“Competition 23″ was not about making games; it was about marketing games. The winners used forums, social networks, and public demos to create buzz for their games. In this article, Danny Day gives a summary of the competition results, and the three winners explain what they have learnt.
Every year the Really Awesome Gaming Expo (known as rAge by close friends and relatives), held at the Coca Cola Dome in Johannesburg, acts as an undeniable and almost irresistible force, drawing in gamers and game developers alike from all over South Africa and some parts of the Rest of the World™. Naturally, this can [...]
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 27, released in November 2006 The Game.Dev Comps evolved considerably since they started, with sponsors and prizes being obtained, and a larger, more experienced (and larger) community facilitating the creation of even more advanced games. We take a look at all the competitions held since August 2006, 10 [...]
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 26, released in October 2006. Compared to most other game development competitions, Game.Dev’s fondly-named “Comps” have always stood out on one particular front: each new incarnation has always set out to challenge, direct and develop entrants within the field of game development. Instead of the oh-so-typical “create a [...]
Ask any gamer to imagine their favourite games cross-dressing as different genres and you’ll have yourself an entertaining waste of an afternoon. Turn that into a drinking game somehow and you’ll have some of the best ideas that nobody can remember (“Hey! What about Bejewelled as a drinking game! You’d have a grid of colourful [...]
Not every origin story involves radioactive spiders, murdered parents or babies sent from planets with silly names. Sometimes a single idea, an offhand conversation or an innocent post on a forum can find a life of its own. Let’s throw a party. Let’s start a band. Let’s make a game. Like a snowball tossed down [...]
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 4, released in July 2006 So, off to a tertiary institution? Studying for your future? Excited about the opportunities in professional game-making that your studies will present? Well, know now that there’s another side to going to university, something that’s overlooked by a lot of students. You’re going [...]
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 27, released in November 2008. SpaceHack is one of two Game.Dev DreamBuildPlay 2008 entries. It eventually placed among the top 20finalists in the competition. The following is a discourse by one of the game’s two creators about the creation process and the story behind the game.
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 27, released in November 2008. Ultimate Quest is one of two Game.Dev DreamBuildPlay 2008 entries. It is an expansion of a ASCII-styled text adventure that was originally entered into a Game.Dev competition, polished and completed for Microsoft’s annual competition. The following is a discussion by one of the [...]
This article originally appeared in Dev.Mag Issue 13, released in April 2007. Overseer Assault is a freak of nature. Now that statement may seem harsh, especially coming from the game’s creator, but it’s true – Overseer Assault is a game that shouldn’t work, but through some dark and twisted means just does. One need only [...]
Earlier this year, three noble South Africans participated remotely in the annual Global Game Jam in a quest for truth, glory and really rapid game development. Teams all over the world were given 48 hours to make a game using a handful of keywords and whatever tools they could get their hands on. Local developers Danny [...]
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