Ludum Dare April 20-23 at CAMP!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

Ok folks… it’s ON! CAMP has volunteered to hose a Ludum Dare event for the OGDA this month. (Since this is the same weekend as our regularly scheduled OGDA meeting, we will not be having a regular meeting.) For details on how we are going to do this, jump over to this thread on the OGDA forums. Remember to drop a note on there to let people know you are planning to attend and participate.

It runs from April 20th to the 23rd. For those not familiar with Ludum Dare, it is basically a big game jam combined with a competition – although they call it an “accelerated game development event.” The idea? Make a game in 48 hours!

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Video of March Interview with Andy Schatz

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

Here is the entire video of the interview with our March OGDA meeting guest, Andy Schatz.

Andy Schatz. Andy is the founder of Pocketwatch Games where he is currently finishing up work on his much-acclaimed game, Monaco. At the 2010 Independent Games Festival(held at GDC), Monoco won both the Excellence in Design award and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Prior to Monoco, Andy released two titles, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa and Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Arctic where he served as the sole programmer, designer, and producer. Venture Africa was built in 10 months on a budget of $8000 and has sold 90,000 copies worldwide.

Andy is a staunch supporter of the indie games movement and has spoken all over the world about being an independent game developer. His talk, “How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less” was one of the highest-rated talks at GDC in 2011. (This talk is available for free on the GDC Vault! Watch it by clicking that pretty link above! Seriously… watch it.)

He has been the on-stage host of the Independent Games Festival awards program in 2007, 2008, 2009, and will do so again next week for the 2012 IGF. (The event will be streamed live on Gamespot Wednesday evening.)

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Corona SDK Meetup Group

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

Hey… quick heads up. The Fully Croisened guys have set up a meetup group for Omaha area Corona SDK users. You can check it out here. From their forum post:

Look for some upcoming events to learn about Corona SDK and the Lua programming language so join the group at the link above to be part of it!

(There’s a beer joke in there somewhere.)

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Ludum Dare this month!

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

The next Ludum Dare event is this month — conveniently the same weekend as our regularly scheduled OGDA meeting! It runs from April 20th to the 23rd. For those not familiar with Ludum Dare, it is basically a big game jam combined with a competition — although they call it an “accelerated game development event.” The idea? Make a game in 48 hours!

We are checking around the OGDA community for interest in participating in this. If you are interested, bounce over to this thread on the OGDA forums where we can chat about putting something together.

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Watch Andy Schatz’ GDC 2011 Indie Summit Lecture

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

Andy Schatz with his 2 IGF awards

In advance of our Skype guest this Saturday, remember to take an hour to watch Andy Schatz GDC Indie Games Summit lecture, How to Win the IGF in 15 Weeks or Less.

See you at CAMP at 6 on Saturday!

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Got something to announce? Be an OGDA blog author!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

If you have something to announce on a personal project or for your company, let us know so that we can announce it here. Better yet, contact Dave ([admin] at [this domain]) to be added as an author for the OGDA blog so that you can update us on your own!

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Meeting this Saturday!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

Andy Schatz with his 2 IGF awards

Remember, our March meeting is this Saturday from 6-10 at CAMP. Our Skype guest is indie game developer and evangelist, Andy Schatz of Pocketwatch Games — creator of 2010 Independent Games Festival winner Monaco. (Andy recently hosted the 2012 IGF Awardsat GDC … complete with obscure metaphors!)

We also might be hearing from Omaha studio, BlackTopp Studios, on some of the stuff they have been working on in recent months.

Vince Twelve will also likely be gushing about how close Resonance is to being released. Let’s all humor him a bit… he’s been working on this for 6 years!

Also, I’ve been hearing rumbles about people looking for artists in the area… if you are an artist, you might want to be at this meeting!

See you at 6 on Saturday the 24th!

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What a Game Dev Office Culture Should Look Like

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

Lincoln sports software developer Hudl has posted 2 videos on their jobs page. These two videos show their company culture and their office. I believe that this is a great look inside a successful company that is fun to work for… in part, because of that culture.

If you want to learn more about what it is like to work in that sort of culture, talk to OGDA members Ryan Versaw and Bryce Kahle.

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Remember the OGDA Forums!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

Looking for someone to collaborate with? Need some art assets? Want to ask a question of the local game devs? Need to introduce yourself? Want to just e-chill with other OGDA members? Don’t forget to swing by the OGDA message board!

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Reminder… March Meeting is NOT the 17th!

Posted on March 16, 2012 by

Quick reminder that the OGDA meeting is NOT on the 17th this month because of another national excuse to drink (i.e. St. Patrick’s Day). Instead, we will be meeting on the 24th at CAMP. Remember our special guest, Andy Schatz!

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