In part 4 of this multi-part video tutorial series, we’ll go over how to build a simple 2d side scrolling game for the Amazon Fire TV. In the previous videos (part 3) we covered working with sprites in Unity new 2D workflow.  In today’s videos we’ll go over working with mouse input and controllers.

All of these videos are recorded from my Twitch game dev channel which you can watch daily from 9:30am – 12pm EST.

Be sure to check out part 5 in the series, and stay tuned for more videos on building Unity games for Fire TV. Looking for more information on Fire TV and publishing to Amazon Appstore? Check out the links below:

• Register for a free Amazon Developer account
• Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV documentation
• Make Amazon Appstore your game’s home

- Jesse Freeman (@jessefreeman)

It’s the end of the year again and with that, it’s time to celebrate the last Ludum Dare of 2015. Ludum Dare is an incredibly popular online game jam. While the event is primarily online, developers still meet up in person around the world to also take part in the 48 hour compo or 72 hour jam. Each year we help local Seattle game developers find a space to work on Ludum Dare. This year we are partnering up with Indie Game Spark to offer developers a space at Surf Incubator in downtown Seattle to take part in Ludum Dare 34.

Here are the details for the event:

Registration is here. You need to register ahead of time in order to take part in person.

12/11 - Starts at 5pm with theme being announced at 6pm

12/13 - Compo Ends (48 hour event) with prizes at 8pm

12/14 - Jam Ends (72 hour event) with prizes at 8pm

Location - Surf Incubator located at 999 3rd Avenue. #700. Seattle, WA 98104

Food and drinks will be provided along with wifi and a space to work. If you are new to Ludum Dare, check out the rules for the event. Hope to see you at the event and if you can’t make it, check out this page for other in-person Ludum Dare events around the world.

- Jesse Freeman (@jessefreeman)

For anyone who has toyed with the idea of creating a mobile game but felt intimidated by the technical requirements, Amazon’s Ankur Prasad shows how to build a game without programming code. Level Zero is a tutorial eBook that explains, step by step, how you can use Scirra’s Construct 2 to set up characters, create backgrounds, and implement game mechanics—all without complicated coding. Level Zero introduces the beginning game developer to Construct 2, a development environment that allows you to build rich interactive experiences through a drag-and-drop behavior system. Published and originally available only on Amazon, Level Zero can now be downloaded for free from Scirra’s website.

AWS re:Invent 2015 is a learning conference with breakout sessions covering a broad range of topics and technical depth. All sessions will be delivered by subject matter experts, engineers, or expert customers who can share their real world experiences and lessons learned.  

This year’s conference will feature three tracks of content to help mobile app and game developers build apps, engage customers and monetize more effectively. We will also feature Amazon Alexa in the new #IoT track showcasing what partners like Capital One and BMW have built as well as a two-hour hand-on workshop where you can learn how to build Skills for Alexa on real devices.

On Thurday’s installment of our live dev show we welcome University of Southern California’s Sam Roberts, Assistant Director and Gordon Bellamy, Visiting Scholar. We’ll be discussing game design, game entreprenuerism and their game development program. We’ll also have a no holds barred critique of our concept game “Planet Destroyer"

Please join the conversation on Thursday July 23 at 11:00 am PDT at http://www.twitch.tv/paulcutsinger. 

For background, we’ve been talking a lot about how to get more game developers over the app poverty line and sharing best practices for building quality games and healthy businesses on the blog and at conferences.

Now, we’re doing something a bit different. 

Join us on Monday August 10, 2015 at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco for a full day of learning and activities. Our Developer Evangelists will share tips and best practices on how to build, optimize and monetize your apps and games. The developer day is complimentary and doesn't require Casual Connect event badge access.

As a part of building our concept game “Planet Destroyer” we’re talking to a series of industry experts and mentors to help us think through everything it takes to make a game. In this episode, our guest is Dmitri Williams, CEO of NinjaMetrics and we zero in on the social aspects of our game.

The central idea of our concept game Planet Destroyer is that it’s focused on the relationship between a Twitch broadcaster and their viewers. It has to be highly interactive and social to succeed. With this in mind we spoke to Dmitri about how we can use analytics to measure and optimize the social aspects of our game to increase engagement and revenue.

