Star Tribune
Have a video game concept? Twin Cities group will help you make it a reality
It’s a hectic scene at the Noble Robot co-working space in Minneapolis, where roughly 25 indie video game developers are huddled around monitors to test out their friends’ latest creations.
Each screen has a different game on it, made by one of 14 groups last month as part of “Global Game Jam,” an international annual event where game developers gather in their respective cities before attempting to make a game from scratch in one weekend based on a prompt.
Last week, the designers reconvened at Noble Robot to show off the games they made and to get feedback. This year’s prompt was “make me laugh,” and the resulting games did not disappoint.
Event organizer Mark LaCroix said initially he was skeptical that the creators’ game ideas and jokes wouldn’t land.
“I was pleasantly surprised and a little embarrassed to be so skeptical, because all the groups came up with amazingly clever and nuanced approaches and concepts,” said LaCroix, 40..
Andre Denney, who works as a business analyst and website designer, was showing off his group’s game, “Voyage Dans La Loons.” The title is a play on words of the 1902 French movie, “Le Voyage dans la Lune,” and has players control three loons in a rocket ship as they fly it into the moon.
Although Denney had no game programming experience, the 28-year-old contributed by creating the visuals, music and in-game text. The 48-hour time limit led to some stress, but Denney said it catalyzed his group’s focus to finish in time and made him want to come back.
“When our group got together to test the game out yesterday, we all just thought, ‘I haven’t had a more productive two days since the game jam,'” Denney said. “It was such a kick.”
Several of the developers said they enjoy that the event brings together people who envision making game design a career one day.
“This feels like a space to keep pushing in, and one where if I’m going to find more of a future in it, this event and these people and this group seems like everything that I would want to be involved in,” Denney said.
LaCroix is a board member for the Twin Cities chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), which hosted last Wednesday’s event to show off the Global Game Jam creations. It’s a volunteer-led group that aims to connect people making games, and to welcome newcomers who otherwise might feel intimidated trying to break into the industry.
LaCroix has been thrilled with the growth of the game developer community, but there’s still work to be done to improve its inclusivity, given how historically white and male-driven it has been, he said. In recent years, IGDA has offered monthly events for women in games and for people of color.
“If we’re going to stand up and say we represent the community, it’s a moral obligation, I think, to put in extra effort to make sure that we aren’t having those invisible doors that are keeping people out,” LaCroix said.
Game developer Stephen McGregor, who leads the people of color get-together, said he was excited when someone encouraged him to lead the event. He said there isn’t a lot of turnout for the people of color gatherings, but that he thinks it’s important to discuss the challenges that exist due to the lack of diversity in the game developer world.
“As much as I appreciate being part of the community here, I do oftentimes feel like I’m one of two people of color who go to certain events, with the second one being my brother,” said McGregor, who is Black and now works making video games full-time. “Even though the event I’m running now isn’t super well-attended, I can still be around other people of color and talk about the issues we face working in games.”
McGregor first discovered IGDA events around nine years ago, when he and his brother were looking for assistance with the game they were working on. He said the skills and connections he got from the group helped him secure his first full-time job as a game developer.
In the game McGregor made for the game jam, “Apocalypduck,” players control an army of rubber ducks that shoot laser beams and convert household objects into additional ducks as they escape their bathtub and explore the surrounding house.
Some other games highlighted last week included a cooperative original Nintendo console game, where two clowns-in-training compete to make a giant clown face smile by throwing pies at each other or setting up banana peels to slip on. The players then break the clown’s teeth with a hammer before walking inside to find a message that reads: “Sorry, but your clown diploma is in another stomach.”
Another, titled “Stand-Up Battle” has two stand-up comedians duking it out in a turn-based combat game. The twist is they fight by using different kinds of joke abilities, such as “dad joke,” “punchline” and “quip.” Most of these games can be found online to play for free at globalgamejam.org/games/2024. Dates for IGDA events are online at igdatc.org.
“Even though there’s a lot of energy, creativity and hard work going on around downtown, never have we been more aligned in the direction we’re heading,” Duininck said.
To execute its plan, the city is convening a Downtown Action Council, a group that consists of representatives from the business, nonprofit and government sectors, including the Minnesota Vikings, Target and the Guthrie Theater.
A top priority for the group, from July 2024 to 2026, will be helping figure out the long-awaited transformation of Nicollet Mall into a pedestrian-only corridor. A task force Frey convened called the Vibrant Downtown Storefronts Workgroup made that suggestion and others for the thoroughfare back in June 2023. The city and its partners will have to determine where to move bus traffic and stops, but Frey said Marquette and Second avenues are ripe for that transition.
The plan would also focus time and resources on downtown’s Warehouse District, which Frey said “has the potential to be an entertainment Mecca.” The blocks between the North Loop and the central business district could have a social district that allows open containers, billboards and lights that help attract visitors from around the state.
“I’m not arguing that the Warehouse District is going to be like Times Square,” Frey said. “But I am arguing that we can create our own version of it right here in Minneapolis.”
Officials also emphasized efforts to make it easier for developers to convert downtown office buildings to housing and other uses. Frey touted the city’s Vibrant Storefronts initiative, which has been connecting property owners with vacant storefronts to local artists.
Star Tribune
Two more victims from encampment shootings identified as Mayor Frey says, ‘This is about fentanyl.’
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has identified three murder victims from two separate shootings at homeless encampments this weekend in Minneapolis as three others were left with life-threatening injuries.
Christopher Martell Washington, 38, of Fridley, and Louis Mitchell Lemons, Jr., 32, of Brooklyn Center, were identified Monday afternoon as the two men who died from multiple gunshot wounds on Sunday afternoon in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue. Deven Leonard Caston, 31, was identified as the victim at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. that happened Saturday.
Minneapolis Police Spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten, said it was unclear if there was a connection between the shootings but “we can’t rule it out.”
The city has dealt with several shootings in and around homeless encampments this year. Mayor Jacob Frey attended a news conference Sunday after the shooting on Snelling Avenue and said the city needs to continue to provide options for people seeking shelter. But, he said, encampments are not an alternative answer.
“Yet again we have more people that are dead,” he said. “We need to be honest and realistic about what is happening right now. We need to call a spade a spade. This is not about a lack of shelter. This is about fentanyl.”
Officers initially detained three people in the shooting of Washington and Lemons Jr., but were released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No charges had been filed in either shooting as of Monday.
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of Sunday’s shooting. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.”
Inside Paper Source, which has been in the mall since 2016, senior sales lead Carrie Helman-Menard said foot traffic has changed at the mall.
“It is quiet,” she said. “This street was a lot different even, you know, six years ago. The hobby stores down that way closed. Salut, closed. Anthropolgie, closed. J Crew, etc. There were a lot more people bustling, shopping.”
Grand, she said, can be that way again, but it “needs businesses. Needs people.”
A new development at Grand and Victoria could be just what’s needed, she said.
“People will come,” she said, pointing to her store’s customers continuing to walk through Paper Source’s door. “They get excited that something’s here. People are grateful. They’ll come in here and say, ‘Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here.’ So that feels good. A lot of people want that hustle and bustle back.”
Simon Taghioff, president of the Summit Hill Association board, said Parritz made “an information only” presentation to the board earlier this month. Parritz, he said, shared “a lot of optimism in how it could transform that corner in a positive way.”
