Hi Guys. My names Zev0. Mainly a 3D content creator and a vendor at Daz3d.com. Also been in comics for a few years. Just checking out what is happening on the local game development scene. I'm from Cape Town and am CEO of my own company called DigiPixels. (Just started up) Might open up a game division so I am just browsing around what is happening on my doorstep. I am from Cape Town.
Hi, everyone! I'm Michael, from Cape Town. I studied mathematics at UCT, but I've been an avid programmer for about 15 years now and I've taught myself a lot of computer science over the years - and way too many programming languages :-). My main interest is artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, the last game I actually finished was a silly Asteroids clone written in Turbo Pascal for a matric project and I hope to change that soon. :-)
I'm interested in interactive fiction and I'm looking to apply the AI techniques I've learnt to create interesting NPCs in games and to try my hand at tackling the problem of interactive storytelling.
My name is Loet Jansen van Rensburg, I am a programmer from html to apps, working full time as a interactive developer in JHB. I currently work on games part time and have recently started working in Unity which has really opened up worlds!
I also founded Real Token Games and have released one game thus far called Jump 'n Arrows which is an IOS jumper game. I had to do everything on this game which was quite the learning experience.
I am also working on a new game which is only a paper prototype at this stage but will post it as soon as it's playable. Thanks for all the advice about making a prototype as soon as possible, I have seen a lot of comments in other discussions about this. I would have never thought that I would make a paper prototype of a digital game.
Do try to get to your local events, if they're in range. @loet: I know PTA->JHB is far, but the meetups are worth it. @mycl, @Zev0: See you tonight, hopefully!
@dislekcia I work in JHB and have been to 3 meetups and it was totally worth it! Such an awesome vibe to be surrounded with people that share the same passion. Thank you for an awesome community!
My name is Niel. I'm a part time indie and a full time mechanism that turns coffee into code. I work at the JSE, where I'm the development manager for market support systems. This is basically just another way of saying I'm the architect/designer/developer/coffee maker/tester in a one man team that does deep packet inspection and packet analysis. Think wireshark, but at a massive scale.
I get motion sick rather easily, so I don't even contemplate 3D games.
Have you come to one of our meetups yet? There's one once a month. We're also doing a thing at rAge and a few guys from CT are coming too, so yeah look around on the forum and you'll see where all that's going on :)
Have you made anything yourself? :D Share stuff with us! :)
I haven't been to any of the meetups, I'll be sure to attend when I can.
At the moment I'm working on a game called "Zombie Apocalypse Arcade" and I've already posted on the forums. Here's a screenshot
I spent about 5 years following my dream of making an online cricket management game, but I was so focussed on accurately simulating a cricket match that I have one kick ass engine, but not much of a front end, hahahahaha.
This is a module testing the data driven comments in my cricket game.
I'm also about halfway through a remake of the classic "BoxWorld" game my wife, brother-in-law and my mother-in-law love but I haven't got it on my iPhone yet so I don't have much to share.
Concept:
I used to play a game called Tribal Wars and spent a good deal of time drawing maps for the game, the maps were drawn in code, not hand drawn :)
Here I made a multiplayer battle city clone. This is a screenshot of a test map while I played against the computer. To test my low latency TCP library I made the multiplayer TCP/IP instead of UDP and the game was playable on wifi with 4 players the most we ever tried. I love TCP/IP & networking. I've done so many networked systems in my career I forget, lol.
I'm Jacques. I'm from Durban. I aspire to be a successful indie one day. I've always lurked, but I've come to realize that doing so is just creepy and I need to get involved. I'm a jack-of-all trades kind of web developer by day, and spend too much time either gaming, or playing with all kinds of programs and frameworks, by night. I seem to have a hard time finishing the projects that I start. I hope I can learn and perhaps provide some help to others here.
@Krummelz you don't have to finish - finishing isn't the point when you first start. Experiment, and put it out into the world, and learn! Learn learn learn! Finishing doesn't make you learn, trying things things and more things, then getting feedback from real people, makes you learn! :D
My name is Jonathan and I wanted to be a game developer since before I knew how to put two and two together, quite literally actually.
Currently I am an R&D software developer full time trying to find the time to create my own indie games, not being successful of course. I currently know how to program in C/C++, Java - (mostly Android), C#, Objective-C, Delphi, PHP and web building (HTML(5), Javascript, JQuery), I also have experience in using XNA, directly using Open GL/ES and DirectX and Artificial intelligence algorithms. In addition to this I spend a fair amount of time creating content using Blender, Gimp and Audacity.
