Come play at our monthly game of werewolf at the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne. Check out the site for details (http://www.portlandwerewolf.com).

If you are planning on coming and want to play please respond with "attending". That way we know who is coming and you are guaranteed to play.

This third of the WhereCampPDX Location-Based games practices the fine art of benevolent assassination! Players are assigned three secret weapons, that appear to be acts of kindness or generosity. Unbeknownst to onlookers, however, those very acts will bring their victims to their knees. Players are not given the identities of their victims, only the knowledge that they are and must remain in the game area. 'Killed' players join the assassination groups until the final two killer mobs converge in a grand finale of benevolent destruction. For more details see the game description at WhereCamp PDX.

Game details can be found at http://www.cruelgame.com/about/
If you'd like to play, register your team now: http://twurl.cc/5v3

Come play at our monthly game of werewolf at the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne. Check out the site for details (http://www.portlandwerewolf.com).

If you are planning on coming and want to play please respond with "attending". That way we know who is coming and you are guaranteed to play. Ticket Info: Donations appreciated, for the room rental.

Hello all PAGDIG people. I hope you all had a great holiday season.

This month’s PAGDIG meeting will be held at the west side Lucky Lab at 1945 NW Quimby St. on Thursday 1/21 at 7pm.

We have a couple topics that have come up on the mailing list that we can discuss on the agenda: Getting awareness of the game industry going for the Portland Economic Development Plan Global Game Jam

Also, we’ll have the usual talk about all things game dev related. Come grab some pizza and drinks with us!

See you all there

We're happy to announce that Elisabeth Hendrickson will be speaking to the Portland Agile Users Group on Wednesday the 17th. She's an energetic and informative member of the greater agile community who periodically comes up from the Bay Area to share her knowledge with us. Her talk on ATDD[*] last year at CubeSpace was great fun and well-received.

This year she'll be taking us through an interactive simulation of an agile transition. When she ran this simulation at Agile 2009, it replicated a number of problems I've seen take months and years to play out on real software teams. Bring your team members! It's far less stressful to talk about problems in the context of an evening's simulation than in the context of three years of product development.

Pizza is sponsored by YesMail of InfoGroup Interactive. Pizza and networking start at 6:30; presentation starts at 7. If there's enough interest, we'll go to a pub afterward for further discussion.

[*] Acceptance-Test-Driven Development

Go Portland Tech is a chance for everyone involved in Portland technology to come try their hand at Go, a game that is loved by geeks the world over.

Go is both thousands of years old, simple to learn, and poses interesting computer science problems (a computer player has yet to beat the best humans, and amateurs can still beat the bots too).

Regular Portland Go club meetups are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays (see: OregonGo.org) but this is a chance for tech folks that are seasoned players or absolute beginners to get together and share a game.

No experience is necessary to attend, and there will be drinks and snacks.

Go Portland Tech is a chance for everyone involved in Portland technology to come try their hand at Go, a game that is loved by geeks the world over.

Go is both thousands of years old, simple to learn, and poses interesting computer science problems (a computer player has yet to beat the best humans, and amateurs can still beat the bots too).

Regular Portland Go club meetups are held on Tuesdays and Saturdays (see: OregonGo.org) but this is a chance for tech folks that are seasoned players or absolute beginners to get together and share a game.

No experience is necessary to attend, and there will be drinks and snacks.

Visionary game designer Jane McGonigal reveals how we can harness the power of games to solve real-world problems and boost global happiness.

More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the United States will spend 10,000 hours gaming by the age of 21. According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, the reason for this mass exodus to virtual worlds is that videogames are increasingly fulfilling genuine human needs. In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, McGonigal reveals how we can use the lessons of game design to fix what is wrong with the real world.

Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science, and sociology, Reality Is Broken uncovers how game designers have hit on core truths about what makes us happy and used these discoveries to astonishing effect in virtual environments. Videogames consistently provide the exhilarating rewards, stimulating challenges, and epic victories that are so often lacking in the real world. But why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? Her research suggests that gamers are expert problem solvers and collaborators, since they cooperate with other players to overcome daunting virtual challenges, and she helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aims to turn gameplay to socially positive ends.

In Reality Is Broken, she reveals how these new Alternate Reality Games are already improving the quality of our daily lives, fighting social problems like depression and obesity, and addressing vital twenty-first century challenges—and she forecasts the thrilling possibilities that lie ahead. She introduces us to games like World Without Oil, a simulation designed to brainstorm—and therefore avert—the challenges of a worldwide oil shortage, and Evoke, a game commissioned by the World Bank Institute that sends players on missions to address issues from poverty to climate change.

