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Running the first online-only Galway Game Jam (w/livestream)

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This event went surprisingly well. While it was organised in haste, in a bit of a last-minute bid to get a gamejam done in 2020, the community really came together around this one to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Want to see the games made at this event? Check out itch.io/jam/galway-game-jam-16/entries

Organiser team

Brian (Another Ocean Music) joined the organiser team for this one, and really shined throughout the planning and running of the event. Brian brought in some fresh ideas and a lot of energy, which really helped the jammers and the team get together and be more effective. Well done Brian!

We discussed making an intro video for the jam and Brian suggested putting together an edit of footage from old gamejam games. Clearly a wining idea, I recorded some voice over and footage that I sent to Brian, who edited the whole thing together into a video. All in our spare time. You can watch the intro on the Galway Game Jam Youtube channel.

While short notice, I did want to ensure that the event was open to as many people as possible, so in following with diversity guidelines, we split the jam over two days over two weekends. While it is non-typical, in the end this worked out great!

Mentors

The main questions I asked myself when putting the this jam together were:

  • “Why do people enjoy going to a Galway Game Jam?”, and,
  • “Why would someone be interested in participating in this jam from home?”

From asking these questions, I knew we had to create a very compelling reason for people to join in the event. That’s when I thought of having a livestream with mentors.

We decided to focus on Discord as our primary digital “venue” for jammers to interact, along with a livestream of conversation and Q&A with gamedev mentors on Twitch that jammers could watch.

I had to figure out exactly what a “mentor” was and give people a concrete idea of the times that they would be needed. I contacted a few local gamedev friends, who were intrigued and happy to help. We quickly had a core experience for our event!

Once I had few mentors confirmed, I put out a broader call for mentors on social media channels for Irish game developers and got a few more people involved.

We put up theme suggestions and voting rounds to reduce the themes down to a top-three list This had a surprising effect of building excitement on our Discord server during the week leading up the the jam.

Soon we had enough mentors willing to do an hour commitment that we could run a solid day of livestreaming! This meant we had a core experience of an online event that everyone jamming could connect to. This makes the online-only jam “feel” more like a live event with other people actively engaged. That sense did in fact carry through the event, and was reported by people at the end. I’m delighted that it worked out!

Main challenges

We learned that there are many things missing from an online jam that you get for free at a venue-based jam. Mainly, there are communication benefits of close proximity to your team mates and production benefits from other people in the jam who you randomly encounter that might offer to lend a hand in solving any problems that you might get stuck on.

The main challenging point was team formation. Having a bunch of people online is not enough. We had to be very pro-active in getting people joining together into teams. Brian took the lead here and contacted people and teams directly, operating as a kind of “fixer”. This “Fixer” role essentially solved this problem, so our next online jam we will share this role among the organiser team and dedicate time for it on our schedule.

Energy! Organising and live-streaming is very tiring. Especially if you have been working all week and been putting together everything in your spare time. If possible, ensure you have a day after the event to recover. Maybe, if you can take a day off work *before* the event, do that too!

Discord worked out great but I’m putting it in the challenges here because it can be confusing for people who have no experience with it. We had lots of channels on our server, which makes it confusing and overwhelming. Before our next jam, we will likely prune our channels down to help avoid confusion. We will also be sharing an introduction video with our jammers in an email before the event starts.

We will be taking all the lessons learned from the online-only Galway Game Jam 16 with us into the next online jam – the Global Game Jam Galway.

See you there!

Fungi Garden funding approved!

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We have just learned that our game application for the WRAP fund has been successful! This means we are now looking at paperwork and figuring out the details.

This is truely a very exciting moment for the team and project!

We are currently waiting on more details, as we may not have been granted the amount we asked for, and there are requirements we must fulfill before we can draw down the funding. This is a big learning curve for us and it has been so worth it – especially now that our futures are so uncertain for us freelancers.

The funding will allow us as a team to begin working more at a steady pace on our first game project together. The game that we want to make. It is a dream come true, and an accomplishment we are making happen with the help of the WRAP fund.

Thank you for your support and for being with us on this journey!

Mind Cauldron is two years old! What now?

