The Winnitron 1000 is a refurbished 80′s arcade machine that plays brand new games created by independent developers. The machine will be travelling to different locations in the city of Winnipeg and beyond. Want to get YOUR game on the WINNITRON? Email Winnitron@InfiniteAmmo.ca!

Where can you find the Winnitron? If you’re in Winnipeg, come by the Lo Pub at 9pm tonight for “Data Dance” – a chip tune party and pop-up arcade! (What’s a pop-up arcade? I have no effing idea, so come by and find out…) The Winnitron will be there among arcade classics and other new games by local developers.

It’s kind of hard to describe game jams to non-game developers… The most immediate metaphor might be imagining that developers are like musicians, getting together to jam out on their instruments – playing whatever feels good in the moment. Through this kind of free experimentation, cool new ideas often emerge.

But it’s not just about making stuff, it’s also about creative and funny people getting together to enjoy each other’s company. Since there are no real rules or restrictions forced onto the event, it tends to flow along naturally based on who shows up and what they’re interested in. Oddly enough, this lack of formal structure makes for a more exciting and fun learning experience than most heavily organized game conferences I’ve been to.

This particular TIGJam had an extra emotional punch for me, as it gave me a great excuse to have a lot of my indie game developer friends from out of town visit Winnipeg.

For me, growing up in Winnipeg was a pretty depressing experience from a game development perspective. I would have loved to find anyone in town who could have taught me how to start making a game, or indeed anyone to share the experience of game development with in general. I remember on two occasions registering for local gamedev courses, only to find out they’d been canceled due to lack of interest a few weeks later. Since this was before the internet was a prominent source of information, I’d end up making regular trips to the downtown library in hopes of finding a new game development or programming book to inspire me. My family and friends had no idea why I was so obsessed with making games. They didn’t believe that there’d be any way to make a job out of it. In highschool, my dad tried to find me a job that would have some relationship to computer programming – the only thing he could find was a soul-crushing data entry position. This bleak lack of community was part of what factored into my willingness to leave Winnipeg when I was 19.

So finally getting to the point where I could see some of my best friends and fellow game developers walking through the core of this messed up city was overwhelming for me. It felt like two worlds colliding.

But the moment that made all the planning (btw, Chrissy did a lot of the planning ^_^ ) worthwhile for me was seeing Chevy Ray, developer of the Flash Punk game library, helping out 17 year old, Winnipeg native Noel Berry with his game. Just a few days ago, a trailer for Noel’s game was featured on IndieGames.com. The fact that Noel is already linked into this community of developers makes me feel really happy for the future of game development in our city.

–

I think that TIGJams only really work because of two key ideas: Diversity and Respect.

Diversity is a word that feels kinda gross, because it’s been overused in many cases. It’s a shame, because the indie scene really does harbour a diverse collection of individuals who create very diverse output. The fact that everyone has their own ideas and wants to pursue them, ensures that we’re not going to be ripping off each other’s game ideas or trying to compete in the exact same space. It also means that we’re self-motivated; we want to see our own unique ideas come to fruition. Nobody has to go around at a TIGJam getting people riled up and ready to work – everyone brings their own work ethic with them.

Respect is something that’s hard to come by, and it’s incredibly valuable. Without a mutually understood respect for the work of others, I don’t think TIGJams would have as much cheerful energy as they do. This is what balances out the self-motivation to pursue one’s own ideas – the interest in what everyone else is up to. It’s also what leads to the transferring of skills and sharing of valuable knowledge that make jams a great place to upgrade your abilities. A capacity to see other people’s perspectives and the open-mindedness to realize that there might be other, better ways of doing things than one’s own are key to making these events work.

Thanks to everyone who showed up! And a big, big thank you with hugs ‘n kisses to Louie Ghiz and Kevin Hnatiuk of New Media Manitoba – and Ryan Fitzgerald of Fortune Cat Games Studio for providing food, space and funding for the jam. I hope we get to do it again sometime!

