Past events that the Game Dev Club has hosted or participated in are listed here. For upcoming events, see the Home page. If you have a recommendation for a speaker, event, or club activity, please visit the Contact page and make a submission on our recommendation form!
The club hosted a showcase for each of the completed semester projects! All of these games can be found on the Games page.
Before the showcase, the club elected its officers for the 2023 calendar year. Congratulations to the new officers!
Nominations for the 2023 club officers opened during this meeting. Aaron also briefly discussed the responsbilities of each officer.
The UNL Game Dev Club hosted its first game jam! The jam ran for 34 hours. The theme was "Stay out of sight". All games submitted for the jam can be played on the Jams page.
James presented a demo on "game juice" in Unity, which refers to various techniques that have no effect on gameplay, but can significantly affect how the game feels to play, such as particle effects, screen shake, and tweening.
Aaron presented a demo on AI techniques in Godot, including as finite state machines and pathfinding, in a simple top-down game. The code for the meeting can be found in the #links channel on Discord.
Aaron presented multiple demos on procedural generation techniques. These included generating 2D tile-based mazes, caves, and dungeons Python, generating worlds using OpenSimplex noise in Godot, and generating text in Python using context-free grammars. The code for the meeting can be found in the #links channel on Discord.
Aaron discussed design patterns that are useful for programming games, including Command, Flyweight, Observer, Prototype, Entity-Component System, and more.
The slides can be found in the club's Google Drive folder. For further reading, check out Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystorm.
Aaron demonstrated 3D modeling techniques using Blender. A cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts can be found in the #links channel on Discord.
Aaron presented some level design principles, and the club split into groups to practice applying level design principles to design levels around a shared mechanic.
The slides can be found in the club's Google Drive folder.
The club split into groups to learn about two popular game engines: Unity and Godot. James presented Unity, and Aaron presented Godot.
Club members pitched their game ideas to the club, and the club formed into teams to work on each game over the course of the semester. For this semester, you can find a description of each game in the #semester-games channel.
The club hosted a showcase for each of the completed semester projects! All of these games can be found on the Games page.
Shaders are one of the best ways to stylize your game and take your graphics to the next level! Former club president Jaden Goter showed how to create shaders using Unity's visual editor, and how to write HLSL shaders directly and use them in Unity.
Music is a great way to establish the atmosphere of a game and embellish your storytelling. Knowing the basics of music theory not only allows you to create music that sounds better, but also to more easily accomplish these goals for your game. Aaron presented on the basics of chords, scales, and chord progressions, and also covered some useful concepts for games, including leitmotifs and motivic development!
In this meeting, Beau presented on how to create 2D animations, including some tips and tricks for making them effective.
The slides can be found in the club's Google Drive folder.
James and Aaron covered how to implement 2D animations into Unity and Godot. We used placeholder animations for this demo, but talked more about creating high quality animations in the next meeting!
Club members pitched their game ideas to the club, and the club formed into teams to work on each game over the course of the semester.
This meeting provided an opportunity for new members to come learn more about the club. It was also a time for returning club members to discuss which teams wanted to continue working on their games into the spring semester. Individual team members also decideed if they wanted to stay on their same team or consider other teams.
The club hosted a showcase for each of the completed semester projects! All of these games can be found on the Games page.
Before the showcase, the club elected its officers for the 2022 calendar year. Congratulations to the new officers!
The club opened nominations for the 2022 officer team, and discussed the responsibilities of each position.
Jaden gave a presentation about how to set up an LLC to make money off of indie games! He went over the different types of LLCs and how to choose one to best suit your needs.
Learn how to create 2D pixelart for indie games! We will cover a few common tools for creating pixelart, and some common techniques you can utilize in your own pixelart.
Jaden hosted an interactive activity about game feel! He let the decide how to add game feel mechanics to the classic game "Breakout", and then implemented the suggestions in Unity.
Jaden showed how to create a 3D first-person shooter game with Unity! He talk about different approaches to physics, different types of shooting algorithms, and how to implement it all in Unity.
Aaron showed how to create a 2D platforming game with Godot!
Jaden and Aaron showed how to collaborate on Unity and Godot games with Git! First, they covered the basics of Git. Next, Jaden showed how to use Git in the context of Unity, then Aaron did the same in Godot. They also showed how to set up a Unity/Godot project as a Github repository.
