Tag: PAX

Happy New 2025

Post author By MMG
Post date 27/01/2025

Happy New Year to 2025 and continued excitement

2025 brings new tidings for us here at Mini Mammoth Games and also ever closer to the full release of Roving Rovers! Whilst 2024 was not the best that Mini Mammoth Games has experienced it has certainly led us to a position of being able to further develop Roving Rovers and a client’s project as well!

Keep an eye out for both at SAGE 2025!

Firstly a short recap!

2024 started off like previous years, working on updated Roving Rovers to fit with the upcoming ARCh and SAGE events; giving us a strong start to the year. Which was then promptly stomped on by a client pulling out from signing a contract 3 days before; this was a client we had spent approximately 6 months pitching and negotiating with to get to that point. A large disappointment would be an understatement, however it also affected those we had spent time interviewing for positions we were sure to have in the coming year.

Thankfully we were also starting another project for a different client, so despite that drawback we weren’t going to let it get to us too much and so we trekked on! With the support of the University of Adelaide and the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources we brought Roving Rovers to a myriad of events, including:

The Australian Rover Challenge – held by the University of Adelaide
The South Australian Games Expo – held by the South Australian Film Corporation
PAX Australia; Australia’s biggest game based convention

With many companies behind us and Roving Rovers our CEO, David McCann was given the opportunity to attend the International Astronautical Congress that was held in Italy. Giving us the ability to network with the (much) wider space industry and also showcase the potential that the games industry can provide the space industry. A partnership between these two industries is only inevitable as they continue to expand across the world. The biggest example of how they can benefit each other is Kerbal Space Program, which has been around for years at this point (since 2015) and it has been used by astronautical engineers and amateurs alike to learn and play around with what specifics makes a rocket go to space.

Obviously not for actual testing when it comes to the professionals, hopefully, but much like flight simulators and city builders, they often attract those that are involved in the professions mimicked by the game. Games like this are often what drives a child’s or person’s interest into things like becoming a Pilot, Engineer or Astronaut; something that is often credited for their interest in pursuing a career in those fields too.

A surprising fact for those not in the know is that many programmers got their start in Redstone – Yes the red dust to make pistons move in Minecraft sparked many children’s interest in programming and computer engineering.

But to get back on track, keep an eye out for Roving Rovers being credited for bringing the next generation to the space industry – maybe, don’t quote us yet.

What is the herd up to? I hear you all say!

Well, to start off with we are in the final development stages of an internal project. This will be the first fully developed project of Mini Mammoth Games that isn’t a mobile game. This is a large step forward in our story! This project is also perfect to use as an example of our capabilities and will be used to showcase ourselves to potential clients.

On top of that exciting news we are also hosting a few workshops over January and February, with the January workshops being a partnership with the Australian Space Agency. Though this particular workshop has since passed and was a great success, with 2 of the 3 sessions selling out it is clear that this is a great opportunity that we will continue to take advantage of this year.

The second workshop is set for the 15th of January and is a partnership with the West Lakes council, so keep an eye out for when that is properly announced on our socials!

To no surprise you will find us at both SAGE and ARCh 2025; despite previous iterations of Roving Rovers having minimal mechanical updates from previous years it’s time to get real excited about what we will be presenting to you this year!

With the continual support of ATCSR we are doing a large overhaul and update to Roving Rovers to truly reflect our intent for the game’s future development and full release. It will genuinely showcase, not just the basics of the Australian Rover Challenge, but the mechanics, story and gameplay that the final release will have. This is something we are ecstatic about as we haven’t had much time to truly showcase the potential of Roving Rovers in the past, so this is a great opportunity to take another peak at what Mini Mammoth Games is developing!

Australian Rover Challenge’s winning Rover from 2024
Improved physics
Improved Rover building
Job specific Rovers
Humans!

Whilst our current future is full of lunar rovers, we have many game ideas that we would love to bring to fruition, ranging from Idle mobile games to interactive horror novels.

We will also keep supporting and growing the games industry the best that we can, so if you or anyone you know needs work experience or a placement within the games industry please reach out. We had a continuous flow last year and had many great games made by the students!

