B.U.G. Unity Day profiled in UnityCreative Magazine

This May, Thomas Pasieka began shipping UnityCreative; a bi-montly electronic magazine for Unity game developers. Earlier today marked the release of the July-August issue, jam-packed with some great content. I would highly recommend grabbing a copy (only 6 bucks) if you are a Unity user or could be considered Unity-curious ;).

Thanks to Mani of InfiniteUnity3d, Unity Day received a great writeup in this month’s issue! With permission from Tom, here’s the snippet:

You can find out more information and grab the magazine right on the 3dAttack site.

Boston gamedevs take over IGDA newsletter

If you’re a member of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), you most likely receive a monthly newsletter. June’s IGDA Perspectives newsletter, focused on iPhone/iPod/iPad development, was particularly notable. Without prior planning, FOUR of the articles written for the newsletter were authored by Boston-area indie game developers. As a member of this awesome group of individuals, I take great pride in seeing Boston Indies in the spotlight.

Darius Kazemi wrote up the ‘Chapter Spotlight: Boston Chapter‘ article (pg. 4), Elliott Mitchell wrote about ‘Going Indie‘ (pg.5), Emily Daniels spoke about ‘Scalability Concerns – Art for the iPhone and iPad‘ (pg. 6), and I wrote an article entitled ‘Technically Speaking – Developing in Unity‘ (pg. 7). To top it off, as Darius pointed out, “there’s even an article from a guy who works for WGBH”!

A huge kudos to all the authors and a tip of the hat to those who are representing the Boston scene. This goes to show that even on an international level, Boston is exceeding expectations in the game industry and eating Cali’s lunch. <Let the flame wars begin>

Check out the June IDGA Perspectives Newsletter (PDF) below:

Also note the 3 (count em, three) separate references to B.U.G. in the newsletter. Thanks for the momentum and support!

Since this is a Unity-focused blog, I’ve also hosted the Unity iPhone article for convenience (and to toot my own horn :P ). You can grab that by clicking the image below:

B.U.G. August meeting and new Google Group

B.U.G. Google Group

In order to be informed of future events and Unity happenings in the area, please subscribe to our Google Group mailing list. All you have to do is:

1. Enter your email address in the Google Group signup box on the left and hit the shiny button.
   
2. Profit.

Next event scheduled!

It’s true. We’ve locked in arrangements for our next B.U.G. meeting. Thanks to the wonderful folks over at Microsoft, our next event will be held at the New England R&D Center (NERD). Wheee!

Keep in mind that our events are open to everyone and anyone.

B.U.G. Unity Day – Great Success

Unity Day just came to a close and it was a great success! We had, by my count, about 115 game developers, interactive media gurus, and Unity aficionados visit and network with the community.

Tom Higgins did a wonderful job educating, informing, and entertaining the crowd during his presentation. Thanks to Tom for flying out!

I’ll be adding more to this post over the next few days, with a writeup, more videos, and more content to come! Stay tuned for updates.

Pictures (credit to Elliott Mitchell, Alex Schwartz) Tom and Mani’s to come!

Community Showoff Videos – Sorry to all that presented or spoke but were not captured on video (credit to Mani of InfiniteUnity3d)

Event Videos – Huge thanks to Richard Brown for taping the event! (Credit to a_random_bloke)

Community discussion:

• Unity3d.com forum discussion

• Tim Volpe’s thoughts on Unity Day

• Heather Conover’s thoughts on Unity Day

• a_random_bloke’s thoughts and video of Unity Day

• Alvin Phu’s thoughts and game prototype from Unity Day

• Ryan Zek’s thoughts on B.U.G. and Unity Day

Thanks to everyone for coming out :) Also a huge thanks to our sponsors Demiurge Studios, Vermont Digital Artists, Great Eastern Technology and Northeastern University for making this event possible.

Boston Unity Group – Unity Day!

I’m excited to announce the start of a new bi-monthly game developer meetup in the Boston-area. Elliott Mitchell and I are kicking off a group catered specifically for Unity developers called B.U.G. (Boston Unity Group).

Boston has an amazingly vibrant developer community, many of which have recently gotten involved with this relatively new game engine technology. We aim to bring these developers together to share experience, tips, and war stories as well as provide a venue to learn about the tool and how it can be used to create better interactive experiences.

You may be thinking:

What is Unity?
Unity is a multiplatform 3d game engine where the developer experience and ease of use are paramount. Similar in some ways to Flash, Unity is flexible and can be used in many different ways, from gaming applications to different types of 2d or 3d interactive media. Unity’s deployment pipeline allows users to code once and deploy to multiple targets such as desktop (web, PC, Mac) , mobile (iPhone, iPad), and console (Wii). With support for Android, Xbox360, and PS3 slated for release in the near future, Unity is leading the way in advanced engine technology for anyone from the hobbyist level to the AAA developer. It’s also very affordable and licensed on a per-seat basis when developing for desktop and mobile platforms.

When is the first meeting?
The first meeting of the Unity User Group will be held on June 12th and will be an extra special kick off event. Tom Higgins, community manager at Unity Technologies, will be speaking and holding an all-day workshop dubbed ‘Unity Day’. You can sign up for this *free* event using the signup link below.

Do I need to be a Unity expert to attend the meetings?
No way! Our first meeting will include an introductory workshop intended to teach the ins and outs of Unity to those with medium to low domain knowledge. Bring your laptop!

Check out the event poster below for more info or jump straight to the signup page!

Sign me up!