A few days have passed since the launch event of the Seven Day Game Challenge, and participating teams have been working most diligently on their submission. The CompLabs are buzzing with activity as teams can be seen to scramble around, expediting the process of short time game development as much as possible. There is quite some activity on the #7DGC Twitter – teams are showing off their work, discussing what to do with the remaining time, and thinking about the juiciness factor. We recommend to have a look at the feed – feel free to contribute to it as well. Furthermore, Mark Doughty has added a 7DGC timer onto the LSoCs lobby screen which shows the twitter feed and the remaining time left to fulfil the challenge.

Teams on  the #7DGC twitter feed are teasing about their recent game development.

In other news, we have asked participants of the game challenge to share their current progress, in either screenshot format or videos. A handful of screenshots were submitted, which shows quite some interesting advances:

However though, keep in mind that this is only a very small subset of what is to come during the game judging session this Friday. Some teams suggested that they prefer to keep their game ideas private until the presentations. We are already most excited to see the results on Friday.

Rock on guys, you are doing great stuff!

“The Seven Day Game Challenge”, organised by Sean Oxspring, has officially started today at 04:30PM. It is a week-long Game Developing Challenge for any students and staff in the Lincoln School Of Computer Science to take part in! Everyone is welcome, regardless of background, knowledge, experience or ability. As long as they are willing to develop a video-game, either on their own, or in small teams. Over the course of seven days, “The Seven Day Game Challenge” aims to provide a strong, motivating and friendly atmosphere in which developing, presenting and discussing video-games development is fun.

We announced that two of the themes from a voting poll will be used for the challenge. The themes that emerged from the polls are:

Space

Vegetation

We are hoping that you’ll be able to come up with some awesome and innovative ideas based on the themes we’re giving you. If you are finding it hard to come up with an idea – relax. You have a whole week and plenty of time to plan your game before you implement it! Please recall that both themes must be used in your game to be eligible to enter the competition.

Over 15 teams have registered their interests for the Game Challenge! Well done guys, we are really looking onwards to see your games! Feel free to chat about your game development towards the game challenge on facebook, blogs and twitter! We even got our own hashtag: #7DGC .

Terms and agreement of the Game Challenge can be found here. Feel free to contact Sean Oxspring for any enquiries! Note: We will contact Team Leaders over the course of next week.

Sign up sheets are now available! Feel free to fill it out with your team details and bring the form to registration event on the 2nd November at 4 PM, Complab B!

Note: If you do not have a team, no worries, we will help you to get into a team at the introduction event!

Voting for the Seven Day Game Challenge is now closed

We are delighted to announce that Sean Oxspring is organising an event called “The Seven Day Game Challenge”. It is a week-long Game Jam for any students and staff in the Lincoln School Of Computer Science to take part in! Everyone is welcome, regardless of background, knowledge, experience or ability. As long as they are willing to develop a video-game, either on their own, or in small teams. Over the course of seven days, “The Seven Day Game Challenge” aims to provide a strong, motivating and friendly atmosphere in which developing, presenting and discussing video-games development is fun.

What is a Game Jam?
Wikipedia’s definition: “A game jam is a gathering of developers, artists, and other creatives over a short time during which a collective effort is made to make one or more games around a given team.” Game jams are excellent, popular ways of getting game ideas down and learning to work quickly and dynamically in a group on a video-games. The games made during jams also contribute to a really nice looking portfolio!

When is it?
This game jam will be spread over seven days. It will be starting on Friday, 2nd of November and end on Friday, 9th November. Teams are welcome to work either in the LSoCS labs or from home. An Introduction to this event will be run at the University of Lincoln, MHT Building, 3rd Floor, Computer Lab B on the 2nd November at 4 PM. This introductory event will explain in detail the terms and conditions of the Game Jam and will allow the registration of teams. Sign up sheets are available here. Feel free to fill it out and to bring it to the registration event. If you do not have a team, no worries, we will help you to find team members at the introduction event. The terms and conditions of the Game Challenge are available here. Additionally, the Game Jam themes will be announced at the event. 

Who should I work with?
Teams can range in size from 1 to 5 people. You can work alone, but it might not be as fun.

What do I get from this?
Every submitted game will be judged by representatives from academia and student body. Judging criteria will be announced at the event. The members of the winning team will each receive a Raspberry Pi! Additionally, your game will look most impressive as a portfolio piece.

Is there anything else I need to do?
The game jam needs a theme! Budding participants can vote for the theme on a poll, which is now closed. Two of the themes from this poll will be used for the jam, so every vote counts! Note: Votes can be done once a day and for up to five themes can be chosen per voting session.

I have some more questions…
Feel free to email or contact Sean Oxspring! Furthermore, you may ask questions in the comment section of this post!

It should be an awesome event – we hope to see you on 2nd November at 4 PM, Complab B!

<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/6605682/”>7 Week Challenge Poll</a>

We would like to invite you to the screening of “Indie Game: The Movie” – an inspiring documentary about independent game developers, their lives, problems, unique ways of looking at reality and obviously the indie game titles they released onto the XBLA platform. It includes Team Meat (Super Meat Boy), Polytron (Fez), and Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness).

The screening is going to take place on 10th of October, 15:00, Jackson Lecture Theatre, Main Building. The movie is 103 minutes long.

Any student interested in Indie Game Development is welcome to attend!

To celebrate the start of the new study year, the computer labs within the Lincoln School of Computer Science has received some significant hardware upgrades. Our technician, Tom Feltwell, has worked diligently and endlessly throughout the summer and has concocted a selection of most powerful computer hardware which were recently delivered and installed within our premises. Computing students will now be able to fully enjoy the state-of-the-art hardware for studying and development purposes: Intel i5 3570K Processors, Asus P8Z77-M Pro, 16Gb DDR3 RAM, NVidia Geforce GT 640.

Furthermore, the current monitors will be soon replaced with 24″ widescreen monitors. Hooray!