Big Day Out Summary

We had blast of a  day at this event . We had 100s of people try out our 2 buzzer games with one guy having completed it with no beeps.
Which is a huge feat.
I think it gave us a good idea of what maker faire will be like . Our other craft projects on display were a hit.

We made our submission to the open call during the week .

I have taken a role on the organization team of the faire . I hope to see it ad a great chance to show case what Irish makers are making .

Finally a big thank you to the people who gave up their Sunday to help out today. We had to listen to 6 hours of beeping .

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Unity3D Development Workshop

Unity is a fantastic tool/engine for game development, but what’s not obvious when developing it is the best methods for developing the game code.

Coming from a programming background, Unity can be quiet confusing. The idea of attaching components to objects in order to add functionality is easy to grasp and makes creating small games fast any easy, but what about larger and more complex games?

The Dublin Unity3D Development Workshop is designed to compliment the Dublin Unity3D Development Discussion, which occured in January. Instead of talking about development methods and patterns we’ll be using them to create a game.

 

I’ll be bring assets and (some) scripts, we’ll use them to build a game. Rather than following a set plan we’ll be “winging it” and each person will be encouraged to make theirs unique, trying different things to see what happens. The goal isn’t to create a full game, it is to understand how you might go about doing that.
Some of the things we’ll be covering are:

  • Using design patterns in Unity to structure code:
    • Singleton – For instantiating a single Scene Manager
    • State – For GameStates which encapsulate logic/code for each scene
    • Observer – Having components/classes subscribe to event notices
    • Object Pool – Limiting instantiations of GameObjects to reduce garbage collection (improve performance)
  • Version control

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Easter is coming!


Easter is coming up, and so is a really nice Easter workshop in TOG.

Date: Sunday, 4th of March
Time: 2pm – 6pm
Participants: max. 9

The workshop will start by creating an Easter decoration from scratch, beginning with a raw piece of wood that needs to be grained and branches fresh from the tree that we will turn into a basket.

Once the hard woodwork is done, we’ll create chickens and butterflies out of wool and ribbons for the most colourful spring impression possible. There will also be plenty of flowers, pussy willows and lady bugs to complete our work of art.

To not leave our Easter basket empty, we will color and decorate eggs (that can still be eaten afterwards), as well as fill it with various chocolate goodies – a vital part of this holiday.

Fee: 15€ for non-members / 9€ for members (eggs and chocolate included)
Please let us know if you’re interested in attending!
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Origami Workshops: Animals!

Fancy learning how to make paper animals? Join this specially themed origami workshop, taught by Jamie O’Leary!

The “Animals” workshop will run twice. To attend, you should already be familiar with origami, for instance having attended one of our previous events. If you’re a complete beginner, worry not, for we’re also doing a re-run of the “beginner” workshop.

Workshop #1 – Beginners. Saturday, February 18th. 2pm to 4pm.
Cost: €5 for non-members, free for members.

Workshop #2a – Animals. Wednesday, February 22nd. From 7pm to 9pm
Cost: €5 for non-members, free for members.

…or…

Workshop #2b – Animals. Sunday, February 26th. From 2pm to 4pm.
Cost: €5 for non-members, free for members.

Please sign up using the form below. Make sure to indicate which day(s) you would like to attend in the message box.

Origami Animals
(No animals were harmed during the making of this picture.)

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Dublin Unity3D Development Discussion

Unity is a fantastic tool/engine for game development, but what’s not obvious when developing it is the best methods for developing the game code.

Coming from a programming background, Unity can be quiet confusing. The idea of attaching components to objects in order to add functionality is easy to grasp and makes creating small games fast any easy, but what about larger and more complex games?

The Dublin Unity3D Development Discussion is an event where attendees will get the opportunity to do a talk on the development methods (including, if they wish, the project management techniques/software that they use) and design patterns that they use to develop games. These presentations can take any form and involve any kind of media (a game, code examples, slides, handouts). Those giving talks are welcome to demonstrate their game(s), whatever state they are in.

Doing a presentation/talk is completely optional. They are also informal, there’s no list to sign up to, just come along with any material/media you’d like to use (if any).

After the presentations there will be a discussion on development in Unity.

Some of the things we’ll be discussing are:

  • Using design patterns in Unity to structure code:
    • Singleton – For instantiating a single Scene Manager
    • State – For GameStates which encapsulate logic/code for each scene
    • Observer – Having components/classes subscribe to event notices
    • Object Pool – Limiting instantiations of GameObjects to reduce garbage collection (improve performance)
    • Adapter/Wrapper – Used for integrating Jitter Physics and maybe managing GameObjects
  • Project management (in relation to managing issues and code)

 

Everyone’s welcome to attend, however the topics covered will require some understanding of C# (or a similar language).

Date: 26th January

Time: 18.30

Signup page