Tree Games

Every branch, every identity. All donations optional but appreciated ♥

[treegames]

um. i guess we’re on twitter until further notice.

click

[treegames]

Regarding our “Official Website”

Hello, friends!

I should have made this post several months ago, but I had a lot going on, and it simply became obvious this wasn’t possible.

Back in March, I fled from an extremely abusive situation.  Unfortunately, one of my abusers was hosting our “official website.” This raging transphobe and his wife harassed me, stalked me on social media, threatened the family of my friends and more, until I changed my phone number and blocked their emails, and then the emails of every relative I have.

However, when they used the police to try and track me down, I informed them of the situation, and they reported this back to my abusers.  Things escalated quickly, and I was informed in no uncertain terms that I was not welcome back (not that I wanted to be) until I returned to my dead name.  In others words, once I gave up my trans identity, my “drama” would be forgiven.

Fast forward to now, and if you attempt to go to the “official website,” it will redirect you to a “Foundation” which uses my dead name.

With no other way to contact me, this is what he has resorted to.  After years of neglect and abuse, I have no intention of going back, or ever speaking to them again, but do not give this “official website” traffic.

I apologize for the lack of content.  We have just barely gotten our heads above water, and I don’t have it in me to create right now.  I promise I have not abandoned you, and someday I will be back, but for now, I need to heal.

[treegames]

This website is now titled “Arguments Worth Having” and is a direct attack against me and my beliefs.  Again, please do not give this site traffic.

[treegames]

Regarding our “Official Website”

Hello, friends!

I should have made this post several months ago, but I had a lot going on, and it simply became obvious this wasn’t possible.

Back in March, I fled from an extremely abusive situation.  Unfortunately, one of my abusers was hosting our “official website.” This raging transphobe and his wife harassed me, stalked me on social media, threatened the family of my friends and more, until I changed my phone number and blocked their emails, and then the emails of every relative I have.

However, when they used the police to try and track me down, I informed them of the situation, and they reported this back to my abusers.  Things escalated quickly, and I was informed in no uncertain terms that I was not welcome back (not that I wanted to be) until I returned to my dead name.  In others words, once I gave up my trans identity, my “drama” would be forgiven.

Fast forward to now, and if you attempt to go to the “official website,” it will redirect you to a “Foundation” which uses my dead name.

With no other way to contact me, this is what he has resorted to.  After years of neglect and abuse, I have no intention of going back, or ever speaking to them again, but do not give this “official website” traffic.

I apologize for the lack of content.  We have just barely gotten our heads above water, and I don’t have it in me to create right now.  I promise I have not abandoned you, and someday I will be back, but for now, I need to heal.

[englishotomegames]

Trans Gal Jam 2 is an upcoming game jam for trans women starting this Sunday, June 24th! Here’s some information from the itch.io page:

“Bored of not seeing yourself in media/games? Me too. Well there is one way to fix it. Do it our damn selves.  Let’s create and share stories about people like us, our lives and our identities. The stories need to be heard! Never done a game before but feel like you would like to try? Welcome to the jam, we will help you out!

This jam is born from the combination of us needing representation in media, but also from me finding my passion in making games, and now I really want to show others that, yes, you too can make games if you want! Making a game might feel like a daunting task at first, but just making a tiny short game might be simpler than you though.

The previous jam and the entries can be found here, if you’re curious; https://itch.io/jam/trans-gal-jam

Rules:

If you wish to do a solo project, be a trans woman, transfeminine person, amab non-man or basically any other amab trans/nonbinary person who feels close enough to the trans woman experience and wish to be part of this. If you’re intersex and feel like you can relate to the trans woman identity you’re free to join too!

Projects can be either solo or a team project.

You can’t join alone if you’re afab or cis, if you still want to be part of the jam you need to be in a team with someone who is trans, preferably a friend or a partner or something like that.  Although women and afab nonbinary voices in gamedev are valid and need to be heard, this jam is for the trans girls.

Because gender is a fucking mess and these things aren’t always so simple, in case of you not knowing if you’re eligible to join the jam solo or team, just pop in the discord and ask or optionally message me directly on discord and we can sort it out, but most likely you’re fine to join anyway. :> add me ‘a nadia#6949’ Links directly to the discord server can be found below all this text.

