Play SpinSpell HD for iPad now!
Vermont Digital Arts Heading to Unite 2011 in San Francisco, CA!
We’re officially attending Unity Technology’s annual Unite Conference this week in San Francisco. Last year’s conference in Montreal was so amazing on so many levels we had to attend this time around no matter the cost.
Check back for updates the next several days.
http://unity3d.com/unite/
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3D Stimulus Day 2011!
Do you like 3D? Want insider info on tips, techniques and trade secrets? Sign up and come to 3D Stimulus Day April 9th, 2011 at Mount Ida College, Newton, MA!
Presentations this year include:*
- Chad Moore of Turbine and Rigging Dojo, with Job Hunting Tips for 3D Artists
- Alex Schwartz and Yilmaz Kiymax of Owlchemy Labs, presenting Mixing 2D and 3D in Unity
- A panel-discussion with various tech artists from local game companies, mediated by Chad Moore
- Ryan Griffin, Senior Character TD, Turbine
- Elliott Mitchell, Vermont Digital Arts
- Brandon Bateman, Senior Tech Artist, Turbine
- Farley Chery, Instructor, ITT Institute and Bunker Hill Community College
- Justin Woodard, Technical Artist, Turbine
- Willem Van Der Schyf, Tencent Boston, presenting his Workflow for Character Creation using Max & ZBrush
- Afternoon networking session upstairs with demos from various individuals including 3d Camera Technology, Mocap with Kinect and Motion Builder and lots more!!!
Great Eastern Technology will be sponsoring the 3rd annual North East Digital Artists Group’s 3D Stimulus Day event. For more details you can visit their web page.
Be sure to check out and demo Spin Spell for iOS and with Brass Monkey for web, Mac and PC during 3D stimulus day.
Boston Indies Presentation – Bootstrapping, Spin Spell & What’s Next
South Park icons of Elliott Mitchell and Dan Koniezcka of Vermont Digital Arts
Elliott Mitchell and Dan Konieczka of Vermont Digital Arts presented Bootstrapping, Spin Spell & What’s Next at the Febuary Boston Indies Gathering in Cambridge, MA just before GDC and PAX East.
Want to learn more about the presentation? Thankfully Ben Wiley wrote it up on his blog – The Lion Rampant. Click here to read his writeup.
Slides? But of course:
Vermont Digital Arts- Boston Indies Feb 2011
View more presentations from vtda.
Posted in Boston Indies, Brass Monkey, Games, News, Reviews, Spin Spell, Vermont Digital Arts
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SpinSpell HD – BrassMonkey – Game Time Media Table – CES 2011 Demo
SpinSpell HD – BrassMonkey – Game Time Media Table – CES 2011 Demo
Thanks to Chris Allen of Brass Monkey for demonstrating Spin Spell to onlookers at CES this year in alcatel-lucent’s Booth. This is just a demo – The first step in porting to the web and controlling with a mobile device. Enjoy!
SpinSpell HD – BrassMonkey – Game Time Media Table – CES 2011 Demo from Elliott Mitchell on Vimeo.
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It’s Official – Spin Spell with Brass Monkey at The Pax East Made in Mass Party
Look for us at The PAX-East Made in Mass Party. We’ll be sharing a table with Owlchemy Labs and Evolve: Life In The Group. Come demo three versions of our game Spin Spell!
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Vermont Digital Arts at PAX East – Made in MA – Party 2011
Come and meet Vermont Digital Arts at the PAX East “Made in MA” Party 2011 and play our games! We’re going to showcase our Spin Spell our physics driven, 3D spelling game for the iPhone, iPad and the web browser (controlled by Brass Monkey).
What? Vermont Digital Arts will be at the PAX East “Made in MA” Party 2011? How’s that you ask? Well, Elliott Mitchell, President of Vermont Digital Arts, is an active member of the Boston Area game development scene. Elliott co-founded two Boston based groups – The Boston Unity Group (BUG) and The North East Digital Artists Group (NEDAG). Elliott is an active member in the Boston Indies, the Mass Technology Leadership Council, MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge – NE Games SIG, Boston IGDA Chapter (2011 Global Game Jam team project) and so on.
If you’re up for a trip to Boston, Massachusetts go to the PAX East “Made in MA” Party 2011 – This party is open to the first 1K of industry folks wanting to demo indie and AAA games made in Massachusetts ( & Southern Vermont!! ). This event is not to be missed!
