Additional Monday evening GamePlay seesions at Footscray Community Arts Centre during Term Three

For all Melbourne Lab folks and friends:

Letting you know there will be some additional Monday evening 'GamePlay' workshops taking place during Term 3 at Footscray Community Arts Centre. Bookings are now open and are available to anyone, to tell your ASD and non-ASD friends. 

These sessions will be run by Footscray Community Arts but sessions will be led by The Lab's tech mentors.

Gameplay (advanced):

http://footscrayarts.com/event/gameplay-advanced-term-3/

Gameplay (intro) – starting your own game from scratch (more for beginners):

http://footscrayarts.com/event/gameplay-intro-term-3/

From the Guardian: Me, my son and Minecraft

'One of the things that's so appealing about Minecraft is that there is no obvious start and end; it's a game of infinite possibilities, which is presumably why it's often compared to Lego'...


http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/08/me-my-son-minecraft-blocks-game

Coderdojo - remind you of another project?

Have just found out about Coderdojo, described as"a global network of self-directed hacker schools for kids". Sounds vaguely familiar....

http://boingboing.net/2014/03/04/coderdojo-global-network-of-s.html

Nice story in the Age today about the Inside the Brick lego club

Read about the excellent Rob Deakin and his Inside the Brick Lego clubs in this newspaper story today. It's sure to be of interest to lots of Lab parents:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/fairfield-lego-club-inside-the-brick-helps-children-with-autism-to-build-bridges-20140222-3391h.html

Melbourne families - note from Paul Staubli about The Global Game Jam (GGJ), the world's largest game jam event

Hi everyone from Paul.

Evelyn, a psychologist who works in schools with several of our kids from the Frankston Lab and also comes along to the Lab to help out, has recommended this event:  The Global Game Jam (GGJ), the world's largest game jam event. Teams compete all over the world to make a videogame within 48 hours.

It’s linked to the International Game Developer’s Association of which Evelyn is a member. Last year 309 locations in 63 countries created over 3000 games in one weekend! Of those, 130 jammers in Melbourne made 38 games.

For the first time, the public can get along on the afternoon on the final day (Australia Day) and see/play the games made over the weekend.

Evelyn’s message:

Here’s the link to Melbourne Global Game Jam - First Play Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1408809242696704.

It would be good if parents and kids want to have a look at games made over a 2-day period and chat with game developers a bit more (they'll probably be exhausted though because most of them would've worked for 2 days straight with limited sleep). But it would be still be good exposure to the games industry I reckon!

The registration link is for parents who are interested: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/melbourne-global-game-jam-first-play-tickets-9925667940

GGJ brings together thousands of people for a weekend of collaboration and creativity :

24-26 January 2014

Melbourne House, Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE)

Level 8, 14 Queens Road

Melbourne VIC 3004

Australia

Perhaps those from individual Labs interested in attending could meet up or go together. (email: staubli@bigpond.com)