Noisebridge - User contributions [en]

Mental Wellness

2017-10-17T22:56:03Z

70.35.54.243:

<div style="font-size:24px;line-height:120%;">Icarus SF is a peer group that meets to share experiences and tools for mental wellness. </div>

= Icarus San Francisco Geek Mental Wellness Peer Group =

=== WHAT WE TALK ABOUT ===
You are not alone. Share your story, if you like. Share a friend's story. Or just hang out and listen. Let's make it OK to talk about these things so that we don't feel alone with our feelings of being alone and depressed or suicidal.

This is not a support group -- none of us are trained professionals, but we can get together in a safe, confidential space to talk about depression and suicide -- an important part of life for so many of us geeks.

=== WHEN ===
IcarusSF meetups are currently planning meetings to get the group off to a good restart.

* Nov 3 2015: We held our first meeting and we'll be meeting again to finalize planning for the first public meeting.

=== ORGANIZER CONTACTS ===
[mailto:icarussanfrancisco@gmail.com icarussanfrancisco@gmail.com]
Contact us about organizing/participating and join the google group.

* lxpk
* Douglas
* Joyti

=== GOOGLE GROUP ===

Please join the google group to be kept informed:
* [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/geeksanddepression https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/geeksanddepression]

=== WHERE ===
*Noisebridge Hackerspace, 2169 Mission Street, San Francisco, [[Turing]] Room ([[Getting here]])
*Previous meetups were at:<br> No Starch Press, 38 Ringold Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (near Civic Center BART Station)

== RESOURCES ==

=== Helpful wellness tools and books ===

We have found useful wellness tools worth sharing with each other. If you would like to add resources to this list, click Edit.

*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy Cognitive Behavioral Therapy] is a powerful way of understanding and transforming internal thoughts and emotions that has become one of the best tools for psychologists to teach patients to actually get more peace and control in everyday life.

=== Mental wellness groups ===
*[http://www.bluehackers.org bluehackers.org]: An online support group and information resource for hackers dealing with depression.
** Checkout the [http://bluehackers.org/category/brain-hacking brain hacking] section
*[http://www.namisf.org/ National Alliance on Mental Illness San Francisco]: Nami provides information about how to treat mental illness and overcome thoughts of suicide and depression.
*[http://www.nami.org/ National Alliance on Mental Illness Main Site]
*[http://www.dbsalliance.org/ Depression Bipolar Support Alliance]: Resource guide for overcoming depression and bipolar illness including relevant readings, and guides for times of crisis.
* [http://99u.com/articles/24401/a-makers-guidebook-9-stoic-principles-to-nurture-your-life-and-work Stoicism] is a philosophy of courage that originates in ancient Greece and is practiced by many creators today to weather the ups and downs of creative life.

=== Meditation ===
Meditation is a powerful way to still the mind.

* [http://www.sfzc.org/ San Francisco Zen Center] is a place where you can go to join in meditation sessions and learn about mindfulness (maintaining a meditative state of mind in life).

=== Non-violent communication===

NVC is a way of playing "making life wonderful" where we give through listening instead of playing "who's right?" where everybody loses.

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-129JLTjkQ Marshall Rosenberg explains non-violent communication]
*[https://www.cnvc.org Center for Nonviolent Communication] is a community where you can meet people to practice listening and communicating observations, needs, feelings and requests. It can greatly help understanding of oneself and relationships with others. CNVC has free trainings available to help practice NVC that are a great way to learn.

==== BEHAVIORAL THERAPY TECHNIQUES ===
* [http://dbtselfhelp.com/ Dialectic Behavioral Therapy]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy Cognitive Behavioral Therapy]

== EMERGENCY CONTACTS ==

'''SFGH Psychiatric Emergency Services'''
1001 Potrero Avenue
Ph: 415-206-8125

An emergency care provider which provides assessment, general mental health services, intensive case management and medication support, seven days per week, in an effort to ameliorate crisis situations and to divert from Psychiatric Emergency Services OR to facilitate admissions to acute psychiatric hospitals when necessary. Is linked with 911 and other emergency providers. Provides emergency coverage for adult clients of the system. Mobile crisis also provides response for geriatric crisis and HIV crisis after 5 p.m. and on weekends

'''Mobile Crisis Treatment Team'''
Ph: 415-355-8300

Mobile Crisis provides emergency crisis intervention services conducted in the field, early intervention in the field before situation escalates to critical crisis point, and consultation services provided to consumers, support systems, mental health providers and shelter providers. Assistance with linkage to outpatient mental health services. It has involuntary treatment evaluation capacity and determination of appropriate level of care. Psychiatry available for short-term medication services. Available to all adult residents (18 - 59 years of age) regardless of insurance.

