We’ve been here for months now, but we can admit that we’re still pretty excited by the possibilities afforded by our big, beautiful office space, right here on the Burnside Bridge. We’ve been able to host open houses, launch parties, and–starting next week–our first-ever weekend game jam!

All put together, we have decades of experience in mobile development, but not as much as much as we’d like in making games. The available frameworks for that kind of work are better than ever, so we’ve decided to give ourselves a crash course in what it takes to make some simple but spooky Halloween-themed fun. Everyone who participates will be trying out something new, whether that’s digital art and animation, retro music, or working with a game-scripting engine.

• How long have we got? We’ll get together, order some Sizzle Pie, and reveal the secret thematic ingredients for the jam at 7 pm on Friday, October 17th. Participants will divide into teams and spend the evening brainstorming ideas for what they want to create, then gather again on the morning of Saturday, October 18th to get started. We’ll spend the day writing code, composing music and making art at a hectic pace, with activity breaks to shake our brains out until the mandatory midnight code freeze. Then, on the morning of Sunday, October 19th, we’ll reassemble to test our work, slap patches on bugs and partake in company-provided pastries before the FINAL DEMO OF DOOM (and prize ceremony!) after lunch.
• That sounds like a lot of fun. Yes, it does! And nbso online casino reviews you’re invited! If you’d like to join in on this weekend adventure, email brendan@developmentnow.com to check on available slots. You don’t have to be an experienced developer, designer or artist to participate–we’re all here to learn, and more teams means more games and more fun.
• Say, gang, wanna check out that spooky warehouse? No ghosts or goblins here, just original hardwood floors and one vintage exposed brick wall. DevelopmentNow is located on the RJ Templeton Building, suite 220, and you can enter downstairs at 9 SE 3rd Avenue.

If you find your interest piqued by reading this, you’re the kind of person we’d like to meet and team up with to produce something exciting. Get in touch and come join the fun! Remember, email brendan@developmentnow.com for more information about how this thing will work. Even if you can’t spend the whole weekend with us, we’d love to have you drop by on Sunday afternoon to check out the games, play around with our BLE beacons, and test-drive our homemade MAME machine.

If you’d like to familiarize yourself with the tools we’ll be using, we’ve found the tutorials below pretty helpful. We hope to see you in a week!

• Ray Wenderlich’s Sprite Kit Tutorial
• Getting started with the Unity Engine and Unity Mobile
• The Kilobolt Walkthrough for Android Game Development
• Free Tools for Chiptune Music Tracking
• The Big List of Pixel Art Tutorials

Cover image courtesy of Blake Patterson.