Last night I attended the 2nd CodePenHull meetup for web developers and designers, along with my team from The One Point. 

The format is different to the meetup's I've been to in the past in that usually there are talks a little bit of chat afterward and you leave. 

CodePenHull's format instead had speakers who have volunteered beforehand questions can be asked at any point but what's different is anyone can get up and give a talk, show a demo or share a useful tool they may have come across. 

This is refreshing and allows for people who wouldn't normally speak to share something. It can be as small as a 30-second comment on a tool they've discovered.

I think this format will allow more people to get involved and feels more like a community and less like a lecture. 

Before the talks started I got speaking with other people in an attempt to mingle, I often find this hard. Everyone was really friendly and welcoming it was very easy to join in the conversation and share some information about my background.

There was a table setup full of Swag books, pens, badges and a large selection of stickers. 

The Talks

Indie Minecart by John Stamford

John Stamford kicked things off showing a site he’s created for promoting indie games for everyone to use John has 3 games he’s built on there. John encourages all indie game makers to put there games on there. This says it best:

The aim of the site is to help take the hastle out of promoting indie games. The sites creator is an #indiedev and he knows how difficult it is to promote you games.

We want you to stop spending time trying to promote your game, instead we'll promote your game so you can focus on making it awesome.

http://indieminecart.com/

John talked about not only the difficulties of making indie games but also marketing them. 

Progressive Web Application by Daniel Kay

Daniel’s talk explained: What is a Progressive Web Application

A Progressive Web Application is a term used to describe a web app that takes advantage of the latest technologies to combine the best of web and mobile apps.

The term was coined by Frances Berriman and Google Chrome engineer Alex Russell in 2015.

Think of a PWA as a web application built using web technologies but behaving like a native app.

This talk explained limitations that can happen with building native apps and the what the benefits of using PWA can offer such as offline support using local storage.

View the slides at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-15NPPChg3upd_BMVFnyhOrbqWyLpJet6-bNH0Im_hs/edit#slide=id.g21578b4dcd_0_102

Genetic Algorithm by John Stamford

John’s second talk explained how with enough loops a generic algorithm can be used especially within game development. As a web developer a lot of this went over my head I still found it interesting. John also shared advice on using Unity and demonstrated an early game in development.

John also shared a Gam Jam project:

The aim of the game jam is to get your creative juices flowing and have some fun. It is open to developers of all levels and ages, and we hope to see entries from people of all abilities.

Game Jam’s are a great opportunity to spend a short amount of time trying to stretch your comfort zone. This can be either by trying a new game development technique, getting better at an existing game development technique, try a new game engine, making your first game or even just complete the game in the time limit.

If you are new to games development I would suggest keeping it simple. An easy way to get started is using Construct 2 which has a free version and plenty of tutorials.

Check the details at http://indieminecart.com/event/game-jam-spring-2017

I really enjoyed this meetup and can’t wait for the next one! thanks, Mark and Dileepa for organizing it.