My hope is to one day to have my dream job of being a game developer/designer and hoping that this place will be a good stepping stone for that.
My name is Gresham, I am a graphic designer / software developer/ robotic tinkerer / gadget groupie. I have a few languages under my belt and I am currently working at a large telco in the marketing arena.
I have begun my journey into game making and would love to create games that are more child focused. Looking forward to joining the community and getting my hands dirty.
Studied Electronic Engineering, but moved into software development, but my heart lies with game dev and digital art :D
I am super stoked to see this community thriving. Many years ago I thought SA Game Dev was rubbish, I am so glad to be so wrong! SA Game Dev is amazing! (Especially after the wonderful showing at rAge 2013 this year \:D/ So excited for the future)
I'm Mike, I am a law student at wits, I am a self taught c++ and c# programmer, at the moment I am working with spark studios, making a platformer rpg. I try to be as active on the forums as I can.
Hopefully I will have a chance to collaborate with some devs closer to home.
Oh and learn3D is really an awesome institution (yes they are running a custom part-time course that I am uber stoked for) and Gustavo is incredibly helpful.
My name is Kenny, I want to get into the game music biz and felt this was the best place to start, I will post my soundcloud link in the appropriate thread and get this ball rolling. :)
I'm David Nickerson from Giant Box Games the other half of www.PixelBoygame.com (Art/Design).
Great meeting you guys in Cape Town and Johannesburg, I had a lot of fun chatting with and checking out everyones games! Hope to be back in SA soon, but until then I will connect on here.
I'm pretty new to the site, currently im working in the social gaming industry, mainly focusing on video slotmachine games. I've always been a fan of indie games and I've FINALLY found this site, awesomeness! Hopefully I can get involved in creating some artwork for upcoming games :) or im just as amped to check out what talent is out there locally and meet you awesome people (seen some insanely awesome work on the site).
Im a graphic Designer/Illustrator, you can check out some of my work here http://www.behance.net/patrickdenobrega For the new year I want to teach myself zBrush and 3dstudiomax among other things.
My name is André and I'm currently employed as a software engineer (aka programmer). In my spare time I work on various pc game projects, hoping to one day finish one of them :-) I released 2 freeware games in the early 90's but after that I have not been able to finish another game to my satisfaction. My latest project is .NET based and is a 2D top-down shooter using Direct3D and .NET sockets for networking (LAN).
Hi, my name is Konrad. I have been playing games and coding since the 80's. I have yet to publish anything significant. I am here to draw inspiration from one and all and am very happy to be part of such a creative local community. I am a corporate IT slave hoping to ascend to the next "level" by gaining formal indie game dev status.
My name is Wouter, I am 38yo and have been a fan of games as long as I can remember and have been wanting to make my own for the same time. I currently reside in Johannesburg (East Rand, bru)
When I finished military service in '93 I managed to get a bursary at a company called TDK & Associates (if memory serves) and started studying COBOL. After about a month of learning how to make payroll and pension fund apps I could not stand the boredom of it anymore and quit - what an idiot. Since games development was non-existent in SA at the time, and for quite some time to come, I was forced to pursue a career that could sustain me financially and have therefore become yet another victim to the stat class of those who spend the majority of their time in something that is not their passion. Don't get me wrong, it’s not completely terrible and I am pretty damn good at it too, if I may say so myself. I hold a tertiary qualification in Logistics Management with almost 20 years’ experience in a multitude of Supply Chain functions.
My passion and dream never died and at times feels frustratingly strong. Not knowing what you don't know can be immensely frustrating and my most recent search and quest to be able to make my own games have led me to believe that I may need to study coding (to be able to use Unity properly, it seems I should go for C#). If this is the best or even the correct path, I have no idea, but I would certainly love to hear some thoughts and opinions.
I was delighted when I stumbled onto this community of Saffers last week, I have remained quietly hopeful for 20 years. From the threads I have read and video links I have found in this forum, it seems that finally there is a game dev community in SA and maybe, just maybe some help for me. I intend to go to the Jhb meet this Tuesday.
I've been visiting the site every now and then....and I thought now is as good a time as ever to sign up... so here I am!
3D Generalist, although modelling/texturing is my preferred work... I love and live for all things on the art side of game dev... this year took it upon myself to knuckle down and learn zbrush I've worked for a couple game dev start ups throughout my career (so there are few of you I do know), but as of late have been doing freelance work... meh
Anyways look forward to discussing game dev aswell as well as expand my contact list
I am also very new here, but welcome to you none the less. I am so envious of you creative folk, I hope you're going to open a thread where you show off some of your stuff. I love looking at cool gaming art.
