Wolfire Games Forums

Hi all,

The Finnish gathering of nerds and machines, Assembly, is around the corner again. And this time, I'll be there! I haven't been there before, but this year I was part of a team that participates in the game development competition, and our group needed a representative.

There's a few reasons for me making this post here. One, is anyone else going?


Two, the game my group made is downloadable and playable. Soul Devour! It's small, simple, and hopefully fun.
http://www.assembly.org/summer12/news/g ... -published

Feel free to try the others, too. Some weren't very impressive, though.

Aw, that sounds freakin awesome. I'd be all over it, but I'm not Finnish and not quite skilled enough just yet.
Downloading Soul Devour now, gonna report back on it's awesomeness soon.

I really oughta to stop trying big, lengthy projects and just do small ones. I have designs and ideas that are just too durn big for my skill level.
Now that I'm stuck not at bootcamp though, I can get back to work for a little while! YAY

My second day at the Assembly 2012. I've stood at my school's booth, and I was told to get people interested, to show them our school's stuff, and tell them that they should apply to our school. We have papers to give away, and a bag full of "meh" candies wrapped in papers that have our school's name on it.

Then again...

Rovio's Angry Birds stance is five booths to our left, and another game company is presenting a bit to our right. Dignitas and Evil Genius guys and others competing here in Assembly are staying in the same hotel we're at.

I've been interviewed by two different video cameras, probably for some sort of local TV stuff. I've done real-time 3D modeling on a TV screen to catch the interest of nerdy passers-by, and with this being the Assembly, that's almost everyone.

I've played a SHMUP (think Gradius, Touhou) controlled by a dance mat AND a guitar hero controller at the same time, but that's kinda given since it's made by our guys.

I've met friends, some of who I hadn't met before.

I've attended seminars about painting, creativity, and more.

People have told me this year's game dev competition entries are of higher quality than they're used to. Five of 16 are from our school.

Our games' trailer videos were shown from the big screen.

I've had people come to our booth, try a game, and heard them exclaim "I know this game, I want to try this", and it was the game I made, the one shown on big screen yesterday. I've told this guy we could try a different game, just to hear him go "Really? Did I hear it right? You guys made this one? I so want to try it!" and then he played it and had fun. One of that game's programmers was right there.

I've told people what my school teaches, what I do, and felt proud, and happy.

Well that just sounds fuckin' awesome.

Sounds like a freakin' blast. Must be awesome having people say your games are fun. Probably made the programmer's day

Yeah, the whole event has been awesome, and all of us have had a great time.

Even better! So, is it over or shall more awesome ensue?

It continues today (Saturday) and finishes tomorrow. The game dev competition winners are announced today. The robot war is held today. Counter Strike, StarCraft 2 and other tournaments are finished today. There's short movie and demoskene compos and other stuff.

I talked with some of the guys and girls from Rovio. Awesome.

I have now met more than half of the developers that made games for the Assembly game dev compo. Awesome.

Some of the guys from Rovio came to us and told to make use of their booth, their big TV screens, and show people what we're doing. Our games. So, yeah, I did it. It was a good position, better than ours, and their TV screens were a bit bigger as well. I got some more random people to play our games, and it was fun. Some of the Rovio guys came to play our game, and that was fun too. Awesome.

This was the first time I came to the Assembly. I didn't have a place in which I could play all night. I didn't need it, didn't want it. I talked with lots of awesome and interesting people, some of them were already working in the industry, others were promising young devs.

If anyone's interested, I'm most probably going to be in there, somewhere, next year. Many people here only spoke English, and it isn't that big of a problem. If anyone got interested, you can check some videos on http://archive.assembly.org/2012 .

I could try to take leave for Assembly next year. Be awesome to come out and meet you.