Jane McGonigal, PhD, is the director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times and on MTV, CNN, and NPR. In 2009, BusinessWeek called her one of the 10 most important innovators to watch. She has given keynote addresses at TED, South by Southwest Interactive, and the Game Developers Conference and was a featured speaker at The New Yorker Conference.

This Science Pub is presented in partnership with Powell’s Books. Powell’s will have Jane’s books available for purchase at the Science Pub and Jane will sign them after the talk.

If you were at WhereCamp 2008 you might have had the opportunity to play Pacmanhattan. The game was epic and played by cell phones on the park blocks!

Come play a new version of the game using real-time location and GPS through the Geoloqi app! We'll be starting at 2Pm at the playground in the North Park blocks.

To play, you'll need Geoloqi for iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geoloqi/id415603875?mt=8 or Android https://market.android.com/details?id=com.geoloqi.android1

We'll turn on the PacMap layer before the event, so all you need to do is bring some comfortable running/walking shoes and a fully charged phone!

See you there!

SecViz.org is a great resource for security visualizations, but most suffer from a lack of interactivity. Completing kinectasploit for DEFCON19 made me realize the utility of game engines for interacting with security tools and security information. Jeff will start with a recap/encore performance of kinectasploit (http://p0wnlabs.com/defcon19), which uses gestures to drive a first-person shooter 3D game environment to break into computers on victim virtual machines. Then using the same technology, Jeff will walk through a couple scenes using standard corporate security data in a 3D, kinect-driven environment made possible by the blender game engine.

Kinect and gestures are two of the most prevalent game-changing technologies to affect user interfaces since the keyboard and mouse. Applying these tools to real-world data is challenging, fraught with pitfalls, and a heck of a lot of fun! Let’s discover the boundaries of current technology by pushing it until it fails!

CHIFOO Member Admission: FREE. Non members: $5 at the door. All events include door prizes and raffles.

Why do gamers who usually demand the most cutting edge technology still accept the primitive buzzing technologies that do not recreate the real feel of the game? They must have not yet experienced what ViviTouch can add to their gaming experience. ViviTouch enables a gamer to experience thousands of sensations in a versatile language of feedback in the palm of the hand. This allows game developers to change the way that their games interact with the gamer.

Tom will present the exciting consumer reactions from the recent introduction of this technology to gamers and game developers. A case study of the Mophie Pulse gaming case that turns the iPod Touch into a gaming platform with a rumble experience that surpasses console controllers will also be presented. Tom will introduce how game developers can enable gamers to truly experience ViviTouch for iOS, Android, and other platforms by using available design guides and SDKs.

User experience designers can use this innovative technology to communicate useful information through the sense of touch, such as who is calling or messaging, or enabling a user to feel different parts of their screen, to even potentially enable sightless typing on a touch screen. ViviTouch can become a new tool for user experience designers to integrate to create truly innovative user interfaces.

Tom joined AMI in September 2007 as Vice President of Engineering. Prior to AMI, Tom was the Engineering Program Manager for Skypilot Networks, a developer of low cost / high volume wireless infrastructure products. Prior to Skypilot, he held senior management positions in engineering and project management for several companies, including Intel, Raychem, Ericsson Fiber, WaveSplitter, and Siros Technologies. Tom has led the development of numerous successful products and projects in the wireless, LCD display, data storage, and fiber optic industries.

"This month we are celebrating 1.337 years of music, dancing, drinking, and tournaments!

Portland Indie Game Squad is running Skull Girls and Super Smash Bros video game tournaments with prizes, DJ Switch from Dangerous Kids is DJing the geeky tunes, and we have guests from your favorite local podcasts and geeky groups! Prizes are being provided by Jupiter Hotel, Ground Kontrol and Sock Dreams!

Event is 21+

Join us at the Space Room for the celebration that wont happen again until we hit 13.37 YEARS!"

Hello everyone, it's that time again. Yep, it's the last PAGDIG of the year.

Pizza and beverages will be provided, feel free to bring stuff to eat/drink to share or bring a couple of bucks to offset pizza costs. But all of that is strictly optional.

The roundtable discussion this month:

Managing Time While Staying Productive and Inspired: How Creative Game Developers Get Work Done

Anyone who does game development (art, design, programming, music), whether they be a full-time indie/employee or a part-time dev or student/hobbyist knows there's several fine balances we have to maintain. We split time between finding inspiration and buckling down and getting things done. We split time between the work that we care about and well, Real Life. When does looking for inspiration become detrimental distraction? When does working for hours on end become hazardous and counterproductive?

Let's all talk about how we deal with this in our daily work: how we stay focused, how we stay excited, how we budget our time and attention. I think it would be pretty educational to share and compare notes on how we all as developers of all types actually split our time up and what kind of schedules we maintain.