Club members pitched their game ideas to the club, and the club formed into teams to work on each game over the course of the semester.
After the information meeting, the club split into groups to practice designing and pitching games! After the meeting, the game pitch submission form opened for students to submit their ideas.
The club officers presented an informational meeting about the club's weekly activities, upcoming events, and how to get involved.
The club hosted a booth at UNL's fall Club Fair event. The officers showed off club games and had a few for people to play.
The club hosted a booth at UNL's Party at the Union event. The officers showed off club games and had a few for people to play.
The club hosted a showcase for each of the completed semester projects! All of these games can be found on the Games page.
The officers discussed different types of AI and how to implement them in indie games! After the discussion, Jaden presented an AI example in Unity.
The club learned about and practiced balancing games! First, the club watched a video on game balancing and game design, and then practiced it with some predetermined scenarios. Finally, club members tried balancing some of their own semester games.
Aaron and Jaden showed how to create various 3D environments in Unity! First Aaron showed how to create a forest scene, and then Jaden showed how to create and light an interior dungeon scene.
Jaden showed how to use Git and Unity! Git is a great tool for game development collaboration so that everyone on your team has a copy of the up-to-date code. Unity is a very popular game development engine that makes the game development process a lot smoother.
Club members pitched their game ideas to the club, and the club formed into teams to work on each game over the course of the semester.
After the information meeting, the club split into groups to practice designing and pitching games! After the meeting, the game pitch submission form opened for students to submit their ideas.
The club officers presented an informational meeting about the club's weekly activities, upcoming events, and how to get involved.
The club hosted a showcase for each of the completed semester projects! All of these games can be found on the Games page.
The club voted on its officers for the 2021 calendar year. Congratulations to the new officers!
The club officers talked about different art styles, tools, and art techniques for indie developers. We gave demonstrations on a variety of tools, most of which are free.
Jaden discussed how to utilize storytelling in games in a variety of contexts! This meeting is intended for anyone of any skill level.
The club had a level design activity in which club members were introduced to the basics of level design in the context of platformers!
Aaron showed how to do basic 3D modeling in Blender and Jaden showed how to make a basic 3D ball-rolling platformer in Unity!
The club hosted a booth at the Big Red Welcome Club fair. The club officers displayed games that the club has made and answered questions about the club's proceedings.
The club officers presented an informational meeting about the club's weekly activities, upcoming events, and how to get involved. The club also discussed how to brainstorm ideas for games and did some game design activities.
Aaron gave a demonstration of procedural generation in Unity!
Aaron showed the basics of procedural generation! He covered general techniques, resources, algorithms, and best practices for procedural generation (with examples!).
Aaron showed the process of texturing 3D objects in Blender! He showed how to texture 3D models and export the materials/textures with their models for use in Unity.
Aaron showed the process of modeling 3D objects in Blender! He demonstrated basic modeling, simple texturing/face coloring, and how to export a model for use in Unity.
Several club members showcased club games at the Super Smash Showdown event in Andersen Hall!
Jaden discussed pixel art best practices, styles, and techniques. These skills can be applied to any pixel art creation environment, but we also specifically discussed the pixel art editor Aseprite.
The club watched a video about gameplay loops and talked about their context in our indie games.
Want to learn what makes great games tick, and what makes bad games flop? This meeting was a light-hearted crash course through game design for the independent game maker.
The club officers presented an informational meeting about the club's weekly activities, upcoming events, and how to get involved.
The club provided an opportunity to form teams and sign up for the 2020 K-State Game Jam!
The club discussed how game developers can fairly utilize random elements in games.
The club voted on its officers for the 2020 calendar year. Congratulations to the new officers!
David Pittman is a current game developer and co-founder of Minor Key Games. David is a UNL grad and has worked in both the AAA and Indie worlds. He has credits on games such as BioShock 2, Eldritch, and more.
Notes from the talk can be found in the club's Google Drive folder.
Gracie Arenas Strittmatter is a Technical Art Director and Deputy Director of Art and Animation at BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts (EA), in Austin, Texas. A 11-year veteran of the gaming industry and professional problem solver, she works on Anthem and holds credits on AAA titles including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Madden NFL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.
Notes from the talk can be found in the club's Google Drive folder.
The UNL Game Dev Club volunteered at the Insane Inflatable 5K in Lincoln on October 19 from 7 am to 1 pm.
