When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Wednesday 25th September
Where: Microsoft offices, Engen building 2nd floor, Golf Park, Mowbray. https://maps.google.co.za/maps?q=-33.947185,18.4914
If you have a demo you want played, bring a station on which people can play it, and set it up before the meetup begins!
Agenda:
- 6:30 - 7:00 - Meet, greet, and eat.
- Rapid fire intros (10 min)
- Community News (5 min)
- Talk 1 - Amaze Review (10 min) by @dislekcia
- Talk 2 - Unity Twine Parser (20 min) by @rustybroomhandle
- Talk 3 - Let's Play (20 min) by @blackshipsfillthesky
- Focused feedback - Pixelboy Intro (10 min)
- Open Demo Floor
This event happens monthly, is free to attend, and anyone may speak at the meetup - just comment beneath to let us know! This is for anyone and everyone interested in making games of any shape, size or type. Come join us!
Test games! Talk games! Make games!
Where: Microsoft offices, Engen building 2nd floor, Golf Park, Mowbray. https://maps.google.co.za/maps?q=-33.947185,18.4914
If you have a demo you want played, bring a station on which people can play it, and set it up before the meetup begins!
Agenda:
- 6:30 - 7:00 - Meet, greet, and eat.
- Rapid fire intros (10 min)
- Community News (5 min)
- Talk 1 - Amaze Review (10 min) by @dislekcia
- Talk 2 - Unity Twine Parser (20 min) by @rustybroomhandle
- Talk 3 - Let's Play (20 min) by @blackshipsfillthesky
- Focused feedback - Pixelboy Intro (10 min)
- Open Demo Floor
This event happens monthly, is free to attend, and anyone may speak at the meetup - just comment beneath to let us know! This is for anyone and everyone interested in making games of any shape, size or type. Come join us!
Test games! Talk games! Make games!
Comments
I think both Evan's and Peter's talks were really good, Peter's especially opened up some new thinking for me.
@dislekcia - Would love to catch some of the AMAZE stuff we missed :)
I'm quite keen to display Wang Commander. Anyone else want to join me?
Also, while I'm here - we live in Gordon's Bay, Jaco works in Cape Town and I don't drive, so me attending these meets means going in with him to work in the morning and bumming around 'somewhere' all day until he's done. He used to work opposite the V&A so I'd just watch movies all day but now he works a few minutes' drive from the meet location (conveniently), and there's less to do there. I *might* go in to Kirstenbosch in the morning and have him pick me up lunch time and then hang around the cafes in the street behind his workplace in the afternoon, if anyone wants to join me doing either of those things or even has an alternate suggestion. He works in Observatory, and the street in question has a string of cafes and eateries, many with wifi. :)
The idea is to have 6:30 to 7:00 as "meet,greet and eat" We'd then have up to 2 talks (of up too 20min each) on topics, then some time for focused feed back on prototypes (if we have any), and then have an open floor. We'd let people setup stations with their demos before hand so people can wander around after the focused feedback (kinda like a "show and tell") or to get more general feedback and continue the meet, greet and eat.
In order to do a focused feedback session you will have 10 minutes and have a specific issue you want feedback on (much like Pixelsboy's session last time where they wanted specific feedback on enemy types). Are people happy with this? Can we try it out?
Those people who want feedback will need arrive promptly, but don't think that's too much to ask? Especially as lots of people leave as soon as the meeting is "over" and for me I know I usually actually want to speak to other people afterwards instead of getting sucked into playing a game. Also playing games together beforehand should help newbies break ice?
We have sort of demoed these things before, but it would be useful to us to know if we've improved the experience since the last time people played, and if certain specific problems have been solved. However there may be some other new problems that we've produced in the interim that we'll need to be told about.
Arriving promptly I think is achievable.
A point to note about bringing a game for playtesting does not mean it has to go up for a focused session later - only if you feel it will be useful. This way you can continuously play test new changes in your game without worrying about repeating yourself at every months meetup.
@konman, sadly I'm not joking when I say VHS, it is an actual requirement...
I really want to talk about developing games playfully (which touches on a lot of what Sos talked about at Wits)... but I don't think I can adequately prepare another talk for this month.
This is next week! Anyone else have content?
Unless I imagined that @_@
@Nandrew Making the meetups better and making presentations done there more useful could be worthwhile talking about I feel (Almost all the discussion about it has happened in this thread, and not necessarily everyone follows this thread, and adding more ideas to the dialogue and talking about it at the meetup could be very helpful...)
As for amaze summary I'm a bit crunched at work so I'm going to have ask someone else to cover this. Though maybe I can help present with someone else if they want backup?
As an example @Merriks could be: Merrik, programmer, Broforce, Wang Commander and beard :P
... Someone just needs to remind me to bring the things this time.
@dislekcia That sounds pretty cool :)
I haven't stepped in yet as I'm not involved in the Cape Town Community so I shouldn't be deciding which talks are being presented. However, there are lots of suggestions in this thread with no confirmations being made.
From an external perspective, here's what I'd suggest (gathered from the discussion above):
Rapid Fire introductions ~10 mins
Meet, greet, and eat ~20 mins
Optimising the way one can present their games to an audience - @Nandrew ~20 mins - not entirely redundant, I believe, as it still stresses how games should be shown (which is even more important with the newer format)
Unity Twine Parser - @rustybroomhandle ~20 mins
A MAZE Festival Review - @Dislekcia ~20 mins
Focused feedback from those who want it~ 30 mins (3 slots of 10 minutes each)
Open Floor ~remaining time
With Demos set up -before the meet starts- outside for Broforce, Cadence, Wang Commander, The Maker's Eden, and Khumba: The Game.
I've emphasised new content here rather than A MAZE stuff as most A MAZE talks should make their way to YouTube soon. Additionally, less time intensive segments such as the Pixel Boy Trailer will fall under the Open Floor.
That seem good for everyone?
Change of plan for me/Jaco on Wednesday - he's got the day off so we're going to this Steampunk cafe (that I've only just discovered exists in Cape Town) before the meet. It's in Buitenkant Street, not far from The Company's Garden. We'll be there about 4:30pm if anyone would like to join us for a pre-meet caffeine fest in what looks like an awesome spot :)