Halogen now available on iTunes

Rockethands (local game developers and serial gamejam participants) has announced that Halogen for Apple iPad is now available on the iTunes App Store.

Here’s a description from the product page:

Halogen is a fun, fast paced action game which pits you and your pucks against hordes of enemies in a battle to clear a drifting space dreadnought of crazed droids. Deflect your pucks and smash the droids where it hurts! Mow down the enemy onslaught en masse to rack up insane scores! Activate the coloured reactors on each level and liberate enough Halogen elements to shut down each section of the ship, until all that remains is a final inexorable confrontation! In SPAAACE!

Their first endorsement is effusively positive:

First class time killer, you really knocked it out of the park. Easily one of the best games I own. You must be very proud of your game…would you mind terribly making all games from now on? – Cranberry Juice

Congratulations Brad and Rockethands!

Now collecting resources

Every now and then an extended discussion on the PIGMI mailing list ends up producing a lot of useful information.

Sometimes someone notes something along the lines of:

I guess a more comprehensive list of sites and people to contact would be a good resource for all of us – maybe Let’s Make Games are interested in hosting something like that?

Or maybe even:

A central list could be useful…or we could just share lists around?

Since we have an easy-to-update website, we figured that we might as well use it. So we’ve added a Resources page (check it out!). It’s pretty bare at the moment, but it does contain a page with tips on publicising your new game release.

We’re relying on all of you to add comments and send us useful information! ;)

Any tips, comments, or suggestions?

Star Hammer Tactics is now LIVE

Local game developer Black Lab Games (run by industry veteran and local hero Paul Turbett) recently (just yesterday) released Star Hammer Tactics onto Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Here’s a blurb from the press release:

Star Hammer Tactics is an easy-to-learn game of tactical battles. Deploy your forces, engage your enemy and outwit them to achieve victory by blasting them to pieces! Along with the single-player campaign, Star Hammer Tactics features a choice of skirmish modes – single player against a devious AI, or the local multi-player mode in which gamers will compete for glory and bragging rights!

It’s fantastic to see a locally developed game readily available for download on a major console. Although, it’s a shame that it’s not readily available in Australia as Xbox LIVE Indie Games is yet to launch here!

Congratulations Paul!

Note: How does a local developer go about making games for the Xbox360? Why can’t we buy Xbox LIVE Indie Games here? Answers to all these questions and more when Paul Turbett talks about his experiences at our next Let’s Make Games technical session in August (or September). ;)

Event reminder (Friday, June 4)

A quick reminder that we are running an event tomorrow night!

Here are the details again:

  • Time/Date: 5:30pm – 7:30pm / Friday June 4, 2010
  • Location: eCentral (TAFE), 140 Royal St, East Perth
  • Description: Short talks on Python and Game Development

There will be refreshments and snacks from around 6:30pm, so feel free to stop by even if you can’t make it to the presentations.

RSVPs are not required, but if you use facebook and plan to attend, please let’s us know via the facebook event page.

Update: Fixed typo (end time).

Update: Wow. Great turn-out, talks, and follow-up discussions down at the pub! Thanks everyone!

The cake is a lie… so have some pie

Our next event will be next Friday and this time it isn’t purely a social affair!

Details:

  • Time/Date: 5:30pm – 7:30pm / Friday June 4, 2010
  • Location: eCentral (TAFE), 140 Royal St, East Perth
  • Description: Short talks on Python and Game Development

We’ve invited local game developers Simon Wittber and Chris McCormick to present short versions of talks that they are preparing for PyCon AU 2010 over in Sydney.

Here’s the flyer (click image for a print-ready version):

In keeping with the “Py” theme, there will be pie. Or is that a lie? Is this going to be some sort of pie-con? (Our sincere apologies for that pun.)

Hope to see you there!
View Larger Map

Note: We’re experimenting with more technical events based on community feedback. If this goes well (good turnout and responses), we may seek to run more. Do you have something interesting to present? Or something that you would like to see a presentation on? Let us know!

Photo source.

Update: Fixed typo. Event is until 7:3pm (not 8:30pm) and doors close at 8:00pm. Sorry for the confusion!

Keep those survey responses coming!

Thanks to everyone who has responded to our surveys thus far. It’s great to receive feedback on events and to see all these submissions for developer profiles and a game directory listings.

