[Event] Cape Town Community Night - 27th November

edited in Events
When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Wednesday 27th November

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)
- Treating narrative progress like Game Design - @Nandrew ~ 20 mins
- Creative Habits: living in a way that maximizes creativity - @BlackShipsFillltheSky ~ 20 mins

- Focused feedback: Wang Commander by @Merrik (10min)


- 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 will sadly be missing the Community nights until January as I am at Limpopo with Family :( I would really like to attend, hopefully we will film interesting talks ?? :P
  • Will we be having a Christmas meetup ?
  • I'll be there!
    Speaking of talks being filmed what happened to the videos from last month?
  • Will we be having a Christmas meetup ?
    Please do! I'm going down to CT in December, would love to meet up with the crowd!
  • I'm keen to get some focused feedback on Wang Commander if there is time.
  • I think Christmas meet ups are a difficult thing to achieve. But I think we should totally have a Christmas social somewhere fun!
  • Christmas social sounds good :) I'm in! Any ideas on what we should do?
  • edited
    Any ideas on what we should do?
    Make a game?
  • dammit said:
    Any ideas on what we should do?
    Tequila!
    Thanked by 2dammit Nandrew
  • edited
    dammit said:
    Any ideas on what we should do?
    Make a game while drinking Tequila?

  • Busy finding out about a venue, will let everyone know on Thursday
  • Looks like on the 6th of December we can do something outside at SIJO. We are based on a farm in Bergvliet,so there is a nice big section of grass. I was thinking a picnic vibe with beer, and see if anyone has some PS controllers and we can sort out some Joust. We could start it at 16:00 or 17:00

    What does everyone think?
    Thanked by 3dammit raxter Merrik
  • Yes, I'm keen! I can walk there :)
  • Would love to talk about narrative progress and treating it like game design.
    Thanked by 2Bensonance raxter
  • I'll be there
  • Sadly I've been called up to Joburg and will only be back at 8pm, so I'm likely to miss most, if not all of the meetup. I"ll need a volunteer to loom in my stead. I'll definitely make the after meetup drinks at Banana Jam though!
  • I can handle looming responsibilities, unless anyone else feels like being the loomer?
  • Loom, loom loom.....yup, now it sounds funny in my head.
  • I'd rather die than take on responsibility!
    That being said, I don't mind filming again (Last months talks will be uploaded in the next few hours)
  • @Merrik it's about time :)
    Thanked by 1dammit
  • edited
    I think I can do a decent talk about "creative habits".

    (Not as in doodling while on the phone or acappela humming, but as in living in a way that maximizes creativity)
    Thanked by 1dammit
  • @BlackShipsFilltheSky, I think that is something you should do in January. :P
  • Maximize!
    Thanked by 1EvanGreenwood
  • This is Cape Town's last community night for the year, make it count!

  • So damn bleak that I am missing this :(
  • Does anyone have a decent mic to record audio?
    Also, Beer House or Banana jam? I vote Beer House.
  • Beer House is great but Banana Jam is a bit closer and also provides craft beer goodness + tasty snack options, I'd vote for that one :)
  • I'm voting for Banana Jam - Closer to home :)
  • The three temporary fugitive Joburgers vote Banana Jam too :).
  • I'd also prefer Banana Jam.
  • Encouragement to all to bring games you've been working on! Lets make the free play session afterwards happen again!