Absolute priority on keeping the jam and the community around it safe and respectful, so everyone can be comfortable. Be mindful of others in the jam and in case of conflicts contact me instead of fighting it out. More specific rules for the discord can be found in the #rules_and_info channel in the discord.

As an optional theme; Make a game with one or more trans women in the game. It could be just the main character or maybe everyone in the game is trans, it’s up to you! It would be good if you have someone, but depending on the game type it isn’t always easy to show a character as trans.

Games are allowed to have heavy themes, but only with appropriate content warnings, so people know what to expect. No blatantly bigoted content with the sole purpose of upsetting people. If a submitted game is making people uncomfortable it may be removed from the jam depending on the circumstances.”

If you’d like to participate, you can find out more here!

[transgenjii]

i redrew the love interests from my first game back in 2013 lol

[lavahag-deactivated20190627]

Tumblr Boycott to Protest Continued Lack of Movement to Ban White Nationalists

Tumblr @staff have been silent about the use of this site by white nationalist bloggers, while numerous other sites (see this post) have made actions to ban nazis/white nationalists/”alt-right”/fascists. Tumblr needs to know their lack of action is unacceptable. I love my tumblr community and want to stay, but if this continues, I will have to considering leaving.

I suggest we push back, and unite to boycott on a certain date. I’m arbitrarily suggesting September 1st - it’s nine days from this post, and that gives it enough time to hopefully get spread as far as possible. Boycotts only work if lots of people do it. Please consider joining me and logging off tumblr on September 1st, to let them know we’re serious about their apathy towards white nationalism.

[wehavesuchfunsies]

Great idea.

Let’s also let @staff know that as they’re trying to increase advertiser spend, they should be well-aware of most ad tech companies (on the buy and sell side) have explicit rules against hate speech. You can tell Tumblr is aware of this because they’ve doubled-down on trying to locate the NSFW posts (quite badly based on how their technology fails so often) for what I imagine is brand safety for advertisers.

Given groups like Sleeping Giants has been successful in amplifying the voices of users protesting brands appearing on Breitbart, any other platform could be next in having their advertisers signaled with a screenshot of said posts where hate speech is proudly displayed against an ad served… well, you get the drift.

1.) Boycott

2.) Screenshot and tweet, byeeeeee 

[rubyvroom]

this is the one thing that might have an effect. all our @staff and emails and million-note posts don’t do shit, so hit ‘em where it hurts - their wallets. 

one day - no posts, no replies, no hits. stay off tumblr. September 1st.

[dvhs-inactive]

hey!!! i saw this on twitter this morning (link for those of you who wanna see the tweet) and i haven’t seen any posts about it here so i wanted to spread the word about it since this project looks really really cool and promising and i wanna see it succeed!!

two scoops is a dating sim where you play as a young woman who just got a job at a local family owned ice cream shop, two scoops. there’s a better description on the kickstarter page (you can also just click the image to go directly to it) but in essence it’s a dating sim game with a lot of unique and diverse romance options ! here are the current ones as of now:

you can also customize the main character’s basic appearance and choose her name !

this project looks extremely promising and interesting, the artwork and style is gorgeous (here’s some backgrounds)

there’s also some stretch goals for the project including a brand new romanceable character !!

i really really wanna see this get funded, the diversity is really really refreshing especially for a dating sim, the artwork is gorgeous and i wanted to spread the word. reblog this post, tell your friends, help back it if you can, i really wanna see more games like this and i’m extremely excited to play the full thing if it gets funded !!

[ineeddiversegames]

Help @INeedDivGms Stay in Business

Help @INeedDivGms Stay in Business

I Need Diverse Games is in danger of having to shut down. Attending conferences isn’t cheap and GDC cost us way more than even we expected. Attending PAX East isn’t going to be as big of a drain but there’s no way we can keep operating as is. A lot of people say they love what we do, but we can’t do this work without resources. Many people want us to come to conferences and conventions, or help…

View On WordPress

[treegames]

Quality content over on our twitter.

[treegames]

Come join us on Twitter!

[treegames]

let’s get social! - january 21st, 2017 update

Hey, folks!

So, following with the goal of staying connected with our community, we’d like to know what social media you’d like to see us on.  Whether it’s to get updates, or just hear whatever’s going through our heads at the moment, as well as communicate with us directly.

Please go to the poll here and vote!

[treegames]

apologies - december 30th, 2016 update.

