Artcade 3000 v3 Wrap-Up

June 5-7 was that magical time of year again for Bushwick Open Studios. The one-of-a-kind Artcade 3000 was back again, this time in a stunning new location at 214 Starr Street.

It was a top pic by esteemed art forum Hyperallergic and was placed on their map. Brooklyn based gave a shout out on their top 5 must see exhibits for BOS. Bushwick Daily and the 1st edition of the printed Bushwick Notebook deemed Artcade a top pick for Jefftown (Jefferson L stop in Bushwick). 

The shows originality and fun atmosphere continues to make it a favorite of art bloggers and visitors. This is, of course, because of the awesome games created by local developers:

The comic / game world of XANTARA by Olga Andreyeva.

The mesmerizing Circa Infinity by Kenny Sun. 

The multiplayer tank brawler Zarvot by Sam Eng.

The Museum of Stolen Art oculus rift experience by Ziv Schneider. 

Exposure by The Sheep's Meow.

The Painter's Apprentice by Luminosity. 

Star Coder by the Win2Learn team.

Galaxy Blast by Giant Fox Studio.

The Bushwick Board Game 2015 edition by Jan Van Damme.

Artwork by Jake Jeffries.

Some pix from the event:

It was a real swell time. See you next year. . . or sooner?

Winter Games (not the Olympics)

This Winter has been long, cold, productive and tumultuous here in Brooklyn. I released an arcade game, Filthy Chickens, on the App Store and an original interactive comic adventure called Skizzy & Poof in the Jungle on iOS and Android. These projects were designed to teach me the process of adding in app purchases, social media integration, Admob (and a lesser extent, iAd) and the submission processes to the platforms. A more formal “release” of these projects will happen when Filthy Chickens appears on Google Play. I’ve also been working on a secret augmented reality hyper local adventure game. More on that in a smidge. 

Now, some complaints from a one man band game designer who has been trying to teach himself Unity software with zero training in computer science. It's a stressful venture sifting through infinite forum threads of people talking in circles about outdated, deprecated code.

Learning how long I should stress over a problem before reaching out for help was an epic lesson. By reaching out to experts on Elance.com and Fiverr.com I'm buying valuable time.

A recent problem is the Unity 5 transition. After upgrading the software, all your projects will break until everyone updates their 3rd party APIs. 

I had to put my ambitious AR hyper local game on hold until I figure out the tools. I was using Vuforia for the AR. When they updated to 4.0, they introduced a new monthly pricing structure. As an indie taking the financial risk of a hobbiest, I can’t afford such a plan. And the MapNav I was using for the GPS tracking doesn't work in Unity 5 (yet). So this project is on the back burner until these technicalities work themselves out.

Which brings me to choosing my next project out of a few rapid prototypes: a physics based pinball-esque mobile game. It’s a lot of fun already and I’m implementing some complicated touch controls.

So, some good has come out of these technical upheavals. As I surf these virtual plate tectonics, I learn how to balance and recognize more focused (and hopefully prosperous) avenues to pursue.

Host a game art show already!

How to host your own video game exhibit by Sam Machovech.

Also - 

Seattle kills it with this video game exhibit.