@Sarge The great thing about this rock we live on is that everyone has a different perspective. Which is interesting and non-boring. I am sure that something you learned in Logistics management over 20 odd years will someday pay dividends when you release your first game... ;) Welcome to our community. I am new too ;) Oh and I'm a few years older than you sonny... so hold off on the ballies comments... gramps is more appropriate, and there is no substitute for experience... remember we have more nicks and scars from life and that could make for an interesting addition to any game you create. Just look at Phil Fish. LOL ;)
I'm Kaif. I'm a Londoner currently living in gorgeous Cape Town. I'm a video editor, animator and occasional camera operator. I've been wanting to learn a bit of games design for ages but never really had the time. However, I've recently decided that I need to make the time! I put together something basic in Game Maker a couple of weeks back but now I'm diving into Unity, wish me luck! Mostly doing this as a hobby (although I would love to do it full time if it pans out well).
All my info and social media nonsense can be found at my site http://kaif.me
Hello! I am Philipe. I am a concept artist and animator in Cape Town. I have recently graduated and am searching for opportunities in the concept art, animation side of the industry. I have been playing games since I was 6 and its one of the things I most enjoy. What really grabs me is they way gaming can join a multitude of artistic disciplines and feel more personal and engaging than other art forms. So yeah this is a little bit about me here is a link to my be CGHUB profile: http://philipe-rios.cghub.com/ I will be providing a link to my portfolio with my animation showreel and other concept artwork in the jobs thread later today. Cheers!
There are maaaaany things I love about being South African and my country and one that is very near the top of that list is our hospitality. Even though I have felt uncomfortable with welcoming others who introduce themselves while I am still so very fresh here, I feel it even less appropriate to sit and watch while no-one else does so.
On that note: - Welcome to why they call me Sarge :P - consider yourselves kakked out by a noob - and let me invite you all to show off one of the things that we are renowned for as Saffers (yeah, I mean being hospitable ;) ) Let's make an effort welcoming those who made the effort to introduce themselves.
Welcome MarzenGold (awesome first name dude! /high5), kaif & ph-rios.
@Sarge The great thing about this rock we live on is that everyone has a different perspective. Which is interesting and non-boring. I am sure that something you learned in Logistics management over 20 odd years will someday pay dividends when you release your first game... ;) Welcome to our community. I am new too ;) Oh and I'm a few years older than you sonny... so hold off on the ballies comments... gramps is more appropriate, and there is no substitute for experience... remember we have more nicks and scars from life and that could make for an interesting addition to any game you create. Just look at Phil Fish. LOL ;)
:D Thank you, indeed and well said... Oom Konman :P
Hi, Im Richard, 3d animator/game designer, been making games on and off for the past 13 years or so, mostly on the side, i think now more than ever its viable to make games. I have a license of 3ds max which is mine, comes in handy :) Im freelancing to pay the bills, but take game work over any other! I also like to help out on projects i enjoy. Working on 2 of my own games at the moment, will share them shortly.
Comments
I'm interested in interactive fiction and I'm looking to apply the AI techniques I've learnt to create interesting NPCs in games and to try my hand at tackling the problem of interactive storytelling.
My name is Loet Jansen van Rensburg, I am a programmer from html to apps, working full time as a interactive developer in JHB. I currently work on games part time and have recently started working in Unity which has really opened up worlds!
I also founded Real Token Games and have released one game thus far called Jump 'n Arrows which is an IOS jumper game. I had to do everything on this game which was quite the learning experience.
I am also working on a new game which is only a paper prototype at this stage but will post it as soon as it's playable. Thanks for all the advice about making a prototype as soon as possible, I have seen a lot of comments in other discussions about this. I would have never thought that I would make a paper prototype of a digital game.
Anyway that's me.
Do try to get to your local events, if they're in range. @loet: I know PTA->JHB is far, but the meetups are worth it. @mycl, @Zev0: See you tonight, hopefully!
My name is Niel. I'm a part time indie and a full time mechanism that turns coffee into code. I work at the JSE, where I'm the development manager for market support systems. This is basically just another way of saying I'm the architect/designer/developer/coffee maker/tester in a one man team that does deep packet inspection and packet analysis. Think wireshark, but at a massive scale.
I get motion sick rather easily, so I don't even contemplate 3D games.
