Zero Lodge
Dallas, TX
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
-Yogi Berra
The Zero Lodge is the first and founding chapter of the Ad Lib Game Development Society (ALGDS).
Zero Lodge (and the ALGDS itself) was founded by a group of Dallas area game developers who have a love and passion for game making but find that our day jobs (as full-time game developers) sometimes leave those passions not entirely satisfied. Long project cycles, market-safe concepts, and the need for competitive production values have created a situation in which new game ideas have the opportunity to be put into action sometimes less than once a year, and unconventional / experimental / radical ideas almost never.
Inspired by the likes of the Immersion Composition Society (founded by Nicholas Dobson and Michael Mellender) and the Indie Game Jam (hosted by Chris Hecker, Sean Barrett, Doug Church, and others), we therefore decided to undertake the practice of rapid, ad-lib game development.
Starting in May of 2004, we have so far had a number of sessions of increasing success. We're still discovering the best ways to do this sort of thing, and have so far improved our process with each attempt (not to mention having created several interesting, albeit often unfinished, byproducts along the way).
The following is a list of people who have participated significantly in one or more Zero Lodge sessions:
| Members and Attendees | domain | email @ zero.algds.org |
| Squirrel Eiserloh (founder) | Code / Design | squirrel |
| Josh Martel (co-founder) | Code / Design | |
| Tom Mustaine (co-founder) | Design / Art | |
| Lucas Davis (co-founder) | Code / Design | |
| Wyeth Johnson (co-founder) | Art / Design | |
| Shawn Ketcherside | Design / Code | |
| Richard "Charon" Heath | Design / Art | |
| Zach Hall | Art / Design | |
| Ken Harward | Code / Design | |
| Clare Bernier | Art / Design | |
| David Najjab | Art |
We have a winner! Asplode has been our most fun (and most successful) jam session to date. Total of about 24 hours of development time, which included 1 coder, 2 artist/designers, and 1 sound guy.
 Session 7: Asplode |
The following is a somewhat embarrasing history of the attempts at so-called games we've produced so far. Click on each screenshot for session details and file downloads.
 Session 0: Kobaioh |
 Session 1: Bustaculated! |
 Session 2: Meat My Baby |
 Session 3: NetSlack |
 Session 4: NetSlack revisited |
 Session 5: Balls To The Wall |
 Session 6: Infection |
 Session 7: Asplode |
...as well as some derivative works submitted by folks outside the Lodge:
Bustaculated Redux by Nathan Perkins |
The Zero Lodge has so far based all of our projects off our Game Engine framework, which is a simple C++ based basic game engine, which we've cleverly named "Game Engine". It was written mostly from scratch by Zero Lodge members (primarily Squirrel and Josh). This engine is free for use for whomever finds it of value -- especially other ALGDS Lodges -- so steal away!
The license / terms of usage, which can be found in Engine/License.hpp, are pretty simple:
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted.
So basically you can use it pretty much however you want. We do ask however that you include the Engine/License.hpp file as-is with any redistribution, either public or private.
Game Engine Capabilties (latest version):
The engine basically does the bare minimum to get you off and running, and not a whole lot more.
Downloads:
Questions? Feel free to send email to questions 'at' algds.org
ALGDS and page content are Copyright 2004 Brian "Squirrel" Eiserloh. Note that neither Brian Eiserloh nor the ALGDS makes any claims of ownership, expressed or implied, of content generated by ALGDS Lodge members. All code and content created in Lodge sessions is owned solely by its individual creators and governed entirely by the decisions thereof. We do, however, reserve the right to freely release and redistribute any code, assets, or games submitted to the ALGDS by their rightful owners for that purpose.