GameJam
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IndieCade's 'resist' theme at E3 holds a mirror to society
IndieCade CEO Stephanie Barish operates at the heart of the independent-development community, running shows throughout the year that highlight some of the most innovative, thoughtful and beautiful games the industry has to offer. This year, IndieCade sponsored the #ResistJam, an international competition "about creating games that resist oppressive authoritarianism in all its forms." The #ResistJam took place in March, not long after President Donald Trump unexpectedly signed a contentious, and ultimately unenforceable, executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the US. Protests sprang up around the nation, and the jam was meant to give game developers a unique outlet for activism, organizers said.
'Oh... Sir!' is our favorite insult-em-up
Officially, it's day two of Gamescom here in Cologne, Germany. For us, though, it's day four of Nick Summers and I marching up and down a vast convention center, visiting developers to find out more about their games. It's been a stressful 100 hours or so, working together without a break, but we finally got to let off some steam today with Oh Sir. It's a game that let us sling abuse at one another in a way that wouldn't involve a call to HR in the morning.
'SteamCrew VR' is the mobile VR game Oculus wants you to play
Since April, Oculus has been running a competition where new virtual reality games, designed for Samsung's Gear VR, compete against each other for cash prizes. What began as a straight fight between 61 titles now has a winner, co-operative submarine game SteamCrew VR, which won the $200,000 first prize. The sim lets up to two players pilot a steampunk underwater vehicle, one playing as the navigator and the second manning the weapons station. Other titles that won plaudits (and piles of money) include Night Cafe: An Immersive Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh and Drift, a game where you play as a bullet being fired from a gun. Until each title ships, interested users can try out all 27 winning titles by pulling the builds from the VR Jam Website.
Dive into a sci-fi game anthology full of stars and weird games
Game jams are marathon sessions where game makers put together a game in a short period of time, typically just one or two days. Naturally they're unpredictable -- as likely to conclude in quick interactive jokes as they are substantive games. Sometimes 48 hours of game development ends with Broforce. Other times it ends with Kitty Punch. Rather than invite all game makers to come together for a non-stop creative session, Antholojam founders Zoe Quinn and Alex Lifschitz invited creators to pitch ideas based around a theme and then gave them a month to complete their vision. Now there's Antholojam 1: A Golden Age of Sci-Fi Anthology, gathering together 15 beautiful and strange games resulting from the first of these curated jams.
Oculus offers $1 million prize pool for Gear VR developers
Oculus VR has a challenge for aspiring game and app developers: Create something new and exciting for the Gear VR Innovator Edition, Samsung's Oculus-powered headset, and get a shot at a cash prize from a $1 million pool. The Oculus Mobile VR Jam 2015 kicks off on April 13 and ends on May 11, with sign-ups open now at ChallengePost. The Jam -- and the cash -- is split between two tracks, "Games" and "Apps or Experiences," with Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in each segment. The top Platinum Game gets $200,000, while the Platinum App or Experience snags $100,000. There are multiple winners for each of the remaining ranks, and prizes bottom out at $10,000 for each Bronze victor.
Create Game Jam declares its winners, picks the cream of the OUYA crop (video)
Kill Screen wanted to jumpstart OUYA game development with its Create Game Jam, and it turns out that there were more than a few takers -- 165, to be exact. That makes the grand prize winner, FreeLives' Strange Happenings on Murder Island, something special. The top-down action game's dinosaur rampages and Minecraft-like art were wild enough to earn the developer $20,000 and a head start in what's increasingly becoming a crowded field. Other developers weren't entirely left out, as winners in specialized categories still received $5,000 each. There's no guarantee that the results of Create will resonate with gamers in the long run; if they lead to a better selection for an untested console, though, they'll have been worth the effort.
OUYA and Kill Screen announce CREATE Game Jam, bait developers with $45,000 in prizes
Excited for OUYA? So are the folks at Kill Screen -- so much so, they've seen fit to host a 10-day competition to coax OUYA compatible game prototypes out of the development community. It's calling the event CREATE, and in addition to drumming up interest for Kickstarter's favorite game console, it aims to celebrate how OUYA and a new generation of indie game developers are making the television an open gaming platform. Starting on January 14th, Kill Screen will start accepting prototype submissions of playable (but not necessarily complete) games. Ten days later, a panel of indie veterans will cull the fat, and select finalists based on not only the game itself, but the social media efforts of its development team. This is an indie game competition, after all. The contest judges entrants on how effectively they use the OUYA platform too, including processor, sound, controller integration, in-game payments and other elements available in the console's development kit. Winners can score anywhere between $5,000 to $20,000 in prizes, with an extra bonus if the finished game launches on OUYA. Enough incentive for you? Check out Kill Screen's full contest rules at the source link below.
TUAW's Daily App: Star Fighter X2
Star Fighter X2 is a brand new App Store release that actually started development way back at the 360iDev Game Jam that I attended in April. Developer Dan Byers originally began the game as a tank combat title, but with the help of some other programmers and artist Mike Berg of We Heart Games, it's become Star Fighter X2, a two-player iPad space combat game that has you trying to shoot down real-life opponents with the help of power-ups and health drops. You can check out the video above to see how it works. You just use one touch to control your ship (two, if you turn on the manual aiming), and then it's just a matter of maneuvering in and out of the way to try and grab goodies and/or avoid opposing fire for as long as you can. The first ship to run out of health loses the battle. The game is simple, but the cool graphics and smooth, intuitive gameplay make it worth a look if you've got some ready and willing players around. Plus, it's pretty interesting that the foundation for the title came from that all-night party a few months ago. If you have an iPad and an opponent to shoot at, the game is on the App Store right now for US$1.99.
360iDev: Game Jam creations
Tuesday night at the 360iDev conference in San Jose, around 60 developers gathered in a room on the eBay campus around 8pm as security locked them in for the night (one developer joined the group via Skype -- that's him on the big screen above). Their goal? A game jam. Before 8am the next day, they would put together working prototypes of games, either based on their own ideas, or revolving around the night's theme of "Tiny." Not all developers were there to make new games -- a few were there to work on current projects or offer up their help to others. But up until 2am and beyond (that's about when I chickened out and let them work), the room was full of developers punching away on their keyboards, writing code, designing art, and, well, developing. I originally thought that it was just a lark; a fun project that gave everyone an excuse to spend the night on the eBay campus. But no, this was serious stuff -- apparently at least one App Store game has its origins in past game jams at these conferences. So while developers were just testing their skills at putting their ideas into motion, it's possible that we may see some of these prototypes show up on the App Store eventually as working products. After the break, we'll provide a look at what a few developers were up to at Tuesday's game jam.
One Laptop Per Child announces game jam
The non-profit group One Laptop Per Child recently announced a three-day game jam (which has nothing to do with marmalade, jelly, or other spreadable treats) scheduled for June 8-10 in Massachusetts. Hundreds of developers, educators, writers, and artists will collaborate to create open source educational games for new XO laptop. The resulting source code will be released on SourceForge for other programmers to tinker with.The low-powered, inexpensive XO computer has been designed with the goal of providing every child in the world access to modern educational materials. Currently the XO is planned to be distributed in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Nigeria, and Rwanda, with more countries in the future.
