes-arbitrary constraints introduced by making a game in two hours.

Even More Learning

If you have any questions about Game Maker, or other game making platforms, ask away on the Facebook group. There are people on the Facebook group, and they can help you. I am among them!

Unity3D

Some people asked about making 3D games. The most beginner-friendly way of making 3D games nowadays is Unity, which also has a free version. Unity is pretty hard to get into if you don't have any experience coding, so I only recommend it if you know what a "for loop" is and how to use it.

Unity is pretty fun for messing around in a 3D environment, and you can use it to make components and levels for 3D games -- so even if you can't code, it's worth downloading for giggles.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be a game night, and it will take place on September 29th at 7pm, and it will take place in the Art building, room 241.

For the rest of the semester, every other week is a game night! Isn't that swell?

Pages

Recent Games

Misfit Ninja

This was a project for the Fall 2011 Art104 Game Studies Course taught by James Morgan. Made with Game Maker 8 Pro, this project took an estimated 80 hours over a one month period to finish. There is no plot, and the game design was inspired by the frustratingly awesome Super Meat Boy. Objectives: Navigate the levels trying to achieve the fastest time possible, and collect cherry blossoms for an added challenge. Each level has an optimal route which will cut down completion times by half, try to find them! Controls: Along with the game exe, you will find an Xpadder profile for a Xbox360 controller with the optimal layout for the game, to switch on Xbox360 controller button displays go into the game options. Keyboard Controls: (Xbox controls are explained in game options) Movement: ←→ Jump/Select: Spacebar Sprint: e Replay Level: r Back to Map: b Main Menu: Esc
Town Defender

Created as a final project for the Art 104 Game Studies Class (Fall 2011). Currently in Beta version. Controls: Arrow Keys to move, Z to attack. Story: The Plague has spread throughout the lands, corrupting all that it comes in contact with. You are the village's last hope! Defend them from the onslaught of incoming monsters! Once the Town Crystal is destroyed, it's game over. The player can automatically respawn after death. They must defend the town as long as they can before the crystal is destroyed. Monsters slowly grow stronger after each wave. ---------------- To Fix: -Monsters grow stronger as Wave Level increases. Player currently has no way of getting stronger or to heal. -Score does not reset when the game restarts. Possible Future Planned Content: -Health Regen (Sprites created, but not sure how to implement) -Powerups that grant new ways to attack (Sprites created, but not sure how to implement) -More monster types - Villagers rebuild their walls/buildings after being damaged (only when that wall or building is not being attacked) - Resource collecting? (Collect wood and stone and give to the villagers so they can upgrade their walls/homes?) - BGMs? (some kind of rockin' battle music)
(Asteroids+1)

What if Asteroids had a leveling system? This was made for the Fall 11 Games Studies class.
Shaken to the Core

The first of two games that I made for Game Studies. It's a platformer, move from left to right, just play it (controls are explained in-game).
Existens

You are a wisp that has the power to dash, ram, and shoot. The aggressive make their way to higher planes of existence in order to prove their worth and claim the ultimate title of "The Highest." Many threats will await you in your journey, and how you traverse through these realms determines whether or not you reach that title. This is only a prototype and may or may not be improved in the near future, hopefully the former. CONTROLS: ↑ ←↓→ to move Z to dash X to ram C to shoot left V to shoot right
More Games