#aiemelb

[beaubbarker-blog]

The end of my first year at AIE

With the final group project coming to an end at first year at AIE as game designer draws to an end. These are some of the things I have learnt this year and some of the things I am thankful for.

I learnt that I am not very good at 3D modeling or art in general, and I was not happy with the results I gave during the art module this year. But through practice I have slowly gotten a better understanding of Maya and I have created a few small models for some personal projects.

I loved the whole concept of Narrative design and enjoy the Narrative Module this year the most. Understanding how a player will play the game you make and learning how to lead them is something I strive to understand more and have been practicing this a lot through personal projects at home and testing it on family and friends. 

I enjoyed my first year at AIE studying game design immensely. I am most thankful to both Shane and Ben who gave me a lot of important advise throughout the year and I look forward to what is to come next.

[davidazouzdev]

Final Game Jam = finito!

Our theme was chosen with a random name generator and our teams chosen by us - the theme? “The Lord of the Cooking Zone”. I was the only programmer at first which was a challenge in itself - but luckily we were able to find someone to help us out on day two to drive us home.

Having a team you can rely on evidently speeds the process of development and hearing members say this is the most they’ve accomplished in a game jam is rewarding for both them and myself. What’s all the more rewarding is that we ranked second due to our combined efforts.

I often say I will return to project ‘x’ in the future and aside from one main feature that got cut (a camera that can move around/ zoom in based on how far the players were), I don’t see myself coming back to this one any time soon. The reason being is I see this as a complete package as it is that may “want” a little bit more polish.

If you would like to know more about the team, please view their profiles!: Designers: @polaroidstudiosme @spitty117 Artists: @munchbot / @munchyart , @himezelda , Pc_NOODLES

[spitty117-blog]

“Lord of the Cooking Zone” - Game Jam 4

So, here we are in Lord of the Cooking Zone. The goal of the multiplayer game is to pick-up and throw anything at your opponent that isn’t nailed down in an all out food fight, kitchen free-for-all. Things will get messy...  

[jbrymcfly-blog]

[gcookgamedesign-blog]

Time to make a Game

With only 2 weeks left to complete our second assessment of the year, it looks as though I might be behind, but I know exactly what I want to do with my game. I’m currently coding a very nice feeling platformer controller, once complete, level design and gameplay will be top priority. Can’t wait to get some pictures up =D

[dylanmarston-blog]

I am currently in the middle of a Game Jam with the Artists and we are making a social card game called Long Live The King. Our group features two designers and four artists. Everything has gone fairly smoothly with plenty of playtesting and iterating. We eventually came to a bluffing, social card game where players must work together to find out who the murderer is. Similar to the role-playing game ‘Mafia’, players throw out accusations and must defend themselves with alibis. This play style causes conversation(banter) to flow and strategies to evolve. 

Artwork by Kairi Ellis

[oliverdelosreyes-blog]

I’m back

After a long holiday and a long overdue blog post, I’m back and back at school. A new year of learning game design and how the game industry works as a developer. I have already been back at AiE for 3 weeks already and we have completed our first assessment already. This assessment was to write up a full game design document and i decided to write up an overdue game idea that has been in my mind for a long while now. Hopefully with the fully written design document, i can finally start on making the game on my free time. I have been looking at the schedule for this year and it looks hectic, a lot of making games. i hope to keep up with the projects given and increase my knowledge in my game design career. I’m ready, lets do this.

[nelmzydesigns-blog]

The project continues

Today was filled with making sure that I had handed in my assessment documents and making sure that I keep myself on task and getting the team working smoothly. I would like to say that rhinomcphee and I have been lucky with our team because everyone seems to be on the same page and it is going very well.

[azuumakesgames]

Month’s Madness

Wow. So update time, again. I have a lot to say but not overly much to show.

My insane personal life aside, the game development side of August has been pretty freaking great. This past month I spent testing at Tin Man Games! An awesome local development studio who make gamebooks and text adventures. So, right up my alley and exactly my cup of tea. (Check them out here: http://gamebookadventures.com)

I must say, it was a wonderful experience. Meeting wonderful people and testing wonderful games.Mostly typo sniping. In an incredibly creative environment. I could gush about it all day.

