[Event] Cape Town Community Night - 25th June 2014
When: 18:30 until around 21:30, Wednesday 25th June
Where: 32 Kloof Street, Cape Town. Map directions over here! This venue will change to where City Varsity is moving next month!
Take note, there will be no free, provided food at this venue!
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)
- Unity 2D Caveats and Tips ~ 5 mins - @theApmil
- Community News (5 min)
- Focused Feeback (10 min slots) x3
- TDDD - Team Devil
- Battle Board - RetroEpic
- Only Us - @I_Am_Developer
- 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!
Indicate your attendance on the Facebook event and Meetup page!
Where: 32 Kloof Street, Cape Town. Map directions over here! This venue will change to where City Varsity is moving next month!
Take note, there will be no free, provided food at this venue!
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)
- Unity 2D Caveats and Tips ~ 5 mins - @theApmil
- Community News (5 min)
- Focused Feeback (10 min slots) x3
- TDDD - Team Devil
- Battle Board - RetroEpic
- Only Us - @I_Am_Developer
- 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!
Indicate your attendance on the Facebook event and Meetup page!
Comments
Developing for mobile has some pretty serious limitations but these only make for some pretty serious trickery. Rather technical in nature, but seriously cool.
Also, we've been working on an unrelated little platform-racer specifically for the meet, so that's us on the demo floor with some giveaways for the goodest players...
http://makegamessa.com/discussion/2153/the-lightrunner#Item_4
Maximise the quality of the feedback by making sure you have a focused line of inquiry.
It's natural to feel proud of your creation and to want to show it off in front of captive audience - we're all prone to that, myself included. The following is inefficient use of the platform and everyones attention:
"I made a game, whatcha think?"
Rather strive for something like this:
"I made a game. I'm running into design/sound/art/performance problem x. I've tried to solve it in these ways, but no dice. Suggestions?"
Even if you're espousing the mantra of show early and often, this could be phrased as:
"I made a prototype, this is what playtesters find interesting about it, how can I maximise that?"
This not only means you'll get the most of out of the expert advice on offer in the room, but also provides the exposure of thinking like a game maker for those less experienced audience members. Win for everybody!
As always with things technical in nature, what's seriously cool for you is (likely) dreadfully boring for another. I'm not the gatekeeper of content at the meetings but at least suggest you be kind to your audience: keep it light, brief, and abstract it as much as possible. Make it less about the nitty gritty implementation and more about the concepts at play - maximise the chance of relevancy for the audience who may not be a programmer or have any exposure to Unity.
Technical things can still be interesting if you manage to communicate the interestingness of the problem without being mired in the technical details needed to understand it.
Fully agreed. Anything too tech-y always seems to lose people along the way.
@theApmil Care to elaborate on what you're planning to talk about? How long will you need to talk about it?
So you don't want a focused feedback slot for your platform-racer?
I think we should add @TheFuntastic's feedback advice to the FAQ :).
I am keen to come check out the vibe although I dont think I will contribute anything...Hope thats alright?
Over the past 3 months we've come across some caveats when working with 2D in unity, and if somebody had spoken about these prior to us discovering them, that would have shaved off about a month's worth of fiddling. Quick and concise, to the point, with light, helpful content. No preaching. It'll be like Columbus telling people back home what he discovered in the new world. Or something.
And, nope. No need for focussed feedback. The platform racer is a more of an experiment, not so much a full production. We may hope for a focused feedback slot next month only when the current project reaches that point.
@Mexicanopiumdog: Just being amidst the peoples of ilk is good enough reason to join the fray!
Maps can be found over here!
Note that this will change next month to where the new City Varsity campus will be.
Only Us - Dominic C. Arendse
With @Merrik being out of the country for a bit, does anyone want to take on the duties of the resident "let's go drink beer" person? Where's a good place to hang out near City Varsity?