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Mind Cauldron is celebrating 2 years since establishing in 2018!

Taking a Long Rest

To kick off the celebration, I’m taking a holiday!

When I began my business in Autumn 2018, I decided that I would “make the call” in two years time to decide if I want to continue running my own business or pursue another means of employment. It’s already over a month past that point (what is time?) and I have not taken the time to really consider the future of things. There is a lot to consider here, as I feel I have just begun my journey, and I have a few medium sized projects that show promise. Also, a pandemic was not factored into my business plan – so that has to be considered heavily. I currently have a few important commitments that I plan to keep going regardless – but I do feel I am at a cross-roads. Do I continue as a freelancer, or do I develop my own products and services? (I just rolled a 2, but the dice was an MTG spiral-down counter d20, not your standard equal weight d20 – so I’m going to reroll later instead…)

We often hear that you must look after your mental health – and well, it’s been two years since I had a proper break from running my small business and side-projects. It’s also been a tough year for everyone too. I survived on my savings as business dropped off during the lockdown and after – a lesson learned there!

While I could chew up my dwindling mental-health resources into dust to keep going forward at a snails pace (I don’t want to offend any snails), it seems silly to keep going like this.

I believe putting my tools down for a while will let me recover to a better state of mind and gain some much needed perspective. It has been very difficult personal challenge for me to take this holiday, even though I know I need it! I put it off by a week already. I guess I have to accept the old addage “work can wait” – even if I personally feel a strong anxiety about how the work will never wait and I will get left behind (You have unlocked the Second Recession of 21st century achievement, thanks capitalism!). My efforts to stay in the black have resulted in me neglecting my closest relationships with family and friends – it really sucks!

Only a few weeks ago I had a short conversation with my sister on her birthday and it was the best scheduled few minutes of this year. I nearly didn’t do it because I was back-to-back with meetings. I clearly need some time to relax and reconnect with my life outside of work! I’m sure you would agree. (If you are a robot, I suppose I could forgive you for thinking I am one too!)

To complete the Dungeons and Dragons analogy of a long rest, I’ve got some magical items I want to attune to – an irish bouzouki and pair of hiking boots. (Actually, I might run a game or something, that would be nice!).

Adding a freelance art service

As of August 2020 I have also been taking on a new type of freelance work – 2d artwork for games!

Specifically, Pixel Art and Concept Art for two very different projects – one is a 2D adventure game about a childhood summer, the other a 3D dark fantasy RPG set in the underworld. I can’t discuss more than that at this stage, but I am excited to work on both of these projects on and look forward to eventually sharing some fun artworks with you.

Such freelance art projects are exciting for me because I can focus on one job – I’m an instrument of visualising someone elses vision through my own lenses. Having such a focussed role is very rewarding experience, especially when given a wide range of creative freedom. I am able to tackle the problems with my full creative energy – instead of having to divide my attention across many aspects of a project., as I do with my own side projects or more complex setups.

Delivery programming tutorials and workshops

In the coming months I am running online programming grinds for students and adult learners alike. If you are having difficulty with your programming assignments or are interested in learning how to code but are confused about where to start, this might well be for you!

You can sign up for my newsletter for updates regarding programming tutorial registration and Mind Cauldron related news: http://eepurl.com/gINKQj

Tutorials designed to teach total beginners the basics of computer programming. While many people are content to take courses online, there are many who feel intimidated by the lack of support. In these virtual tutorial sessions, you have access to a professional programmer who can guide your solutions and answer any questions you may have.

The future!

It’s a strange time to be alive. 2020 so far has been a wild year – we all know the story. Right now I am doing my best to keep on going. I have learned to trust my ability to survive, and it is an important comfort that I hold close to my heart at times.

I am developing more skills and adapting all the time. There are many projects that I am excited about, from web development to game development to personal music projects. One thing is certain – I will never be bored!

As a small business owner in the West of Ireland, as a community member of the game development scene, and as a musician, all I can say is that I will pledge to make this little corner of the world a better place in whatever ways I can manage. Together we can get through any adversity the universe (or other people) can throw at us.

Take care of yourselves folks!

