Tag Archives: indie games

Train2Game News: New online indie game market opening soon

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A new online store is going live on 26 September selling indie games. It will utilise a pay-what-you-want scheme.

The new store, IndieGameStand, is run by the same people behind Indie Game Magazine. Its goal is to promote indie games and give indie developers a chance to show their talents.

The pay-what-you-want scheme is a good way for customers to show their support for indie titles. The majority of the games have extra bonuses that come with them if you choose to spend enough. 10% of all sales will go towards the developer of the games chosen charity. Humble Bundle has had good success with a similar scheme.

Every game you purchase from the site can be downloaded and installed as many times as you like, regardless of what you paid.

IndieGameStand states on its website “The purpose of IndieGameStand is to put a spotlight on those indie titles which provide fantastic experiences, but may have been passed over by the mainstream gaming public, portals, websites, or whatever. This site is about supporting all of the fantastic and worthwhile indie developers out there. Every developer out there deserves a moment to shine.”

This is good news for students as it opens up a new market to sell your games on. You can get good exposure, have a game released and help a good cause.

You can learn more at IndieGameStand.com

Train2Game News: Robert Boyd wants more opportunities for Xbox indie games

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Robert Boyd believes Xbox should help their indie market by allowing high rated games to break through to Xbox Live Arcade.

It can be difficult to become a developer for XBLA. Taking inspiration from Steams Greenlight, Robert Boyd of Zeboyd believes Microsoft could do more for indie developers.

In his opinion the Xbox Live Indie Games could be a proving ground for new titles, with the best among them being sent forward to be released on XBLA. Similar to Steams Greenlight community rating system.

Boyd said “I’d like to see XBLIG kind of merge into XBLA”

“Keep Indie Games free to everyone but if you have a really good game, you could submit it to Microsoft for it to be upgraded to an XBLA title. Right now, becoming an XBLA developer is fairly difficult for a small team, so reducing the barrier of entry to XBLA could only help Microsoft, I think.”

If Microsoft take this on board any student who decides to create their own game can be spurred on by the thought that if their game is successful it will reach an even bigger audience. That can only be good for everyone involved.

It can be very hard to stand out in the Indie market. Any developer who makes a good game that is enjoyed by players should be rewarded for it.

Train2Game students can hear indies speak at GameCityNights

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Train2Game students in Nottinghamshire have a great opportunity to find out how an indie studio works for themselves at GameCityNights later this month.

In their latest monthly event, GameCityNights will feature all three former Bizarre Creations developers of indie studio Hogrocket as they discuss their debut game Tiny Wings, their move away from Triple-A and life as an indie.

Of course, those who can’t make it to Nottingham can always read the Train2Game blog interview with Hogrocket co-founder Ben Ward in which similar subjects are covered.

“We’ve always loved the GameCity Festival and admired the hard-working folks behind it, so it’ll be great to take the stage once again in Nottingham” said Hogrocket’s Pete Collier.

“This time we’ll be sharing the experience of starting a brand new games studio, including all the ups and downs that go with it! We’ll also let you play Hogrocket’s first gaming creation: Tiny Invaders. See you there!”

The GameCityNights event will also be showcasing a number of indie games, which will no doubt be of interest to Train2Game students.

GameCityNights Season 2, Episode 7 takes place on Thursday 29th September from 6pm in central Nottignham. For more information, and for ticket prices, see the GameCityNights website.

So Train2Game, if you’re in the Nottingam area, will you be going? Do you see it as something useful to you?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Team Meat on how to get your game on Steam

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Super Meat Boy developers Team Meat recently featured on the IndieGames.com podcast where they discussed their projects and various aspects of game development.

Perhaps of most interest to Train2Game students is Team Meat’s advice about how to get an indie game onto Steam.

As Train2Game students will know, the Steam digital distribution service can be very beneficial for indie developers, with Frozen Synapse developers Mode 7 Games labelling it as essential.

So how does an indie studio get their game on Steam?

“If you can get a lot of attention, and get people to care about your game, try to do interviews, show what your game’s about”  Edmund McMillen, one half of Team Meat told IndieGames.com

“And if Steam keep saying no, then just release it, and then if it does really well, then show Steam.”

He added that Steam is giving indie games more publicity because it’s been a successful venture for them.

“I think Steam is getting more accepting of indie games because they’re doing really well with indie games. Indie games are doing really fantastic on Steam”

“So yeah, persistence… make the best game you can, and talk about your game.” He added.

McMillen also argued that being prepared to go the extra level to get your game published on Steam, and not giving up at the first hurdle is also very important for indie game developers looking to get their games on the service. Getting there could be tough.

“But don’t give up too — that’s like a big thing. We used to hear of a lot of people saying “I emailed Steam and they didn’t get back to me”, and then they just fucking give up.” he said.

“If we gave up, we wouldn’t be on anything. We had to fucking fight. You have to fight for these things.