I just wanted to start this off by apologizing to everyone who was excited for First Date.

There has been a lot of hardship this year for all of us, and I’m sure for a lot of you as well.  Sadly, at this time, First Date too large of a project for our team to handle, and so we are considering other options, but the lack of communication on our part was not good.

I’d like to apologize for that, too.  We firmly believe that communication with the our company’s community is essential, and we have really fallen flat in that way this year.

We are currently considering options for a smaller project so that we can give all of you more of the content that you came here for.  Thank you all for your patience with us through this difficult year.

[boomeyer]

Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

Dash - by General Assembly

CodeAcademy

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

Khan Academy

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy

TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book

Symfony 2 - Get Started

Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

[mementoluceat-blog]

I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!

Video games:

Easy game engines (virtually no coding): 

Game Maker Studio (2D; free and paid versions)

GameSalad (2D)

RPG Maker (2D; numerous versions ranging from free to $69.99)

Stencyl (2D; free and paid subscription versions)

Scratch (good for kids and is more general; 2D; free)

More difficult game engines: 

Unity (lots and lots of platforms; C# and JavaScript script; 2D, 3D, VR; free and paid versions)

Unreal (specializes in graphics; C++ and visual script; 2D, 3D, VR; free with a royalty on successful products)

CryEngine (Lua script; 3D; paid subscription and full license versions)

Mobile game development: 

Corona (free and paid subscription versions)

SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)

also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)

Game console development: 

Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)

Unity

Unreal

CryEngine

Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.

iOS apps:

In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:

Xcode (the official IDE for iOS apps; can be installed on OS X)

Start Developing iOS Apps Today (Objective-C)

Ray Wenderlich iOS tutorials (Objective-C and Swift)

Code School: Try iOS (Objective-C)

Developing iOS 8 Apps (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; Swift)

TutorialsPoint: iOS Tutorial (Objective-C)

How to Make iPhone Apps With No Programming Experience (Swift)

Swift Tutorial: Building an iOS Application (2, 3)

iOS apps are developed in the 2 official languages of Apple: Objective-C and Swift, the latter of which is newer and generally much easier to learn.

Objective-C resources:

the official documentation

TutorialsPoint: Objective-C Tutorial

Ry’s Objective-C Tutorial

Swift resources:

the official documentation

The Swift Programming Language (free official e-book)

Swift: A Quick Reference Guide

Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.

SpriteKit resources:

How to Make a Game Like Candy Crush With Swift (2)

Sprite Kit Swift Tutorial

Create Space Invaders with Swift and Sprite Kit

iOS SpriteKit Physics Tutorial in Swift

Build the Game of Life (Swift)

SceneKit resources:

Scene Kit Tutorial: Getting Started (Swift)

An Introduction to SceneKit (2; Swift)

Metal resources:

the official documentation + other resources (Obj-C)

iOS 8 Metal Tutorial with Swift (2, 3)

Getting Started With Metal (Obj-C)

An introduction to 3D graphics with Metal in Swift

Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:

How to Submit Your App to Apple: From No Account to App Store (2)

Beginner Tutorial: iOS Certificates & Provisioning Profiles

Android apps:

In order to develop Android apps, you’ll need to register as a developer for a one-time fee of $25. Here are some general resources:

Android Studio (the official IDE for Android app development; free; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

the official documentation

Getting Started

Android Tutorial For Beginners (2, 3)

Learn Android SDK From Scratch

Introduction to Android Development With Android Studio

Android apps are developed in Java and the layout is coded with XML.

Java resources:

W3schools: Java Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: Java Tutorial

Core Java Tutorial

XML resources:

W3schools: XML Tutorial series

TutorialsPoint: XML Tutorial

For publishing (which is somewhat easier than publishing iOS apps):

How to Publish to the Android Market

3D modeling/animation:

Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)

3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)

RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Misc. resources:

Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.

Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.

Cloud9, Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.

And some general advice:

Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).

If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.

Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.

For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.

Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.

Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.

Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.

If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.

Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.

If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).

If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!

[boomeyer]

Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!

[treegames]

Apologies in advance to all our black players.  Textured hair is not my forte.

[treegames]

LIs are all finished!!

[treegames]

Only one more LI to nail down, then I can start on MC art!!

[treegames]

Looks like we are going to be pushing the game back to 2016.  Guess that’s the price you pay for a small team, huh?