Crisis Services: Immediate treatment or triage for voluntary individuals suffering from emotional crisis or symptoms of acute psychiatric illness, including symptoms induced by substance abuse and HIV infection. Brief crisis treatment and on-going outpatient care and medication for clients who can remain in the community with medication support. Provides 5150 (involuntary hold and/or treatment under state law) as needed to inpatient hospital care. Linkage to community follow-up and treatment.

'''Dore Free Treatment Center'''
[[File:Dore_urgent_care_clinic.jpeg | right ]]
*415-553-3100
*http://sfhomeless.wikia.com/wiki/Dore
*Psychiatric Emergency Service
*52 Dore Street, between Folsom & Howard, and between 9th and 10th.
*Hours: As of July 1 2009 we are open 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

DUCC is a social model rehabilitation approach to crisis intervention. The program is designed to assist SFGH Psychiatric Emergency (PES) and other hospital emergency services by accepting adult clients in psychiatric crisis who do not require hospitalization but who are currently taken to PES for evaluation and treatment. Call and ask for a clinician to present a client. In many cases we can help arrange transportation.

'''Westside Crisis Clinic'''
888 Turk Street at Gough
Ph: 415-353-5050

Suicide Prevention: Telephone counseling and referral for people who are depressed and suicidal. Mental Health and drug service information and referral available 24 hours a day. Drug relapse prevention support available 24 hours a day. Support for those with HIV and AIDS available 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.

'''San Francisco Suicide Prevention'''
Ph: 415-781-0500

Urgent Care: Brief intervention that is provided in cases of non-emergent but stressful conditions which require contact within 24 hours. Services include: assessment, general mental health services, case management and medication support.

== Personal Support ==
Here is a list of people who have added themselves as someone you can call or email or text at any time if you need or want someone to talk to.<br>
{| style="color:green; background-color:#cccccc;" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="1"
! Name
! Phone
! email
|-
|[[user: maltman23 | Mitch Altman]]
|415-377-5993
|maltman23 at hotmail dot com
|-
|''your name here''
|''your phone number here''
|''your email address here''
|}

<br>
<br>

== November 3 Planning Meeting Notes ==
Douglas, lxpk and Joyti met.

Ideas
* Super safe space
* No threats of violence or sexism

* talking circle checkins
* passing a talking circle feather is a way of having an automatic stack without singling out those who haven't spoken in a while
* if you don't have the feather you don't speak

manners
* no pointing, that's something some people have had done to them

* total privacy of everything said
* example roleplay of an excellent respecting of privacy

* Eat food together to start nourished

* Beginning with learning the Non-violent communication concept
* Using I statements
* NVC one page

* Cognitive behavioral therapy
* Breathing
* Visualization

* Discussion of triggering and when sharing intense personal stories, one on one breakout conversations may be wise

* Time structuring so we don't spend all the time on a single thing

=== Questions ===
* How often should sessions be?
** One way to do it would be to start with a first event, see how it goes, make it monthly from there, see if the second one goes well too, and then try to become biweekly and then weekly as the number of core facilitators to make sure there is always non-zero number of facilitators.
* How long should each session be?
** As long as people need to have their chance to share?
** The end can be when everyone checks in that they feel complete about sharing

* Why do we want to create this?
** Because this is something that we ourselves feel a need for.

Gamebridge

2017-10-09T09:39:28Z

70.35.54.243:

[[File:GamebridgeSignPage.fw.png|300px|right|link=gamebridge]]

<div style="font-size:18px;">Gamebridge Unityversity is a weekly Unity game dev meetup and beginner-friendly class for anyone who wants to learn programming, game design, art, music, and how to teach game dev. All skill levels and kinds of game devs are welcome.</div>

[[File:GamebridgeGathering.jpg|300px|right]]

== NEW WEB SITE ==
[http://unityversity.com Gamebridge Unityversity's new web site] is online with updated versions of our tutorials, resources, and recorded weekly live Twitch streams of our classes.