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Learn Unity by making a game, livestreamed on Twitch

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I have been interested in learning Unity for some time though never seem to get around to completing online courses. To finally tackle this personal mission, I have teamed up with two artists from Goat Planet so I can learn Unity by making a game and focus on the technical side of things.

Motivation and accountibility

Running my own business is demanding on my time. When I have to weigh up the decision of spending more time on business projects or online courses, I often go to the business. However, I still want to learn Unity.

As we all know from behavioural economics, humans really suck at making decisions. We must find ways to overcome our shortfalls in decision making. Luckily there are a bunch of tried and trusted approaches to trick yourself into the path you actually want to take. If you are interested, look up nudges, accountibility and get lost in a sea of interesting psychological studies.

One way to keep motivated is to increase accountability. The idea is that if you tell people you are working on something, there is now some social pressure on you to perform. In fact, there are services you can use just for this purpose alone! If you work on the same project as someone else, the accountibility goes up again, since they actually need your work to further the project to completion. This makes sense!

Since following an online course by myself only holds myself accountable, the accountability level is low. I believe the best way to learn is through doing, and I want to increase my accountability for the project, I decided to form a team.

With a team, you have team members and meetings, the levels accountablilty hits the ceiling!

Motivation goes way up too, since it’s actually fun to work with other people on a creative project, and the result will be better than anything you can make alone. But how can I increase accountability even more?

Livestream the development of the game, in the open, on Twitch. Share every mistake and learning moment with the world at large. Oh my god, the pressure! Suddenly I became completely excited about the whole project, and that excitment spread through the team.

Motivation is infectious!

When I started my first stream, a friend of mine tuned into the channel and got super motivated to work on their own game. They made pixel art, a sprite sheet, and a level. As it turns out, seeing your friends working on their passion projects has an infectious motivation aura! Surely there must be some studies out there that show this.

Hearing this news made the whole project a success in a way I didn’t even think could happen. If I can somehow motivate anyone else to work on their own game or to pick up a new skill, that’s an amazing bonus. Still, I remain super excited to continue development and can’t wait til my next stream!

You can can check out the live stream here:

https://twitch.tv/mindcauldrongames

Play the prototype builds here:

https://darrenkearney.itch.io/fungi-garden

You can also read devlog updates on our itch.io game page.

Remote work setup package for your business

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During early March, Mind Cauldron fully transitioned to work from home. As Ireland’s government began to address the issue of dealing with the pandemic, Mind Cauldron assisted it’s largest client to transition to remote work for their entire staff. Since then Mind Cauldron has been providing support for remote work and assisting existing clients during the transition.

With a year of experience managing the IT side of remote workers as a contracted System Administrator, Mind Cauldron has the skills and the tools to assist you make your business operate successfully during these strange times.

Mind Cauldron can design, install and manage:

  • A Virtual Private Network your employees can use to securely access to your office network from home.
  • A Firewall to protect internet-facing services from viruses and intruders.
  • An automated Intrusion Detection System to monitor network traffic for suspicious activity.
  • Anti-virus and security suite packages for employee devices.

Mind Cauldron can also offer recommendations for remote desktop software packages. We can offer our recommendations from real-life experience using and testing remote desktop applications in a production environment for demanding graphics applications.

Ask Mind Cauldron about our remote work setup packages for your business. Mind Cauldron offers remote working setup packages on a pro bono basis to businesses that directly supply or support front-line workers during these strange times.

Exhibiting at Gamerfest 2020, Limerick

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I exhibited an updated version of OBSTACLES with some new art and leaderboard functionality at GamerFest 2020 in Thomond Park, Limerick. Here’s a few words about the experience.

Measures to prevent spread of Coronavirus COVID-19

This was yet another big event taking place during the coronavirus outbreak. Gamerfest adapted well and there was a lot of attention to hand-washing, hand sanitisers and wipes. Fair play.

On the Saturday that I was exhibiting I wiped down the inputs and controllers for each station in the Minecraft Zone and Indie Zone, along with Gamerfest volunteers.

As an event that appeals mostly to children, I got to witness how silly some children can be about these things. Picking noses, coughing, putting controllers in their mouths – pretty gross! That being said, I expect children to behave like this – they have so much going on in their brains who can blame them. It’s adults that I’d be rightfully disgusted by if they aren’t hygenic in public spaces, they should know better!

