Announcing the first Christchurch 48 Hour Game Development Event.

To be held at Unlimited Paenga Tawhihi, 7 pm Friday 18^th July – 7pm Sunday 20^th July.

Please notify Steven at steven@stevenlinton.net if you are going to attend. Please include the following information so that you can be placed in a team:

Your name:         Steven Linton
Your Organisation or Educational Facility (if any):               Stickmen Studios/Def-Logic/Unlimited
Your skills (in order of aptitude):               Programmer
Will you bring your own computer, or use one provided?
Do you have any specific software needs?

Other skills could include: Concept design (character and/or environmental), 2D artist (pixel and/or vector), 3D modeller, 3D animator, Sound Effects, Game Design, etc.

 

Purpose:

This purpose of this event is to create connections between the various Game Developments studios within Christchurch. For those not affiliated with one of these studios or for those new to game development, it will be a chance to be involved in the creation of a game with industry professionals, and to work with possible future employers.

Members of the following organisations have expressed interest in attending: Stickmen Studios, Battlelink Business Group, Zodal, Savant Information Systems, Def-Logic, Screaming Duck Software, University of Canterbury, Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti and CPIT.

 

Objective:

Over the weekend all attendees will be split into groups of 5-6 people. Groups will mix up all organisations as much as possible, at the same time keeping a good ratio of programmers to artists. Each group will aim to make one completed game within the 48 hours.

All groups will develop in Flash as it is a language familiar to the majority of those attending. It is fast to prototype games in, and it is easy to distribute the games online once they are complete. Flash games can be made using static and animated Vector or Bitmap graphics from your favourite 2D or 3D graphics package. There are a number of Flash experts within the group so if you are having any troubles, help is just a yell away.

There will be competitions run in a number of categories:

• Most fun - How much you enjoyed playing a game. Did you look up at the clock, and found it was 5 hours later?
• Most innovative - The unexpected. Things in a unique combination, or something so different it’s notable.
• Best graphics - How good the game looks. Nice artwork, excellent generated or geometric graphics, charming programmer art, etc.
• Best audio - How good the game sounds. A catchy soundtrack, suitable sound effects, voice overs, etc.
• Most humorous - How amusing a game is. Humorous dialog, funny sounds, or is it so bad it’s good?
• Most polished- A rating of overall completeness and refinement. What’s missing?
• Best themed - How well an entry suits the theme. Do they perhaps do something creative or unexpected with the theme?
• Most plays - During first week (determined through MochiBot).

These will be voted on as a group during the next evening get together.

 

Theme:

To add some direction to the design of the games we will use the theme of sustainability. This will link in with a sustainability conference that will be held in Christchurch (Trond?).

 

Location:

The event will be held at Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, Northern Tower, Level 5. This is above the Hallensteins building on High Street.

263 High Street,
Christchurch,
New Zealand

 

Time:

7 pm Friday 18^th July – 7pm Sunday 20^th July.

 

Resources:

The school is able to provide 24 hour access. Brent and Steven are the only ones with swipe cards to access the building so you will need your cell-phone to text someone inside if you wish to come and go. There are full cooking facilities, desks, chairs and 22 development workstations and a central server. There is also wired and wireless network with broadband Internet.

The workstations have the following software:

• Flash 8, Photoshop 7, Maya 8.5, Premiere 2, After Effects 6.5, Fireworks, Dreamweaver (educational licences)
• Windows XP, MS Office, Visual Studio 2005 Express, XNA
• Much free software: Blender, Earth Sculptor, Genetica, etc

If you have any specific free software requirements please contact Steven and they will be installed on the workstations. To use purchased software not provided you will need to bring in your own computer.

The server is running SVN for those that like to work with version control. Otherwise all computers are connected via Windows File Sharing.

 

IP:

The full source (code and assets) for every game will be made available to all attendees. Do not bring or use any code/assets that you do not want others seeing or potentially using in their own projects.

 

Groups:

Groups or 5-6 people will be determined prior to the event. We will attempt to ensure that all the businesses are mixed up thoroughly and that each group has an appropriate distribution of designers, programmers, 2d/3d artists and sound/music engineers.

 

References:

How to Prototype a Game in Under 7 Days: Tips and Tricks from 4 Grad Students Who Made Over 50 Games in 1 Semester
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

Sols Guide to the Ludum Dare
http://sol.gfxile.net/ldsurvival.html

 

Having spent close to 10 years designing and producing arcade games for the Internet, I have, from time to time, found myself re-thinking revenue models. I’ve tried a few different systems. These include:

1. adsense advertising on game pages

2. google advertising on game pages

3. design and production of games on commission (only done two of these)

4. Licensing to gaming sites for one off fee

5. Licensing to gaming sites for profit share

Each of these have generated income, but so far I have not produced a game that has generated enough cash to pay for the time involved in putting it together. This has not worried me much in the past because its fun to make games, and I’d do it regardless of whether I get paid. In total my games have had millions of plays, and it is pleasing to know that I’m bringing enjoyment to other people’s lives.

But it would be nice to be able to spend more time on games. I have to have a day job, which consumes valuable game development time. So, what other ways are there to generate revenue from games? I have considered micro-payment systems. However, since there are hundreds of thousands of free casual games on the Internet, I see no reason why a player would want to pay to play one of mine–regardless of how good they are.

I am now thinking that revenue needs to be generated through another system. Imagine releasing a game and making it really significant. You could do this by throwing a series of parties to promote the game. Arcade parties overseas can pull huge crowds, and people are happy to pay an admission charge to come and play. Perhaps the key to generating income is not in the sale of the game itself, but through the party that is put on to release the game. The party could include several popular games from different genres with the new game being a central feature of the event–perhaps with some kind of tournament. Revenue would be generated through admission sales. Merchandise related to the game could be sold, thus generating additional income and adding further significance to the game.

Is this an idea that producers of casual games would go for? I would like to know. I would like to try this. Any thoughts?

Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting last Tuesday at the Zodal/Trickysheep offices in New Brighton. It was a great turnout, and there was a ton of exciting discussion going on during and after the presentations.

It’s clear that as a community, we all share a strong desire to collaborate, share knowledge and inspire each other. We also recognize the need for a strong voice to represent the highly talented but often overlooked Christchurch game development industry, and we want this group to become that voice.

Each monthly meeting with be hosted by a different company or group, who will be responsible for organizing the space and content of the night. The next meeting will be hosted by Stickmen Studio, at their flash new digs on Hereford Street. Tia’s organizing the night and is currently looking for interested presenters and topic ideas. Send her an email if you’d like to help out.

Welcome to the Christchurch Game development blog, a group blog dedicated to the games industry in Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as the design and appreciation of games in general.

Christchurch has a number of groups involved in game development, ranging from one-man operations to medium sized companies of 15 or more.

We recently re-started the Christchurch GameDev meetup, a monthly get together of professionals, academics and enthusiasts, all keen to talk about games, meet each other, and get together to play and design games together.

This website is still in an embryonic stage - we haven’t yet come up with much content to put on it, but, at the minimum, we’ll be putting up profiles of companies and people, photos from our events, and blog posts from various members of the community.

Once again, welcome - please check back frequently, as the site will changing a lot over the next month or so. Most changes will be announced in the blog, so consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Please bear with us as we finish developing the site..

– Trond.