The gates are open: 2015 Game Challenge registration begins
By Tim Loew, executive director, MassDiGI
One of the events I look forward to most each year is our big MassDiGI Game Challenge pitch competition. There really is nothing like it. Come experience it for yourself – team registration and general admission for the 2015 edition is now open.
Game Challenge ’14 – Grand Prize winner Jenna Hoffstein, Little Worlds Interactive, The Counting Kingdom
Since the Game Challenge began in 2012, over 120 teams have entered some pretty amazing games including titles like The Counting Kingdom, Catlateral Damage, PWN, Wobbles, Depression Quest and Pathogen – just to name a few of the winners from past years. In addition, over 700 competitors – be they indies, students or hobbyists – had the chance to meet with industry mentors, hear from experts, share knowledge, split $50,000 in prize value, have fun, play and celebrate games.
This year, we made a couple of changes worth pointing out – 1.) moving the event from early March to early February and 2.) redefining Concept and Prototype to Demo/Alpha and Beta/Near Release.
In addition to those changes, we are also pleased to note that this year’s event t-shirt design will come from the winner of, you guessed it, the Game Challenge t-shirt design contest. Give it shot.
Other than that, thanks to the sponsors, mentors, judges and volunteers, it should be as exciting as always.
Of course, we couldn’t pull any of this off without such great teams and their games – the competition is the show. I look forward to seeing you there.
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“As the video game industry enjoys growth across the United States, Massachusetts is reaping some of those benefits, according to a national trade group, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).” Read the full story from the Worcester Business Journal here.
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Launch! Many Mini Things coming soon to the Leap Motion App Store
By Pat Roughan, senior, WPI
Many Mini Things is a fun motion-control party game for the Leap Motion controller that combines many mini-games with mini capsule toys. The mini-games challenge you to win as many as possible before losing four times. You preform actions, like spinning a DJ disc or kicking a hacky sack into space, by moving your hand over the Leap Motion. Each victory is rewarded with a virtual collectible toy, and high scores for each difficulty are saved to an in-game score table.
Download Many Mini Things for free here, invite your friends over and have a blast!
When our team of developers looked into the Leap Motion, we wanted our players to immediately understand the controls for our games without instruction. We decided on motion, grip, and spin as our three controls, and looked at real world activities that used these motions. We then added a level of unexpected wackiness to it, like fireworks going off after petting a rock, to make the activies more engaging than their real world counterparts.
The game, made for players of all ages, was created by a team of six students from WPI, Becker College, Smith College and Berklee College of Music during the 2014 MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program (as well as Becker students from a fall ’14 /spring ’15 Live Code course ). Our team of interns worked over the eleven weeks to create a game that would be published for all to enjoy through the Leap Motion app store. With help from game industry mentors and MassDiGI staff, we turned Many Mini Things from a concept into a reality – and we hope you love it as much as we do.
Find us online!
Web – http://games.massdigi.org/manyminithings/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/manyminithings
Twitter – https://twitter.com/ManyMiniThings
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Join us at one of MassDiGI’s New England-wide Making Games 101 mini-workshop series coming up this fall and winter. Stops will include locations in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut and, of course, Massachusetts. Each mini-workshop, held in partnership with local institutions and organizations, will focus on game development educational and career content for high school students. This series is underwritten by the ESA Foundation.
Drop us a line for more information!
Locations and dates*:
- Worcester Youth Leadership Institute, Becker College, Worcester, MA – 8/13/14 – registration closed
- RISD, Providence, RI – 10/8/14 – registration closed
- NH TechFest, Nashua North High School, Nashua, NH – 11/1/14 – registration closed
- SNHU, Manchester, NH – 12/6/14 – registration closed
- UConn, Digital Media & Design, Stamford, CT – 12/10/14 and 12/16/14 – registration closed
- Worcester Technical High School, Worcester, MA – 12/12/14 and 12/17/14 – registration closed
- Hampshire College, GGJ, Amherst, MA – 1/23/15 – registration closed
- Bonus – Pathways in Technology Early College High School, New York, NY – 3/18/15 – registration closed
- Champlain College, Burlington, VT – 4/28/15 – registration closed
- Maine College of Art, Portland, ME – TBD*
- Lowell High School, Lowell, MA – TBD*
* Check site for updates.
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Come on down and ”Meet MassDiGI” with NUGDC – a great opportunity to network, talk games and more! All Northeastern Univ. and Boston-area game development students are welcome.
When: October 30, 2014 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Northeastern University, 108 West Village H, 440 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115
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I built a game – now what?
Alex Engel, Disruptor Beam
– Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 6:30 p.m. –
Game developers can be so focused on shipping a product that many forget that games actually have to go live in front of players! What is it like to ship a game? How does focus change from being in development to being live? And, what are some common perils that developers make once their game is live?
Alex Engel has been in game development for a decade, working on half a dozen major games like Eve Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeon and Dragons Online, Asheron’s Call, Batman, and Game of Thrones. Currently Disruptor Beam’s Product Manager for Game of Thrones Ascent, he manages a multi-million-dollar online game with millions of players on mobile, web, and tablet.
This talk is co-sponsored by MassDiGI
Location: Becker College, Weller Academic Center, Room 210, 61 Sever St., Worcester
Click here to download the event flyer.
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Join us at RISD Internship Connect at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Details here.
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Satellites and Startups: How we went to space and why you should too
– Monday, September 15, 2014, 5:30 p.m. –
Join Spire’s Nick Allain for a first-hand look at how Silicon Valley’s space race is heating up and how satellites, the size of a large coffee, are changing the way we listen to signals from Earth. Nick will speak about what it’s like to join a space startup like Spire, the process of building a cubesats, and how you can get involved – and, maybe even get hired.
Nick, from Charlton, MA, is an alumnus of Becker College. He graduated in 2009 with a bachelor of arts in interactive media. He has spent time working in the game industry and higher education. He now lives and works in the Bay Area.
This special talk is co-sponsored by MassDiGI. Light snacks and refreshments will be available. Free and open to the public.
Location: Becker College, Weller Academic Center, Room 210, 61 Sever St., Worcester
Click here to download the event flyer.
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MassDiGI will be joining Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Europe Innovation Partnership Mission as a business delegation member from September 14-19,2014. The trade mission will visit Copenhagen, London, Lyon and Paris. Read the official press release here.
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Click here to read Renzo Heredia’s post about SIP ’14 on BetaBoston.
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