Just a reminder that we are currently running three surveys:

  1. Community (Scene): For everyone involved in games in Perth!
  2. Developer: Former and current game developers, submit a profile!
  3. Game: Provide us with information on games that you have worked on!

We hope that prolific local game developers will take some time to submit multiple responses to the developer and game surveys (assuming that they have worked at various companies and on various games, even if those companies are no longer around).

So how are the surveys going? Our estimates place the current response levels at:

All those responses and we still want more!

If you have yet to respond, please consider the following:

  • If you previously experienced some technical issues (the dreaded “you have already completed this survey” bug), please give it another go. We’ve patched the server software and everything should be peachy now.
  • Maybe you have worked on a game, but figure that someone else who worked on it will submit a profile (so you don’t have to). Well, they may be thinking the same thing! If we get multiple submissions for the same game, we will merge the results (resulting in an ever BETTER profile!)
  • Maybe you feel that your game was: made a long time ago, not that great, unworthy of a listing… who cares anyway… sigh. Well, WE CARE! We want to know all about it and when you are a rich and famous game developer you’ll want to relive the old times!

By simply responding, you could join the ranks of these great local developers:

Moreover, you could see your work featured alongside these great games:

In summary: Every response we get helps us paint a more complete picture of game development here in Perth. Our past, present, and future becomes more clear with everyone bit of information you submit! So please, keep those responses coming!

April 2010 surveys now online

We are currently running community, developer, and games surveys over at:

http://survey.letsmakegames.org

If you are involved in any way with the games development community of Perth, please take a few minutes to answer the community survey. Collected information will be used to produce a report like this one from last year (only better!)

We’re also asking developers (individuals and organisations) to invest a bit more time (answering some more in-depth questions) to let us know all about themselves and their games. We’re keen to produce a community and industry directory and to also document the history of games development in Perth.

For all of this we need your help!, as evidenced by this poster:

More information is available on the survey website, but please feel free to reply here or contact us if you have any questions.

Update: Some people are reporting problems submitting multiple responses to the surveys (eg. one developer submitting responses for multiple games). If you encounter this problem, please try using a different browser or clearing your browser cache of cookies for the domain survey.letsmakegames.org.

Thanks to everyone who reported this issue. We will be patching the server within the next few days, but there should be no interruption in availability of the survey. So please don’t hold out on responding!

Sundowner timelapse video

Rich (aka. Deceptikong) made this fantasitc timelapse video of last Saturday’s Sundowner (click through to the original for high-res):

Let’sMakeGames.org Sundowner from Deceptikong on Vimeo.

Thanks to everyone for coming and thanks Rich for the video (it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy)! Look out for our next event in a few months time! ;)

Sundowner this Saturday

As the sun sets on a significant period for the Perth game development community, Let’s Make Games has decided to run a sundowner so that everyone can catch up over a drink and a BBQ.

Details:

  • Time/Date: 4pm-8pm, Saturday 27 February 2010
  • Location: BBQ area at Matilda Bay (meet at the Gazebo)
  • Schedule: 3pm setup, 4pm drinks, 5pm cooking, 6pm food!
  • Food/Drink: BYO or buy our $1 soft drinks and $2 hot dogs
  • Activities: BYO picnic mat, footie, frisbee, etc.

Here’s a handy Google Map (click the markers for more information):


View BBQs at Matilda Bay in a larger map

We apologise for the late notice compared to our previous events (a number of us have been distracted by recent matters), but we hope to see you there!

Update: Facebook event page.

Good luck Perth Game Jammers!

The second ever Global Game Jam is on this weekend and everyone here at Let’s Make Games would like to wish all participants the very best of luck. ;)

For those of you who don’t know about the phenomenon that is Global Game Jam, here’s a quick summary: 48 hours of unadulterated creative energy poured into collective game development at breakneck speeds by teams all over the world!

Here in Perth, the local site is being hosted at the Joondalup Business Centre. Setup begins at 5pm tonight and submissions must be in by 3pm on Sunday (the event officially ends at 6pm on Sunday – leaving some time to actually play the games!).

Thanks to the efforts of Simon Wittber (aka. Different Methods), Perth is very well represented as a regional centre for game jamming. Perth was the only Australian location for the first Global Game Jam (at which point Simon had already organised two previous local game jams). This year, the Perth site is also being supported by local game developers Rockethands and Subversive Games.

For more information, see: the Global Gam Jam website; the list of participants for the Perth site; the local event schedule; and the official website for the Perth site.