After a bit of a hiatus, Kenzan held another hack night at our Denver office last Wednesday, May 25. This time out, Russell Perkins, from the Kenzan DevOps team, and David Zuluaga, a Kenzan front end developer, discussed a video game they are developing that uses the Unity engine for a number of gaming systems including the Oculus Rift. They also gave a broad overview of the game engine market, explained why Unity is such a great choice (it’s relatively easy to use and it’s free!) and shared a point of view about why so few gaming companies are successful at creating their own engines.

Chris Pruyne, another Kenzan front end developer, gave an overview of his project: the embedding of a brand-new LED screen and a super-tiny Raspberry Pi Zero into an original 1989 Gameboy DMG body. With those electronics, some soldering, dremeling and case modification that will enable the dremeled out holes to contain X and Y buttons on the original controller board, Chris will be able to play most video games on gameboy, NES, SNES and several Sega systems.  He will be able to play just about any of those games with a controller by simply adding a few USB ports.

Doug Melvin, a Kenzan PMBA, brought a Raspberry Pi project, using a slightly larger model to embed a computer, screen and more, in a repurposed external hard drive case. With bluetooth, wifi, ethernet and a number of USB ports, this Raspberry Pi is capable of running myriad operating systems. In addition to this hardware project, Doug presented a python project he has been working on that will manage conference room usage in the office.

Stay tuned for information about our next Denver Hack Night, and if you’re in the New England area, our Rhode Island hosts their own too, so be sure to RSVP.