Have you come to one of our meetups yet? There's one once a month. We're also doing a thing at rAge and a few guys from CT are coming too, so yeah look around on the forum and you'll see where all that's going on :)
Have you made anything yourself? :D Share stuff with us! :)
I haven't been to any of the meetups, I'll be sure to attend when I can.
At the moment I'm working on a game called "Zombie Apocalypse Arcade" and I've already posted on the forums.
Here's a screenshot
I spent about 5 years following my dream of making an online cricket management game, but I was so focussed on accurately simulating a cricket match that I have one kick ass engine, but not much of a front end, hahahahaha.
This is a module testing the data driven comments in my cricket game.
I'm also about halfway through a remake of the classic "BoxWorld" game my wife, brother-in-law and my mother-in-law love but I haven't got it on my iPhone yet so I don't have much to share.
Concept:
I used to play a game called Tribal Wars and spent a good deal of time drawing maps for the game, the maps were drawn in code, not hand drawn :)
Here I made a multiplayer battle city clone. This is a screenshot of a test map while I played against the computer. To test my low latency TCP library I made the multiplayer TCP/IP instead of UDP and the game was playable on wifi with 4 players the most we ever tried. I love TCP/IP & networking. I've done so many networked systems in my career I forget, lol.
I'm Jacques. I'm from Durban. I aspire to be a successful indie one day. I've always lurked, but I've come to realize that doing so is just creepy and I need to get involved. I'm a jack-of-all trades kind of web developer by day, and spend too much time either gaming, or playing with all kinds of programs and frameworks, by night. I seem to have a hard time finishing the projects that I start. I hope I can learn and perhaps provide some help to others here.
I'm Ricardo. I'm an engineering student and owner of www.gamingcartel.co.za
I'm new to game dev but I am always eager to pick up something new.
If anyone can point me into some good directions to pick up some basics that would be great! :D
My name is Jonathan and I wanted to be a game developer since before I knew how to put two and two together, quite literally actually.
Currently I am an R&D software developer full time trying to find the time to create my own indie games, not being successful of course. I currently know how to program in C/C++, Java - (mostly Android), C#, Objective-C, Delphi, PHP and web building (HTML(5), Javascript, JQuery), I also have experience in using XNA, directly using Open GL/ES and DirectX and Artificial intelligence algorithms. In addition to this I spend a fair amount of time creating content using Blender, Gimp and Audacity.
My hope is to one day to have my dream job of being a game developer/designer and hoping that this place will be a good stepping stone for that.
Thank you.
My name is Gresham, I am a graphic designer / software developer/ robotic tinkerer / gadget groupie. I have a few languages under my belt and I am currently working at a large telco in the marketing arena.
I have begun my journey into game making and would love to create games that are more child focused. Looking forward to joining the community and getting my hands dirty.
Cheers.
G
Studied Electronic Engineering, but moved into software development, but my heart lies with game dev and digital art :D
I am super stoked to see this community thriving. Many years ago I thought SA Game Dev was rubbish, I am so glad to be so wrong! SA Game Dev is amazing! (Especially after the wonderful showing at rAge 2013 this year \:D/ So excited for the future)
Gustavo from Learn3D is a good guy and a pleasure to work with at rAge. I hope we can do more stuff together in the future.
I'm Mike, I am a law student at wits, I am a self taught c++ and c# programmer, at the moment I am working with spark studios, making a platformer rpg. I try to be as active on the forums as I can.
Hopefully I will have a chance to collaborate with some devs closer to home.
My name is Kenny, I want to get into the game music biz and felt this was the best place to start, I will post my soundcloud link in the appropriate thread and get this ball rolling. :)
Been talking about it for far too long :)
I'm David Nickerson from Giant Box Games the other half of www.PixelBoygame.com (Art/Design).
Great meeting you guys in Cape Town and Johannesburg, I had a lot of fun chatting with and checking out everyones games! Hope to be back in SA soon, but until then I will connect on here.
I Love designing and creating games.
I have released two games on the IOS App store
Math-A-Baby
PartyTouch [ Currently Free :) ]
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/partytouch/id717812545?ls=1&mt=8
It is awesome to see that there is actually a lot of indie developers in south africa.
Oh ja.... and my twitter is @MrCodeRooster
I'm pretty new to the site, currently im working in the social gaming industry, mainly focusing on video slotmachine games. I've always been a fan of indie games and I've FINALLY found this site, awesomeness! Hopefully I can get involved in creating some artwork for upcoming games :) or im just as amped to check out what talent is out there locally and meet you awesome people (seen some insanely awesome work on the site).
