So as it usually happens at the end of an academic semester, I disappear… but now I’m back! And I’m glad to be here. I have lots of intersting plans lined up for the near future, so that’s what I’m going to talk about now.

I want to pick up A Light in the Dark, the exploration game I was starting before I disappeared. My current plan is to make a demo that shows off the game’s main mechanics and dynamics through a small map, using royalty free music and art to approximate the feel and ambience I’m going for with the game. I want to hopefully finish this prototype by Decemeber to show it around and get feedback. Based on that and my personal feeling after making it, I’ll decide whether to keep on working it or not.

As I mentioned a few blog posts ago, I won at a game jam! It’s a pseudo-educational game, so we’re developing the game further to show it and science fairs and such. The first event we have lined up is on December 8th, and then we have another in early January, so I’ll be working hard on the game these two months!

As you might guess, I’m a university student. I’m a staff member in our university’s game development club. We do ocassional activities and workshops and it’s nice, but… I feel like we could be doing so much more. Looking at what other university gamedev clubs have done, I see a lot of finished games and a sense of community and friendship, things I feel like our club lacks… so I want to try to get these things in our club. I have a lot of ideas on how to do this, so I want spend the summer vacations planning them out, so as to be ready to execute them when the next school year starts.

You might be wondering what kind of activities our club organizes. Well, the biggest one is definitely the Global Game Jam! It’s coming up soon (January 26th – 28th), so it’s time to concentrate and organize it. We’ve been the only jam site in our city for the last couple of years, but this year we’re not… Some other universities that are starting their game development career programs wanted to organize their own sites. We’re not sure exactly how this is going to turn out, but let’s hope for the best!

I’ll keep you posted on any interesting update here, so keep your eyes open!