=== WHEN ===

Come to Noisebridge Tuesdays to learn to make games, music, art and hackerspace consensus.

* 5:00-7:00PM [[Songbridge]] music making group
* 7:00-8:00PM [[Artbridge]] art making group
* 8:30-9:30PM [[Meeting|Noisebridge Meeting]] learn to participate
* 9:00-11:00PM [[Gamebridge]] game development with Unity C#

Participants can join in Noisebridge meetings and learn how to take part in the community.

=== RELATED CLASSES ===
* Monday nights is [[Botbridge]] robot hacking. Learn to make robot bodies bridging game AIs into reality.
* Sunday mornings is [[Algorithms]] study group. Learn computer science techniques for problem solving.

=== WHERE ===
* Noisebridge @ 2169 Mission St. San Francisco ([[Getting here|Directions]])
* To enter, ring the payphone doorbell and you'll be buzzed in.
* Ask us for an access token to be able to enter without buzzing in.

=== WHAT WE TEACH ===
* Game development with Unity 5 & C#
* Teamwork with Git version control
* [[Songbridge|Music]] & [[Artbridge|2D/3D art]] production for games
* Game design and writing
* Whatever topics participants are interested in learning.
* See [[#CURRICULUM]] below.

=== SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST===

=== CONTACT OUR MENTORS ===
Contact our volunteer mentors who lead tutorials every week.
* Alex Peake, Game Developer, [http://www.primerlabs.com Primer Labs, [https://noisebridge.net/wiki/User:Lxpk Alex Peake] at empowerthyself @ gmail DOT com
* Mark
* Brennan Hatton
* Bud Leiser, Game Designer, [http://www.budleiser.com BudLeiser.com], [http://www.budleiser.com/game-dev-dictionary/ Game Dev Glossary], [http://www.budleiser.com/game-assets/ Game Assets List]

=== THINGS TO BRING ===

* Laptops, especially ones with decent 3D graphics cards. To run [http://www.unity3d.com Unity3D] you'll need one running Mac or Windows.
* Mouse (trackpads are hard to use for 3D and game dev).
* [http://www.unity3d.com Unity] pre-installed
* iPhones, Androids, VR headsets, AR headsets, Apple TVs & other cool game hardware devices
* Adapters you may need to hook your laptop to the big projector screen to show off your games and development processes to the group

=== PREPARATION BEFORE CLASS ===

* Do some [http://www.unity3d.com/learn Unity Learn tutorials] and allocate some time each week to continue doing more.

== PRESS COVERAGE ==
* Gamebridge is the subject of [http://www.examiner.com/article/a-place-to-learn-unity-game-engine-san-francisco an article written about in the Examiner by David Cox], who teaches game design at SFCC.

== GROUP PROJECTS ==
We are working together on several projects:

=== HackerspacesApp ===
The Hackerspaces app is a 3D browser of the hackerspaces on and around Earth.
* Clone our repository at the [https://github.com/Gamebridge/HackerspacesApp HackerspacesApp repo on Github]
* Help us develop it further

=== Gamebridge FPS ===
A collaborative game project in which we explore new tutorials every week.

=== Hack The Future tutorials ===
We are working on developing new Unity tutorials for future hackers to do at [http://www.hackthefuture.org Hack The Future] events.
* [[Unity Mentoring Event Prep]]
* [[Unity Interface]] by Alex
* [[Unity Trigger Tutorial]] by Alex
* [[Gamebridge/Coin Tutorial]] by Matt
* [[Unity Projectile Tutorial]] by Chris
* [[Unity Art Tutorial]] by Jarvis
* [[Unity Block Placing Script]] by Trevor
* [[Unity Mecanim Animation Tutorial]] by Mark
* add more here.

=== Simbridge hackerspace simulator ===

[[Simbridge]] is one of our group projects. It is a collaboratively created virtual Noisebridge game. Learn more about how to help simulate Noisebridge and learn Unity, C# and 3D art in the process!

=== Mixed Reality Project / Hackerspace Creator ===

w/ Valentin Burov and Mark Willson

Help create a [[Mixed Reality Project]] for use with your smartphone and Cardboard or other like devices!

