[Event] Cape Town Community Night - 29 November

edited in Events
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!

When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Last Wednesday of the month

Where: Bandwidth Barn - 68 Albert Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, 7925

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 and greet
- Rapid fire intros (10 min)
- Community News (5 min)

Talks - 2 x 20 min slots:
- Talk and Q&A about Google Play by Andy Volk
- Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie by Danny Day
- Group discussion on future meetups

Focused Feedback - 2 x 10 min slots
- Genital jousting
- Long Distance Caller

Open Demo Floor


Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/156578525077289/

If you'd like to give a talk or show something to get some feedback, please post below!

Comments

  • It's the last meetup of the year! I'm keen to have an open discussion about how to improve the meetups in general, so we can have better meetups next year! Pls come prepared with ideas :)

    I'm also keen to give a talk on twisty puzzles, like the Rubiks Cube. If ppl are keen, bring along a cube and I'll show you how to solve it, but that'll be optional - I intend talk about the history of speedcubing and some of the more interesting things about the hobby. Here's a video of the current world record of 4.59s:

  • edited
    Is it possible to get a focused feedback slot for Genital Jousting? (particularly for the single player campaign content)

    I'm not 100% certain that Genital Jousting is welcome at a open community event like the Make Games Meetups. I definitely don't want to be ostracizing people who might disapprove of its content.

    That said, some of the feedback we want is towards improving the message of the game, getting the game to represent sex positively, and making the game as inclusive as we reasonably can achieve (given the content of the game).

    We'd also want to test for bugs and hiccups in gameplay.

    Is the game welcome? And do we have a process for deciding this?

    I'm keen to hear more about puzzles. I'm particularly curious about where the popular frontiers of puzzles are at the moment (like I find it interesting that Sokuban has seen a resurgence in recent years). Is puzzle design evolving, or is it entering a period of revivalism (or both). I'm not sure if that can be a part of a talk at some point.
  • Is it possible to get a focused feedback slot for Genital Jousting? (particularly for the single player campaign content)

    ...

    Is the game welcome? And do we have a process for deciding this?
    This is a good question. I'm not actually sure. I'll give it some more thought, but some options include:
    • Not showing it - keep everything kid-safe
    • Showing it at the end with a warning
    • Showing it in one of the other rooms at the venue at the end (if the venue supports this)
    • Showing it on a laptop at the end, during the open demo floor part
    I'd appreciate feedback from community members that might find this sort of content unsettling to them. What would you like to see happen with this if it was up to you?
    I'm keen to hear more about puzzles. I'm particularly curious about where the popular frontiers of puzzles are at the moment (like I find it interesting that Sokuban has seen a resurgence in recent years). Is puzzle design evolving, or is it entering a period of revivalism (or both). I'm not sure if that can be a part of a talk at some point.
    The idea for my talk was specifically for twisty puzzles, which are these (generally) physical puzzles like Rubik's cubes, of different sizes (2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, ...) and shapes (pyramids, dodecahedrons, ...) that people try to solve in the quickest time or number of moves. So I don't think it would overlap all that much with Sokoban and other videogame puzzles, but that can be another talk ;)

    Update: on the FB event Danny has volunteered to do a talk "Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie" based on the current IGF games he's judging. (BTW, I think a talk like this should come before my suggested talk, it's much more applicable, but we might have space for both)
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • Rads! Keen to hear Danny's talk.

    Also keen to have a Make Games community wrap up kind of thing. If that means discussing how to do this better that's rad. But also I think that can include some rounding up what happened this year, and there were some good developments. Some sugar to go with the bitter introspection.
  • Yeah, I didn't think the discussion needed to be a negative thing. I'm thinking less of "What did we do wrong?" and more "What can be done to make things better?" (although you'll probably have a fair bit of both). I like the idea of recapping some of the achievements and developments that have come out of the community too!
  • The Google guus also want to do a quick talk about the launch of Google Merchant services

  • edited
    Regarding Genital Jousting, should we rather bring a few laptops to run Genital Jousting on? Rather than put it up on the main screen.

