The monthly meeting for August 2018 was held at Token Game Tavern in Knoxville, Tennessee. We give our thoughts on the game jam theme announcement. Also highlights from Retro Game Night at McKay Books was included.

Knoxville Game Design is a discussion of games currently being created by game developers in the Knoxville and East Tennessee area, as well as an analysis of current topics in the gaming industry.

Hosts

Links and Notes

• Theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Summer '18 Game Jam Kickoff - Knox Game Design, August 2018

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00:00 / 19:56

This month’s topic is Unreal Engine. This discussion is for those who are already familiar with game development, but new to making games with Unreal Engine. Levi D. Smith covers the things that he “wish he had known” before starting with the Unreal Editor.

Knoxville Game Design is a discussion of games currently being created by game developers in the Knoxville and East Tennessee area, as well as an analysis of current topics in the gaming industry.

Links and Notes

• Booth at Knoxville Gaming Convention – CreepyCon in August 2018 – https://www.knoxvillegamingconvention.com/
• Unity Graphics tips – https://www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-list-10663597
• Unity liquid shader – https://www.patreon.com/posts/quick-game-art-18245226
• Unity shader tutorials – https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/flow/texture-distortion/
• Unreal Dev Grants – https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/epic-games-announces-1-million-in-unreal-dev-grants
• Theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Unreal Engine Tips - Knox Game Design, July 2018

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00:00 / 42:15

This month Dylan Wolf tells us about the built-in options for Unity UI text, including TextMeshPro’s support for sprite fonts and icons.

Knoxville Game Design is a discussion of games currently being created by game developers in the Knoxville and East Tennessee area, as well as an analysis of current topics in the gaming industry.

Links and Notes

• Khufu’s Delivery Service on Steam – https://store.steampowered.com/app/652310/Khufus_Delivery_Service
• Knoxville Gaming Convention – https://www.knoxvillegamingconvention.com/
• Microsoft buys GitHub – https://news.microsoft.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-to-acquire-github-for-7-5-billion/
• Golf scores web app by Wally McClure – https://golfeventscores.azurewebsites.net/PublicScores/Default
• Theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Unity UI Text presentation as a downloadable ZIP file – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PjeguR7WMcamFavbK-JLyqLT1DTpWs_M/view

Unity UI Text blog post on Dylan’s site – https://www.dylanwolf.com/2018/05/04/four-ways-to-handle-ui-text-in-unity/

Knox Game Design

Unity UI Text - Knox Game Design, June 2018

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00:00 / 1:18:27

An overview of Human Computer Interaction topics and how those concepts can be applied to games.  Topics include short term memory, long term memory, reaction times, input methods, and feedback methods.  Comparison of human languages and computer langues, along with lexical scanning and grammars.

Knoxville Game Design is a discussion of games currently being created by game developers in the Knoxville and East Tennessee area, as well as an analysis of current topics in the gaming industry.

Links and Notes

• Dylan’s LINQPad talk at Codestock will be at 2:15pm on Friday April 20, 2018 – https://portal.codestock.org/home/schedule
• Join us for the game jam kickoff on April 20, 2018 at 7pm Token Game Tavern – http://tokenrestaurant.com/
• Text Mesh Pro – https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/beta-projects/textmesh-pro-84126
• 2D Game Kit – https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/2d-game-kit-107098
• Tutorial for 2D Game Kit – https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/s/2d-game-kit/
• Douglas Engelbart – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart
• Fitt’s Law – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts’s_law
• J.C.R. Licklider – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._R._Licklider
• Vannevar Bush, Memex – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
• Ivan Sutherland, Sketchpad – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB3saviItTI
• Rote learning – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning
• Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman – https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654
• Affordance – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance
• Cognitive walkthrough – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_walkthrough
• Cocktail party effect – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect
• GOMS – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOMS
• Keystroke level model – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystroke-level_model
• Cognitive Complexity – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_complexity
• Prosody – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosody_(linguistics)
• Flex and Bison Introduction – https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/flex-bison/9780596805418/ch01.html
• Backus-Naur Form – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backus%E2%80%93Naur_form
• Theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Human Computer Interaction - Knox Game Design, April 2018

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00:00 / 1:13:06

Dylan Wolf (www.dylanwolf.com) presents “Saving and Loading Game Data in Unity”

This month we discuss two cross-platform methods for saving and loading game data (such as preferences, high scores, progress, etc.) in Unity.

Knoxville Game Design is a discussion of games currently being created by game developers in the Knoxville and East Tennessee area, as well as an analysis of current topics in the gaming industry.

Links and Notes

• • Next game jam kickoff is April 20, 2018 at Token Game Tavern – http://tokenrestaurant.com/
  • Vector Conference (Richmond, Kentucky) – http://vectorconf.com/
  • Codestock – http://codestock.org/
  • Theme music – Ride by Pocketmaster

Knox Game Design

Saving and Loading Game Data in Unity - Knox Game Design, March 2018

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00:00 / 51:14