===CURRICULUM===

You can teach yourself the curriculum taught at Gamebridge by following the Gamebridge Tutorials and Unity Learn tutorials.
* Feel free to add new lesson ideas there and let us know if you have suggestions.
* Deprecated: [[GameDevelopmentCourseware]]

=== THE UNITY 5 GAME ENGINE ===

The Unity 5 game engine is industry standard and the full-featured personal edition is free. It can compile your games for HTML5 web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, XBox One, PS4, Nintendo Wii U and many others. It is the industry standard for many reasons:

* Support for making 3D and 2D games with ready-to-use 3D 1st person, 3D 3rd person, 2D sidescroller and 2D overhead rogue-like RPG characters as well as rolling balls, cars and aircraft.
* Lots of documentation, tutorials and even online classes from schools to learn Unity.
* The ability to build once and launch on multiple platforms.
* Relatively easy coding framework to learn.
* Also as a designer it cannot be understated the usefulness of being able to play the game at any moment without waiting for a build cycle, and the ability for developers to list important features as Public Var's which unity will automatically look for and generate slider scales that designers can modify without having to touch the code base.
* The largest user base. This is important because at some point you will need to work with others to make great games, and if everyone else is already using Unity they will not likely switch to your engine or preference....unless you pay them.
* The Unity asset store is another way for developers, artists and musicians to make money by creating game tools/assets. But it's also a way to develop your own games much much faster.

===Unity Editor for Linux===
I (Alex) now maintain a Linux desktop running Unity editor for testing purposes and I can recommend it though Mac and Windows builds are still more stable and supported. [[http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-on-linux-release-notes-and-known-issues.350256/#post-2648924 Unity's Linux release notes thread]] always has the latest download links.

== GROUP INFO ==

===HISTORY===

We had our first meetup November 2012 November 4th and it was a lot of fun. We made a game about evil companion cubes that want to give you a hug for very explosive definitions of hug. We were on hiatus for a while while Alex was away but we're back in action.

= GAME DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES =

You can download an abundance of free resources such as code, art, tools and audio to make your game awesome.

== Game Engines ==
Game engines make it pretty easy to develop games by giving you lots of development tools for world building and scripting.

We're interested in other kinds of game development too, including non-computer game designs like dice-based RPGs, board games and card games.

== Unity ==
[http://www.unity3d.com Unity] is an awesome game development engine based on Mono that compiles for Mac, Windows, iPhone, Web and Wii with support coming soon for PS3 and XBox. Unity has just been made free for indy developers. Unity is an extremely easy to learn game development environment with a massively helpful developer community.

We are primarily teaching and collaborating with Unity in Game Club because it is incredibly awesome and easy to learn.

===Unity On Ubuntu===
*[http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=23757 Unity3D on Wine] works with only a couple small bugs so you can create Unity games on Ubuntu too!
*[http://www.winehq.org/download Install WINE] for Ubuntu

=== Unity Tutorials ===
'''START HERE:''' [http://unity3d.com/learn Unity Tutorials] are free to download and can be completed in a day or two! Do these before coming or do them with us to get help and support.

*C# is the language you should learn to do Unity programming.
*Javascript (Actually a variant called Unityscript) is also supported but no longer recommended.
**Before beginning the Unity tutorials it is useful (but not required) to understand basic javascript programming.
**[http://www.unity-tutorials.com/free-tutorial-download.php Unityscript Beginning Scripting Tutorial (Free with an email)]
*Unity Gameplay Creation Tutorials
**[http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/2d-gameplay-tutorial.html Unity 2D Platformer Tutorial]
*Professional Unity Tutorials
**[http://www.unity-tutorials.com/ Unity-Tutorials.com] has $15 tutorials on topics like particles, gizmos, character rigging, animation and Cheetah 3D.

== Other Game Engines ==
There are other game engines.

*[http://www.udk.com/ Unreal Development Kit] is also available for free now. We'll no doubt be playing with that as well. Unreal is some seriously advanced game dev technology.
*Objective C: Some people are making iPhone games directly in Cocoa.
*Blender Game Engine: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Blender Blender Game Engine] is an open-source game engine integrated with the [http://www.blender.org Blender] 3D studio software. It has come a long way in recent versions and some of the games people have made with it are amazing.
*OGRE Open Source 3D Engine: [http://www.ogre3d.org/ OGRE] is not a full game engine but it does have Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone support. It has recently been used to make a big hit called Torchlight.
*SDL: [http://www.libsdl.org/ SDL] is a cross-platform open-source game development library that has been used to make [http://source.bungie.org/get/ Aleph One] based on the Marathon series.
*Three.js: [http://threejs.org/ ThreeJS] javascript WebGL/OpenGL wrapper for in-browser gamedev

== Game Development Tools ==
Game development involves lots of tools for modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging and animating game environments.

