The 50th Anniversary Event Registration Open

Registration is now open!

50 years of Three Thing Game!!! No, not quite, or even close. Although this is around 13 years of TTG by this point. This one is deliberately coinciding with the celebrations of a whole half a century of Computer Science at Hull University. Check out https://hullcs50.com for more information about that. Otherwise read on for how to take part in the game jam!

It is my pleasure to announce that the magnificent, marvelous, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, Three Thing Game is a go! For those not in the know, Three Thing Game is a Game Jam where teams of enthusiasts (that’s you people, as well as me and my ‘kind’) gather to challenge themselves to create a game based on 3 random words that they will be given. At the end of the weekend you get to subject your game to a thorough Judging against various criteria like: adherence to the Things, how complete is your game, and how much money you slip the judge discreetly. Over the years teams from all years of study have made some great stuff, some of which has even been published in various app stores. So you should definitely not be discouraged from taking part in your first year. This is an excellent opportunity to put your skills in to practice, to hone your craft. This is also one of those ‘extra-curricular’ activities that help to distinguish you in the eyes of potential employers from the hundreds of other people that will be graduating from here at the same time.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), there are no new videos, but here are some I made earlier.

Hullumni

As ever, I am very pleased to invite our alumni to come play with us. Many of our former students are Three Thing Game veterans and it would be great to see them again. You are very welcome to come with preformed teams (getting the band back together perhaps) or go stag and see who else comes. Also if you want to have some time to talk to the students in your professional capacity (maybe you want to entice them to your company) then you are welcome to do that also. If you are interested in taking part in any capacity, then please get in touch.

Plus, many of you may already be making an appearance for our 50th Anniversay Celebrations anyway, so why not throw in a bit a game jamming for old time’s sake?

Black Marble

We are grateful to Black Marble for sponsoring the event in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary celebrations. They continue to be a great friend to the school and have taken on many of our graduates over the (many) years.

Celebration

At the end, we will spend time having all of the teams (that want to) showcasing their work to all of the participants. Each of the groups can present the video that they have made of their game.

Don’t worry though. For those seeking Judgment, the scrutiny of your peers will still be available for prize and pride in the form of the People’s Choice.

So what do I need to do?

I am glad you asked. First thing is to put the date in your diary. Remember, remember, the week that includes the 9th of October, which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.

Form teams! Generally speaking, you want to have a maximum of 5 people in your team. Under the pressure of a constrained time period it can be very difficult to integrate the efforts of large numbers of people. Even 5 is pushing it a little. You can register online here: https://forms.gle/sLpg6vLkMiyy4PbMA

Registration will close on Wednesday 9th October. Please get your registration forms to me before then.

If you would like to take part but can’t form a team then you can go stag and be a team of one (some people have made this work very well before) or you could identify on your form that you would like to be in a team by using “need a team” as the team name on the form. We can then pool you together into teams. Where there is a will there is a way.

itch.io

We are using itch.io for hosting some of the bits and bobs for the games this year. So I have set up a jam site there which is at the end of this link: https://itch.io/jam/three-thing-game-october-2024. Using this site you can host the games that you make, including screenshots, videos, and playable demos etc. This will be neat for disseminating your excellent efforts.

Finding teams

You may already have a team in mind which is fine, but otherwise consider posting to the HullCS50 Discord to try and find other people looking for a team.

When do I get my words?

Excellent question. On Wednesday 9th October at 2000 in Microsoft Teams. So I guess that you probably want to remember that as well. Once you are signed up, I will email the Teams link so you can join.

The fabulous Three Thinged Bandit will once more step up to the plate for word allocation. This will all happen live during the session on Wednesday evening. Speaking of which, if you have any neat ideas for “things” to add to the Bandit, come across to the HullCS50 Discord and let us know.

A bit different

Due to the way that we are interlinking with the 50th celebrations event, we are scheduling a little differently for this one. So, you will get your “things” on Wednesday evening and immediately get let loose on building the games. You can organise yourselves as you like, but on Saturday morning (starting at 09:00) we invite you to join us in the big old Fenner lab (052) for some in person jamming. At 15:00 (later that day) we will all down tools and see what everyone has made and any judging can take place. At 16:30 we can relocate to the Kingsley Suite in Canham Turner (the artist formerly known as Staff House). Where any winners will be announced and something resembling a prize ceremony will happen.

When does it end?

The celebration of achievements will take place at 1500 on Saturday 12th October. You will have 3 minutes to pitch your game and show a video of your game. The groups should also be prepared to answer questions about their game. Aftwards, participants are welcome to join us in our 50th Anniversary Celebrations that will continue into the evening.