Reminders and Announcements:

Open Game Labs:   The group hosts an Open Game Lab every Tuesday 5:30PM – 8PM and on the 3rd Sunday of the month 2PM – 5PM.  These labs are unstructured time for anyone to come to the space, hang out and work on their game.  If you are just starting out this is also a great time to come ask questions!  Special note this month – no Open Game Lab on Sunday April 19th due to the game jam.

Call for Topics! If you’ve been to a meetup you know that the group is very informal and you do not need a well timed and polished presentation.  A presentation can simply be discussing a topic while showing a demo on a laptop.  If you are interested in presenting or have a request for a topic you would like to see covered please contact Michael at michael.neel@gmail.com

Facebook and Twitter: You can also stay up to date with members of the group on Facebook.  The group is closed, so you’ll need request access and it make take a day or two to get approved.  If you don’t get approved in a few days, send me an email at the address above.  There is also a twitter list maintained by Levi.  For info on joining the twitter list, contact Levi @gatechgrad.

All this too much to keep up with? The Knox Game Design website has a calendar!

This Month’s Topic: Game Jam Results

Several members of the group entered games this past month in the game jam.  This month we’ll look at the entries and share the behind the scene tales of each.  The entries below may not be the full list, so if I missed your game please send me an email and let me know!

• Expand-O-Ray by GaTechGrad – Compo Entry
• Lightbender by dylanwolf – Compo Entry
• Cornflake Capers by peejaygee – Compo Entry
• Ruth Ann Manning by tranzeve – Jam Entry
• Mower by insane66 – Compo Entry
• Screwy McScrews by jacobturn – Compo Entry

Location and Time

The meetup will be held at the Technology Cooperative located at 13 Emory Place, Knoxville TN.  Parking is available in front of the Technology Cooperative.  We start at 2PM and open with some roundtable discussion and a Show ‘n Tell where everyone can show a bit of their in progress game, favorite tool, mechanic they love in another game, or anything they find helpful and want to share with the group.

Reminders and Announcements:

April Game Jam Fast Approaching!  The next game jam is scheduled for April 17th.  Now is the time to block out that weekend on your calendars to make sure you have the time set aside.  If you are curious what happens during a game jam and how to get ready, check out the post announcing April’s jam.

Open Game Labs:   The group hosts an Open Game Lab every Tuesday 5:30PM – 8PM and on the 3rd Sunday of the month 2PM – 5PM.  These labs are unstructured time for anyone to come to the space, hang out and work on their game.  If you are just starting out this is also a great time to come ask questions!  Special note this month – no Open Game Lab on Sunday April 19th due to the game jam.

Call for Topics – April’s Meetup is Open! If you’ve been to a meetup you know that the group is very informal and you do not need a well timed and polished presentation.  A presentation can simply be discussing a topic while showing a demo on a laptop.  If you are interested in presenting or have a request for a topic you would like to see covered please contact Michael at michael.neel@gmail.com

Facebook and Twitter: You can also stay up to date with members of the group on Facebook.  The group is closed, so you’ll need request access and it make take a day or two to get approved.  If you don’t get approved in a few days, send me an email at the address above.  There is also a twitter list maintained by Levi.  For info on joining the twitter list, contact Levi @gatechgrad.

All this too much to keep up with? The Knox Game Design website now has a calendar!

This Month’s Topic: Open Discussion

It’s been a while since we’ve held an open discussion.  This month come ready to ask any and all your game design related questions and we’ll try to answer them or at least direct you onward in the quest for information.  It is also a good time to share current projects and tools you use without having to prepare enough content for a full monthly meetup.

So that you don’t have to come completely on faith there will be interesting stuff to talk about, Levi will be discussing some of his recent games and experience working with Unreal for the first time.

Location and Time

The meetup will be held at the Technology Cooperative located at 13 Emory Place, Knoxville TN.  Parking is available in front of the Technology Cooperative.  We start at 2PM and open with some roundtable discussion and a Show ‘n Tell where everyone can show a bit of their in progress game, favorite tool, mechanic they love in another game, or anything they find helpful and want to share with the group.

It’s 2015 and there is time for the game jam!  (that’s a Klax reference)  If you’ve been to a jam in the past, it will be very similar.  Some Notes:

Your game does not need to be complex and you don’t need to spend every hour of the jam devoted to making the game.  Simple is better, and seeing friends and family is a good break to keep you fresh.  The goal is to finish, and the reward is having completed a game!  You can enter solo or as a team and parents, this is a great activity to do together with your kids.

We will meet Friday April 17th @7PM at the Technology Cooperative – The game jam officially kicks off at 9PM when the game theme is announced.  This will be a good time for any last minute questions on the jam, software, or process you have for making your game.

From Friday until Sunday work on your game.  We won’t be keeping the Techco open the whole weekend for the jam (and there is a group that uses the space Saturday mornings), and we won’t have a Game Lab Sunday, April 19th.

We’ll share and recap our entries at the following meetup, May 10th, 2015.

What you should do before the jam:

• Read over the rules of the game jam and decide if you’ll be doing the “compo” or “jam” version.
• Get your development system ready to go – figure out what software you’ll be using and make sure it’s ready to go.
  A list of common tools others have used in the game jam is listed on the Tools page, and links from previous meetups can be found on our site.
• Make an account on the game jam website
• Make an account on Itch.io (optional, but great place to host your entry)
• The week leading up to the Jam, check the game jam site daily to vote on topics
• It’s common to live stream your game development – if you plan to do this then:
  • Setup a Twitch.tv account
  • Install Open Broadcaster Software – a free, open source app for live streaming
  • Test out Twitch and OBS (don’t wait to the jam to start learning about live streaming!)
• It’s also common to make a timelapse video of your development, and there are some tools to help with this too.  Again, test this out on your system before the jam beings.