See you all soon!

CrowdCompass is thrilled to be pulling together this PDX Tech + Pong Meet-up. We want to be a catalyst in the PDX tech community that facilitates great conversations within fun social environments.

Join the Portland game development community in an awesome games showcase from the Global Game Jam and other local projects!

Over the course of a 48 hour weekend this recent January, game developers and enthusiasts from 300+ cities around the world worked to create their very own games, many of which we will have available for play! Developers from the Portland jam will also be on site, telling us their own team- and personally-oriented experiences and challenges they faced over the weekend.

This event is also open for free to any additional exhibitors who want to showcase a game-related project for the evening. If you are interested in having a table at the Global Game Jam Postmortem, please e-mail Will at pigsquad (at) gmail [dot] com!

Who Whacked Ms. Faire LeSquare? is a free, freewheeling public transit mystery adventure game that will be played on TriMet and social media on Saturday, May 4, 2013. With up to 4 friends, you’ll race around the metro area to smuggle and intercept shipments using the bus network, paddle across the Willamette and track clues and shady characters through the mean streets of PDX.

The grand prize for one lucky player whose team gathers a completes a set of quests is a free one-year TriMet pass. Yep, that’s a cool $1,100. Plenty of other prizes, too.

Also, there will be balloons.

See the game website for more info. Preregistration is free and required; space in the game is limited.

The only thing you need to do to preregister is find a password. (Confidential to the Calagator community: which MAX station contains an error in the digits of pi?)

The Stumpquest Games Fest is a 4-day games festival celebrating the integration of games, design, art, and technology in collaboration with independent developers. Come participate in the multifaceted medium of games through design and play! In addition to attending, registration is open for volunteers and those who want to showcase their game projects.

Events include: Twine Workshop, Board Game Prototyping, Indie Games Tournament, Indie Games Arcade, Twine Jam, Film Screening

For full details, visit the Pixel Arts Game Education listing: http://www.gameeducationpdx.com/event/stumpquest-games-fest/

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

This month's event is casino themed. No reason. Just because.

April's theme is Mix Tape! Don't worry, no boom box required.

--

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

Do you like original puzzles? Not the jigsaw type, but the wordplay and logic type? Do you like beer? Then join us for PUZZLED PINT!

The theme this month is "Moving Day."

Well we're movin' on up, To the inside. To a deluxe bar where we can guzzle. Movin' on up, To the inside. We finally got a piece of the puzzle!

A location puzzle, posted to puzzledpint.com at 6pm Monday, will lead you to a bar Tuesday night. (Hints are also available.) A few more original, low-key puzzles will be at the bar. And we'll be there to provide all the hints and nudges you desire. Bring your friends!

Feel free to drop in any time between 6 and 9pm, for as long as you'd like. It's a free event.

More details at http://www.puzzledpint.com/. It's kinda hard to explain, but if this sounds even remotely interesting, you'll love it!

GUI System Demo and workshop.

Last meetup we covered the new GUI features found in Unity.

This meetup we will be conducting a workshop on how to actually use the UI and mock a few things up. I will have a basic mockup which you can use or bring your own.

Please bring a computer with Unity and/or an image editing program to jam with us! Artists and Coders and folks still learning are all welcome!

This is the monthly meetup for Unity in Portland. Check back at this description later, for an update on the topic of the meetup.

There will be a special Unity giveaway at the end of this meetup to everyone who attends.

The event features a game library with over 1000 titles and enough space for anyone and everyone to play to their heart's content.

Attendees may choose from organized events, open tabletop play, game lab design programming, LARP, tabletop RPG's, LAN games, miniatures, console games, panels and guest activities, and other fun stuff.

Tickets are available in advance via the website or may be purchased at the door. There are no individual event registration fees; admission is all-inclusive.

The event features a game library with over 1000 titles and enough space for anyone and everyone to play to their heart's content.

Attendees may choose from organized events, open tabletop play, game lab design programming, LARP, tabletop RPG's, LAN games, miniatures, console games, panels and guest activities, and other fun stuff.

Memberships are available in advance via the website or may be purchased at the door. There are no individual event registration fees; admission is all-inclusive.

Mondo Croquet – it's croquet, American style with bowling balls and sledgehammers!

Hey, we've been doing this since 1997, and your gramma says HI!

What: Bring a bowling ball and a sledgehammer. Don’t worry if you don’t have, we’ve got plenty of extras to loan out You’ll enjoy yourself more if you’re dressed appropriately in lawn whites, or Mad Hatter gear, or simply appropriately inappropriate. Peruse some of our photos for ideas. Bring along something to share for the picnic and something cold to drink. …and you might want a chair. It’s a smashing time. Tell your friends! Taunt your enemies!