For more information on our placement program: https://minimammothgames.com/our-placement-program/
And if you want to check out the placement games from 2024 follow the link: https://minimammothgames.com/2024_placement_games/

Although the start of 2024 had many hiccups we have ended up in a great position with the support of many companies and the Australian space industry on top of that!

Make sure to keep an eye out for Roving Rovers at any games or space events near you and a quick shout out to our friends over at My Colourful Mind for their Christmas demo release of Taming Yore Dragon; with the full-release not far behind!

References

What is Kerbal Space Program:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerbal_Space_Program#Scientific_community

Kerbal Space Program’s impact

https://www.christopherroosen.com/blog/2021/1/16/kerbal-space-program-ksp-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-interesting-spaceflight-simulator

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/mar/06/kerbal-space-program-helping-space-flight-experts-of-the-future

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/22/kerbal-space-program-why-nasa-minecraft

Minecraft’s Redstone impact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45vp3O77CfQ

Minecraft’s Redstone similar to IRL circuitry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg-VeGSuf-Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV_lf1kyV9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUHdgWg_WZo

Tags Adeladie Game Developer, Adelaide, Adelaide Games Studio, Adelaide Indie Developer, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, ARCH, Australian Rover Challenge, Indie Developer, Mini Mammoth Games, PAX, PAX Aus, SAGE, South Australian Games Expo, University of Adelaide, Video Games

Development Processess Events

Gamescom 2023

Post author By MMG
Post date 22/09/2023

Gamescom 2023

So we’re going (or went) to Gamescom!

Two years ago this would have felt like an impossibility, but hey, we’ve come a long way since then. When the email from IGEA came in, asking for interested parties to join the Australian stand, we talked it over internally and decided that not only would it be hugely beneficial as a company to attend, but we could actually afford it.

Given we’ve been focusing so much on Roving Rovers recently, between space events and the MOD. exhibition (more blog posts coming soon) that seemed like the logical choice to showcase, but we were going to keep a couple of mobile projects in our back pocket should the situation arise.

Our goals were to raise awareness for the project to an international audience, and of course talk to publishers and investors in the hopes of securing further development and marketing funding. Thus began the process of building out a publisher pitch, practising it, refining it, practising some more, getting feedback, making changes and of course, even more practice. I’m pretty sure I can pitch you Roving Rovers in my sleep at this point.

With pitches perfected, flights finalised and accommodation arranged we were finally off to Germany. We left a few days prior to the event (Arriving Sunday evening for a Wednesday convention start) to give us a chance to get settled, and after nearly 30 hours of straight travel it was a good idea. We spent Monday getting settled and exploring the quaint village around our apartment, before heading to the venue Tuesday afternoon to check out the set up and catch up with the rest of the Australia crew.

The booth was still very much under construction at this point, but we were assured by the IGEA reps that everything would be set up come 9AM on Wednesday. The rest of the day was spent exploring Cologne’s downtown, highlights include the absolutely Massive cathedral and the bridge completely covered in locks.

Early evening was another trip to the convention space, looking much more finished now, to catch up with a fellow South Australian for dinner. Finally it was back to the apartment for an early night to rest up before three long days of convention going.

With definitely not a late night of development finished, we were off to the event! We had three people exhibiting Roving Rovers and the plan was two of us taking meetings with publishers/investors/other parties while the third person hangs around to show off the game to anyone walking past.

Coming from our previous experience exhibiting at events like PAX and AVcon, the business to business focus of Gamescom was definitely a different vibe. There were less people coming through the booth, but everyone that did was much more closely related to the industry and had interesting thoughts and opinions. While most of my day was spent running around meeting with people, I enjoyed the time hanging out with the game more than I have at any other event.

