Game Jam 2012 + Game Jam Junior

Two things to do this summer:

Game Jam Sydney 2012

The first (actually the second) is Game Jam Sydney 2012. It’s a 48 hour game-building hothouse with 100 designers, developers, artists, musicians getting together to jam and make games.

The Jam runs from 5pm Fri January 27th to 5pm Sunday 29th. There are two locations this year:

#1 – Sydney Gamers League. Rosehill Racecourse Expo Centre.
#2 – University of Wollongong.

To find out more and register your interest, go to the web site at:

http://www.gamejamsydney.com/

Game Jam Junior

The weekend before the main jam, we want to organise an ‘junior’ ever with local state libraries. There has been enormous interest from the libraries to run small jam events for high-school students. They will not run the full 48 hours, but will probably just consist of a two-day workshop on Sat Jan 21 and Sun Jan 22.

Tim Gurto and I are looking for volunteers to help run these workshops. Basically it will involve giving a short tutorial on a game-making tool (probably Game Maker) and and an introduction to game design in general. We’re looking for volunteers to take part. We want to get enough people to send two to each library. We’ll also set up an online forum & IRC channel to share between sites.

We need definite commitments for this *this week* so we can tell the libraries how many sites we can run. I want to hold a meeting this Thursday afternoon (2pm) in the Games Lab.

Please email me if you want to take part, or if you have any questions.

Jobs: Internships at PLANE

PLANE (Pathways for Learning Anywhere, Anytime: A Network for Educators) is an initiative of the NSW Department of Education and Training to develop “a suite of on-line learning experiences” to help train teachers in innovative learning methods including games based learning.

To practise what they preach, they are working to develop a game that introduces teaches to game based learning, and they have approached me looking for artists and developers who might be interested in internships. They are particularly looking for people who can work with Unity and/or OpenSim. People who can contribute game design expertise would be particularly welcome.

They asked me to make some recommendations, so if you are interested let me know and I’ll pass on your details. The deadline is Dec 2.

Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards

This year the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards includes a category for Interactive Gaming. The winner will receive a trip to SXSW in Texas USA plus a year’s mentorship from our friends at Soap Creative and $5000 cash.

This is an awesome opportunity for anyone looking to get into games. I’d encourage you all to apply.

Venture Incubator Space

Do you want to get serious about starting your own game company? Perhaps this is the place to start: UNSW CSE has just announced the establishment of a new Venture Incubator Space – “a subsidised-cost space available to approved UNSW students and alumni who wish to develop ideas into business models, products or services.”

Extra Credits: Games and Society

There are a host of recent Extra Credits episodes relevant to your final serious games assignment.

Games and learning:

• Tangential Learning
• Gamification
• Gamifying Education

Games and society:

• Facing controversy
• Game Addiction Part 1 and Part 2
• Propaganda games
• Call of Juarez: The Cartel

Jobs: Smart Sparrow

Smart Sparrow is a start-up here at UNSW targetted at making games and simulations for online learning. They are looking for developers. The blurb is below.

If you’re interested, please contact Dror Ben-Naim at dror@smartsparrow.com.

Smart Sparrow is a venture capital backed start-up company recently spun out of, and co-located in, the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales. We are a smart company with a world-class eLearning technology, looking for smart people. Joining an early start-up, you will enjoy competitive salary, stock options, great people, long hours and an inspiring atmosphere.

Platform Developer – you will join a small and dedicated development team to architect, implement, test and maintain a massively scalable, data intensive and visually rich web-based application. Selection Criteria: we want smart people with excellent communication skills. We want a minimum of 3 years web-development experience. You value your familiarity with Java, Python, MySQL, PhP and HTML. You must have a Computer Science or related background with strong software design and development skills and experience in object oriented programming and MVC design. It is important to be able to self manage and meet tight deadlines.