However, I won’t. I’ll talk about something else. I attempted Ludum Dare. Recruited tedsarthouse for NDA, did some work on that in my spare scraps of time. Developed the War of Whisper’s setting more, specifically my favourite viking matriarchy.

The future? It’s going to be hectic. Massive group assessment combining the design, art and programming classes. With randomly assigned teams. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Exciting! More work on NDA. An old project is potentially being resurrected. Hopefully I’ll be able to go to a few industry things and meet some more people.

Yay! Game development. Expect more frequent posts now that I’m not spending my days sniping typos. Hopefully with pretty pictures.

[beaubbarker-blog]

Side Project: Update 01

In my spare time I have been working on a small side project. A small turn based strategy game

With the map fully completed and each individual province on the map can be selected on it’s own. It is now time to write up a few scripts that will allow me to move the army and fleet units around the board from province to province.

I will if I can need to find a way to make the land rise up with terrain but still be an individual province if possible, I would also try to do this with the sea zones giving the map a more lively feel instead of just a flat board.

I look forward to researching what I am able to do and sharing my progress.

[davidazouzdev]

My Second Game Jam = Complete! 

This week I’ve been working with @jbrymcfly​ and @munchbot among three others on “Cross The Tracks”. The theme was mobile and wow what a difference this GJ was compared to the last. I believe the team had a focus right from the get-go, plus it was a major confidence boost that my pitch got approved right away.

I’ve been looking forward to working on games for mobile devices and believe this will be a great foundation to expand upon in terms of adding more (Android specific/ Unity 3D) features. I’m quite satisfied with what we’ve achieved as a group and apparently so were the teachers as we made the Top 5 games among our peers :D . Here’s a LINK to the .apk for Android if you’d like to try it out - Note: the application size is around 45MB + 25MB for the .apk itself.

In other news I’ve created a TODO: list for my engine - a roadmap if you will, and my what a long road ahead it will be. After a two month hiatus, I truly appreciate my past self for commenting ‘his’ code. My deadline is approaching closer day by day and I sense a few late nights are imminent.

[spitty117-blog]

“Lord of the Cooking Zone” - Game Jam 4

We began work today on our fourth and final AIE game jam. Each team selected (or got stuck with) a randomized game title/theme and had to create a game based on the description. My team managed to get screwed over - passing up the chance to make Bionic Maze Thief, only to be stuck with Lord of the Cooking Zone. Oh well, work with what you have I suppose, and all that...

Anyhow, details tomorrow regarding game-play. For now please enjoy an animation of our character model, lovingly produced by @munchyart       

@davidazouzdev 

@polaroidstudiosme

[gcookgamedesign-blog]

AIE 2016 - Enter Year 2

First day back studying Game Design and Production at AIE in Melbourne. New teacher, same class. Can’t wait to get back into the swing of things and start making games again. Been a long time coming!

[dylanmarston-blog]

2016 Growing Strong

House Tyrell’s motto from Game of Thrones to summarize this year. 2nd Year of AIE is already a month in and we have already learnt a great deal. We looked into the player’s mind which grew my knowledge about addiction, psychology and player archetypes.

Our class just completed an assignment on in-game economies and creating a production-ready Game Design Document. I decided to pick a game that could be made in a Game Jam. 

AnilloBall!

It is a Sports, Party game where you have to outscore your opponent; put the glowing ball in the opponent's ring to win the game!

[oliverdelosreyes-blog]

Finished product

It took 10 weeks on this project and it is finally complete. It was such an amazing experience working together with people, who are now considered as my close allies and making a game from scratch with them.  They have worked so hard on this project and i am so glad i was able to work with them.

After 10 weeks of hard work, the creeper project has finally been completed. All these sweat and tears working on this project was definitely worth it. Thank you to all of you for working so hard on this project, our baby that started from a small idea and became something bigger. This was an amazing experience working with each and every one of you and i hope this project has been a good one like it has been with me.

SO MUCH SCREENSHOTS YAY!!!!!!

[nelmzydesigns-blog]

Game Design Document

Myself and rhinomcphee started on our game design document today. It is shaping up quite well and just by looking at it I get excited about what game we will be able to make with the team that we were put in.  There will be tough times ahead but I cant shake my excitement and anticipation for this assignment to pick up speed and I cant wait to see and show you the end product.