Calling all amateur games developers - Berlin

I am looking to establish a small group of 2-4 people interested in forming a small development team. Chiefly I'd like to meet people who would class themselves as beginners in their field who, like me, are keen to build their portfolio for prospective employers in the future. The ultimate goal is to create a finished title and then release it on the App Store.

My skills are mainly in design and concept building so, though I welcome others that have great ideas, I'm mostly looking for people who can do things that I can't yet. That includes artists, animators and anyone with a decent knowledge of Objective C/C and/or Cocoa/Cocoa Touch. I have basic Objective C knowledge but not nearly enough to really get a decent concept off the drawing board and into a device. As the iPhone SDK is only available to Mac users, people who want to join this group will need to have ready access to an Intel based Mac. The SDK is free and if we ever get as far as publishing something, the commercial licensing fee is about 100 euros, which I am happy to pay. I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but should we make any money out of this little adventure, all cash will be split equally.

At the expense of coming off as sounding harsh, no time-wasters please. This project will be something we each have to do in our spare time and self-motivation is essential. I'm hoping that, should we establish a group who is committed to taking a modest project forward, we'd be able to meet 1-2 times a week until the game is finished.

So to summarize I want to meet:

Amateur/beginner coders with a firm grasp of Objective C and or C
Artists with some experience with animation
Any other technically minded people with the skills to help carry a comprehensive design document through to completion

It should be a lot of fun and hopefully we can all learn from each other and add something impressive to our respective CVs in the process. Who knows, maybe we'll create the next Flight Control and buy islands in French Polynesia.

I am a full time games and entertainment journalist and currently work for the UK handheld gaming site Pocket Gamer. If there is enough interest, we can decide where to meet based on where is reasonably equidistant from our respective dwellings.

F

Too bad it's not PC or Xbox game development, I would be interested.

Hello Frazmacaz,

I have been writing C code for mobile phones for 10 years and would be interested in getting into iPhone App development.

I'm sure the SDK would be straightforward for me to master, am currently working for Nokia in Mitte.

Let me know if you fancy meeting for a chat!

Adrian (adrianhill102@hotmail.com)

What a coincidence I'm also working for Nokia.

I'm sure it would be no problem for me neither to learn the SDK, but I don't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and I don't have a Mac... so not sure I can develop for the iPhone.

Adrian and I are looking at meeting early next week Clapoti, so once we have finalized the details, why don't you come along too? It sounds like you definitely have plenty of relevant know how. Not having access to a Mac is a hurdle, but we can take things as they come initially.

Hi there. This sounds like fun!

I'm a QA engineer/manager with 12+ years experience testing everything from network security to audio codecs to GUIs. Currently I'm consulting part-time* remotely for a company in California doing testing on the iPhone.

I don't have copious amounts of free time, but would like to help with this, whether with testing or project management or both.

PM me if you'd like to chat.
-Anne

*If anyone knows of work here in Berlin for QA engineering/mgmt. or just general computer geekery please drop me a line.

Great stuff Anne, this meet up is shaping up brilliantly! Now all we need are some artists/animators. Hopefully we'll get someone interested by tomorrow.

I'll post a couple of suggestions for specific times and places for the meet tomorrow afternoon. I'm aiming for Mon/Tue next week in the eve sometime. Looking forward to it

Ill join i am have made 18 mobile phone games.

Well maybe it's not worth it, I'm not planning on buying a Mac anytime soon

Ok this is ticking along nicely so far. This is what I've managed to establish, though obviously nothing is set in stone and we may all need to be slightly flexible with our roles:

Adrian - Coder
Anne - Q&A Engineer
Lolo - Artist/Animator/Web designer
Fraser (that's me) - Designer/PR

How does Monday evening sound? At around 19:00? We could meet on Simon Dach Strasse just off of Frankfurter Allee. I'd suggest a bar but I'm relatively new to Berlin and I don't really know any yet. Anyone have any recommendations for a good place to meet?

Anyone have any suggestions then? It's important, this could be a historic meeting or minds, like when Lennon met McCartney, but the gaming version and with more people

If nobody has a recommendation, I can just find a place later today and post about it here. My work email is frazmacaz@googlemail.com if anyone wants to clarify any details about the meet.

Fraser

Hi all, the meet is today and in-case there are any people that would like to join last minute, these are the details:

I will be at the corner where Niederbarnimstraße meets Frankfurter Allee at 19:00. If you get the U-bahn to Frankfurter Tor (at the corner of Warshauerstrasse) it's just one street east from there. I'll be wearing red shoes so you can recognize me. From there we can walk down Niederbarnimstraße, which is loaded with cafes and restaurants, so we can choose somewhere to grab a bite/coffee and have a chat.

Hope to see you all there!

Fraser

Keep us up to date about how your project is coming along. We could be witnessing the birth of a new enterprise.

I certainly will. I have high hopes. It seems there are already some talented folks keen to be involved, so fingers crossed

So how was the meeting?