“I would say persistence and drive are the two most crucial things about being a successful indie developer.” Added Tommy Refenes, the other half of the two-person Team Meat team.

Last time Team Meat featured on the Train2Game blog, they labelled Kinect ‘garbage.’ The statement was controversial to say the least and drew both support and opposition from Train2Game students.

What are your thoughts on the advice from Team Meat? How important is persistence to game developers? And do you see Steam as an avenue to publish your games through in future?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamasutra] 

Train2Game students should take the opportunity to game jam, here’s why…

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Train2Game recently announced that a second 48 hour Game Jam  will take place in early November, with full details  about it available to Train2Game students on the Train2Game forum.

Game Jams are an excellent way for any game developer to test their skills, and in an interesting #altdevblogpostaday article, PixoFactor’s Adam Rademacher explains why Game Jams are “best practice” for game developers.

He argues that Game Jams are a great place to improve your abilities thanks to the focused nature of the 48 hour development period.

“The entire weekend you’re thinking about game development” wrote Rademacher.  “Thinking about how to program new features, or how to speed up your art production.  Even if you don’t finish the game on time, it’s not hard to see how it can improve your skills”

“Even if you only learn to write one new function, or one new shader, you’ve improved upon your skillset, and now you have a (hopefully) cool prototype to continue building on.”

Rademacher adds that Game Jams are an excellent opportunity to develop prototypes of games, a practice that’s common in the industry. Indeed, an interview with the Train2Game blog earlier this year, Mediatonic Director Paul Croft revealed that they’re a good way of coming up with new games.

It’s also suggested that Game Jams are a great way of practicing creativity, and in an environment where if the idea doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter.

“It’s easy to set out on a project with all intention to create something innovative and new, then be completely distraught when it’s no fun, or unreasonable to try to finish, or just not as innovative as you thought it would be.  But that’s cool.  Because you’ve only spent a weekend on it.”

The #altdevblogaday piece is a great way for game developers to try out new technology, and learn cool new stuff. This is exactly what Train2Game students will have the opportunity to do at the second official Train2Game Game Jam, in which the Unreal Development Kit will be used to make games! It’s an engine that many Train2Game students won’t have used before.

The importance of Game Jams piece is available in full to read on #altdevblogaday. While full details about the Train2Game Game Jam are on the Train2Game forum.

What are your thoughts on the benefit of Game Jams?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Altdevblogaday] 

Train2Game News: Free CryENGINE®3 SDK for non-commercial use

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Crytek has announced that they will release their latest all-in-one game development solution CryENGINE 3 free of charge for non-commercial use. The award winning SDK provides the complete game engine to create AAA quality next generation games for PC, and includes the CryENGINE®3 Sandbox™ level editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) – tool designed by and for professional developers. The free toolset is available for download at crydev.net, the former crymod.com community portal that offers documentation written by the developers of the engine, a thriving community and a supplementary knowledge base for CryENGINE 3.

The free CryENGINE SDK will be updated regularly, to make sure our community has access to all the advances we make to CryENGINE 3.

“With the release of our SDK we encourage creators to try out CryENGINE 3 and hope it will lead to new companies being formed and using our engine. More importantly we expect to increase the talent pool for CryENGINE developers, as well as boosting our online community of users. This SDK contains more toys than we’ve ever released before – it empowers people to create whole new games from scratch, not just mod Crytek’s own games, so we encourage all aspiring and indie developers to try it out.” said Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development CryENGINE.
“For those who want to make the step into commercial gaming, we’ll offer a royalty-only license model for games made with this SDK, where Crytek require only 20% of the developer’s revenues from the commercial launch of their game.”
For more information visit http://www.mycryengine.com

Train2Game forum user favourite Minecraft hits 3 million sales

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Train2Game forum user favourite Minecraft has reached 3 million sales. The news was confirmed by the game’s creator Markus “Notch” Persson.

“Minecraft just sold its third million copy!” Notch simply said in a Tweet.

It’s a very impressive achievement for a game that’s still just in its Beta and a number of sales that Train2Game students will surely dream of reaching some day. As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Minecraft will receive a full release later this year, with 11th November pencilled in.

“It’s a bit tricky to really do a release for Minecraft as we keep updating it all the time. For one, the version we deem as the “full version” won’t be very different at all from what the game was like a week ago, and we’ll keep adding features after the release as well” Notch wrote of a full release on his blog.

“So it’s really more of a milestone when we finally get rid of the Beta label, and some kind of goal for us to work towards. The plan is to be open with this and try to get people to cheer us on as much as possible, but to be open with the fact that the game won’t change much at the actual release day. (It’s more a progress up until that point)”

While sales of Minecraft have seen Notch become a millionaire – mainly thanks to world of mouth recommendations of the game – the Train2Game blog previously reported that the game still has over 10 million people registered for just the free version.

Minecraft is a testament to Train2Game students that you don’t need to be working for a huge studio to be successful in the industry, and that producing indie games could be the way forward.

