Digital Lunch: Terry Borst on End to End Game Development!

***POST-EVENT NOTE***

Big thanks to Terry Borst and everyone who came for today's digital lunch!

For Terry's slides (includes some great links and examples), visit: http://drop.io/digilunch_Apr2

To buy the book End to End Game Development, check it out at:
http://www.amazon.com/End-End-Game-Development-Independent/dp/0240811798/altscreenwriters

*** 
Join us on Friday, April 2nd for Digital Lunch at UNM with one of our favorite local game developers, Terry Borst. His hands-on approach and real world experience are invaluable -- and his enthusiasm is infectious.

WHAT:       Digital Lunch @ UNM:  End to End Game Development
WHEN:       Friday, April 2, 12 - 1:30 PM
WHERE:     UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE
COST:         Free & Open to the Public (includes lunch)

ABOUT TERRY BORST:
Terry Borst has worked as a professional screenwriter for more than 20 years, with credits in film, television, and videogames.  Here in New Mexico, he teaches screenwriting at the College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe Community College, and the Screenwriting Conference at Santa Fe.  His two books about serious game and simulation development have been published by Focal Press.  Find out more at:  http://www.terryborst.com.

ABOUT END to END GAME DEVELOPMENT
End to End Game Development published by Focal Press is a handbook for the conceptualizing, development, production and distribution of serious games, simulations, and other interactive media projects.  This presentation by the co-author will provide an overview of key areas the book covers including: why game aesthetics, mechanics and technology are the next logical step for all kinds of training and persuasion; how serious game production is within the reach of indie "garage game" developers and corporate departments; and ways to create feedback loops between solid game design and solid instructional design.  Find out more at:  http://www.endtoendgamedevelopment.com.

ABOUT DIGITAL LUNCH AT UNM
Digital Lunch at UNM is ARTS Lab's Friday lunchtime get-together with students, teachers and professionals from the community. Special thanks to Cinnafilm for its support.

From ARTS Lab @ UNM

Global Game Jam -- Right Now!

One of the things we like to do from time to time is bring several creative types together to make some cool content, whether that's in the form of games, film, software or something else.

One of the more interesting examples is our participation in the second annual "Global Game Jam" -- a 48 hour game development event where game makers with various skills come together to form groups and make a game or two. It's a great way to get to work with and get to know others in our local game development community.

The event is already underway here at ARTS Lab with about 14 participants, five games in the making, and a little over 24 hours to go. If you'd like to check it out, visit:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/global-game-jam-abq

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

We're also happy to share that our friends in Las Cruces are playing too! Check them out at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/global-game-jam-2010-las-cruces-nm-usa

If you're *really* interested, we're planning to demo and talk about our projects tomorrow (Sunday) at 4PM.

NM Game Jam Coming (July 10th through 12th)

NM Game Jam Challenges Video Game Developers To Make a Game in 48 Hrs

The Rio Grande chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) presents the first ever NM Game Jam, a 48 hour video game development challenge to be held the second weekend of July (July 10^th – July 12^th). Inspired by their participation in the Global Game Jam earlier this year, members of the Rio Grande IGDA have organized a similar event for New Mexicans to spend a wild weekend designing and creating innovative games.

A game jam follows a format much like the 48 Hour Film Festival being held the same weekend. Participants arrive on Friday evening to receive three theme words, chosen at random, roulette-wheel style, from a published list of 30 potential themes provided by game writer and chapter member Carolyn Handler Miller. Participants brainstorm ideas on possible games that incorporate two of the three chosen themes and form teams to build their games.

Once the teams have decided on their game’s premise, the participants are in a mad rush to create the art, music, and code that will produce a playable version of their concept. Luke Nihlen, President of 10^th Artist and project lead for the lone Albuquerque team in the Global Game Jam, gives his impression on why this type of event leads to making innovative games:

"The great thing about a game jam is that the limited time forces developers to focus on accomplishing only a small feature set. Smart developers will focus on gameplay and will plan in a gameplay-centric fashion. Specifically, the question that should come up in planning is "What does this feature add to the gameplay?" This, in my opinion, is the way that any good game is made."

The creators of the NM Game Jam hope that this event accomplishes several missions, most importantly to help cultivate and strengthen the budding game development industry taking shape in the state. Jon Whetzel, Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories and Rio Grande IGDA chair member, viewed the Global Game Jam as “the best method I’ve seen so far in getting people even remotely interested in making games involved. Not only did I get to meet several game developers, both seasoned and new, who share the same passion, but we all contributed to putting a game together that still makes me proud.” Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator for the UNM ARTS Lab and Chairman of the Rio Grande IGDA hopes that the event shows off New Mexico's game-making talent. "There's a tremendous amount of creativity here, which we saw at the Global Game Jam," said Renz-Whitmore. "This is a great opportunity to meet, work together and have fun."

