Sep 29, 2008 by Alec Holowka
TIGJam – the gathering of indie game developers in Arizona where I’ve been stationed for the last few days – is winding down. It was an awesome weekend, spent with some of the most friendly, funny and talented people that I know! The premise is indies from all over North America flying down to Phoenix to team up to make some game prototypes. My buddy Adam Saltsman and I decided to make a curling game using Unity.
The prototype has the basic input phases and physics in place. What’s missing are the game rules (teams taking turns, scoring, etc), more refined physics, sound effects, and other details. We had a lot of fun playing around with visual effects, like depth of field, changing camera angles, motion blur and animating the camera’s field of view when the rock fires. I think our prototype is pretty impressive for about 2.5 days of work. (we both stayed up for about 40 hours straight near the end) Big ups to “Shawn”:http://capnrat.com/ for lending us his post processing script!
[Vimeo 1843536]
Overall TIGJam was a lot of fun – I only wish it’d lasted a few more days. We had a webcam streaming from the office for most of the jam, and it was entertaining (and slightly creepy) to interact with the rest of the TIGSource community online. You can check out some photos from the jam here and here.
Sep 27, 2008 by Christopher Lobay
This is an old-ish article, but I figured I’d share it anyways. It’s a interesting look at our fair little city and the various folks that are helping to build our awesome little industry here. Plus, our very own Alec Holowka is mentioned briefly. Check it out: A look at the blossoming game development scene in Winnipeg via PC World.
Sep 25, 2008 by Alec Holowka
Howdy folks! I’m down in Arizona right now, hanging out with my friends at Flash Bang Studios. (and waiting for TIGJam to begin) The Flash Bang boys recently released an alpha of their new game, and I did the music for it.
MP3 Download → Spaced Bronto [3:06]
Its called Jetpack Brontosaurus, and its a really pretty and fun game to chill out with. The music adds a lot to the atmosphere, and it was a lot of fun to work on. The game’s still in alpha, so I’ll likely be making some more audio content for it in the next while.
You can play the game here
Sep 19, 2008 by Alec Holowka
For those that haven’t heard of it, “The Independent Gaming Source” or TIGSource, is a super rad indie game development community. Its run by my good buddy Derek Yu, and its become a positive, upbeat place to meet like-minded indie game developers. TIGSource has grown from a blog to include a massive forum and even an interactive database of independent games. Regular competitions are held at TIGSource around really creative themes: B-Games, Procedurally Generated content and Retro Demakes for example. Heck, back in the day there was even a Sexiest Indie Gamer compo!
But most recently, Derek and a few other folks have been organizing a TIGSource community gathering called TIGJam. At the end of September, a bunch of us are going to get together in Phoenix for a few days to collaborate and bust out some awesome games. I’m really looking forward to this, because I’ll get to hang out with some of my American friends who I only get to visit whenever there’s some kind of game development convention.
There will also be super rad T-Shirts, natch.
Sep 18, 2008 by Alec Holowka
Bytejacker, an internet-based video game show, recently covered TIGSource’s latest competition. This competition was all about creating retro “knock-off” versions of existing games, which ended up including Shadow of the Colossus, Team Fortress 2, Fallout, Haze, Aquaria and more! The video does a great job of highlighting some of the coolest games in the competition, so check it out:
In other news, I did a little interview for my buddy Ivan’s new blog: Play-Make.
Sep 17, 2008 by Ian Holowka
Hey guys, I figured I should introduce myself, seeing as I have yet to post any content or anything cool here.
I’m Ian, and I’ve been Alec’s brother for as long as I can remember. I’m currently finishing up my computer science degree at the University of Manitoba and I’ve been working with Bit-Blot/Infinite Ammo for the past 4 months. I’ve always been passionate about video games, and to be able to work on them as a job is a pretty amazing experience. In the past, I’ve worked on flash animation, a webcomic, a number of websites, as well as a lot of coding, both for school and for various companies I’ve worked for.
