Global GameJam Hull Gets Going

Waiting for the theme…..

When we started off with Global GameJam Hull we were very worried that nobody would turn up. Every meeting ended with an anxious discussion focused on “Bums on Seats”. As you can see above, we ended up with plenty of folks, which was great. The competition started with a couple of excellent videos setting the scene (and reminding everyone about the power of deodorant) and then we got the theme. No pictures, no words. Just the sound of a human heartbeat. Genius.

Then it was off to form teams and get cracking. I ended up in a team with two David’s and a Simon. We named ourselves “The Simon Grey Glee Club” and started casting around for ideas. During the discussion I mentioned that I happened to have a Gadgeteer Heart Rate Interface, although I’d lent it to James to do some Imagine Cup stuff. Could we make a game which made use of the heart rate of the player?  The answer was yes, so I was instantly on the phone to James who was kind enough to swing by and drop off the hardware and his sample code.

By the end of the evening I’d got the interface working and verified that we could get heart beats and pulse rates from it. Tomorrow I’ll make an interface to get those values into the game. I’m not working overnight on this, but I will be there really early in the morning.

MonoGame at the Global Game Jam Briefing

Another day, another room full of smiling faces. Or something.

You can excuse the audience for looking a bit shell shocked. They had just sat through a whole bunch of game development stuff. I started proceedings, with a fifteen minute section that I retrospectively titled “Watching Rob fail to get his tablet to work in lots of different ways”. After I got a picture on the screen and a keyboard and mouse that worked (something that turned out to be surprisingly difficult and worthy of a blog post all to itself) I did some stuff about how easy it is to get MonoGamae working Windows 8. You can find my slides and sample code here.

Then it was the turn of Simon to talk about good practice for game development and creating sprite sheets. Before this talk we had engaged in a game of “PowerPoint Chicken”. The game is very simple, the one who is the latest to have their slides ready for a presentation wins. I thought I was in with a good chance of winning, what with having my slides ready less than five minutes before the talk. Of course this left me no time to test my tablet, hence the pain at the start, Simon beat me easily, I think he was writing his deck while I was speaking. Which is probably cheating. Anyhoo, it all passed off well enough, with plenty of failing demos to keep the audience amused.

A word from the wise here, PowerPoint chicken is a dangerous game.

Finally Louis, one of our students, turned up and gave the best presentation of the day all about Unity. I’m really going to spend some quality time with this framework, it looks excellent. I’ll put slides and sample code from the other presentations later on.

Now it is full steam ahead for Global Game Jam Hull. We have over 100 folks registered, a bus full of folks coming over from Grimsby, a load of our students. And some games to make.

Cheese Lander is Coming To Windows 8

I spent some time today (lunchtime actually) playing with the latest version of MonoGame 3.0. This is the awesome framework that lets you take XNA games and run them on a growing number of platforms. I was interested in seeing if I could get a game to run on my Microsoft Surface. And I did. Behold, above you can see the venerable Cheese Lander actually running on my machine. Works a treat, and you can remote debug over WiFi. I’ll be talking more about this in my Rather Useful Seminar tomorrow.

Rather Useful Gamejam Briefing

As a way of preparing you for Global Gamejam Hull (you have signed up haven’t you) we’ve got an extra special Rather Useful Game Development Briefing next week.

• Louis Deane will be talking about Unity development.
• Simon Grey will be talking about making 3D spritesheets with dynamic lighting effects by using shaders
• Rob Miles will be talking.

(actually I’ll be talking about creating XNA games for Windows 8 using the Monogame framework)

The briefing session will be on the afternoon of Thursday 24th of January from 1:30pm to 3:30 in Lecture Theatre D, the home of the “Rather Useful” brand. You don’t have to sign up for GlobalGameJam in order to come along, but those who have signed up will be allowed to sit at the front.

Get Into Global Game Jam Hull

Global GameJam Hull is picking up speed. Registrations are coming in thick and fast but we still have room for more. We want to fill Hull Studio School to bursting with folks who are keen to make games and have fun. We were down at the venue making plans today and we’ve got most things sorted out, thanks to some sterling work from Tom, Simon and team. Networks have been tested and upgraded, venues selected and a fantastic poster designed (thanks for that Lewis, love the critic with the scary eyebrows). All we need now is you.  If you aren’t convinced that you need to take part I’ve jotted down fifty reasons why I think you should come along.

