Crocker Game Night 1/30/2025

We'll be showing xr57p at Crocker Game Night on January 30, 2025. 

Come check it out!

Sac Gamers Expo 2024 Recap

We went to the Sacramento Gamers Expo again this year to playtest xr57p (i.e. "the space game").  

Of course, I forgot to take any pictures of any sort, but I figured I'd post anyways. 

highlights:

• Lots of very helpful playtesting feedback on our prototype xr57
• Met the folks making Slip n Slime. It's a sokoban-like puzzle game and has some great level designs.  Wishlist it!
• Met Brandon, the developer of MegaQuest, an action platformer metroidvania. 
• Met Mark, who is one half of Final Final Studios.  Their game "Spellphabet" is an incredible spelling game for kids with great art and fun physics.  If you have kids 2-7, you should download it from the app store
• Met some great folks from the Bay Area Developers collective, and got to celebrate Night Well with Gwen from https://www.nightwellgames.com

CrockerCon

 We are going to be at CrockerCon demoing our xr57p. Come check it out!

https://www.crockerart.org/events/2839/artmix-crockercon-2024

Getting Creative for the Capital Creative Showcase

I went to the capital creative showcase in Sacramento a few weekends ago to get playtesters to demo xr57p.  I had a table and I wanted to dress it up a little with some visuals.  I decided to make (1) an arcade cabinet style housing for computer running the game demo, and (2) some sort of backdrop piece for the booth (at other events, people have brought banners with their game or company logo, etc.)

arcade cabinet

The game is space exploration themed, so for the arcade cabinet, I wanted to build something that resembled the old school mission control terminals from the space race. 

I built a box out of plywood.

Then I measured a screen and cut a hole out of the front. 

A little bit of paint.

Placed the screen in with some bolts. The screen on the front is connected to my laptop and mirrors the display. 

In practice, my laptop sat inside the back of the cabinet facing the opposite direct, so I could run the game and watch the playthroughs from behind the booth.

Space man

To keep the space race theme going, I remixed a carboard cutout of the moon landing to fit my game's main character and mechanics.  (Check it out here.) 

I started with this cardboard cutout.

First, I whited out the moon scene mirrored in the astronaut's visor.

Cut out a blaster for his right hand from some extra carboard. 

colored the helmet reflection to look like the colored grid you play on in the game.  Put the plaster and a yellow square into his hands to reflect the items you pick up in the game.

And here we are in action!

xr57p - CCS 2024

 I'll be at the Capital Creative Showcase in Sacramento this Saturday, April 20, 2024, with a new build of xr57p for playtesting.  Come check it out!

https://www.capitalcreativeshowcase.com/

xr57p - Sacramento Gamers Expo 2023

 I went to the Sac Gamers Expo with the xr57p prototype and got some player feedback. also met cool devs from the Sacramento area. I'll add more to this post soon.

https://www.sacgamersexpo.com/

xr57p - Eggplant game jam #19 entry

I made a game prototype for a game jam: xr57p (prototype).  More about this below. 

I made a game for the Eggplant game design podcast's Eggjam game jam # 19.  This was my first real game jam attempt.

The theme of the jam is "exploring your universe".  It was based on the Eggplant podcast's episode 72: Expanding Your Universe with Jakub Wasilewski (Slipways).

Here's the game: xr57p (prototype) on itch.io