Author: Dan Milward

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Gamefroot + United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Hackathon

Last month Gamefroot ran the words first game design hackathon based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (world first in Aotearoa).

A group of local educators, game designers, climate activists and other passionate folk came together and spent half a day learning and designing games to support schools in Aotearoa integrate and weave the Sustainable Development goals into their learning plans and school goals.

The ultimate goal is to empower our kids (and anybody willing)  to integrate these goals into how they choose to live their lives.

If you’re interested in learning more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, wondering how you could enact them in your school or even your life, or would like Gamefroot to run a hackathon please reach out to us in the comments section.

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Gamefroot V4

To our fellow game designers and game developers. 

Last week we released a major update to Gamefroot. So major, in fact, that the game editor (the bit you make games with) was totally rebuilt. No small feat that has taken us the best part of 6 months. 

We decided to make this update because web technologies have evolved since we made Gamefroot V3 and we wanted to ensure Gamefroot was built on a platform that can better accommodate our long term goals.

Continue reading “Gamefroot V4”
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Aotearoa 1840 – Code your own interactive timeline

The year is 2020. Here in New Zealand, year one of the new digital technologies learning area is upon us!

To help get the party started, Gamefroot has developed a new digital technologies learning resource to support future generations remember and learn about the 6th Feb 1840, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the events that surrounded it.

Continue reading “Aotearoa 1840 – Code your own interactive timeline”
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The Gamefroot Arcade

The Gamefroot Arcade is where other people can play your games and where you can play games made by others.

The new Arcade has had a visual overhaul, a new and improved single game screen with comments and likes.

The next thing on our agenda is to include a featured games carousel, a trending games tab and a tab for partner content.

What do?

Just login to the Gamefroot level editor, click the arcade button, play some games, and let us know what you think we should do next in the comments.

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Super better

Kia ora! We’re mighty pleased to announce another major Gamefroot update. We’ve spent the best part of three months making Gamefroot super better for your game-making pleasure.

Gamefroot is faster, more robust, and sporting an improved user interface. We’ve even managed to squeeze in a handful of new features.

Here is a blow by blow account of our work:

  • Game remixing and opening tutorial templates is a gazillion times faster (many thanks to our friend Tim S!)
  • User Group functionality is back under a new Clubs link available in the level editor. This is an EDU only feature.
  • You can finally remove games from your saved games list.
  • Right click removal of assets in the side bar has been added.
  • Rolling over an asset in the sidebar will display its file name and pixel dimensions (a much sought after feature from our friends at WGTN Girls college).
  • The ability to export and import game files has been included. This lets you download and save your game data to your computer.

Now we’re wondering what to do next, and thought you might like to have a say. Here’s what we’re thinking:

  • Adding a text tool
  • Adding a particle effect script block
  • Develop a better onboarding process

There you have it. Try it out and please let us know what you think and what you want to see next in the comments.

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TVNZ children’s site team up with Gamefroot

 

Gamefroot is very pleased to announce our successful application for NZ On Air funding to integrate game making capabilities into the upcoming TVNZ children’s site.

The TVNZ children’s site will become home to awesome kiwi made content including animated web series, games, competitions and, thanks to Gamefroot, a brand new space for kids to make their own video-games.

Kids will be able to watch their favorite content online and then through integration with Gamefroot, make their own video-games based on that content.

It’s no secret that today’s kids love playing video-games. This development will help support kiwi kids transition from game consumers to game makers where they will get to hone their skills in game design, coding and storytelling.

We are excited to be part of the TVNZ family and can’t wait to get started on the development! I’ll keep you posted.

– Dan

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Update on Saving Games

Gamefroot now saves a backup of your game to your local computer. So if your internet connection goes down, your game stays up and you don’t lose any of your precious work.

In previous versions of Gamefroot it was possible to lose changes if you saved your game when there was no internet connection – or even an internet glitch.

This was a rare problem but rare isn’t impossible. Therefore it has been very important for us to fix this issue. We don’t want people to lose their work. Ever!  

Now if something happens to your game you should always be able to access a copy on your computer. You can access these files by clicking on File > Open Game > Autosaves, like so:

As time permits we will continue to make this process even more streamlined. The ultimate solution is the one that runs automatically and never fails. While we’re working on making this happen these improvements will ensure that you’re in safe hands.

Enjoy Gamefroot!