=== Yobi3D ===
[http://www.yobi3d.com/ Yobi3D] is a 3D model search engine. You can search with simple keywords and see the results in 3D.

=== SketchUp ===
[http://sketchup.google.com/ SketchUp] is a surprisingly powerful and incredibly easy to use 3D modeling application for making basic 3D geometry to use in your game development.

=== Google 3D Warehouse ===
[http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ Google 3D Warehouse] is a searchable library of free 3D models in SketchUp format that you can download freely and use in your games. You can also upload your own creations to 3D Warehouse.

=== FreeSound Project ===
[http://www.freesound.org/searchText.php FreeSound Project] is a searchable library of free sound files that you can use in your games. You can also upload your sounds to FreeSound for others to use.

=== All CG Textures ===
[http://www.allcgtextures.com/main.php All CG Textures] has loads of quality free textures.

=== Maya ===
[http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=13578047&siteID=123112 Maya] is the #1 3D content creation tool for games.

We're looking for people with Maya experience who can teach how to use Maya. Especially interested in learning about character rigging and animation.

=== Blender ===
[http://www.blender.org/ Blender] is an open-source 3D studio that can do mostly the same things as Maya for free. We're looking for people who want to teach Blender skills.

=== 3D Character Rigs ===
[http://hznaqnzxuoouxznqanzh.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/ Creative Crash] has many free 3D character rigs in Maya format.

[[Category:InTheSpace]]

{{Tourstops}}

Gamebridge

2017-10-09T09:38:58Z

70.35.54.243:

[[File:GamebridgeSignPage.fw.png|300px|right|link=gamebridge]]

<div style="font-size:18px;">Gamebridge Unityversity is a weekly Unity game dev meetup and beginner-friendly class for anyone who wants to learn programming, game design, art, music, and how to teach game dev. All skill levels and kinds of game devs are welcome.</div>

[[File:GamebridgeGathering.jpg|300px|right]]

== NEW WEB SITE ==
[http://unityversity.com|Gamebridge Unityversity's new web site] is online with updated versions of our tutorials, resources, and recorded weekly live Twitch streams of our classes.

=== WHEN ===

Come to Noisebridge Tuesdays to learn to make games, music, art and hackerspace consensus.

* 5:00-7:00PM [[Songbridge]] music making group
* 7:00-8:00PM [[Artbridge]] art making group
* 8:30-9:30PM [[Meeting|Noisebridge Meeting]] learn to participate
* 9:00-11:00PM [[Gamebridge]] game development with Unity C#

Participants can join in Noisebridge meetings and learn how to take part in the community.

=== RELATED CLASSES ===
* Monday nights is [[Botbridge]] robot hacking. Learn to make robot bodies bridging game AIs into reality.
* Sunday mornings is [[Algorithms]] study group. Learn computer science techniques for problem solving.

=== WHERE ===
* Noisebridge @ 2169 Mission St. San Francisco ([[Getting here|Directions]])
* To enter, ring the payphone doorbell and you'll be buzzed in.
* Ask us for an access token to be able to enter without buzzing in.

=== WHAT WE TEACH ===
* Game development with Unity 5 & C#
* Teamwork with Git version control
* [[Songbridge|Music]] & [[Artbridge|2D/3D art]] production for games
* Game design and writing
* Whatever topics participants are interested in learning.
* See [[#CURRICULUM]] below.

=== SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST===

=== CONTACT OUR MENTORS ===
Contact our volunteer mentors who lead tutorials every week.
* Alex Peake, Game Developer, [http://www.primerlabs.com Primer Labs, [https://noisebridge.net/wiki/User:Lxpk Alex Peake] at empowerthyself @ gmail DOT com
* Mark
* Brennan Hatton
* Bud Leiser, Game Designer, [http://www.budleiser.com BudLeiser.com], [http://www.budleiser.com/game-dev-dictionary/ Game Dev Glossary], [http://www.budleiser.com/game-assets/ Game Assets List]

=== THINGS TO BRING ===

* Laptops, especially ones with decent 3D graphics cards. To run [http://www.unity3d.com Unity3D] you'll need one running Mac or Windows.
* Mouse (trackpads are hard to use for 3D and game dev).
* [http://www.unity3d.com Unity] pre-installed
* iPhones, Androids, VR headsets, AR headsets, Apple TVs & other cool game hardware devices
* Adapters you may need to hook your laptop to the big projector screen to show off your games and development processes to the group

=== PREPARATION BEFORE CLASS ===

* Do some [http://www.unity3d.com/learn Unity Learn tutorials] and allocate some time each week to continue doing more.

== PRESS COVERAGE ==
* Gamebridge is the subject of [http://www.examiner.com/article/a-place-to-learn-unity-game-engine-san-francisco an article written about in the Examiner by David Cox], who teaches game design at SFCC.

== GROUP PROJECTS ==
We are working together on several projects:

=== HackerspacesApp ===
The Hackerspaces app is a 3D browser of the hackerspaces on and around Earth.
* Clone our repository at the [https://github.com/Gamebridge/HackerspacesApp HackerspacesApp repo on Github]
* Help us develop it further

=== Gamebridge FPS ===
A collaborative game project in which we explore new tutorials every week.

=== Hack The Future tutorials ===
We are working on developing new Unity tutorials for future hackers to do at [http://www.hackthefuture.org Hack The Future] events.
* [[Unity Mentoring Event Prep]]
* [[Unity Interface]] by Alex
* [[Unity Trigger Tutorial]] by Alex
* [[Gamebridge/Coin Tutorial]] by Matt
* [[Unity Projectile Tutorial]] by Chris
* [[Unity Art Tutorial]] by Jarvis
* [[Unity Block Placing Script]] by Trevor
* [[Unity Mecanim Animation Tutorial]] by Mark
* add more here.

=== Simbridge hackerspace simulator ===

[[Simbridge]] is one of our group projects. It is a collaboratively created virtual Noisebridge game. Learn more about how to help simulate Noisebridge and learn Unity, C# and 3D art in the process!

=== Mixed Reality Project / Hackerspace Creator ===

w/ Valentin Burov and Mark Willson

Help create a [[Mixed Reality Project]] for use with your smartphone and Cardboard or other like devices!

===CURRICULUM===

You can teach yourself the curriculum taught at Gamebridge by following the Gamebridge Tutorials and Unity Learn tutorials.
* Feel free to add new lesson ideas there and let us know if you have suggestions.
* Deprecated: [[GameDevelopmentCourseware]]

=== THE UNITY 5 GAME ENGINE ===

The Unity 5 game engine is industry standard and the full-featured personal edition is free. It can compile your games for HTML5 web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, XBox One, PS4, Nintendo Wii U and many others. It is the industry standard for many reasons:

* Support for making 3D and 2D games with ready-to-use 3D 1st person, 3D 3rd person, 2D sidescroller and 2D overhead rogue-like RPG characters as well as rolling balls, cars and aircraft.
* Lots of documentation, tutorials and even online classes from schools to learn Unity.
* The ability to build once and launch on multiple platforms.
* Relatively easy coding framework to learn.
* Also as a designer it cannot be understated the usefulness of being able to play the game at any moment without waiting for a build cycle, and the ability for developers to list important features as Public Var's which unity will automatically look for and generate slider scales that designers can modify without having to touch the code base.
* The largest user base. This is important because at some point you will need to work with others to make great games, and if everyone else is already using Unity they will not likely switch to your engine or preference....unless you pay them.
* The Unity asset store is another way for developers, artists and musicians to make money by creating game tools/assets. But it's also a way to develop your own games much much faster.

===Unity Editor for Linux===
I (Alex) now maintain a Linux desktop running Unity editor for testing purposes and I can recommend it though Mac and Windows builds are still more stable and supported. [[http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/unity-on-linux-release-notes-and-known-issues.350256/#post-2648924 Unity's Linux release notes thread]] always has the latest download links.

== GROUP INFO ==

===HISTORY===

We had our first meetup November 2012 November 4th and it was a lot of fun. We made a game about evil companion cubes that want to give you a hug for very explosive definitions of hug. We were on hiatus for a while while Alex was away but we're back in action.