See ya there!
Posted in Games, News, Spin Spell, Spin Spell HD
Tagged 3D, Brass Monkey, Elliott Mitchell, iPad, iPhone, Pax East, Showcase, Spin Spell, Spin Spell HD, Unity 3d, Vermont Digital Arts
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Gravity-Bot Blues – VTDA Representing at Global Game Jam 2011
Gravity-Bot Blues
Introducing Gravity-Bot Blues, a game I made with a small team over the weekend for the 48hr Global Game Jam. We were based at Singapore MIT Gambit Lab in Cambridge, MA. I was the primary art dude working with a kick ass team listed below.
The theme of the Game Jam for our region was Extinction. We based our game on 2001 A Space Odyssey and HAL the homicidal computer. Matthew Weise, the lead game designer, was inspired by the shot in the film when Dave is jogging in the spacecraft like a rat on a carousel in simulated gravity. We wanted to have the robots try to release the last remaining humans (frozen in hibernation chambers) from the ship, thus saving the humans from themselves and liberating the robots from eternal human slavery. They key game mechanic is our physics simulation. You can increase and decrease gravity to achieve your goals.
Gravity-Bot Blues was made with the Unity 3D Game Engine, Maya, Photoshop and Skype, Dropbox & Google Docs along with paper, markers, glass walls and good old fashioned imagination. No are textures in the game except for baked lightmaps on the level.
Play the web version here: Gravity-Bot Blues
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Boston Unity Group: February Feature
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (EST)
Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center, Cambridge, MA
Ever work on a 3-D multiplayer online game in Unity or want to in the future? Be sure to catch Chris Hart (CTO at ReactionGrid) at our next Boston Unity Group Meeting! Chris will be presenting on the topic of “The Perils of Designing Multiplayer Games”.
Chris Hart has extensive experience as an application developer and virtual world developer. Chris is CTO and part owner of ReactionGrid, a 3-D world development company based in Orlando Fl and Boston, MA. ReactionGrid’s focus is educational, business and entertainment use of 3D environments.
After Chris’s presentation we will be continuing the tradition of a Unity demo showcase, featuring some work in progress and completed Unity games. Email alex@owlchemylabs.com or elm@VermontDigitalArts.com to reserve a demo slot! As usual, we expect there to be a bunch of super inspiring demos. Contact us early to reserve a slot for you to show off your demo.
Lastly, we’ll be heading out a bit early and holding an informal Unity roundtable at CBC (Cambridge Brewing Company) to discuss a hot topics among Unity developers (topics TBD!) Directions will be available at the B.U.G. meeting so bring your wallet, appetite for mirco-brew and excellent food for CBC is the place to be merry, network and make lasting connections.
Sign up today to reserve a seat at Chris’s “The Perils of Designing Multiplayer Games” presentation 7 P.M., February 15th at the Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center, Cambridge, MA. Seats are limited so register early to reserve a seat and for directions! http://bugfeb2011.eventbrite.com/
See you there!
-Alex Schwartz and Elliott Mitchell
Spin Spell HD and Brass Monkey SDK at CES 2011
Play a special version of Spin Spell HD on a Gametime Media Table! Where you ask? In the Alcatel-Lucent booth #35469, South Hall Upper during the Consumer Electronics Show from January 6th- 9th, 2011.
What’s different about Spin Spell with Brass Monkey SDK? Well Spin Spell HD has many visual and performance enhancements that were not possible on the iPhone. If that’s not enough, the Brass Monkey app on the iPhone is controlling Spin Spell HD on the Gametime Media Table both in the web browser and as a PC game! You can touch the Gametime Media Table screen like a giant iPad to interact with Spin Spell HD and use the Brass Monkey iPhone controller to play the game!
We were offered this opportunity to port a Brass Monkey version of Spin Spell HD because our IP could obviously benefit from Brass Monkey SDK and we frequently work with Infrared 5 and Brass Monkey on Unity projects.
For a better understanding of Brass Monkey and The Gametime Media Table read: Brass Monkey Joins ng Connect Program; Showcases Immersive Interactivity Mobile Technology at CES 2011
Look forward to a public web based version of Spin Spell HD and Brass Monkey this year.
Posted in Games, News, Spin Spell, Spin Spell HD
Tagged Brass Monkey, CES, Gametime Media Table, Spelling Game, Spin Spell, Spin Spell HD, Unity, Vermont Digital Arts
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