Meeting with publishers was an interesting experience, they were always very no-nonsense discussions which I appreciated. You’d sit down, run through the pre-planned pitch with them, show them/have them play the build if they were interested and then talk about the feasibility of working together. While some publishers were upfront that the game wouldn’t work for them for a number of reasons, the feedback was always helpful and quite a few were interested enough to want to talk further, so who knows what we’ll be announcing in the upcoming months 😉

After a very long three days we were finally done, with more than 20 meetings and ~100 people playing Roving Rovers at the booth, it was time to leave Germany behind (for now). But before further travels, a well earned day of rest and recuperation. While most of the team rested around our rented apartment, two of us spent a day out with some relatives who happened to live nearby, visiting an old palace and one of the few surviving pre-WW2 villages (insert pictures).

Sunday morning it was time to say our farewells, with some members staying an extra week to explore Europe, the rest of us caught a train to Amsterdam for an extra night before our flight home Monday afternoon. After a gruelling 36 hours of flight, especially with the beginning of con-flu starting to set in, we were finally back in Adelaide, and back to work after a couple of days rest.

So, now all is said and done, how was our first Gamescom?

It was an amazing experience, just to see something so huge, especially compared to events in Australia. Getting to talk to people from all over the world and from all sizes of companies was a wonderful experience. It was originally quite stressful, but over time the meetings and pitches got less and less scary. I’m hoping we’ll be there again next year, with a far more polished and better funded demo on display.

If any future devs are reading this, planning their own potential trip to Cologne, it’s definitely worth it. If you’re going to look for publishing and investment, practise your pitch until you know it by memory, and go in with an open mind.

A huge thankyou to IGEA for arranging the booth and giving us the chance to attend, and SAFC and InvestSA for supporting us both financially and with pitching training, advice, support and all kinds of help before, during and after the event.

Development Processess Events Prototypes

Roving Rovers: The Newest Experimental Space Simulator

Post author By MMG
Post date 30/07/2023

Adelaide's Addition To The "Space Race"

As many of you may be aware, we at Mini Mammoth Games have been working on a lunar rover game alongside multiple universities and space companies. Working with a large group of Flinders students we were able to create a basic demo that allowed players to control a lunar rover and perform the same tasks that the Australian Rover Challengers would have to complete. During the event we received amazing feedback from a wide array of attendees. From children refusing to put down the controller, to students who are dreaming of working within the space industry.

After the completion of the 2022 Australian Rover Challenge Mini Mammoth and the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources decided that Roving Rovers could continue to improve upon the first demo to help support the rover challenge and help to drive more interest into Australia’s growing space industry. So back to the screens we went, updating rovers for a fun and unique, but definitely not realistic rover to bring a bit more personality to the game. This also allowed us to create a mascot to help drive interest and emotional investment into Roving Rovers. This mascot became known as Brum, a fun and personable rover reminiscent of a bug. This next version of RR was taken to the 14th Space Forum in 2022, this allowed us, for the first time, to really reach into and have a look at the current state of the space industry and how it is evolving.

2023 rolls around and we spy another Australian Rover Challenge, this time we had focused hard on allowing the players to both choose pre-made rovers (one being the Adelaide Uni teams rover) and the option to modify and create your own version of Brum. This was a favourite section for many players, especially the ability to play as the rovers they’re watching compete. Furthermore we updated all the tasks to realistically resemble what the challenge’s tasks are. Which was also a big draw for the challenge teams as well, many came over to have a look and see just how similar it was and allowed other team members to be in control of the rover.

If you’re in Adelaide during the month of September 2023 make sure to stop by the MOD museum to play our demo for FREE during the exhibition! If you’re here specifically here on the 1st of September grab a FREE ticket from our Eventbrite page and celebrate the opening of our exhibition!

Meet The Team

Although the team for Roving Rovers includes those outside of Mini Mammoth Games, here are the Leads that will be ensuring it’s success!

Adding on the rest of the Mini Mammoth, our combined skills will allow us to achieve anything we wish for Roving Rovers!

What's On For The Future

In July we attended Avcon and allowed visitors to try out a demo of Roving Rovers, if you want to read more on that check out our blog!

