Announcements

Edit: Sorry, Action’s video won’t actually be posted, since he requested that no video be taken. I didn’t realize!

Things that happened

Brian gave an awesome presentation. Seriously, it was so great! Speaking personally, it enabled me to solve like ten design problems in one game alone, and it gave me a lot of food for thought for future and past games. Speaking impersonally, everyone I talked to loved it too, so you don’t have to take my word for it.

Also, Kristopher’s “Stability” won! A poll was conducted on our Facebook page and his entry got the most votes.

Things that will happen

Videos of Brian’s and Action’s presentations will be posted. Stay tuned!
Edit: Sorry, there won’t actually be a video of Action’s presentation.

Kristopher will get a yoyo with a Microsoft logo on it for winning, and all the participants of the budget crisis challenge will get an Xbox 360 game. We figured there’d be enough participants for there to be both winners and losers…

I’m sorry

This post is awfully short in proportion to how long I procrastinated writing it. :O

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There’s no corresponding post with the rules for this competition, because I am a terrible person who hasn’t been updating the website, but here is what the rules were, quoted directly from the PowerPoint shown at the meeting:

• Make a game about the budget crisis!
• Work on teams of up to 5 people to make a new game
• Any artwork used must be made by members of the club
• Any sound / music must be original or in the public domain
• Each member can only be on one team
• Games are due at the next meeting, on April 27th

GovernmentRipsoff, by Andrey Andreev

Here’s a direct link to the download for the .zip.

Stability, by Kristopher Windsor

Here’s a direct link to the download for the .zip.

Budget Crisis 9000, by Chris Nelson

Here’s a link to a page with the download.

Budget Game, by Marek Kapolka

Here’s a direct link to the .swf, which will open in your browser.

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[Note: Due to incredibly stupid planning on the part of the Game Dev Club's board, Brian wasn't able to make it to our April 6th meeting. It was our fault, not his! Do not think of less of him, think less of us. We're sorry. But: He will make it to this one!]

*swoon*

Brian Urbanek of Cryptic Studios will be speaking at our May 11th meeting! I already talked about him on the post that announced our poorly planned meeting, but I can reveal new tidbits:

His talk will be titled Matching Theme and Mechanics in Game Design, it will be 30-40 minutes, and it will have a Q&A at the end. This is something I have been thinking about in the back of my mind, so I’m looking forward to it! Are you?

I want to go, tell me how to go

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Guadalupe Room in the Student Union, San José State University
RSVP on Facebook, if you like

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(Kelsey note: Sorry, there wasn’t an announcement post for this meeting. If you missed it, there will be a video posted, so all is not lost!)
(Second Kelsey note: Oh, I guess there won’t be a video, because Action requested that one not be taken. Sorry, I didn’t realize.)

Announcements:

• May 11th is our last meeting of the semester
• The next Glorious Trainwrecks Klik of the Month is May 15th
  • We won’t be meeting in person, but you can participate online
• If you have not yet received your reimbursement for GDC, please see Cindy

We presented the Klik of the Month games that members of the game development club during our Glorious Trainwrecks events, which were made within 2 hours

Action of Choma Coders on Chromacoders.org gave the members of the Game Development Club insight in how to build and manage their own game studio.

The game dev resources that Action provided are

The free book on social games…
http://www.chromacoders.org/book.pdf

The php code base for making your own social game in a few days…
http://www.chromacoders.org/BookCode.zip
http://www.chromacoders.org/fun-social-mmo-generator.doc

Here is a link to the interview in the presentation…
http://www.chromacoders.org/super-rewards-podcast.mp3

Here is a link on making money off iPhone games…
http://www.chromacoders.org/super-rewards-iphone-podcast.mp3

Also board members of the new semester were announced during the meeting.

and the winners are…

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Here we go again!

On Tuesday, April 20th at 7pm the second grand master tournament of Mortal Kombat Dance Dance Revolution will take place. This is a double elimination tournament. Come early to get in on some practice rounds. The fighting will take place in Room 241 of the Art building on the San Jose State Campus. The art building is underneath the word ‘State’ on this Map

Sweet videos I made of the last event.
Mortal Kombat Dance Dance to the Death!

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Glorious Trainwrecks is an online community celebrating the spontaneous creativity that comes from making games using children’s gamemaking tools under severe time constraints.

The third Saturday of every month, they host Klik of the Month, an event where participants are encouraged to use the simplest tools and the lowest standards possible to make a game in two hours.

We, the Game Dev Club at SJSU, have discovered that it’s a lot more fun if you meet up in person to do these together! So we’re doing that.

The last time we did this was possibly the best day ever, so we’re doing it again! Like I said last time, no experience of any kind is necessary. If you haven’t made a game before, we will teach you how! Just ask the six people so far who have made their first game at one of these things.

But When, Internet Guy, and Where?

Room 227 (on the second floor) of MacQuarrie Hall, San Jose State University
Saturday, April 17th, 3:00pm – 6:00pm
RSVP on Facebook, if you’re one of those social networking types
Sign up on Glorious Trainwrecks, if you want a cryptic email reminder

Oh and by the way: There’s a good chance that we’ll be filmed.

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[A historical note, for future-people: Brian wasn't able to make it to this meeting due to stupid planning on the part of the Game Dev Club's board. Think less of us, not of him! He is awesome and we are unreliable.]