Im a graphic Designer/Illustrator, you can check out some of my work here http://www.behance.net/patrickdenobrega
For the new year I want to teach myself zBrush and 3dstudiomax among other things.
Cheers.
My name is André and I'm currently employed as a software engineer (aka programmer).
In my spare time I work on various pc game projects, hoping to one day finish one of them :-)
I released 2 freeware games in the early 90's but after that I have not been able to finish another game to my satisfaction.
My latest project is .NET based and is a 2D top-down shooter using Direct3D and .NET sockets for networking (LAN).
Cheers,
André
Been hiding around the shadows for a while and thought it is about time I introduced myself and start participating... \0/
Nothing all too special about me, but I'm happy to see there are so many who are passionate about game development.
My name is Wouter, I am 38yo and have been a fan of games as long as I can remember and have been wanting to make my own for the same time. I currently reside in Johannesburg (East Rand, bru)
When I finished military service in '93 I managed to get a bursary at a company called TDK & Associates (if memory serves) and started studying COBOL. After about a month of learning how to make payroll and pension fund apps I could not stand the boredom of it anymore and quit - what an idiot. Since games development was non-existent in SA at the time, and for quite some time to come, I was forced to pursue a career that could sustain me financially and have therefore become yet another victim to the stat class of those who spend the majority of their time in something that is not their passion. Don't get me wrong, it’s not completely terrible and I am pretty damn good at it too, if I may say so myself. I hold a tertiary qualification in Logistics Management with almost 20 years’ experience in a multitude of Supply Chain functions.
My passion and dream never died and at times feels frustratingly strong. Not knowing what you don't know can be immensely frustrating and my most recent search and quest to be able to make my own games have led me to believe that I may need to study coding (to be able to use Unity properly, it seems I should go for C#). If this is the best or even the correct path, I have no idea, but I would certainly love to hear some thoughts and opinions.
I was delighted when I stumbled onto this community of Saffers last week, I have remained quietly hopeful for 20 years. From the threads I have read and video links I have found in this forum, it seems that finally there is a game dev community in SA and maybe, just maybe some help for me. I intend to go to the Jhb meet this Tuesday.
Oops, that was a touch long.
TLDR: Hi, wassuuuuup?
I am indeed and I managed to rope a friend into joining me. See you guys & gals tonight... keep an eye out for the ballies :D
I've been visiting the site every now and then....and I thought now is as good a time as ever to sign up... so here I am!
3D Generalist, although modelling/texturing is my preferred work... I love and live for all things on the art side of game dev... this year took it upon myself to knuckle down and learn zbrush
I've worked for a couple game dev start ups throughout my career (so there are few of you I do know), but as of late have been doing freelance work... meh
Anyways look forward to discussing game dev aswell as well as expand my contact list
Over and out - Jenico
Working on my own project with Max, Zbrush and UDK for shits and giggles. Loving the modern tech. :)
I'm Kaif. I'm a Londoner currently living in gorgeous Cape Town. I'm a video editor, animator and occasional camera operator. I've been wanting to learn a bit of games design for ages but never really had the time. However, I've recently decided that I need to make the time! I put together something basic in Game Maker a couple of weeks back but now I'm diving into Unity, wish me luck! Mostly doing this as a hobby (although I would love to do it full time if it pans out well).
All my info and social media nonsense can be found at my site http://kaif.me
I am Philipe. I am a concept artist and animator in Cape Town. I have recently graduated and am searching for opportunities in the concept art, animation side of the industry. I have been playing games since I was 6 and its one of the things I most enjoy. What really grabs me is they way gaming can join a multitude of artistic disciplines and feel more personal and engaging than other art forms. So yeah this is a little bit about me here is a link to my be CGHUB profile: http://philipe-rios.cghub.com/
I will be providing a link to my portfolio with my animation showreel and other concept artwork in the jobs thread later today.
Cheers!
On that note:
- Welcome to why they call me Sarge :P
- consider yourselves kakked out by a noob
- and let me invite you all to show off one of the things that we are renowned for as Saffers (yeah, I mean being hospitable ;) ) Let's make an effort welcoming those who made the effort to introduce themselves.
Welcome MarzenGold (awesome first name dude! /high5), kaif & ph-rios. :D Thank you, indeed and well said... Oom Konman :P
I am Andre. Quit my job and now working full time on games.
I have a license of 3ds max which is mine, comes in handy :)
Im freelancing to pay the bills, but take game work over any other! I also like to help out on projects i enjoy.
Working on 2 of my own games at the moment, will share them shortly.