In the rest of the coming year we will be showcasing Roving Rovers at every potential opportunity, these include many upcoming conventions! The first being Gamescom in August, then South by Southwest and the Melbourne International Games Week marathon. These are great opportunities for us to showcase our current prototype as we will be updating Roving Rovers over the course of the rest of this year. With many new opportunities for our community to have a tasting of Roving Rovers’ potential! So we look forward to seeing the rest of what South Australia will be showcasing at these events.

Roving Rovers has been a great opportunity for Mini Mammoth Games and we are very excited to see where it leads us in the future, furthermore we are excited to see what you are able to achieve with Roving Rovers!

A demo with the chance of completely making your rover from scratch; want only wheels? Sure, go ahead. Want three sets of wheels? Sure, you can do that! No ability to actually perform any tasks? Well, we can’t stop you, I guess. Where is it now? You ask, well, find out through our socials, but you might be seeing us pop up at all sorts of events, games? Space? Small business? Keep your eyes peeled and you might just catch a glimpse of us.

Want to test the current demo?

Want to keep up to date? Join the Roving Rovers mailing list here:

Or join our discord server, subreddit or follow our other socials for any and all updates!!

See you on our journey!

Events

Melbourne International Games Week 2022

Post author By MMG
Post date 01/12/2022

Feature image for the migw blog

Melbourne International Games Week of 2022

This year Mini Mammoth Games was able to go to Melbourne International Games Week for the first time! We managed to make it to all four events and had an excellent time there, being able to interact with both South Australian developers and developers from across the country. It was an unforgettable experience.

Here is a short recap of our time!

GCAP

At GCAP our goal was to both increase our professional network, while also learning practical skills that can be applied in our day to day game developer work from the variety of talks and panels available. GCAP ended up being a great experience overall with lots of industry connections being made and a variety of talks on a diverse range of topics. Stand out talks and panels were: See That Mountain, You Can Climb It by Osama DorIas and the panel on Queer Games.

We hope to be back next year with more of our team members to learn even more.

AGDAs

Rounding out GCAP were the Australian Game Developer Awards. This was a great experience to see just how big the games industry is in Australia, and the amazing games from Australian developers over the last year. For us, It was also a great excuse to dress up and look fancy (insert photo) while taking advantage of the catered food and drink. Throughout the night we talked to and met different people, not just other developers but the IGEA representatives who helped keep everything orderly too. All in all, the night was fantastic and we are looking forward to returning next year!

Games For Change APAC

Asia Pacific Convention ran concurrently with GCAP and involved both a teachers summit and 2 days of panels from industry representatives. The summit had a diverse array of teaching representatives from Kindergarten teachers through to University Lectures and educators covering the gap. Between lectures from organisations such as Scienceworks to practical exercises that taught teachers how to teach through games, the first ever Games for Change Festival was a raging success. Each evening allowed Mini Mammoth Games developers to connect with different industry representatives in networking drinks, and we were even able to chat with the managing director of G4C, Arana Shapiro. She had us sold on their mission in moments, and now we are die hard G4C supporters!

PAX

Rounding out the week was the 3 days we spent exhibiting Idle Gangs at PAX! Our main goal here was to get as many people to play the game and provide feedback as possible, while also providing awareness of our brand. Pax proved a huge success in this regard as we estimate around 500 people played Idle gangs over the weekend. This provided us with invaluable feedback and we left with multiple pages of notes detailing ways to improve the game. Feedback covered everything from the speed through which players should progress through our tutorial, to fine detail about the way different effects should feel. PAX is single handedly responsible for the feedback that lead to our muggables being trampled for extra money. Sometimes, it’s all about the little things.

PAX also proved to be a great learning opportunity as our first exhibit at a convention. We realised very early on that we should have bought a dev machine with us so we could update the game each evening, fixing small bugs and providing us with a better way to exhibit the game. Next time we will be far better prepared!

Overall, we had a great time in Melbourne, travelling between venues and meeting a variety of people. Being able to meet developers from around Australia and learn from them was something that Mini Mammoth is looking forward to experiencing again next year!

Congrats to every developer and their achievements this year!

Tags Adelaide, GCAP, Indie Developer, Mammoth, MIGW, Mini Mammoth Games, PAX