Brasil Game Show, a little about the experience

As previously said on this post, I was from October 11th till the 14th on Brasil Game Show, the biggest videogame fair of the country, participating on the third national Game Jam. For two days, our team developed a game based on the theme presented to us on the beginning of the Jam. Those were two days filled with problems, ideas, learning and lots, LOTS of work. Everything you hope for from a first game jam.

And even though we didn't take the trophy home, it was an amazing experience, as fun and fulfilling as it was stressful. The kind that remembers me why I chose to work with game development.

But even with my feeling of self realization it is impossible to deny that the event was in many different points badly planned and structured. From the availability of internet and water to the preparation of the support team.

Quatis Project: Biodiversity and digital learning

I mentioned, a few weeks ago on my semester's preview, my participation on a UFMG (a brazilian University) project for the development of an ecologic educational game about Mangabeiras Park. And as promised, here's a post with a little more about the game.

Formed by an ICB (Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Biological Sciences Institute in english) studies group from UFMG, the project's main objective is to teach the population about the variety and fragility of the species that live in Mangabeiras Park, a natural park with a green area of approximately 337 hectares. Through events, long range campaigns and research about the behavior of the creatures that inhabit the park, the group has acted to educate and guarantee the balance of the huge ecosystem that is the park.

Changes

First of all I would like to appologize about the recent irregularity on the posts of the blog. The last weeks were extremely busy, with results that will echo through many of my upcoming posts.

This text will be a little more personal than usual, serving as a summary, preview and reason for the events that will occur on the next weeks.

One thing at a time.

Xbox 360 Joystick Controller + Unity

A few weeks ago I acquired a Xbox 360 joystick controller for Windows and, although my initial objective was to play with it (something I did, of course), my developer's mind did not allow the controller to remain in my desk without becoming part of my studies/experiments with Unity.

I configured Bitz to work with the joystick besides the keyboard and mouse. And with some quick changes I adapted Unity's script, MouseOrbit.js to take the the controller's input. The result can be seen in the video below:

So here's a short explanation of how to set Unity to receive the Xbox 360 controller for Windows.

Frame by Frame: exporting animations made in Unity

Playing with some resources and inspired by some sessions I watched on Unite, I developed a small Unity plugin to export animations. The algorithm, available by the end of this post, allows the definition of parameters like frame per second, image quality, name and directory.

The classes that derive from the Editor class (EditorWindow, EditorApplication) are simple to implement and extremely flexible, allowing the creation of add-ons without any big difficulty to fulfill almost any need.

Unite 12, a little about the experience

Alternative title: "How spending a week in Amsterdam made me fall even more in love with Unity".

Last saturday, after spending 13 hours of my day inside a plane, I finally stepped in my home town again. And although I was absolutely tired and affected by the jet lag, I was (and still am), equally satisfied.

The week was occupied with sessions, round tables, workshops and cocktails of incredible content not only about Unity but about development and the industry. I had acess to tools and resources yet to be launched and talked to developers with more than 20 years of career. And all of that contributed to make my opinion
about the future of the game scene even more positive.

Unite 12

Next week, from day 21, I will be in Amstedam attending Unite 12, the annual Unity Developer's conference.

The event, that happens since 2007, gathers developers from all over the world in four days of talks, workshops and debates with Unity's creative team and studios that use the tool.

It's my first time attending to an event that big and, in case I don't post about it during the week, I will sure write a post as soon as I come back. It's a fantastic opportunity to learn and know people who share my passion for Unity.