    If it's okay to bring it at all?
  • @EvanGreenwood: I feel like it's 100% fine if it was on laptops. I'm still not sure about putting it up on the projected screen - I haven't really heard any feedback for or against it and I don't want to take my person view as the authority.

    BTW, thanks for actually raising the issue and being upfront, it's also made me think about previous scenarios where we put a game up on the big screen without any sort of vetting and sometimes it's turned out to be a bit questionable.
  • Just a quick question mates. I am a gamer to start with and my friends and I have just begun to make video games. So most basically in these Cape town community night meetings, we can bring our games to be tested out by other mates? I mean that's exactly what we want, to hear other people's opinion and feedback so we can make better and more fun video games for the near future.
  • @Triogaimtrix: yeah, you're very welcome to bring your games along, please do! Anyone is allowed to show off games they're working on at the end and others can play them - the more the merrier! The players are usually a good mix of game developers and other people, so you can get some diverse feedback. If you have something specific you're looking for feedback on, we have focused feedback slots, but if you'd first like to come and see how things work, that's usually a good idea.
  • @francoisvn is your speedcubing talk a definite?
  • @mattbenic: it's still somewhat flexible. I suppose I'll nail down the agenda a bit later this week, but there's no rush. Why?
  • Just been chatting to the team... if it is acceptable (and there's time available) we would like a focus feedback slot for Genital Jousting... Perhaps we can do it at the end?
    Thanked by 1blacksheepZA
  • We'd also like to get some feedback on Long Distance Caller, the VR / Art project that's been worked on at Free Lives.
    Thanked by 1blacksheepZA
  • Just updated the agenda for tomorrow. Sorry for taking so long, been quite busy and then ill the past week.

    I'm still not 100% sure how we should be handling content like Genital Jousting in focused feedback slots, but I think the group discussion will be a good time to discuss it. If we decide that it's not ok for a slot, we can look at moving it to one of the other rooms at the Bandwidth Barn. I hope that's a good approach!

    We seem to have enough content for tomorrow's meetup, so I'll keep my speedcubing talk for next year. I'm also a bit sick and probably not the best speaker now. If anyone wanted me to teach them how to solve a cube, I'll still happily do that, provided I feel well enough to come. I'll put a backup plan in place in the event I can't make it, so don't worry about the meetup not happening :)
  • Agenda updated: Andy Volk from Google will be giving a quick talk and Q&A about Google Play and the recent changes that have allowed us to sell games and apps there.
  • That's awesome :D
  • Great meetup! It was super cool to eat pizza's and play/test games at the end. Looking forward to next year's meetup!

    I'd love to know what decisions, if any, were made about running future meetups. And going forward, I'd like to thank anyone who has volunteered their time to make these meetup continue and grow.

    Also, SUPER BIG thank you to @francoisvn for doing a huge amount of legwork this year keeping the meetups going. (I'm not sure if there are other's I should thank).

    And thanks to The Bandwidth Barn for the continued support!
    Thanked by 1francoisvn
  • I'd love to know what decisions, if any, were made about running future meetups. And going forward, I'd like to thank anyone who has volunteered their time to make these meetup continue and grow.
    We didn't really make any decisions about future meetups last night. The discussion was already taking quite a bit of time, so I prioritized gathering concerns, suggestions, gauging group feeling, and gathering eager helpers. There's now a group of 6 (including me) that can help plan and carry out the changes! I'm excited to see what we can achieve and we'll keep the community informed!

    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • I'd love to know what decisions, if any, were made about running future meetups. And going forward, I'd like to thank anyone who has volunteered their time to make these meetup continue and grow.
    We didn't really make any decisions about future meetups last night. The discussion was already taking quite a bit of time, so I prioritized gathering concerns, suggestions, gauging group feeling, and gathering eager helpers. There's now a group of 6 (including me) that can help plan and carry out the changes! I'm excited to see what we can achieve and we'll keep the community informed!

    Who are the 6?
  • The 6 are currently (no order):

    Myself
    JJ
    Danny
    Dorian
    Crystal
    Daniel
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