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Weirder Stuff Game Jam Returns This Weekend To Spook Up Some Fun


Posted on October 16, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Clickteam USA is sponsoring their second annual Weirder Stuff game jam over on Itch.io this weekend. This three-day event is open to all regardless of development experience or overall talent and will center around a theme to be disclosed when the Game Jam begins on Friday, October 20th. 

If you’re unfamiliar with what a game jam is – it is where developers of all skill levels are invited to create an original game within a specific theme, possibly using a specific engine or other requirements within a short time limit. Game Jam games are often broken, missing features, minimalist and downright weird.  There’s a certain beauty to interactive work created out of passion but within the constraints of 72 – 96 hours. 

Clickteam Fusion 2.5 – the company’s current flagship engine – allows non-programmers, hobbyists and professionals alike to create interactive experiences with no code. In the place of code CTF2.5’s visual “Event Editor” provides developers with a grid style guide to the actions in their game. One of the selling points of Fusion 2.5 is that almost anyone can have a prototype up and running within an hour, and in my own personal experience I’ve found this to be true. 

Once the development period closes on Sunday CT will be choosing 8 entrants who follow the official submission rules. Up for grabs is one Grand Prize consisting of CT Fusion 2.5 Developer Edition + Android Exporter and a bunch of physical goodies. Second place prize includes CT Fusion 2.5 Standard + Android as well as physical goodies and finally, 6 runners up will be selected to receive a copy of CT Fusion 2.5 Standard. 

More details about the Weirder Stuff 2 game jam can be found on the official itch.io page. Entries can be developed using the free version of Clickteam Fusion available on their official site, so there’s no upfront cost to enter a game – except for your own time & creativity that is. If you want to follow the entries but not participate in development directly, make sure to watch the hashtag #IWantToCreate on Twitter! 


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I Made A Game About 2000s Instant Messengers Thanks To LoveJam


Posted on February 6, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Developing video games isn’t something that I can confess to have a large amount of knowledge about but alas I’ve spent the past year or so learning the basics of Unity 3D and C#. This past weekend I took part in Love Jam, a 72 hour game jam that Simeoens, Mientje and Kenny Guillaume set up to not only celebrate the theme of love but also a friend’s upcoming marriage.

Here is how the organizers described their event:

“A friend of ours is getting married and asked us if we could make a game for the occasion. 
Loving gamedev and game jams we said yes without hesitation and agreed to use the first weekend of February to do so.  

 We didn’t think of it at the time, but we suddenly realized that this is very close to Valentine’s day and wondered if there would be any interest in a jam that had ‘wedding’ as a central theme. 

 In the end we decided that the concept of a wedding might put off people who don’t believe in the tradition and so decided to extend the theme to love in general, of any kind.” 

This game jam was the first game dev related collaboration with a time limit that I’ve taken part in and it helped me learn a lot about how to keep cool under pressure during a crunch. I decided to focus on the love of friendship for my entry for Love Jam – which I called Luv.IM. Taking place in a 2000s era Instant Messenger program inspired by the AOL Instant Messenger of yore, it is not only a story of two different people meeting online but also what it is like to discuss the problems that life can throw at you with someone you might not all that well.  I made the submission deadline with only 2 hours and change to spare and an audio glitch caused me to scrap the planned sound effects for this jam, also only after publishing did I notice that some of the texts gets slightly cut off of the screen. *sigh*, I suppose that is the nature of game jams.

LoveJam saw 10 different entries from over 30 developers. I highly recommend anyone reading this post check out the entries (not just mine) because there’s a little bit of everything on offer from visual novels, to platformers to interactive greetings card – all made in the name of love.


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Interview: Clickteam’s Chris Carson About Their Upcoming Game Jam


Posted on September 26, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

I recently got the chance to interview Clickteam’s Chris Carson about the company’s upcoming “Weirder Stuff” game jam and month long contest. As I previously covered late last week the Weirder Stuff game jam + month long contest is aimed around providing developers and aspiring developers a chance to show off their creative talents using Clickteam’s range of “visual programming” techniques or as Chris so aptly put it when I interviewed him last March at GDC “programming for the rest of us”.

