Spartasoft

Here’s info on Rosetta Stone Game Jam where you can win some prizes (not sure what).

DEADLINE TO APPLY IS JANUARY 15,  2012!

Teams must consist of 2-3 students (currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program and graduates of December 2011 or later) with at least one game developer with programming experience using Flash, XNA, OpenGL, PyGame, etc. You will be asked to provide an example of past creations of any form or level in order to qualify. All team members must be 18 years of age or over to participate, or be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian at all times during their participation. Sorry, no professional gamers.

In the contact e-mail I received, the representative said that travel and hotel expenses would be provided and that it was free to enter. It’s March 23-25 in Arlington, Virginia.

Here’s a link to their website:

http://www.rosettastonegamejam.com/

This is an awesome opportunity so make sure you take the time to gather a team and apply!

-Eric Musser

Here’s a round up of some of the information about GDC 2012:

1) The main source of information on the conference is www.gdconf.com

2) You can apply for the highly sought after Conference Associate position where helping out at the conference will get you a free all-access pass: http://gdconf.com/attend/volunteer.html

3) There is also an IGDA scholarship that you can apply for if you are an IGDA member: http://www.igda.org/scholarships

4) Spartasoft can potentially get some money reimbursed (up to 4500 dollars for the whole club), but you will need to turn in copies of your receipts to Alex Lockwood by Winter Break (or over Winter Break but no promises if you don’t get added to our request for funds). Save the original copies of your receipts as well, I believe we will need those to get final reimbursement if we are approved. You can send your stuff to Alex’s e-mail: lockwo66@msu.edu

5) If you fly into SFO at a reasonable hour, the most convenient way to get downtown is to take the BART train, which has a station at the airport, and will probably take you within walking distance of your hotel.

6) A lot of us are planning to stay at the Pickwick Hotel again. Rooms aren’t that fancy, but have internet and are close to the convention center while not being nearly as expensive as the others that close to the Moscone.

7) If people post some discussion of travel plans in the comments as far as trying to split travel/hotels, I will try to make sure they don’t get filtered/blocked as best as possible.

8 ) There is usually a game specialization current + alumni meet-up that happens in the Moscone center food court that is organized by Professor Winn. I’ll post details about that to the Spratasoft list when we know for sure when it is (might not be until week-of).

By popular request I’ve posted up the topic slides from tonight’s roundtable discussion on doing a month long game development project.

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Due to our outstanding rate of members so far, we have moved to a new room. The room is 304 Natural Science and has not only more seats, but more comfortable seating. Room change starts tonight (9/28/11) at 7:00 for our Unity Tutorial.

See you soon!

Jordan

If you’re a current student, don’t miss this opportunity to interface with EA on October 4th!

Here’s a link to Jordan’s resources on the phenomenal Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1CpfZHj4F1ITMV78jm_SSwQ2JsgpoAYx4J4xUxyVXTmI

Other resources

www.aigamedev.com  You can make a free account to get access to some great articles and other features

Programming Game AI By Example by Mat Buckland

*Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory  *You need this!

Masters of Doom by David Kushner

The first game jam of the semester is going to kickoff at 6:30 pm on Friday September 30th in 246 Communication Arts Bldg!

Don’t worry if you don’t have teammates or previous experience, just as long as you show up enthusiastic on Friday, you’ll fit into a group just fine.

If you’re looking to get a feel for Unity3D (one of the more popular game engines used by students at MSU), try to make it out to the meeting on September 28th at 7pm in Wells 213C where we’ll be covering the basics of using the engine.

Get Stoked-

Jon Moore, Club President

Every year Spartasoft has a “competition” to design the club’s shirt. “Competition” because the prize is that your design is on our shirt, otherwise there is no benefit. We will group order them after we vote on which shirt design we would like on October 12, 2011.

If you are interested in designing a shirt, come up with a design and send it to spartaso@msu.edu by WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12th BEFORE the meeting so that we can vote on a design and order shirts by the end of october.

Things to consider for your design:

-Base prices for shirts are around $14.

-Add $1.00 for each additional color on each side. (The less expensive the better.)

-Designs should be appropriate (PG-13 or Under)

-Designs should include the ability to identify Spartasoft (they’re shirts for the club, not just cool shirts).

OCTOBER 12 DEADLINE! BEFORE THE MEETING! Submit to SPARTASO@MSU.EDU !

Also,

We have leftover shirts from last year that we will be selling at following meetings for $20.

Welcome back for Fall Semester 2011!

Spartasoft will be meeting this year in Well 213C  every Wednesday at 7:00 pm. Come out to stay up on club business and usually a presentation about game development related topics as well. Hope to see you there!

Jon Moore, Club President