The NM Game Jam is scheduled to start on July 10^th at 6:00 pm at the UNM ARTS Lab (131 Pine St., NE). The NM Game Jam concludes on Sunday July 12^th at 6:00 pm followed immediately with game demonstrations and presentations. For more information of the NM Game Jam, visit their website ( http://nmgamejam.org) or contact Eric Renz-Whitmore (whitmore@unm.edu or 277-2253).

Chris Crawford to speak at ARTS Lab (6/13)

We're very excited to welcome legendary Game Designer/Thinker/Author Chris Crawford to New Mexico this June.  He'll be speaking at the Santa Fe Complex on Wednesday, June 10th -- and at a special Rio Grande IGDA event at UNM's ARTS Lab on Saturday, June 13th.

More info on the ARTS Lab / IGDA event below -- and at: http://nm-games.eventbrite.com/ 

Lecture:  Process-Oriented Thinking

The central problem in designing software is the difficulty of creating algorithms that describe interesting and useful processes. This lecture will explain the precise nature of this problem, the source in our natural thinking processes, and how designers might overcome the problem.


Workshop: Interactive Storytelling

Interactive storytelling is not at all similar to games; it appeals to a different audience and challenges different mental processes. The lecture will describe some of the basic concepts in interactive storytelling, and afterwards we will go over some of the basics of the Storytron approach to interactive storytelling. Attendees who have a laptop are encouraged to bring it for this session.

Details

When:          Saturday, June 13th; 1:00 PM Talk; 2:00 PM Workshop

Where:         UNM ARTS Lab, 131 Pine Street, NE (see map!)

How Much:  Free!  (But please consider joining the IGDA  -- and our Rio Grande chapter)

About Chris Crawford

Chris Crawford earned a Master of Science degree in Physics from the University of Missouri in 1975. After teaching physics for several years, he joined Atari as a game designer in 1979. There he created a number of games: Energy Czar, an educational simulation about the energy crisis, Scram, a nuclear power plant simulation, Eastern Front (1941), a wargame, Gossip, a social interaction game, and Excalibur, an Arthurian game.

Following the collapse of Atari in 1984, Crawford took up the Macintosh. He created Balance of Power, a game about diplomacy, Patton Versus Rommel, a wargame, Trust & Betrayal, a social interaction game, Balance of the Planet, an environmental simulation game, and Patton Strikes Back, a wargame. In 1992, Crawford decided to leave game design and concentrate his energies on interactive storytelling, a field that he believed would become important. He created a major technology for interactive storytelling systems, patenting it in 1997. He is now commercializing his technology at his company website at storytron.com.

Crawford has written five published books: The Art of Computer Game Design, now recognized as a classic in the field, in 1982; Balance of Power (the book) in 1986; The Art of Interactive Design in 2002; Chris Crawford on Game Design in 2003; and Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling in 2004.

He created the first periodical on game design, the Journal of Computer Game Design, in 1987. He founded and served as Chairman of the Computer Game Developers’ Conference, now known as the Game Developers’ Conference.

Crawford has given hundreds of lectures at conferences and universities around the world, and published dozens of magazine articles and academic papers.

Crawford served as computer system designer and observer for the 1999 and 2002 NASA Leonid MAC airborne missions; he also has done some analysis of the resulting data. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife, 3 dogs, 10 cats, 5 ducks, and 3 burros.

This Thursday: Game Developers @ O'Niells

How do 11 local game developers create an XBox game over a weekend?

Join Luke Nihlen and the team behind ChromaGeist for a wrap-up of their experience during the 48 hour Global Game Jam -- and updates on their efforts to upgrade the game for release on XBox Live Arcade.

Also... Reports back from this year's Game Developers Conference Attendees.

And info on upcoming events, like this year's GameSlam.

It's all this Thursday at O'Niells Pub Meeting Room, 4310 Central Avenue SE (by Washington).

Who: Game Developers & enthusiasts (ages 17 and up)
What: Global Game Jam Wrap-up & Update
When: 5:30 - 7:00 PM, Thursday, April 9th
Where: O'Niells Pub, 4310 Central Avenue SE
Cost: Free, but a $5 donation is appreciated

Intro to Game Development this Spring @ UNM

This spring, UNM will be offering a new course in Video Game Development with writer and Game Industry Professional Carolyn Handler Miller. Carolyn brings years of expertise and continuing work with the game and interactive media industry (and our local game community) to this course in UNM's Computer Science Department.

Intro to Video Game Development

CS 390

DETAILS:

COURSE TITLE: Intro to Video Game Development

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Carolyn Handler Miller, video game writer-designer and author of Digital Storytelling, A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment (Second Edition)

COURSE NUMBER: CS 390

REGISTRATION: http://registrar.unm.edu

TIME, CLASSROOM: Wednesdays 2 to 5 pm; Hibben Center 125

DESIGNED FOR: All juniors, seniors and grad students interested in the video game field, including students in CS and EE; the IFDM program; theatre; English, media arts, education; communications, journalism; music; and business

Goal and thrust of this course:

To familiarize students with basic concepts of video game design and development; to give students a solid foundation for more advanced courses in video game development. This course focuses on the fundamental concepts and theories behind the making of video games, and the emphasis is on the creative side of game development, not on the technical aspects of this field, though technical areas will be addressed.