Alongside showcasing some of the communities best creative minds Clickteam is also giving away some prizes for the best entries including licenses for the professional version of Clickteam Fusion 2.5, an Xbox One console and Android Tablets from ACER. On October 1st the company will also be giving its community their first extended look at Clickteam Fusion 3.0 – which is not an incremental update but rather a complete re-write using the company’s innovative Event Editor philosophy.

Clickteam_Fusion2

What follows is our discussion of the Weirder Stuff campaign, Fusion 3 and the future of Documentation & Tutorials for Clickteam’s products!

Broken Joysticks:  The ‘Weirder Stuff’ Month Long Contest & Game Jam are going to give developers the chance to create some really spooktastic fun just in time for Halloween. Do you think that this will be the perfect time for developers to connect with one another?

Chris: As you know Rae, Clickteam is lucky to have a pretty awesome community. We just hope that Weirder Stuff and future events like it which we hope to host more often will help continue to foster that community and grow it. At least for my personal part being included in the community for 16 years now has been one of my greatest joys!

Broken Joysticks: We’ve seen a example game built with Clickteam Fusion 3.0 that will demonstrate features like sprite scaling and a dynamic 2D camera system. How will these features enable creators to bring new technical magic to their titles?

Chris: Fusion 3 is still a 2D game creation software but we are constantly pushing the boundaries. We always try to remove limitation while keeping things simple. With that philosophy we have added some features that allow you to control more things. We are still focusing on 2D games gameplay-wise – but visually we can now push some things into the third dimension. As we begin to show more of what Fusion 3 will be capable of the one thing we want to make sure we drive home is it will all still at its core be based in the “Event Editor” methodology of coding that we are famous for. So an existing user will have no problem wielding all the new power we will be providing in Fusion 3 to you!
Clickteam_Fusion1

Broken Joysticks:  The in-person game jam portion of the ‘Weirder Stuff’ campaign has some awesome prizes – Exporters & dev software from Clickteam, An Xbox console from Microsoft and even tablets from Acer. Do you hope that these prizes may result in some fantastic software produced with Fusion? Had these sponsor worked with  Clickteam’s before you approached them for this particular campaign?

Chris: As we have grown as a tool and as our users have grown into professional developers who are still deploying Fusion in their projects we have been able to reach out to some of the larger companies and make connections. The UWP exporter is a direct result of that. It was natural to invite our new friends to participate in the upcoming events in October.

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Broken Joysticks:  Any huge revelations or surprises you’d like to tease as we approach the September 27th kick off?

Chris: We have a lot of exciting announcements coming up but one thing I can drop on you is that Documentation issues will soon be a thing of the past!  We will be launching a new library system to bring together documents and tutorials all in one place.  Finding what you need when you are learning or problem solving can be difficult, we’re confident with this new resource that users will be able to accelerate through the learning curve even faster than ever!


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Clickteam Launches Mysterious ‘Weirder Stuff’ Month Long Contest


Posted on September 25, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Strange… nay, weird stuff are afoot at Clickteam’s website as they launch the first stage of their ‘Weirder Stuff’ month long contest + game jam. Not only are they giving away prizes such as their fantastic development environment Multimedia Fusion 2 but they’ll also be handing out other treats from sponsors like Humble Bundle as well. CT has promised a lot of great treats for the entire community – whether they’ve pulled off an awesome development trick or not.

A Month Long Contest

Clickteam_Fusion1

Starting on September 27th developers can begin developing their entries for the “Weirder Things” game jam. A special theme for the jam is going to be announced next Tuesday and indie devs will have to focus their creation around that specific theme. The official submission deadline is between October 18th and October 31st with winners being announced at a later date.

