I’m doing a re-run of the PuzzleScript workshop that I ran earlier in the year but this time at the Hamra Centre Library. The workshop will run from 10am to 2pm with a lunch break in between. This is apart of the library’s school holiday program and is aimed towards younger folks between the ages of 12 and 17(inclusive). I’m intending on keeping most of the workshop the same as the previous one. I’ll probably smooth out some of the sound bank material towards the end and possibly space things out a bit more.

Spots are limited so you’ll want to register for the event. The library has the software and computers all ready to go. So just bring yourself and some pen and paper to make notes.

One of the attendee’s at the last event, a friend of mine called Stuart actually went on to build two great PuzzleScript games. They are The Nodus and The Nodus: The Puzzle Caves. I highly recommend them.

Update – There are no more spots available in the workshop. The slides from the past workshop are online, so you can follow along at home. I’ll probably update that website with the newer slides leading up to the event. The slides are largely passed on the PuzzleScript documentation with a few examples added to confirm people’s understanding of the material.

Later this month there will be another games play testing session held at CDW Studios. It’ll start run from 2pm – 4pm on Sunday 25th of May. If you’re making a game or interested in helping play test some then feel free to come along.

All of the important details have been posted on the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there.

The Indie Games Room is an area inside of Adelaide’s AVCon reserved for showcasing independent games to AVCon attendees. I’ve been involved in showing games within IGR for the last three years, helped organise it in 2011 and am supporting this year’s organiser.

Expressions of Interest(EOI) for this years Indie Games Room(IGR) are now open and will be open till Friday 16th May at 5pm ACST. Given my involvement with IGR I’d encourage game developers to consider submitting an EOI for this years show. I think’s it’s a valuable experience and I want to provide a few reasons as to why this is the case.

It’s a deadline!

Festivals and shows act as great reasons to get stuff done. They provide you with a deadline to plan and work towards. Unlike any arbitrary deadline you may construct for your team an event actually has real world weight and importance. Failing to meet that deadline also has consequences beyond the disappointment of not meeting them.

Understanding your own game

The EOI process tends to take people longer than expected to complete. This is especially true this year as we’ve front loaded the EOI with details that would usually be asked for later. Running through this process is important as it helps you understand your own game. For example, when writing a short description of your game you will likely think about:

• What is the most succinct way to describe the game?
• What is the most important thing to highlight when describing the game?
• What makes my game interesting? How do I clearly articulate this?
• What other games are similair to my game?
• Is there a way for press to access the information I’m entering beyond contacting IGR?

By showing your game you will also see other interpretations of it, beyond helping you refine and improve your game these interpretations also help in strengthening your vision of what the game is and isn’t.

Meeting other developers

Talking to developers every year, many of them say that the best part of the room is meeting and networking with other developers. The number of games being shown at IGR is quite high and as such there is a large crowd of developers who are actively creating. In order to help facilitate networking we are intending on running a developer only event on either the Friday or Saturday night.

Motivation

Most people make games in order for them to be played. Seeing people play your game and be excited about it really helps in maintaining motivation after the event.

Other things

Beyond the points raised above there are other reasons to be apart of IGR. I’ve listed these below.

• Receive Press about your game
• Find bugs, test changes – You can make changes on the Saturday night and then see them in action on Sunday
• Advertising – In the past developers have taken email addresses of fans, handed out pamphlets and more
• Find Employment – Several developers have found employment through contacts met at IGR

Thanks for reading. You can find links to submit an expression of interest on the Indie Games Room website.

This is just a short post to say that I’ll be running a workshop on PuzzleScript this Saturday at the new Adelaide City Council library in Rundle Mall. The workshop runs from 1-5pm and will cover the different aspects of PuzzleScript. Besides learning how to use PuzzleScript you’ll also get the opportunity to make your own game. This workshop is intended for beginners and should be a casual, friendly and fun event.

You can book a spot in the workshop through the library website.

In preparing for the Indie Games Night at the Pad I thought I’d be good to put together a simple trailer that would run in the background throughout the night. This trailer would show snippets of the smaller games upstairs and full trailers for the major multiplayer games. The Pad has four displays on the second floor, there will be one spare TV on ground floor since Turnover has a different setup and I’m hoping to turn around of the monitors on the top floor to face the entrance to the free play games area. One of the developers who couldn’t attend the event wanted to look at the trailer so I decided to do a second cut, add some music to it and use it for promotions. You can see that trailer below.

As you may remember from my previous post, there is another Indie Games Night happening at the Pad in Adelaide. On the night we’ll be playing multiplayer Samurai Gunn, Turnover, Towerfall Ascension and Nidhogg downstairs by the bar. Upstairs in the computer pool we’ll have a curated selection of international and local games playable.

In preparing for the event a promotional poster was put together, just like last time. This time around Christopher Nicholas volunteered his time to create the poster. I’ve started distributing the poster to various places in the city so hopefully you’ll see it floating around. I’ve also prepared a website that lists all the games that’ll be present on the night.

If you’re coming along then be sure to say hello. I’ll most definitely be around.

This is just a short post to say that there will be another playtesting session from 2pm – 4pm on the 23rd of February at CDW Studios. Based on the feedback from the first session, we decided to run these events every two or three months. We’ve also decided to open the event up to anyone who is interested in testing the games.

Playtesting is really important for getting feedback on and improving your game. So if you’re a local and are working on a game then be sure to come along. All of the important details have been posted on the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there.

Image pinched from: Edge Online – Opinion: Better games through playtesting

Earlier today I started talking to the folks from The Pad about arranging another Indie Games Night. We’ve organised an event for Saturday the 29th of March from 7pm. The structure will be similar to the previous Indie Games Night, there will be a free play area upstairs with local and international games and downstairs there will be multiplayer games on the TV’s by the bar.

I’m currently in the process of sourcing all of the games for the night. If you’re a local developer and would like to show your game then be sure to fill in this form. If you’ve got any suggestions for games that you’d like to see then be sure get in touch. It should be a really great night. Looking forward to it. You can keep up with the details of the event here or on the Facebook event page.

Next month there will be the first in hopefully a regular, monthly play testing event held at CDW Studios in Adelaide. The general idea is that everyone who comes along must have a game to show and must also give some feedback on the other games.

All of the details for the event have been posted online here, so if you’ve been working on a game then be sure to come along and get some feedback.