[Event] Super Friendship Arcade - Alpha! (and a SF Jam!)
The wheels are in motion, the next Super Friendship Arcade is going to be on the 1 Aug!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1498849496998288/
This time we're also planning to have a very casual jam with the hopes of increasing local game representation at the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/471682169601121/
Last time we had awesome participation and assistance from the community (aka you guys)! It wouldn't have been possible without you, and we hope we can repeat that again. Now that we have an idea of what didn't work last time, we realise we may need a more formalised approach to volunteer assistance - in particular regard to curating participation in games and manning an entrance booth. More details will follow soon! :)
The addition of the jam also hints at one of our long term ambitions for SFA: ideally we'd like for it become self sustaining, with the profits used to incubate and sponsor new experiments in social video games and digital interfaces. We're also very keen to foster collaborations between different kinds of makers, involving arduino experts, industrial designers and all other kinds of hackers and tinkerers. For now (there are no profits so) it's about reaching out to beyond our community. But in future we'd like to at least be able to pay for materials (arduino boards, cabinets, etc) needed to make awesome things. Also we'd like to see the best local games travelling overseas to other events and conferences from which SFA took it cues. Whether or not we get that far remains to be seen, but we're pretty sure everyone's going to have a good time along the way ;)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1498849496998288/
This time we're also planning to have a very casual jam with the hopes of increasing local game representation at the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/471682169601121/
Last time we had awesome participation and assistance from the community (aka you guys)! It wouldn't have been possible without you, and we hope we can repeat that again. Now that we have an idea of what didn't work last time, we realise we may need a more formalised approach to volunteer assistance - in particular regard to curating participation in games and manning an entrance booth. More details will follow soon! :)
The addition of the jam also hints at one of our long term ambitions for SFA: ideally we'd like for it become self sustaining, with the profits used to incubate and sponsor new experiments in social video games and digital interfaces. We're also very keen to foster collaborations between different kinds of makers, involving arduino experts, industrial designers and all other kinds of hackers and tinkerers. For now (there are no profits so) it's about reaching out to beyond our community. But in future we'd like to at least be able to pay for materials (arduino boards, cabinets, etc) needed to make awesome things. Also we'd like to see the best local games travelling overseas to other events and conferences from which SFA took it cues. Whether or not we get that far remains to be seen, but we're pretty sure everyone's going to have a good time along the way ;)
Comments
And if Beatbox Hero might be awesome with like 4 players each following their own line of words... And then you "slice" the song lyrics among multiple players so that one person says "Bill" and the other says "Eee" and then another says "Jeen" at just the right time to make it all sound like Michael Jackson to everyone else.
We originally had smaller ambitions for the jam, but after the enthusiastic response from everybody we will need a bigger jam venue. Can anybody help out? UCT is probably a good idea...
Then the only problem would be internet, I could host a wireless hotspot if there are just a few people. Otherwise we would need to try organise something more manageable.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fAS0QVLwuVJygdTURJHLP_4Rh8F_4BiEOi7DIrTN1hU/edit?usp=sharing
Help is needed for some admin / humanpower stuff on Friday evening and we need to co-ordinate a volunteer roster.
The request is simple:
- Exist near the doorway for half an hour
- Make SFA look cool
- Offer reassurance to people who are scared of the awesome things around them
If we get enough volunteers to double up on slots, this could be made super convenient for everyone.
If we get too few volunteers for that, I'll buy dutiful respondents their very own Super Friendship Loyalty Beers. They'll be nice ones, too.
We'll need at least eight people for the course of the evening. Sign up here to earn our love:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13i-IcLMo_8XMSJxelCyqJd3mW9ujAP1t2X2riPKD9Go/edit?usp=sharing
Gogogo!
Also it looks like our efforts paid off! Considering our original goals for SFA (bringing people together with games) we would have to consider the event a huge success! Had over 300 people through doors. Also awesome to see a number of people gushing enthusiastic about how glad they are the event exits :) Still need to recuperate, catch our breath, and tie up loose ends - but there will definitely be more! (Just maybe not for a little while. I'm exhausted ;) )
I think we lack a general lack of documentation in SA in terms of coverage... If we don't have tons of media, we should at least be doing our own coverage!
TLDR: I wanna know what was at SFA!!! (the last one too!)
But in fairness this time @merrik (and his photo camera enabled friends) made more of an effort at documentation:
Also keep an eye out in NAG for some coverage ;)
Photos of the jam:
(not sure if friend permissions are going to get in the way here)
https://www.facebook.com/adoneandthesky/media_set?set=a.10153058438467468.1073741848.668527467&type=3
The games line up (in the event details):
https://www.facebook.com/events/1498849496998288/?ref=22
Photos of the event:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.671854072902790.1073741833.589822101105988&type=1
My greatest regret is not getting to play Pat Cat Pat.
Not mentioned on the official line-up, but still on screen between Rakete and Two headed foot snake, was Kick In The Door. This is a dungeon-crawling game where you play as one of three pals, adventuring under the employ of a tiny telepathic monkey. Players would kick in doors and monster skulls using the foot pedals that Tim (who's he on here?) built for the last SFA. The game was coded by @raxter with music and sound by Jason Sutherland and direction and art by myself.
As something that we only dreamt up a week earlier at the SFA Game Jam, it was really great to see the Kick In The Door up on the night. It was also the first game I've designed that could be played by general public which was such a thrill to see. What's more, people seemed to like it a bunch which was amazing.
@raxter and I are pretty stoked on this weirdo baby we made and plan to keep working at it in the future. We're planning to share a build with the community soon. Looking forward to hearing what you all think of it!
Thanks again to everyone who was a part of this awesome night. The next one can't come soon enough!