There will be one grand prize winner and 5 runner-up winners who will share in the following weird loot:

Grand Prize

  • Multimedia Fusion 2.5 Developer With All Exporters (iOS, Android, Universal Windows Platform App, Mac etc)
  • $250 Worth of Cash Prizes (details coming later)
  • A Brand New Xbox One S Console
  • $250.00 In Humble Store Credit
  • $250.00 in Clickteam’s ClickStore credit

Runner-Up Prizes

  • Winner’s choice of exporter add-on for Fusion 2.5
  • 7-Inch Acer Tablet
  • $50.00 in Humble Store Credit
  • $50.00 In Clickteam’s ClickStore Credit

2 Day In-Person Game Jam

Clickteam_Fusion2

Don’t want to develop a game over a month? Seeking a thrill that is weird & wild? Then Clickteam’s 2 day game jam might be the thing for you. This development spooktacular will be taking place across a number of cities in the Southern United States, The U.K, France and a few other European countries.  If you can’t make it to any of the listed cities entries will also be accepted online through both Itch.Io and GameJolt!

Dates: Oct 1 – Oct 2

Grand Prize

  • Multimedia Fusion Developer license + Universal Windows Platform Exporter for CT Fusion 2.5

Runner-Up Prizes

  • Universal Windows Platform Exporter for CT Fusion 2.5.

 Taking Fusion To The Next Level

CT_Fusion

It is no secret that ClickTeam Fusion is evolving with the development of ClickTeam Fusion 3.0 underway. We brought you the first look at the development suite back in March from the Games Development Conference and now Fusion 3.0 will be making its second public appearance thanks to a special live-stream scheduled for October 1st (which also happens to my 30th birthday, thanks for the early present CT!). They’ll be not only demoing the platform’s upgraded Event Editor but also showcasing an open source title “Saucer Squad” during the live-stream which will showcase advanced features like real time sprite rotation among others.

Keep your eyes peeled on ClickTeam’s official “Weirder Stuff” game jam page because I have a feeling something pretty huge is going to drop on the 27th. They wouldn’t put  a whole bunch of ???????? In a row for no reason – now would they?

If you want to check out some of the creations indie devs are working on there’s also the #IWantToCreate hashtag on twitter.

Here’s to a successful and fun game jam 😀


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Rainbow Jam ’16 and how game jams help the industry


Posted on August 19, 2016 by Meghan Kass

As August continues, a number of game jam events are scheduled to take place.  These game jams are giving opportunities for smaller indie developers to showcase their skills and network with others in the gaming community, all while enjoying a fun atmosphere.

One such event in particular taking place is Rainbow Jam ‘16. This is a game jam, in the Scottish community, starting August 20th and continuing until September 4th. What makes Rainbow Jam special is their focus on the LGBT+ community and diversity in gaming. Their goal is promote safety in the gaming community and for developers to create freely and openly without fear. They also have a goal of creating future meetups and opportunities for communication locally in “various Scottish cities”

According to the itch.io page, the theme for this game jam was selected by getting suggestions from participants and then the top category was voted to be the theme used for the games created, this year the theme is “Identity”. The top games in each category will then be awarded prizes. To participate in the jam, you do not have to be a certain nationality, sexuality or gender; everyone is encouraged to join the celebration and use whatever skill they can bring to help create. Submissions are made through itchi.io and participants can work in teams up to four or individually.

The jam was started due to the feedback and discussion from the Facebook group Scottish Rainbow Game Dev. and they are looking for more sponsors and participants for the jam and possibly for future jams. You can join or learn more about this open game jam at the website https://itch.io/jam/rainbowjam16.

This game jam is just one example of how to encourage diversity and new talent in the gaming industry. New voices, ideas and styles can mean a breath of fresh air and more choices for not only publishers, but for consumers as well.

RainbowJamPortraitPoster

Image source: Rainbow Jam 2016 Facebook page


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