Attendees followed along a demo to create a 3D space shooter game, implementing scripts to allow for craft movement and collision detection. Some effects were also used like lighting and particle systems. The demo is found on our GitHub Page.
The club hosted a booth at the Computer Science and Engineering Involvement Fair. Officers showcased games to prospective members and spoke about upcoming club events, weekly activities, and how to get involved.
Attendees installed the Unity engine and followed along a demo. They created a 2D platformer implementing collision detection, enemy creation, and a goal flag. The demo is found on our GitHub Page.
Attendees learned how to use the code collaboration and version tracking tool, git, in both command line and graphical form. They worked through an interactive demo found on our GitHub Page.
We had our first meeting of the semester where attendees got a chance to preview club projects and network with other members. There were many new people at the meeting.
The club hosted a booth at UNL's Big Red Welcome where prospective members were able to view club projects, meet with officers, and sign up for the mailing list. Anyone who missed the booth at Big Red Welcome should email the club officers via the contact page to get involved.
Members from the club showcased games for elementary school and junior high school girls at the Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day event on Innovation Campus. There, the club helped speak to both kids and parents on how to easily get involved in game development using age-appropriate software.
The club hosted elections for the Treasurer and Development Lead positions due to vacancies in the positions. All voting members were encouraged to participate. If you have questions about voting member requirements, please review the constitution and bylaws or contact an officer. Congratulations to the following people for their new positions:
The club hosted its first ever showcase to the public, showing off games that have been made at competitions and as long-term projects.
Casey Lafferty (President) and Molly Lee (Secretary) spoke to Dr. Colette Yellow Robe's ALEC 102 Leadership class about the GDC leadership team, various responsibilities, and tips for being a leader.
Casey Lafferty (President) and Molly Lee (Secretary) spoke to Dr. Koopmann's CSCE 10 Intro to Computer Science class about the GDC leadership team, various responsibilities, and tips for being a leader.
On April 7, the officers introduced the idea of 2D animation and tools to do so. They showed tools such as the Adobe suite, Krita, Gimp, and more. This was then followed with a demo on how to animate sprites in Unity using these tools using sprite sheets.
On March 10, the club officers began hosting a series of Unity demos based on club interest. The options for these Unity demos include 2D, 3D, physics, collisions, graphics, animations, and more. As part of this series, the club officers were also be able to show outside tools that help create content to use in Unity projects.
Daniel Shchur, the club's primary programmer, and Nick Lehnert, the club's treasurer, led a demo on basic Git commands to help the group get familiar with GitHub as a collaboration platform. During this demo, the officers showed basic ways to add files to a repository, modifying files, creating and merging branches, and cloning repositories.
The club hosted a video call with Joel Clark, a game developer and current Tech Lead of The Game Band, a new studio based in Los Angeles, CA. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in Interactive Entertainment, he worked at a number of independent companies, including founding Pringo Dingo Games. He’s also worked at Disney Interactive in the Casual Games division.
Notes from the talk can be found in the club's Google Drive folder.
The first big meeting of the semester was on Sunday, January 27. We invited many people from across campus to attend and get involved.
The last two official meetings of the semester were on December 2 and December 9. During the December 9 meeting, we applied to become an official Registered Student Organization (RSO).
The club voted to elect officers for the upcoming calendar year. The positions on the ballot were President, Primary Programmer, Treasurer, Development Lead, and Secretary. Congratulations to the following people for their new positions:
Laura is currently a senior in Computer Science at Texas A&M University, has already been a part of a video game development lab, worked on 2+ educational video games, and has interned at Jackbox games. Tyler is a recent graduate of Texas A&M University and a current UI/UX Developer at BitLoft. They participated in a video call with the club to discuss their experiences with the industry and give advice on how to get started.
Daniel Shchur showed a demo on Unity sprites, tilemaps, 2D physics, 2D assets, and 2D animations.
Casey Lafferty showed a Unity demo at the weekly meeting. This demo project will be posted soon.
The project can be seen on the club's GitHub repository.
The UNL Game Dev Club voted on style and content of their first game. The final vote was to create a dungeon crawler. This led to the development of Pizza Delivery.
The UNL Game Dev Club conducted their inaugural meeting, led by Casey Lafferty. The group voted on some key foundational policies and began brainstorming ideas for video games to develop.