1. You will learn stuff.
2. You will make stuff.
3. You will meet interesting people.
4. Including me.
5. And Simon.
6. We will have professional game developers taking part.
7. And game publishers.
8. Taking part will give you something to talk about at job interviews.
9. And to put into your portfolio.
10. There will be Free Food.
11. And Drinks.
12. You might win a big prize.
13. Or a little one.
14. There will be toys to play with.
15. Including networked Xbox Gaming
16. You might get worldwide fame and recognition.
17. Or you might just get your next job.
18. It only costs five pounds to register.
19. You might get to play with crayons.
20. We will let you write on the walls. (at least some of them)
21. You can bring your friends with you.
22. You can make some new friends too.
23. You can forget completely about the outside world for 48 hours.
24. You might become a viral sensation because of your awesome turn on our live webstream.
25. You can make a board game if you like.
26. Or bring one along and play it.
27. You get to see what other people are up to in this area.
28. And maybe even start a company with them.
29. You get to take part in a worldwide event.
30. It will be nice and warm.
31. You can wear what you like (But please wear something).
32. You will get a shiny nametag to wear.
33. There will be movies to see.
34. And some breakout presentations.
35. You can even choose the subjects of the talks.
36. You might meet a childhood hero.
37. Or become one.
38. You can stay the whole 48 hours if you like.
39. Or you can sneak off home for a shower and a power nap.
40. You get to choose your pizza toping (But not too many anchovies, OK?)
41. We will have fizzy drinks and sweeties available (great at 4:00am).
42. You can bring your guitar if you like.
43. There will be nobody there playing the accordion. (Unless you like the accordion, in which case we will try to get someone in. Or your could bring yours at a pinch)
44. You can mention it on Facebook.
45. And maybe even blog about it.
46. And Tweet too.
47. The more people that come along, the more fun it will be.
48. TV on a Saturday night is rubbish now that Strictly has finished.
49. It might just change your life.
50. It is certainly a great way to fill 48 hours of it.

Actually, if you are serious about getting into game development I really think you should come along. When you go for a job, and you are sitting alone on your side of the big desk, they are going to ask you something like “What have you done with your life?”. You could easily spend half an hour talking about the fun you had at GlobalGameJamHull, the people you met, and that silly game you published as a result. As you say those things you will see the interviewers checking things off in their heads “Works well in a team – check”, “Likes making games – check”, “Not afraid to put their ideas out there – check”. And so on.

I can’t guarantee that going to GlobalGameJamHull will change your life. But I can guarantee that if you don’t go, you’ll miss out on the chance that it could.

Sign up at http://globalgamejamhull.com/

Hull Global Game Jam Lives

If you liked Three Thing Game, you’ll love Global Game Jam. It is the same, only the fun goes on much longer. Twice as long. It also lets you meet up with gaming experts and specialists in media and content creation, as well as programmer types.

For Hull students it is pretty much perfectly timed, at the end of the inter-semester week, far away from any coursework deadlines. You must, must, must take part.

Find out more and sign up at the web site: http://globalgamejamhull.com/

Global GameJam Hull Venue

Great things are destined to happen here….

Today we took a look at the site for the our Hull Global Gamejam event. We are holding it at the Hull Studio School right in the centre of Hull. If you are serious about game development, or just fancy having a “Weekend of Fun”™ then keep the weekend of the 26th and 27th of January free next year.

The venue has this entrance foyer with really funky chairs.

We will have a registration site and a whole bunch of details about the event coming up soon.

It is going to be such fun.

Hull Global Game Jam is Coming

How many of these folks will sign up I wonder? All of them, I hope.

People, keep the weekend of the 26th and 27th of January 2013 clear. If you are a Hull student this is the perfect way to celebrate the end of your inter-semester gap week. We are very pleased to announce that Hull will be taking part in Global Game Jam. This is a bit like Three Thing Game, but better and with more people. We are working in conjunction with the Platform Expos folks to put together something really special. If you are serious about writing games and want to make lots of new friends and learn stuff, then you must, must, must come along.

We had a meeting today where we moved things forward and I got to meet some of the wonderful folks who are going to make it all work.

More details soon. V. excited.