When held:

This class is scheduled to take place on Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 5 pm.

Instructor:

Carolyn Handler Miller, author of Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment, contributor (as writer and writer/narrative designer) to numerous video games; and co-instructor in previous video game classes for UNM (2 semesters), as well as sole instructor of UNM’s Digital Storytelling class (3 semesters)

Who this class is for:

Students in computer science and electrical engineering who are interested in applying their skills to the video game industry. Also for students in media arts, the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media program, and other students interested in interactive media, particularly video games. In addition, it is anticipated that a wide variety of students will be interested in this course, such as students in music, graphics, journalism, business and education.

Prerequisites

Students taking this course must be juniors or seniors, but otherwise there are no prerequisites for taking it. No special computer skills or other technical skills are needed to be able to participate or do well in this course.

Methodology:

Students will gain an understanding of this arena through lectures, class discussions and workshopping, writing exercises, and demonstrations of produced games. Guest lecturers will do talks on specialized topics.

Student work:

• Readings from selected books

• Writing assignments on various aspects of video games

• Class exercises

• Individual demonstrations of video games to the class; writing a paper analyzing the demoed game

• Creating a game on paper and writing a “concept document” describing it

• A team project in which students collectively design a game (on paper)

Topics to be covered:

The historic roots of gaming and what we can learn from ancient games

The typical development steps for creating a video game

Major genres of games

The role of narrative in games

Types of characters found in video games

Game worlds

The structural elements of video games

Level design

The importance of gameplay

Game mechanics

Navigation and Interface

AI (artificial intelligence)

Graphics in games

Game engines

Specialized forms of gaming:

• “Serious games”: games for education and training

• games for mobile devices

• Games for children

• Games made for advertising and promotion

• Games made to Inform

• ARGs (Artificial Reality Games)

• Augmented Reality Games

• Casual games

• MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games)

• Group-based immersive games

For more info, write cmquill [at] aol [dot] com

DETAILS:

COURSE TITLE: Intro to Video Game Development

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Carolyn Handler Miller, video game writer-designer and author of Digital Storytelling, A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment (Second Edition)

COURSE NUMBER: CS 390

TIME, CLASSROOM: Wednesdays 2 to 5 pm; Hibben Center 125

DESIGNED FOR: All juniors, seniors and grad students interested in the video game field, including students in CS and EE; the IFDM program; theatre; English, media arts, education; communications, journalism; music; and business

UNM Game Projects Getting out in the World

UNM Game Projects Getting out in the World

ECE/CS 433 students who presented their newly created video games during the fall course's daylong gaming extravaganza on December 6 caught the camera's eye at KRQE Channel 13, as did some of the students who came by to have a little fun and test-play the games. The TV station aired a two-minute report that evening.

To watch the newscast, here is a 7.5 MB .wmv clip: KRQE news clip.

The story, reported by KRQE's Mike Paluska, aired later the same evening on affiliate KASA Channel 2.

A 2:30-minute videotaped report about the event was also produced by UNM Communications & Marketing for YouTube and can be seen on UNM's site here or on YouTube.

For more information about the event, go here.

HALO 3 @ ARTS Lab -- whew!

what a night...

Over 60 attendees, 47 players

And it came down to a tie.

--and a three minute sudden death elimination.

Apparently our winner is nationally ranked -- #48?

Many thanks to Microsoft and the uPublic

and the students of the UNM Advanced Graphics Lab!

ARTS Lab Related Events This Week (10/22-26)

There's a whole bunch!

First, ARTS Lab is a long-time organizational sponsor of High Desert Venture Camp which produces workshops for students and 'emerging' entrepreneurs and helps start tech-oriented business here in New Mexico.

Our latest event with HDVC is the Advance Invention to Venture Workshop from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance -- it runs November 28th through December 1st at UNM. Interested? Want more information?
Visit our website at: http://www.highdesertventurecamp.com
or come by during our information session this Wednesday (10/24) from 5:00 - 6:30 PM at the UNM Student Union (Mirage / Thunder Room)

On Thursday (10/25), we're part of the Albuquerque IGDA Chapter's Membership Kick-Off event from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at Sauce/Raw downtown with special guest, Radical Entertainment CEO Kelly Zmak. For more info, visit the chapter site at: http://www.igda.org/albuquerque or sign up at: http://artslab.unm.edu/igda

Interested in working with green screens? Our ARTS Lab Fridays kick off this Friday (10/26) with a session for indie filmmakers and others interested in doing green screen work for film, events and... can you come up with other interesting possibilities?
For more info, visit our events page at: http://artslab.unm.edu/newsevents (and please sign up if you're coming!

Interested in other ARTS Lab and local events? Visit our news and events page, this blog, or sign up for our events listserv by emailing us at artslab@unm.edu (or do all three, several times a day).