The first thing to mention is that two of us got games finished and submitted to the competition: Jeremy and me. Follow those links to our Ludum Dare pages where you can download and play our games! Darcy, after a false start with a framework that didn’t do what he wanted, got a basic idea up that he demoed at TON a few weeks back, and Alex got a lot of work done on UI for his game engine.

Overall, Ludum Dare 23 was amazing. Over the course of one weekend, over 1400 games were brought into the world that didn’t exist before, and we contributed two of them from KwartzLab. If you want to check out the results from the competition, there’s a top 50 overall list and the list of top 25 from each category. I strongly encourage you to check out the top games. Some of them are really amazing for 48 hours of work.

I think we all had a lot of fun over the 48 hours, even though it was a lot of hard work. Ludum Dare 24 is in August… who’s with me!

Thanks again to KwartzLab for hosting, and to CCJ Clearline and TribeHR for buying us food throughout the weekend.

Ludum Dare is a 48-hour solo video game making competition held three times every year. I’ve wanted to participate ever since Ludum Dare 2 or 3, and I’ve followed it with interest for a long time. This month is the 10th Anniversary of Ludum Dare, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to finally throw my hat in the ring. Alex and Darcy have decided to join me.

You can too! If you’re of the video-game making persuasion (or if like me you’re of the wannabe-video-game making persuasion) you can come and join us and take on the Ludum Dare. We’ll be working away at KwartzLab, where there will be others like you making games, which should make for a good time.  The competition is:

April 20th @ 8 PM (theme announced at 9) until April 22nd at 9PM.

If you’re interested in joining us, you can register here. There’s a very limited number of spaces at the lab, as we want everyone to feel comfortable and not be crowded. By signing up you’ll also get a spot at Warmup Weekend (the 14th and 15th) reserved for you, where you can practice with your tools before the competition weekend.

Some food and energy drinks will be provided to the developers thanks to our initial two sponsors, CCJ Clearline and TribeHR.  If you’re interested in buying some crazy game devs some pizza, chinese food, or energy drinks, hop over to the registration page and sign up as a sponsor! We don’t ask for much, and we’ll link to you!

Finally, if you’re not interested in making a game, but you want to watch, we’ll have the KwartzLab stream on all weekend and we’ll be in the #kwartzlab IRC channel on freenode. We might also take some time on Sunday night to demo the games, if you want to come out and see them.

It’ll be a crazy 48-hours, and thanks to KwartzLab for making it happen!

Remember, everything you see here is donate-what-you-can/donate-what-its-worth and all proceeds go to the KwartzLab Big Tool Acquisition Fund!  We use that fund to help us acquire Big Tools like Laser Cutters, 3D printers, and CNC mills.

There’s a lot of great stuff here, and I saved the best for last, so make sure to read all the way to the bottom…

Let’s get started, shall we? (pictures below the fold)

In this first photo, I spy:

• Some Wiimote-like things that plug into a USB port
• Two honkin’ 70VDC motors
• A few project boxes
• A 12VDC power supply
• And a bunch of other stuff

In pic #2, I see:

• A CRT monitor
• Two sets of speakers
• Two scanners
• A bunch of mice
• Some headphones
• A 12V motor with a car-power attachment

Now this is getting interesting………

• We’ve got a Sound Mixer
• A table microphone
• A digital Qur’an
• A digital drumkit (makes no noise, but the pads work)
• Another set of speakers
• And…. Could it be?  Real “DJ Pauly D Headphones”?  Who cares.  They work as headphones, though.

Here’s a few interesting and classic items:

• A Silver(?) drink serving set
• A Hi-8 Camcorder
• Another hand-scanner
• And a couple of hand drill-presses (drill not included)

And now… the picture you’ve all been waiting for….

WOW!  This is amazing!

• Not one, but two OLPCs!
• A bunch of robot things (including two robot dogs!)
• That pink bag halfway back on the right?  That’s full of hairdryers!
• 4 monitors, 3 of them LCD! (though some of the LCDs are flaky)
• 2 whole computers!
• And more!

If those pictures aren’t enough to entice you to come out for KwartzLab Junkyard tomorrow, Saturday September 10th from 1 PM to 7 PM, I don’t know what is.  And this isn’t even everything that will be there! Members are still bringing more stuff out tomorrow!  You never know what you’ll find!

One Maker’s Trash is another one’s Treasure.

• Where: KwartzLab
• When: September 10th, 2011 – 1 PM to 7 PM
• What: A bunch of stuff that you can have!

Looking for the last piece for a project?  Like scavenging though others’ stuff to find useful tidbits?  Do you go to garage sales in hopes of finding a cool thingy?

Then come out to KwartzLab Junkyard on Sept 10th from 1 to 7PM and see what’s up for grabs at KwartzLab!

You see, makers are also sometimes hoarders.  Many of us have stuff we bought for projects that we never used, or just stuff we don’t want anymore.  So we’re going to put it on the tables and you can come and take it!

There’s only one thing we ask in return: That you donate whatever you think it’s worth to you to our Big Tool Acquisition Fund.  We won’t haggle.  Our BTAF is currently working on getting us a laser cutter, and there will be more after that!

So come on out and see what you can find!

So tell us how one would affect your decision to join!

(Existing members, please don’t vote, this is for new members only!)

[PollMe form='JoinForLaserCutter']

We have free Wi-Fi, a stocked drink fridge, and plenty of tables and couches to work at. KwartzLab isn’t probably the perfect place to work out of right now, but that’s why we need to do the beta, so you can tell us what’s missing!

So if you’re a freelancer looking for a change of venue, or just someone who needs to get out of the office for a day, come on out! I’ll be at the lab from 9 until 5 each day (though I may go out for lunch). A few other members may be joining me, and we’d love to see your face too!

(If you’re interested, please comment below so I know you’re coming. I don’t want to be surprised by complete strangers.)

Original Post

The new space is going to be our “tool room.” Some of our members are going to be bringing in some of their larger tools (think of the kind of tools that come with their own table), and we’re going to start ramping up out ability to make cool things! For a lot of our members, this is the day we’ve been waiting for.

So come out tonight and see what’s new and awesome at KwartzLab!

As usual, Tuesday Open Night runs from 7 PM to 10 PM on Tuesday… Today!

Looks like Cory Doctorow thinks its a good idea. I wonder if he’ll come…