Big gaming conventions are quite new to Ireland too, so there’s likely a bit of lag there in terms of learning how to behave. We are accustomed to playing games in a home setting, a comfortable setting. Unless someone in your home was suffering from an illness, people may never have thought about cleaning their game controllers and input devices regularly to prevent spread of infection or whatever.

Here we are now, amid the media madness surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, and I am delighted that hygeine is taken very seriously by event management, organisers, volunteers, exhibitors and visitors alike.

Exhibiting an improved version of the same game

This time around I no longer have to keep track of high-scores with pen and paper! A fun thing to see people enjoy the improvements. Or more accurately, not notice when some expected feature was missing!

It’s always a lot of fun for me to see people playing and enjoying my games. I often find myself resisting the urge to show people everything in them, but I know it is better for me to observe and take notes. I look out for how quickly people learn the mechanics and the options they have available, as well as how quickly they master the game, and what things they don’t yet understand or realise about the game.

It might sound a little complicated, but when you’ve made everything yourself it’s not that hard to see when others don’t get it. Luckily there is an entire language of conventional solutions to problems I encounter.

The main issues with OBSTACLES are based around UI, repetitive soundtrack, and overall lack of progression. OBSTACLES offers a very immediate experience, with replayability coming from local hotseat competitiveness for high-score on the leaderboards.

As a little back burner project I had planned some levels/zones and mroe music anyway. From Gamerfest feedback/notes I have now added certain UI improvements to the mix.

Judging at Games Fleadh 2020

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I attended Games Fleadh for the first time yesterday. The athmosphere was both competitive and celebratory. Students had worked hard to make their games. Each team has a different story, each college and course has a different emphasis. Hard work has been put into every game, and we must congradulate everyone who has managed to get through the myriad challenges and hurdles to turn up at the Games Fleadh with a playable game – no matter what state of polish it may have.

This event seeks to recognise those who achieved highly in their efforts. While certainly there are games made here that are of high quality, and worthy of praise, I find it a little odd that the “playing field” is so unbalanced. We judge each submission we can get our hands on for the qualities present in that submission – we don’t account for the fact that some games may have months of development time, whereas some might have as little as four weeks.

As someone working in the games industry with years of experience of judging game jams, I was happy to volunteer as a member of the judging team.

The effort on display was awe-inspiring, with over 20 games from student teams spanning seven different colleges and universities.

I was impressed at how the Games Fleadh organisers and volunteers handled everything with professionalism and grace.

We had limited time to play each game and judge each game. However, these challenges were overcome easily by the experienced Games Fleadh team. The judges were grouped into judging teams, each assigned a list of games to judge and given guides on how to award points for each category. Very efficiently done.

I also noted that the students were often using disposable gloves, and they regularly wiped down game controllers and input devices after being used. I guess this is a sight we will see more of at large gatherings, and honestly, I am relieved about this. Fair play to everyone involved.

Big thanks to Sam Redfern (Psychic Software) for the lift to Tipperary and the recommendation.

Beginners Game Development with PICO-8, April 2020

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this three week evening course, you will make a tiny game using the PICO-8 “fantasy console” – a delightful game making tool for retro style games.

Over three weekly sessions, you will create your own retro arcade hi-score chaser. This course takes a hands-on approach – you will follow along the development of the game during the workshop.

This course presents a great opportunity to learn the basics of programming in a fun and friendly environment.

You will benefit from Darren’s experience running game making events over the past 5 years, and from his own game projects. Darren will highlight common pitfalls faced by beginners and provide useful strategies on how you can avoid them in your own games.

Details

  • When: 7pm-9pm on Wednesdays 1th, 8th & 15th April 2020.
  • Where: To Be Announced.
  • Price: €75 per person.
  • Register your interest: http://bit.ly/learntomakegames2020
  • Limited spaces available.
  • You will be provided with a copy of PICO-8.

The skills and knowledge gained in this course will help equip you to make your own PICO-8 games and share them with the world.

