So episode 2 of the monthly meetups (yes I’m sticking with the episode format for now and the dubious spelling of ‘meetups’) was great!
After the usual introductions, which included quite a few newcomers, people showed off some of the games they’d been working on and gave feedback and opinions on some of the other members games, we heard from some of the Moray College Uni students who were in attendance about their dissertation projects including one who is working in motion capture, thanks Charlotte, and another who has dived head first into game development using Unity for the first time, cheers Stuart.
So without further ado here’s what we got up to last month…
Competitive eating...
Ian from Run Grizzly kicked things off with a demo of the game ‘Stuff Yer Pie Hole‘, a competitive food eating arcade game, with a typing based control system. The game was created by the two man team over the space of seven days for the Brackeys Game Jam 2020. The game play is responsive and fast paced with brilliant graphics and fun sounds, Ian went on to explain the thought process behind the game and the techniques used to make it, you can try it yourself at ITCH.IO
Shoot, Pop, Escape...
Richard from Frozen Well Studios demoed several of the games he is currently working on, including ‘Planet Escape’, ‘A spiraling asteroid defense game’ and “Don’t Pop” a game which the player taps on the screen to make their balloon travel from one side of the screen then bounces off the wall and changes direction, all the while avoiding the spikes and other perilous objects in the heroes way. This is a fun game and was met with lots of enthusiasm and suggestions, some of which I know have since been implemented so come along to the next meetup and see the changes to the game and have a shot yourself!
Dealers choice...
Reece from Allus Interactive showed us a project he is working on as part of a research and product development dissertation for his honours degree in Interactive Media. He is taking a real-life card game called ‘DTS’ and turning it into a digital version using the Unity game engine. So far he has the card mechanics working and displaying all the card images on the plane and has implemented the attack and defence systems. This is shaping up to be a great version of a physical game and I’m looking forward to seeing the development of this product at the next meeting.
I just game in my pants...
Finlay from Moray College UHI revisited an entry his team made for Moray Game Jam (rip) in 2018 ‘Junk Ship’. He and his team-mates from “I just Game in my Pants” made this rogue-like, inspired by FTL and Waterworld, game in 48 hours. The player navigates a node to node map searching for scrap and defending against raiders. Fight against other ships using your cannons to keep your ship alive long enough to pay off your debts. He showed us some of the game play and talked about the refactoring process. We discussed where it could go next and threw some ideas around for multiplayer aspect so we’ll wait and see where he goes with this game, which you can try for yourself on ITCH.IO
Retail games...
Jamie from Dinnaeken Games gave us a preview of his un-named first-person retail sim, which was briefly name “Customer Service”, part of his research and product development dissertation for his honours degree in Interactive Media, where the player works behind a counter of a shop, fulfilling the wants of the stores customers, running around the store room, grabbing their orders and placing them on the conveyor belt which takes the products to the front of the store while you rush to get the next part of the order from a different area of the sore room until finally running back to the front desk to give the order to the customer and send them on their way… and then onto the next one. I think anyone who’s worked in retail will know the plot to this game. Even at this early stage it looks, and plays, like a really addictive game and was met with really positive comments from everyone, looking forward to the next iteration! Follow him on TWITTER to stay up to date on it’s progress.
Right up my spine...
Gary from Strange High House Ltd spoke to us about his creative writing degree and asked for opinions on characters names for one of his stories. He was looking for some proof readers for one of his interactive stories “Mr Shudders”. I don’t want to ruin anything so will say no more about the story other than you can read it yourself over at strangehighhouse.com so set aside a bit of time and enjoy…
Let's Jam...
We also discussed where we are at with regards to a game jam, unfortunately at this exact time the funds aren’t there for an in-house 48 hour game jam (but it will be coming in the future) so we are doing the next best thing and hosting a remote jam with real gaming playground on the day of submission. So Indie Game Squad – Game Jam 192 will be kicking off on Friday the 17th of April and run for 8 days until Saturday the 25th April. You can enter as a team or an individual, you can choose to work remotely or head around to a mates house. You can work over the full 192 hours or for the last 10, it’s entirely up to you, but submission have to be in one time to be judged.
The theme will be announce on the 17th and judging will take place at the end of the Jam, so if you are interested in entering Game Jam 192 head over to the EVENTS PAGE and sign up to get the link for all the details.
Until next time...
And that’s it for another month, It’s really encouraging to see growth of this group and hopefully that will continue at steady rate over the coming months, and if you have bothered to read this far it was for one of two reasons, you were either at the last meetup and you’re looking for your mention in this article OR you have some sort of interest in what we are doing whether that’s games, gaming, design, art, programming, level design, story telling, technology or anything else related to the world of interactive media then why not come along to the next MEETUP…
Cheers
Andrew