= GAME DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES =

You can download an abundance of free resources such as code, art, tools and audio to make your game awesome.

== Game Engines ==
Game engines make it pretty easy to develop games by giving you lots of development tools for world building and scripting.

We're interested in other kinds of game development too, including non-computer game designs like dice-based RPGs, board games and card games.

== Unity ==
[http://www.unity3d.com Unity] is an awesome game development engine based on Mono that compiles for Mac, Windows, iPhone, Web and Wii with support coming soon for PS3 and XBox. Unity has just been made free for indy developers. Unity is an extremely easy to learn game development environment with a massively helpful developer community.

We are primarily teaching and collaborating with Unity in Game Club because it is incredibly awesome and easy to learn.

===Unity On Ubuntu===
*[http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=23757 Unity3D on Wine] works with only a couple small bugs so you can create Unity games on Ubuntu too!
*[http://www.winehq.org/download Install WINE] for Ubuntu

=== Unity Tutorials ===
'''START HERE:''' [http://unity3d.com/learn Unity Tutorials] are free to download and can be completed in a day or two! Do these before coming or do them with us to get help and support.

*C# is the language you should learn to do Unity programming.
*Javascript (Actually a variant called Unityscript) is also supported but no longer recommended.
**Before beginning the Unity tutorials it is useful (but not required) to understand basic javascript programming.
**[http://www.unity-tutorials.com/free-tutorial-download.php Unityscript Beginning Scripting Tutorial (Free with an email)]
*Unity Gameplay Creation Tutorials
**[http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/2d-gameplay-tutorial.html Unity 2D Platformer Tutorial]
*Professional Unity Tutorials
**[http://www.unity-tutorials.com/ Unity-Tutorials.com] has $15 tutorials on topics like particles, gizmos, character rigging, animation and Cheetah 3D.

== Other Game Engines ==
There are other game engines.

*[http://www.udk.com/ Unreal Development Kit] is also available for free now. We'll no doubt be playing with that as well. Unreal is some seriously advanced game dev technology.
*Objective C: Some people are making iPhone games directly in Cocoa.
*Blender Game Engine: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Blender Blender Game Engine] is an open-source game engine integrated with the [http://www.blender.org Blender] 3D studio software. It has come a long way in recent versions and some of the games people have made with it are amazing.
*OGRE Open Source 3D Engine: [http://www.ogre3d.org/ OGRE] is not a full game engine but it does have Mac, Windows, Linux and iPhone support. It has recently been used to make a big hit called Torchlight.
*SDL: [http://www.libsdl.org/ SDL] is a cross-platform open-source game development library that has been used to make [http://source.bungie.org/get/ Aleph One] based on the Marathon series.
*Three.js: [http://threejs.org/ ThreeJS] javascript WebGL/OpenGL wrapper for in-browser gamedev

== Game Development Tools ==
Game development involves lots of tools for modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging and animating game environments.

=== Yobi3D ===
[http://www.yobi3d.com/ Yobi3D] is a 3D model search engine. You can search with simple keywords and see the results in 3D.

=== SketchUp ===
[http://sketchup.google.com/ SketchUp] is a surprisingly powerful and incredibly easy to use 3D modeling application for making basic 3D geometry to use in your game development.

=== Google 3D Warehouse ===
[http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/ Google 3D Warehouse] is a searchable library of free 3D models in SketchUp format that you can download freely and use in your games. You can also upload your own creations to 3D Warehouse.

=== FreeSound Project ===
[http://www.freesound.org/searchText.php FreeSound Project] is a searchable library of free sound files that you can use in your games. You can also upload your sounds to FreeSound for others to use.

=== All CG Textures ===
[http://www.allcgtextures.com/main.php All CG Textures] has loads of quality free textures.

=== Maya ===
[http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=13578047&siteID=123112 Maya] is the #1 3D content creation tool for games.

We're looking for people with Maya experience who can teach how to use Maya. Especially interested in learning about character rigging and animation.

=== Blender ===
[http://www.blender.org/ Blender] is an open-source 3D studio that can do mostly the same things as Maya for free. We're looking for people who want to teach Blender skills.

=== 3D Character Rigs ===
[http://hznaqnzxuoouxznqanzh.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/ Creative Crash] has many free 3D character rigs in Maya format.

[[Category:InTheSpace]]

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