Looking for a quick boost in game development skills? Join us for our upcoming weekend workshop online. Two days, four speakers, eight presentations on game design, development, and audio, all through live group video chat.
When: Sat/Sun Aug 8-9, 10:30am-3:30pm Pacific Time Zone
Where: Live over Skype, available worldwide
One ticket gains entry to any and all sessions you choose to attend.
Feel free to join in only for talks that match your interests and level.
Presentations run 1 hour, with break 12:30pm-1:30pm. Times are Pacific/PDT.
For students who are completely new to game design, learn basic design principles by working with rules.
Students will learn about fast prototyping and take an idea to the first stages of prototype from scratch. Students can follow along in Construct 2.
Live and newly updated walkthrough of Unity's basic features, as used by over 70,000 students worldwide. Quickly get your game running.
You'll learn what to watch out for, and how to steer clear of it. Based on the issues and themes from 100+ beginner projects.
Use Singletons, State Machines, and Object Pooling to code faster, cleaner, and more efficiently. We'll also discuss collision handling.
Examples with explanation of the algorithms for random terrain and levels, based on projects by the speaker and others.
Get set up with Reaper for creating music, learn about Digital Audio Workstations, and find how these relate to Unity 5. We may get a head start on tomorrow's topic.
Learn the basics of music theory for composition, and follow along through remaking a simple, classic tune.
Lisa's first topic will work best with the free Google Chrome web browser (the game you'll play and discuss uses WebGL), and her second workshop will use Construct 2 (PC-only, free version). The first talk by Chris and both of Kyle's will use Unity 5 (PC/Mac, free version). Nick's presentations both involve Reaper (PC/Mac, free trial version).
If you'd like to follow along with the Unity presentations, having a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel will make life easier, rather than a one-button mouse or a touchpad. If you have a second monitor it can be helpful to fullscreen the speaker's screensharing while separately having ample space to follow along. A second monitor is not required. Several presentations do not assume local follow along, due to instead presenting concepts, providing a detailed tool walkthrough, or explaining code and other files you'll be provided.
Get to know your online event speakers.
Lisa Brown is an independent game designer who makes small, experimental games and streams their development to help inform aspiring designers. She was previously a designer with Insomniac Games (Resistance 3, Sunset Overdrive, Slow Down, Bull) and loves game jams and rapid prototyping.
Chris has taught game development to middle schoolers, university students, and professional programmers. Today through Gamkedo he teaches one-on-one online. His professional background includes Electronic Arts, Will Wright's Stupid Fun Club, a Silicon Valley start-up, and a dozen iPhone games.
Kyle's passion for social game experiences led him to an R&D incubation group for emergent gameplay, MOBA and multi-device prototypes, and a procedurally generated multiplayer horror game. Kyle's particularly interested in strategies to accelerate and simplify game development.
Nick specializes in videogame music and sound design. He creates and implement audio assets, but has also done a fair bit of game design. Nick was president of Georgia Tech's videogame development club, during which time he led development for SWFTFTM. Check out his songs on SoundCloud.