    Ill even commit to bringing my hideously unready prototype I'm working on to prove you don't need be scared of showing something that's not good enough...
    Thanked by 1Merrik
  • @merrik I have a mic, but no mic stand...
  • TheFuntastic said:
    I have a mic, but no mic stand...
    We can just duct tape it to something? |o/
  • or someone?
    Thanked by 1Merrik
  • Don't have a mic stand, but we (the Stellenbosch group) do have two PS move controllers we can bring for games afterwards. Does this sound like a good idea? Will someone be able to use them? Also, does anyone know if we need to bring batteries or recharge them beforehand? (they aren't mine, they just happened to be in the lab here)
  • Free Lives has 2 controllers! We could try set up some Joust?
    Who has Joust? @dislekcia?
    Thanked by 1Gibbo
  • I only have a Mac version of the game and our iMac isn't exactly portable... Anyone have a macbook we could play it on? And speakers?
  • We might actually attend this one. If we finish our comic page in time. :o
  • edited
    @dislekcia @Merrik I have a macbook which I'll bring along for some Joust! Is there anything I can download before hand for the move controllers? I think @Merrik gave me some drivers last time, but let me know what to install so we can be ready in advance :D

    Edit: Oh, I can bring some speakers too, but they're pretty small and crappy - anyone have some decent ones to bring along?
    Thanked by 1Merrik
  • Joust Team ACTIVATE!
  • Can anyone bring a a camera tripod?
  • I think I'm going to start keeping my whole PC and camera setup in the car on meet-up days so that I can contribute random technological paraphernalia when it's needed. :D
  • That was loads of fun, thanks guys! :D
  • edited
    Merrik said:
    Can anyone bring a a camera tripod?
    He said "tripod".

    I wish there were more prototypes. For example I'd like to hear the music Gibbo did for the recent comp games and hear him talk about his experience. I'd like to hear from people who made Comp entries.
    Thanked by 2Merrik Fengol
  • Sorry I done fucked up the Joust Team :/
  • I feel like there is a little bit of an old guard feel to the Cape Town meetups... the developers who have been developing for years do presentations, other folks listen.

    I like that there are some good talks that come from experience... but I'm afraid that a lot of the people attending are being very passive, and I'm not sure how much they could be getting out of it.

    I'm not sure if I have a solution. I'd like for all the folks making games to at least display their work... or if that's too much effort maybe someone could make a video that rounds up the new prototypes that have been produced that month (with the prototypers' consent).

    I guess I'd like the meetups to reflect what I see as the awesome bubbling creativity that's happening on these forums.
    Thanked by 1TheFuntastic
  • @BlackShipsFilltheSky - Was chatting to both @Danelle and @Bensonance about this. The solution, I feel, is to have someone/s volunteered to actively encourage interaction - chatting with new arrivals, noticing people who aren't getting involved and so forth.

    A lot of us are shy, I think, so it's sometimes a little difficult to get people talking. Having people who are good at networking and so on help/assist others is the best route :)
  • I'm great at networking.

    ...Online. :P

    I get uncomfortable if I'm in a group of more than ~3 people who are all chatting - even if I know everyone, even if I've known them all closely for years. Since having an introverted personality is a common thing among people of our ilk I'm sure a lot of us are the same.

    One thing I can maybe think of is for people who are attending who DON'T have a game to show, to still bring any devices they're able to (laptops of course being the easiest) to provide demos of other people's games who perhaps can't or don't want to bring their PCs. Could even arrange builds in advance where Person A offers up a laptop and Person B sends them a build of their game before the meet to make sure it runs.
  • I agree with the old guard sentiment. Also not sure how to get around it other than to continuously and incessantly encouraging participation.

    Was glad to see a few more prototypes in the free play section afterwards, though there probably could be more. Also I think a vid compilation could be sweet, though that should remain super easy for someone to compile. Like send them youtube links and they can download it beforehand.
  • edited
    Be careful not to confuse a group of people that are actively doing things and then talking about those things, with a group of people that are actively excluding new people that are doing things from talking about those things because they're too new.

    An old guard problem is the latter, which is not what's happening here. Nobody is being told their work/talk/game isn't good enough because they haven't been around for long. Lots of "brand new" (to the community) teams, games and people have stood up recently and are somehow part of the "old guard" already, so it can't be a thing based on time. Thoopid, Sijo, Screwy Lightbulb.
    Thanked by 1WelshPixie
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