Sorry for the late notice, but we have a meeting this Tuesday! We will have a guest speaker, Brian Urbanek from Cryptic Studios, talking about game design, probably. We must have a contact at Cryptic or something, this is the second time we’ve had someone from there to present.

Brian has been working on MMO design for over ten years! He most recently worked on the design of superpowers and combat in Champions Online, the “subscription-based, superhero-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game by former City of Heroes/Villains developer Cryptic Studios based on the Champions license.”¹

Okay here’s some interesting links

• Champions Online’s website has an interview with him that should give you an idea of what it is he does for a living (or did in September 2008, anyways). Recommended!
• He wrote two articles (one two) about balancing systems in Champions, both of which are fascinating, seriously!
• He was one of four developers interviewed for an article about balancing classes in MMOs. I think I am seeing a pattern here.
• He was interviewed in three parts (one two three) about combat dynamics and powers and balancing and math.

I haven’t read all of these, but you should! Do as I say, not as I do. And then come to the meeting, which I will be doing.

The Deets²

Tuesday, April 6, 2010
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Ohlone Room in the Student Union, San José State University
RSVP on Facebook, if you’re one of those people

1. Wikipedia is the best. [↩]
2. That’s short for “details”! [↩]

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There’s another Glorious Trainwrecks event wherein you make not a game, but a level for an existing (wonderful) game! It’s a perfect opportunity to apply what we have learned recently. As with all Glorious Trainwrecks events, the idea is just to make something stupid without caring about the quality, so don’t be afraid to participate!

Since it’s such short notice, we won’t have a physical meetup, but I thought you’d want to know about it anyway. There’s a link to a chat, and people will be talking, so you can still get your camaraderie fix. <3

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We had like fifteen people come to the gamesmash and like ten of them were making games! Like five of them were making games for the first time! That’s awesome.

Here are some of the games made for it, in no particular order! Because never actually asked what anyone’s name was (oops), they are attributed to usernames.

I Love You But You Kiss Like a Girl, by mkapolk

mkapolk is the one who originally came up with the idea of physically hosting Glorious Trainwrecks events, starting with when we made like 35 games in what we called an Intergalacticollabogamesmash! PROPS TO HIM. He’s somewhere in the process of changing majors from Computer Science to Digital Media Arts.

Invasion of the Spiders and the Bee in the Middle, by trimon

I’m pretty sure that this was trimon’s first game! Nice. He’s some kind of Art major, I think.

Cave Shooter, by Kitaru

Kitaru doesn’t look like a nerd, even when he tried on my glasses! I’m not sure how he does it. I’m almost certain that he’s a Computer Science major.

Duck Hunt remake, by gregsqueeb
[SCREENSHOT]

I’m almost certain that a) this was gregsqueeb’s first game and that b) he’s some kind of Art major! Sweet!

Jumps, by KristopherWindsor

Kristopher couldn’t make it in person, but he was with us on the Internet! He’s a Computer Science major.

UFO, by GingeRage

GingeRage made his first game, and he’s an Art major! There is a pattern here which can be explained by natural phenomena.

THIS IS NOT AN ART GAME, by Cavalcadeofcats

Cavalcadeofcats is actually a University of California, San Diego student! He was visiting because he is home for spring break. He is an HONORARY TEMPORARY member of the Club, or something.

FAKE GAME, by Fake Person
[FAKE SCREENSHOT]

I know there are at least four games that didn’t get uploaded! This is unfortunate, it means that not all of our games can be seen. To upload a game, go to the Klik of the Month Klub #33 page and click on upload it here (it’s in the post).¹²

It’s best to include a screenshot–it just is!–and to tag your game with “sjsu”, so that we can more easily find the games made at these physical events. Click to see the games we have made at these physical events! If you haven’t uploaded a screenshot or you haven’t tagged your game with “sjsu”, you can find your game and click “Edit” at the top of it to do those.

If you upload your game or add a screenshot, tell me on Facebook (I’m Kelsey Higham) and I’ll update this post!

1. If you were using Game Maker, you’ll want to compile an executable–that’s a fancy way of saying that you’ll want to save the Game Maker file as a .exe. To do that, go to File > Create Executable… or click the equivalent toolbar button. Then right-click on the .exe file and do Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder, so that it’s smaller. [↩]
2. If you were using Klik & Play, I can’t actually remember the instructions, but I know that only one person was using Klik & Play and that he’s smart enough to figure it out. Remember to include the .DLLs in the .zip, Joe! The game won’t run without them. [↩]

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Glorious Trainwrecks is an online community celebrating the spontaneous creativity that comes from making games using children’s gamemaking tools under severe time constraints.

The third Saturday of every month, they host Klik of the Month, an event where participants are encouraged to use the simplest tools and the lowest standards possible to make a game in two hours.

The last time we tried to organize a physical event around a similar thing, it was a total blast. So we’re doing it again!

I should note that no experience of any kind is necessary. If you have not made a game before, we will teach you how! Last time, a guy (Andrey) who had never made a game before not only learned to make his first game, but he made another game that was mentioned on Bytejacker. From not knowing anything, that’s a time-to-fame of like eight days! This could be you.

Details details

MacQuarrie Hall Room 227
3:00pm – 6:00pm
RSVP on Facebook, if you like
Sign up on Glorious Trainwrecks, though it’s not necessary

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