Hi everyone, I would like to try organize a Unity3D introduction workshop type thing next semester at UCT.
I thought we could organise it as a MakeGamesSA event and open it up to anyone who would like to learn about Unity. I particularly want to aim it at the 3rd year games students at UCT to get them into the forums and at the community evenings (they are particularly good at ignoring my invitations).
I will try organise a venue etc. for a Saturday morning/afternoon and look at catering/workstations. Would anyone like to give some talks about Unity dev or general games design (like a juice talk)? Would anyone be interesting in attending the event? Worst case scenario I will just do a practical tutorial type thing with some of the students that are interested.
If there is enough interest maybe we could add more advanced talks or a game maker talk too?
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UPDATE (26/07/13):
The event has been organised, hoorah!
Here is the final flyer:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29499659/GameDevWorkshop6-01-01.png
Here is a map to the location:
Here is the location on google maps.
Here is the map of UCT upper campus.
I thought we could organise it as a MakeGamesSA event and open it up to anyone who would like to learn about Unity. I particularly want to aim it at the 3rd year games students at UCT to get them into the forums and at the community evenings (they are particularly good at ignoring my invitations).
I will try organise a venue etc. for a Saturday morning/afternoon and look at catering/workstations. Would anyone like to give some talks about Unity dev or general games design (like a juice talk)? Would anyone be interesting in attending the event? Worst case scenario I will just do a practical tutorial type thing with some of the students that are interested.
If there is enough interest maybe we could add more advanced talks or a game maker talk too?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE (26/07/13):
The event has been organised, hoorah!
Here is the final flyer:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29499659/GameDevWorkshop6-01-01.png
Here is a map to the location:
Here is the location on google maps.
Here is the map of UCT upper campus.
Comments
I guess it depends on if people can help me with giving talks etc. I'm not exactly the best speaker and I don't really know anything about game maker.
Here is the illustrator file if anyone wants to see/use the source.
So does anyone have any criticism? What do you think of the dates/times/workshops/venue/spelling etc.?
The venue I have in mind is the one we use at the global game jam (just waiting for confirmation).
I am assuming @dislekcia will handle the first slot. @raithza is there a slot you prefer/want to add?
@raxter and @Manikin, would you two like to talk too? Or just participate as helpers/tutors?
I think we should add a practical slot at the end or in the middle where we can go and do a game maker/board game making practical in the labs.
Anyway, I'm more than likely free on both :P
I'm not sure if I have anything to talk about, but I'm definitely happy to help/tutor. l'll think if I have any chunks of wisdom for a small talk, and if I do I'll run it through you guys, and maybe do one. But otherwise, just helping out would be cool.
@Adonais Glad to hear you are interested!
I'll spread the word to some friends and colleagues too :)
Hey, if needed I'd be prepared to do a bit of help. Though I'm not really a tool person, and not really a serious coder. I think my strengths in programmering are jamming things quickly in Unity... But I'm much more comfortable with design. My thoughts about coding practices bring tears of dispair to the eyes proper coders (causing temporary blindness in some cases).
Maybe @Raxter can speak to @JHoward ... he's (one more) swarthy code master that'd be a boon to the roster.
@BlackShipsFilltheSky Your input would be perfect for the juice/prototyping session! If you want to, no pressure, I would like that session to be more design and why game-jams-are-great oriented. If @JHoward and/or @raxter could talk about advanced Unity code stuff, in an extra slot, that would be amazing too :D
Whats the general feeling for holding the workshop on a Sunday(if I could get a venue).
I'm trying to get a venue somewhere else on a Saturday anyway.
Would be fine with Sunday or Saturday :P
@atomicdomb I'm working on it, a lecturer decided to help because I think they don't take students trying to book venues seriously.
Ok so a small change of dates, we will now be hosting it on Saturday the 3rd of August.
So I'll fix up the flyer and we can start advertising.
[Edit:] Here is the flyer:
It'll be practical (in its application), but I want to discuss some of the reasons why juice works as well as it does.
Would it be silly if I said I might try roadtrip down to Cape Town for this? :P :)
@Bensonance I don't think it would be silly... but if you do plan to do it, let me know so that I can make sure its damn well worth your time :P
- I'm looking into getting sponsors for the event. I have gotten in contact with Amazon and I'm waiting for an answer. Does anyone know any companies that might like to sponsor/contribute?
- I would like to live-stream/record the event, anyone have contacts that would be willing to record for us? I will ask around too.
- I am looking into organising some kind of catering. I think if we somehow got sponsored lunch that would be pure win, else I thought there could be a small cover charge or shop-based braai thing for lunch. Obviously we would get more students attending if there was free/cheap food...
- I will be blackmailing a family member to photograph the event. I thought we could use some pictures if we ever made some sort of news-photo-gallery for the front page of MakeGamesSA?(I'm just throwing the thought out there)
@hanli I agree :) It would obviously be way better/personal live, but maybe if it was recorded we could reuse the footage of some of the talks?Sponsorship: I have contacted Amazon and they will hopefully be sponsoring the event, this is however not set in stone (I will post an update when it is). This might cover catering... else if that doesn't work I'd like to sell boerewors rolls or something? Would anyone be willing to miss a talk to help braai if that's the case?
Talks: I need confirmation on who would like to give talks, so please confirm below...
From the messages above I am hoping:
Also maybe we could do some short talks/ a hangout section at the end, where people can show off their games (such as @Manikin and co.'s Silhouette)?
So I'd like to help, and demo Silhouette if there's time at the end. I'll gladly answer questions about it, and chat to whoever's around. If there are some people playing and interested in the game, I can chat a little about the usefulness of game jams in kicking off an idea, and some similar topics about scope and whatnot, but I don't think that constitutes a whole talk.
Oh, and speaking of game jams, we should probably make sure we point out the numerous game jam events available, via something like compohub.net.
Unless I play videos for a bunch of the two talks? Which I can do, it means a somewhat less focused talk, but less stress on my part. (I assume there will be a projector?)
@Manikin Fantastic, thanks so much! :D
Or... Maybe if you both did 10-15min we could do a short paper prototyping session with the tiny game design tool?
Otherwise, I'm not really sure how to involve the those that don't want to design computer games. Any suggestions?
[Edit:]Well I'm not sure in the context of the talks we already have.
@creative630: My pleasure! And the paper prototyping thing is a good idea too.
@dammit: I would imagine the juicing stuff might be interesting nonetheless, and the intro talks might convince you to dabble a bit in the dark arts :P