Category: Culture

Participants of the november 23 GameJam with the Acagamcis

The next GameJam is coming up!

Acagamics

The next GameJam starts on April 19th at 5 pm!

The aim of a GameJam is to create a finished game within 48 hours and present it to the other participants. As the main aim is to have fun developing, you can of course also bring a project with you or improve your game even further after the GameJam. Even if you only have a few hours to spare, you can still take part. The game is usually worked on in groups that meet on the first day, but you can also join later or work alone.

What you use for game development is up to you. The engines Unity and Godot, graphic programs Gimp and Aseprite and version control with Github are popular at our GameJams – but we’ve also created beautiful games in MATLAB. There are also useful tools for those who can’t program or have little time, such as the 2D Hackschule and Scratch.

The GameJam takes place in the basement of the FIN: G29-K058 and G29-K059. As always with snacks and drinks!

Come and join us!

Developing games with pupils in Magdeburg

kkim

We’ve been to the Werner-von-Siemens school to teach pupils of the 6th grade about computer games and how to develop them.

On March 18 Sarah and Lars held a lecture about the general structure of games and then encouraged the kids to work on a new game themselves. So 12 kids sat down and worked alone or in groups (some even aided by a few parents who also joined the course) to develop their idea. An hour later, after a lot of sketching, debating and wild thoughts, the first session was done. Amongst the many ideas was a project that explored the universe, another cleaned up the sea by diving through the ocean to gather waste, and yet another project consisted of running endlessly through a forest to gather mushrooms.

On March 30 we met again, this time in the computer room of the school. Robert showed the 9 pupils and one parent in attendance what can be done with Godot and the kids eagerly matched every move. After two hours of hard work, there was a player on every screen, movable with the keyboard and able to gather stuff surrounding it. This session concluded our small but awesome project. A big thank-you to Ms. Motejat for all the arrangements and for making everything possible. Motivated teachers are great.

Sarah and Lars in action

Developed a game with pupils

kkim

Between November 2021 and January 2022, Julian and Kim met up with a handfull of pupils from third and fourth grade (8 to 10 years old) of the primary school Am Stadtsee Stendal to devise a game and also to produce material to use in it. The project was lead by Theater der Altmark to teach the kids about the theater and about acting, but there was a part about designing a computer game as well. In three weekly meetings, we worked with the children. They conceptualised ideas with us, drew a lot of pictures, and also made audio recordings to be used in the game. Everything was themed around the play Futur Eins: Leben auf dem Mars. We built a journey to Mars, with three problems one has to solve to successfully play through the game. It can be found online at no charge under: futureins.acagamics.de

The big challenge and biggest motivator for our Acagamics representatives was working with the children: “The project was amazing. The kids have an unbelievable amount of energy and an endless stream of ideas. But putting that to work is not so simple and of course there should be something to show for at the end of the project. It needed quite some thought and thorough planning. Thankfully, we had Sylvia Martin, the dramatic adviser from the theater as well as Veronika Riedel, who is trained in theater pedagogy, with us. All in all we are are more than pleased with the result. It worked as planned and the kids love the game.”

About 15 pupils took part. The project »Futur Eins: Leben auf dem Mars – analog und digital« was funded by »Wege ins Theater«, the support programm of ASSISTEJ as part of »Kultur macht stark. Bündnis für Bildung«.

MatLab – GameJam 2021

Lisa

GameJam! MatLab? MatLab-GameJam?!

On the weekend of 22 – 24.10. there was a digital GameJam of a different kind. A GameJam with a programming language that is mainly designed for linear algebra with matrices (hence the name Matrix Laboratory) and almost not at all for interactivity, which is actually the cornerstone of video games. Nevertheless, we ventured out and tried to think in terms of matrices.

Friday evening started with the usual introduction: welcome and brainstorming for ideas. The brainstorming was a bit reserved this time, because all present could not really estimate the capacities of MatLab yet. That’s why at 8pm there was a short introduction by Sarah about games in MatLab, where the basics like game loop, keyboard input and graphical representation were introduced. At the end the game jammers had a small template to build their game on. The following two days the participants were then busy discovering MatLab’s weaknesses and strengths that work for games. Sunday afternoon, the results were then presented.

Here you can download the games. Screenshots of the games are below:

Kulturbrücke 2021

Acagamics

This weekend (Sept. 11 to 12) was a very special one for Acagamics. We finally started to build our club’s own arcade machine after a long time of planning! And we did that at the cultural event “Kulturbrücke 2021“. Right there at the Elbe, we screwed, sanded, drilled and painted. Fortunately, we not only had support from our members but also got tips and tricks for woodworking and the handling of paint spray cans from visitors. Along the way, we were also able to listen to the program on the stage.

We would like to thank the organizers of the event for transporting the materials and providing a pavilion, electricity and drinks. We would also like to thank all those who participated in the actual construction of the Acamat.