Full Article

This talk relates to Marian in a couple ways: First there are a couple examples that reference experiences developing Marian, and secondly the entire development process of Marian is inspired by ideas of “storytelling” and holistic design.

This talk is actually a slimmed down version of one I gave back in September at Austin GDC. Originally this version was going to be just as long, but whoever organizes things over in GDC land ended up turning my slot into a 3-way talk with Adam Saltsman and Andy Schatz. Originally going to be an hour, it was cut to half an hour, then we were told it was going to be bumped up to 45 minutes at the last minute… When we finally delivered the talk, expecting it to be a 45 minute slot, we only ended up with about 35 minutes – unfortunately losing the end of our talk.

We were each going to wrap up our respective sections with a final message, and I think it’s a shame that we didn’t get the opportunity to do so… I’d like to post a rough paraphrasing of my coda here:

“Games are a vast, unexplored space – and this means not a single one of us knows all the right answers on design.
Find your own voice, explore your own creative process.
If it happens to be completely different than mine or Adam’s or Andy’s… or anyone else’s – that’s awesome. Experiencing vivid and diverse points of view is a beautiful thing.
I look forward to seeing what you all come up with!”

I’m really grateful to be in a position where I have the freedom to work on the projects that I want to – using the methods that I find most valuable. I also can’t wait til all you folks get to play the results! (hint: it’ll be quite a while yet)

Previously…

I decided to release the Unity project files for my GammaIV entry “C4Ke” – its a 4-player, 1-button game that uses a minimalist visual style, physics and a few other tricks.

First, a video overview of how the project basics:

You can download all the source files here: C4Ke.Project.2010.04.03.zip

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

If you run into any problems or have any questions, let me know ~ Enjoy.

Last week, a number of us got together last week to work on improving the animations in the game. Here’s a brief window into the discussion about Marian’s run cycle:

In case you’re wondering, our animator is Winnipeger Liem Nguyen.

Previously…

We’re looking at our example space shooter project “Schpooter” again. You can play it and download the project files here. Remember, you can get a stripped down version of Unity3D for free here.

UT02 Part 1: Project Layout
UT02 Part 2: Basic Scripts and Collisions
UT02 Part 3: Collisions and Messaging
UT02 Part 4: Messaging
UT02 Part 5: Messaging Continued

If you have trouble following any part of the tutorial, or if you’d wish I’d elaborate on certain subjects; let me know in the comments. If there are enough requests for certain topics, I’ll spin them off into separate tutorials.

Part 1 is an introduction to how the project file is set up.

In part 2 we’ll dive into how the scripts work! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here or on YouTube.

If you find these tutorials useful, send the link to others that you think would be interested. Thanks!

• Play the Game
• Download the Project Files
• Previously: Unity Tutorial 01: Intro

Chrissy (my girlfriend) and Eileen (my sister) got together with myself and Liem (Marian’s animator) this weekend to explore how our protagonist would move in the game.

Actually, we’re not really doing motion capture (“mo-cap”) – we’re creating a collection of animation references. For this game in particular, its much more effective to have an animator interpreting aspects of reality to create interesting dreamlike movements.

Here are some outtakes from our afternoon session:

Dan T points out that this form of animation reference is quite similar to the one used in the original Prince of Persia.

P.S. The interview mentioned last time is now up on Gamasutra.

P.P.S. If you’d like to help us pay for food and get your name into the credits of the game, check this link.

Previously…

James and Lisanne did a really great job with these. Not only did they manage to make the pieces entertaining and truthful, they also made a strong case for Winnipeg as a great place to live. (no small task)

There was a lot of excitement and laughter at the party afterwards, and a good feeling of solidarity. I hope the Winnipeg New Media scene manages to stay this creative, close-knit and free-spirited for many years to come.

Here are links to some of the other profiles:
Debreuil DigitalWorks
Stunt Software
Complex Games
FrogRocket
The New Media Community