For photos and more info, point your browzah to http://mondocroquet.com

We've been getting away with this for 22 years, can you believe it?

Come play the Agile Fluency Game! You’ll gain new insights into the benefits and trade-offs of adopting agile practices—and you’ll have a great time doing it.

The Agile Fluency Game authentically simulates 2½ years on a software development team. It was developed so experiments in the game lead to new insights about your real-world options. As you play the game, you’ll make decisions about which agile practices to adopt. Of course, you have to deliver features, too! Or what’s the point?

This is a great experience for agile team members interested in learning more about their options; managers and leaders wanting to better understand agile development; and people who enjoy modern board games such as Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

“Saved us money on our agile transition effort by getting a preview in 90 minutes!” —Director, Agile Center of Excellence

“Makes the need for best practices come to life.” —Manager

“Played first game and beautifully painted ourselves into a corner through the same mistakes real teams make. How’d that happen? Powerful teaching.” —Senior Learning & Development Manager

“[Our leadership team] experienced 20 years of agile learning in 4 hours!” —Director, R & D

“The shift from playing the game gave new focus to our discussion of leadership challenges.” —VP, Product Management

Doors open at 6pm. We’ll start playing at 6:30. Be sure to arrive before then: the building is secured at 6:30 and no further entry is allowed.

To learn more about the game, visit https://www.agilefluency.org/game.php.

CORONAVIRUS NOTE: We've been asked if we still plan to hold this event given the concerns about Coronavirus. We DO plan to hold the event, with the following precautions:

• Attendance is limited to 16 people. (First come, first served.)
• We will not be serving food or drink or allowing food in the game room. If you bring food, we have a separate dining area where you can eat.
• Hand sanitizer and tissues will be available. Restrooms for washing hands are right across the hall.
• Do not attend if you're sick or have flu symptoms.

Cancelled due to Coronavirus.

Come play the Agile Fluency Game! You’ll gain new insights into the benefits and trade-offs of adopting agile practices—and you’ll have a great time doing it.

The Agile Fluency Game authentically simulates 2½ years on a software development team. It was developed so experiments in the game lead to new insights about your real-world options. As you play the game, you’ll make decisions about which agile practices to adopt. Of course, you have to deliver features, too! Or what’s the point?

This is a great experience for agile team members interested in learning more about their options; managers and leaders wanting to better understand agile development; and people who enjoy modern board games such as Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

“Saved us money on our agile transition effort by getting a preview in 90 minutes!” —Director, Agile Center of Excellence

“Makes the need for best practices come to life.” —Manager

“Played first game and beautifully painted ourselves into a corner through the same mistakes real teams make. How’d that happen? Powerful teaching.” —Senior Learning & Development Manager

“[Our leadership team] experienced 20 years of agile learning in 4 hours!” —Director, R & D

“The shift from playing the game gave new focus to our discussion of leadership challenges.” —VP, Product Management

Doors open at 6pm. We’ll start playing at 6:30. Be sure to arrive before then: the building is secured at 6:30 and no further entry is allowed.

To learn more about the game, visit https://www.agilefluency.org/game.php.

CORONAVIRUS NOTE: We've been asked if we still plan to hold this event given the concerns about Coronavirus. We DO plan to hold the event, with the following precautions:

• Attendance is limited to 16 people. (First come, first served.)
• We will not be serving food or drink or allowing food in the game room. If you bring food, we have a separate dining area where you can eat.
• Hand sanitizer and tissues will be available. Restrooms for washing hands are right across the hall.
• Do not attend if you're sick or have flu symptoms.

It's Croquet, American Style with bowling balls and sledgehammers! This is our 23rd Annual Mondo Croquet World Championships and Mad Hatter Picnic ... updated for 2020 to include the Face Covering Fashion Show!

“The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad.” – Salvador Dali

Voted Best of Portland in Willamette Week we've been keeping Portland Weird since before the Queen was in short pants.

There's nothing quite like the sound of a sledgehammer smacking a bowling ball as you roll towards the wicket. That and the lamentations of your slain opponents. Some of them were Zombies anyway.

What:

• Face coverings! Show off your best! Show your best presentation and bring home the prize.

• Bring a bowling ball and a sledgehammer. Don’t worry if you don’t have, we’ve got plenty of extras to loan out

• You’ll enjoy yourself more if you’re dressed appropriately in lawn whites, or Mad Hatter gear, or simply appropriately inappropriate. Peruse some of our photos for ideas.

• Bring along something to share for the picnic and something cold to drink. …and you might want a chair.

Learn more of our wisdom here: Mondo Croquet! http://mondocroquet.com

The facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1159822417734303

It’s a smashing time. Tell your friends! Taunt your enemies!