Everyday of the conference (except the first one), there are 3 different sessions and a workshop happening at the same time. All of them are equaly interesting, but that's what I've got planned for me:

• Tuesday: Unity Training Day - From 13h00 to 16h00
• Wednesday:
• Special Guest Keynote Peter Molyneux - From 10h00 to 11h30
• Performance Optimization Tips and Tricks for Unity - From 12h00 to 12h30
• Road Map & Wish List - From 14h00 to 15h00
• Using the New GUI System - From 15h30 to 16h00
• Creating Retargetable Animation Assets with Mecanim in Unity 4.0 - From 17h00 to 17h30
• Thursday:
• The Power of the Crowd - From 10h00 to 10h30
• Unity, Network Code, and You - From 11h30 to 12h00
• GameDraw: Editor customization techniques and challenges - From 14h00 to 14h30
• How to Benefit From Unity's Substance Integration Without Paying a Dime - From 14h30 to 15h00
• Transcending Unity's Frontiers: From game development tool to cross-media platform - From 15h30 to 16h00
• The Unity Rendering Pipeline - From 17h00 to 17h30
• Fryday:
• Advanced Editor Scripting - From 10h00 to 11h00
• Union: The Places Your Game Will Go! - From 11h30 to 12h00
• Creating Interactive Installations with Unity - From 14h00 to 14h30
• Creating the Universe with Unity - From 14h30 to 15h00
• Linux and Flash Publishing with Unity 4.0 - From 15h30 to 16h00

Like I said, I will write a detailed post about the conference when I come bacj. I am sure it will be a fantastic experience to meet new people and learn abou the market. :)

A preview of my semester

With college classes starting again the geometric progression of negative common ratio that defines my free time according to the time of the semester begins to act once again, as the papers and exams start to get more frequent and scary.

So here's a short list of the thing I am going to do in this second half of the year:

Contrast: A little bit more about the game

A week after being online, Contrast was played a total of 464 times (339 at Kongregate and 125 at GameJolt :D). This way, and having the last post being a complaint above all, I feel like I should talk a little bit more about the game that took me a week to make.

Made for Mini-Ludum Dare #36, event that serves as a warm-up for the actual Ludum Dare that happens every four months, the game was made from Monday 07/09/2012, till Friday 07/13/2012 using an idea I had written down a few weeks ago that, coincidentally, fit the theme of the compo ("contrasts"). In it the  game, the player controls a black and white cube and needs to cross different obstacles manipulating the environment around him.

The idea I had written down weeks ago is the following: "Light Dimensions: the player changes dimensions creating paths for himself in another dimension". Although it sounds vague , that idea represents the basic mechanics of the game.

About disappointments and jams

A little summary of my week.

Sunday I received the news that the event I had been helping organize was not going to happen. Not because of structure or staff problems (stuff we dealt with in the beggining of the planning), but because of lack of interest. The 1º PUC Game Jam, event elaborated exclusively for the students of the course of Digital Games Development was supposed to happen from july 10 to july 13, from 8h00 to 18h00 and the winning team would have the right to represent the course on the national game jam that happens in October during Brasil Game Show. And all the participants would receive a certificate that compensates a good amount of the complementary hours needed to graduate.
Disappointment is the best word to describe what I felt (and still feel when I think about it). I do not blame the ones who had to work or were traveling on the time of the event, certain responsabilities cannot wait, but I reffuse to believe that in a course with almost two hundred students, only six had time to participate. Six. Two teams.

Monday, lots to do, too little time.

Bitz in Time - Time manipulation gameplay

Before we begin, a little video to introduce the post:

"Bitz in Time" is a demo created to demonstrate the application of data structures in a time manipulation system. It was initially made as a college task for my Algorythms and Data Structures class, but it was challenging, fun and educational enough to make me want to keep developing it, adding Bitz to my list of personal projects. :D

So, what's on the video besides the awesome music?

Starting the blog :)

So, I finally decided to stop procrastinating and create my blog!
The page, that already existed for over an year, was violently taken from its former owner and adapted to serve my purposes of taking over the world: to talk about games, projects and ideas.

And to begin with the right foot, a little post about the recently "finished" game I worked on:
A Fuga de Blue (In english: Blue's Escape)! :D

It's a 2D and a half, fantasy themed platform game. You play as Blue, a black kitty who was abducted by a Witch with the intention to turn him in one of her minions.