What We Discussed on the Show

full video

1. Measure how social behavior impacts engagement and revenue – What is “Social Value”          
2. Let’s put this in terms of revenue
3. Tying this into your product’s features
4. Importance of the Community Manager and how to attribute revenue to that role         
5. Instrument Social Signals to enable optimization      
6. Closing the loop on user acquisition costs and return on investment
7. Preserving an authentic social graph
8. The full impact of social on Free to Play games
9. Helping to focus your community management efforts        
10. The Fruit Basket Analogy
11. Determine the downstream effects of your community engagement. Objective Virality  
12. How to add NinjaMetrics to your app  
13. Dmitri’s thoughts on our game Planet Destroyer      

Please join the conversation live on http://twitch.tv/PaulCutsinger each Tuesday through Friday morning (PST). And follow @PaulCutsinger on Twitter for the latest.  

-Paul

On Wednesday’s installment of our live dev show we welcome Luke Burtis, Production Director from tinyBuild the indie game developer and publisher.  He’ll be sharing his perspective on our concept game “Planet Destroyer” and talking about success factors for indie devs. 

Please join the conversation on Wednesday July 8 at 11:00 am PST at http://www.twitch.tv/paulcutsinger.

For background, we’ve been talking a lot about how to get more game developers over the app poverty line and sharing best practices for building quality games and healthy businesses on the blog and at conferences.

Now, we’re doing something a bit different.

We’ve started a reality show called “Planet Destroyer: Concept to Greenlight” where @PeterDotGames and @PaulCutsinger are building a game live on Twitch and just, like any reality show, it’ll end with a panel of judges that will critique the game and will give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Along the way, we’re broadcasting the entire journey live on Twitch. We really want that thumbs up so, to help us and all the game devs that watch, we’re bringing in experts from around the industry to mentor us on every aspect of building a game – game design, architecture, music, story, business models, crowd funding, publishing, user acquisition, art, front end coding, back end scale, marketing… Everything you actually need to have a successful game launch.

On Tuesday’s installment of our live dev show we welcome Starr Long, the executive producer of Shroud of the Avatar and director of Ultima Online. He’ll be sharing his perspective on our concept game “Planet Destroyer” and talking about MMO fundamentals, crowd funding and the power of connecting early with your fan base. 

Please join the conversation on Tuesday July 7 at 9:00 am PST at http://www.twitch.tv/paulcutsinger. 

For background, we’ve been talking a lot about how to get more game developers over the app poverty line and sharing best practices for building quality games and healthy businesses on the blog and at conferences.

Now, we’re doing something a bit different.

We’ve started a reality show called “Planet Destroyer: Concept to Greenlight” where @PeterDotGames and @PaulCutsinger are building a game live on Twitch and just, like any reality show, it’ll end with a panel of judges that will critique the game and will give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Along the way, we’re broadcasting the entire journey live on Twitch. We really want that thumbs up so, to help us and all the game devs that watch, we’re bringing in experts from around the industry to mentor us on every aspect of building a game – game design, architecture, music, story, business models, crowd funding, publishing, user acquisition, art, front end coding, back end scale, marketing… Everything you actually need to have a successful game launch.

We’ve been talking a lot about how to get more game developers over the app poverty line and sharing best practices for building quality games and healthy businesses on the blog and at conferences.

Now, we’re doing something a bit different.

We’ve started a reality show called “Planet Destroyer: Concept to Greenlight” where @PeterDotGames and @PaulCutsinger are building a game live on Twitch and just, like any reality show, it’ll end with a panel of judges that will critique the game and will give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Along the way, we’re broadcasting the entire journey live on Twitch. We really want that thumbs up so, to help us and all the game devs that watch, we’re bringing in experts from around the industry to mentor us on every aspect of building a game – game design, architecture, music, story, business models, crowd funding, publishing, user acquisition, art, front end coding, back end scale, marketing… Everything you actually need to have a successful game launch.

This week, we’re excited to have Luke Burtis from Tiny Build and Dmitri Williams from Ninja Metrics come on the show. Luke is going to share his perspective as an indie game developer that ran a successful kickstarter and Steam Greenlight and as an indie publisher that is looking for great games to publish. Dmitri’s brings a perspective on social analytics that is going is core to our game design. He’ll help us understand how to refine our conceptual ideas make them real and actionable.