Game developer – Flash/ HTML5 – you will join our small and dynamic content team, developing custom eLearning solutions to meet client’s needs using HTML5 as well as Flash. Selection Criteria: we want smart people with a minimum of 3 years developing in HTML, Javascript, ActionScript 3, Flash and/or Flex with excellent coding skills. You should have a Computer Science or related background and experience in object oriented programming and MVC design. Experience in eLearning and instructional design is a plus as is good graphic design skills and an exposure to audio and video development tools. It is important to be able to self manage and meet tight deadlines. You will be dealing with customers and will require excellent communications skills.

Going further…

Some thoughts on how you can take game design further at UNSW and abroad.

Honours projects

I am happy to supervise honours projects for good students (I would expect a reasonably high WAM and a good mark in COMP4431). We have a happy community of research students in the Games Lab and I’m always looking for others.

An Honours project would have to have a particular research goal, to investigate and evaluate something new, not just to make a cool game. I am most interested in the crossover between design and advanced hardware/software technology, particularly artificial intelligence.

If you are not a CSE student, arranging for an Honours project is still possible, but you will need to find a willing supervisor from within your own discipline. For media students, Brigid Costello has expressed willingness to do this in the past. I would then act as a co-supervisor (and provide access to the games lab, etc). We’ve not done this before, so there may be some bureaucratic hassles, but hopefully we could make it work.

Group projects are also a possibility. An inter-disciplinary group would be great, but probably a bureaucratic nightmare.

Special Projects

Another option is to do a single-session special project subject such as COMP3901 and COMP3902 (for CSE students) or COMP9000 (for non-CSE). This is suitable if you just want to do a longer game design project without a research angle. I expect the same kind of documentation for this project as I do for the main project in COMP4431: pitch, design doc, playtesting, post-mortem. Group projects are welcome.

Masters or PhD

I am really keen to find students to do major research projects in a games related area. I have a number of research topics in mind. If you have a strong academic record and are interested in research, let me know.

The Game Deconstruction Group

In the sessions when I am not teaching, I run a Game Deconstruction Group. One evening a month somebody from the group volunteers to lead discussion analysing a game of their choice. It’s kind of like a book club but with games. What we talk about it entirely up to the leader on a particular month. There is sometimes beer or wine and nibbles too. All are welcome (particularly if you have a game you want to review.)

The Games Mailing List

Announcements about game-related activities at UNSW usually go out to the Games Mailing List. You are welcome to join. It’s usually low-volume.

There is also a Facebook group.

Game Jam Sydney 2012

Dan Graf and I are in the process of organising Game Jam Sydney 2011. Watch this space for future announcements.

IGDA Sydney

If you want to get in touch with other game designers, artists and programmers around Sydney, you should join IGDA Sydney. We have monthly bar nights and show-and-tell evenings. It’s a great place to find other people who might want to work on a project with you.

Tutorial: Addiction game

Okay, today’s tutorial is a tough one. We’re going to design a game with a message. I want you to brainstorm a game about drugs and addiction (based on the drug of your choice including alcohol, tobacco, caffeine or WoW). The message you present is up to you, but I want you to take the topic seriously, not frivolously.

Design: Self-control

Your final game design challenge is to consider the problem of gaming addiction and how you could design a system which allowed a gamer to regulate how much time they spent gaming. The challenge is to make a time-limiter that people would actually pay attention to and comply with, rather than one that they resented and ignored.

Journal: What did you learn?

As your final journal entry, I want you to look back to what you wrote in week 1 for the “Why are you here?” question and reflect on what you have learnt and how you have changed. Did you discover something that you didn’t expect? Do you have a new perspective on games or game development? Where do you think you’ll go with this in the future?

I would also value any feedback you have on the course and constructive criticism for how it might be improved.

Finally, we will be checking all your journals in the week of Oct 24-30, so you should have finished writing by then. As I said in lectures, I am not expecting you to have written for every single entry. Rather, I am looking for an ongoing engagement with ideas about game design outside of the lectures.