This course will touch on the following topics:

  • Game Design,
  • 2D Pixel Art,
  • Game Audio and Music,
  • Programming.

This course presents a great opportunity to learn the basics of programming. PICO-8 has a very short loop between writing code and testing it out, so is very well suited to giving you quick feedback on your first (or subsequent) attempts at programming. The skills you learn can potentially be used to develop games or give you confidence in your ability to pursue other projects.

Who is this course for?

This course is aimed at adults (18 years+) who are curious about games and how to make them.

You do not need to have any prior experience in any aspect of the game development to qualify for this course. If you are interested and willing to learn, then you are already prepared!

Outcomes

Here is what you will have achieved by the end of the course:

  • You will make your first game using PICO-8.
  • You will share your tiny creation with the world using PICO-8’s online platform.
  • You will also get to network with people who are interested in game development.

Requirements

Students are required to:

  • Bring their own laptop with cables.
  • Be familiar with using computers and browsing the internet.
  • Be willing to learn by making mistakes.
  • Supply a contact email address for course correspondence and registering their copy of PICO-8.
  • All participants are required to agree to the Code of Conduct.

A copy of PICO-8 is provided for this course. If you already own a copy of PICO-8 please contact us for a €15 discount.

What is PICO-8?

PICO-8 is a “fantasy console” created by Lexaloffle. A fantasy console is an application that emulates the restrictions of retro-era game consoles, mostly used by hobbyists.

PICO-8 also provides simple yet powerful tools to make and share your own retro style games. It is designed to make developing games a joy.

The artificial limitations built into PICO-8 serve as a walled sandbox that you can play with. It’s often easier for us humans to be creative within clear limitations. It is also very common that beginners over-scope their projects. PICO-8 solves some of the problems of over-scoping your project by virtue of these limitations. Many hobbyist game developers and educators use PICO-8 to make their first games and teach concepts of programming.

Regarding programming, PICO-8 uses it’s own subset of the Lua programming language. Lua is commonly used in the Game industry to allow people to develop their own custom game “mods” for their favourite games on Desktop platforms (Windows/Mac/Linux). If you are curious about the application of your programming skills after the course, your familiarity with PICO-8’s Lua can translate into Lua, which can be used to develope larger games. The approach to coding, testing and fixing your code will be applicable everywhere!

Link: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

Course Goals

Here are the goals we hope to achieve with our course.

Teach beginners that they can make games

Give anyone who is curious about games a taste of game development.

Focus on skills and approach

Empower and encourage course participants to continue making their own games after the course has finished by applying a practical approach to classwork.

Provide a friendly, safe learning environment

We (Mind Cauldron and Just Art It, Galway) believe that you deserve to be comfortable and safe, to enjoy learning, and simply in general! We have a Code of Conduct that helps us to keep everything in order which every student and tutor must read, understand and agree to before they can attend or participate in the course.

About the Tutor

Darren Kearney (Mind Cauldron) is a game developer and game development community leader based in Galway, Ireland. Darren has been running game jams (game making events), workshops, courses and other game development related events in Galway and around Ireland since 2014.

Darren organises a lot of local game development related events. He’s an organiser behind Galway Game Jam events, organiser of monthly local game developer meetup group 1GAM Galway, a board member of Global GameCraft CLtG., and the site organiser for Global Game Jam ‘19 and Global Game Jam ’20 in Galway.

Organising and participating in game making events for over 5 years has given Darren valuable insight into the common pitfalls faced by people making games. Darren will guide you through making your own tiny game, highlighting these pitfalls so you can avoid them.

Darren is also super friendly guy who wants to bring the joy of gamedev! Darren also sports an impressive beard, which some suspect is a source of his wizardly knowledge.

Teaching Style

Darren uses a practical, workshop style approach. Which means, rather than listening to a lecture, you will be following along with step-by-step instruction with some space for your own creative flair.

Key concepts will be highlighted along the way. Notes will be provided.

You are welcome to ask questions (which is why we keep the class size small!). When faced with something you don’t understand, that’s totally normal and okay. Darren will offer an explanation if asked and wants you to feel comfortable making mistakes, playing around with the possibilities, both during and after the course.

All participants are required to agree to our Code of Conduct.