Indeed, as reported by the Train2Game blog, Minecraft won Best New Download IP  at theDevelop awards, while studio Mojang won the New Studio and Microstudio awards.

The Train2Game blog coverage of the Develop Conference can be seen right here.

Minecraft’s success surely won’t stop there, because as reported by the Train2Game blog, we’ll also see an Xbox 360 version of Minecraft towards the end of this year.  Minecraft is also heading to smartphones…not bad for an indie game, right?

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the continued success of Minecraft? Does it inspire you to get on with your Train2Game course and release games?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: @Notch]

Train2Game students can help indie devs and charity with Humble Indie Bundle 3

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Train2Game students have the opportunity to check out five great indie games and donate to charity at the same time with Humble Indie Bundle 3.

The scheme runs in exactly the same way as Humble Indie Bundle 2, as reported by the Train2Game blog in December last year.

The indie games available – which could all potentially provide inspiration for Train2Game students – are Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight and And Yet It Moves.  They’re available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

If the games were bought separately, it’d cost around $50 (or around £30) but you have the opportunity to get them for much less as you pay what you like. You can also choose how your payment is divided between the game developers and the two charities; Child’s Play and EFF.

At the time of writing Humble Indie Bundle 3 has raised over $400,000 after 90,000 purchases. The biggest contributor appears to be Notch, developer of Train2Game student favourite Minecraft who donated over $4000.

Train2Game students can check out Humble Indie Bundle 3 on its official website. The trailer is also available to watch below, here on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, is this good cause a good way for indie developers to gain publicity? Would you use the ‘pay what you want’ model for your games?

As usual, leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Thanks to Vampire Duck on the Train2Game forum for the tip off]

Train2Game news: Indie devs need XBLA, PSN or Steam to succeed say Hello Games

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Train2Game students have already published some of their own games online, but to have real success, they’ll have to publish them via XBLA, PSN or Steam.

That’s according to Hello Games, who published Joe Danger on the PlayStation Network last year. (You can read more about it here on the Train2Game blog)

“I think without the support of at least one of those outlets, the chances of success are reduced from tiny to almost non-existent,” Hello Games CEO Sean Murry said at Develop when asked about XBLA, Steam and PSN.

“I think that if you talked to other indie developers, they might say, ‘we’ve been turned down by Steam, or XBLA or PSN’. It’s a really common thing to hear, but it’s also often a real finishing blow for any studio.

“Often people are 100 per cent relying on it. Not just their approval process, but with someone like Apple you are 100 per cent reliant on them promoting your game. Without that, the service is nothing. It’s the same for Steam, it’s the same for XBLA, PSN – being on their services is only worth the amount of promotion that you’re going to be blessed with.”

Murray’s comments echo those of Frozen Synapse developer Mode 7 Games, who as reported by the Train2Game blog earlier this month, claimed Steam is ‘essential’ for indie developers.

Of course, as the Train2Game blog saw at Develop last week, it’s possible for indie developers to have success without the backing of a major distribution service, with Minecraft perhaps being the best example of this.

So Train2Game, where do you stand on the issue? Is XBLA, PSN or Steam needed for an indie game to be successful? Are you aiming to publish on one of those platforms in future?

As usual, leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

Mojang’s Scrolls to follow same release strategy as Minecraft

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Regular Train2Game blog readers will be highly aware of the success of indie game Minecraft, as well as its huge following among Train2Game forum users.

Some of them have been there since they purchased Minecraft when it was in Alpha, or in its current Beta form, and Mojang have revealed that their next game, Scrolls, will follow the same pattern.

“With our new game, Scrolls, we’ll follow the same formula as Minecraft,” said Mojang’s Daniel Kaplan while speaking at GameLab in Barcelona.  ”That means we’ll release the game very early, at the minimal playable state.”

That means people will pay for it, play it, and give feedback from a very early stage, in essence, almost asking like a QA Tester. Kaplan also revealed that Scrolls has a five person development team.

“That sounds like a small team, but it’s very big for us. One thing that means is we’re going to have to outsource art,” he added.

As reported by the Train2Game blog earlier this month, Minecraft for the Xbox 360 IS being developed by Dundee based 4J Studios, and Kaplan says it’ll be quite different to the PC version.

“I don’t think we can have the exact same experience because of the lack of a keyboard, so we’re going to do a complete overhaul of the user interface, and make sure it works on a 360 controller.”

Kaplan also commented on the prospect of Mojang publishing games by other indie studios, something the Train2Game blog revealed the developer was thinking of last month.

“We’re looking for people with a similar structure [to Mojang],” he said. “People who are very passionate about what they’re doing. We’re also looking for games that last longer, and treat games as a service, like Minecraft does.”

“And of course, [they need to have] passion,” he added. “A lot of people join the game industry because of passion, but you should also learn that that’s what it takes to stay there.”

That last statement could describe many Train2Game students who are very passionate about finding work in the games industry.

So Train2Game, what do you think of Scrolls release structure? Will it mirror the success of Minecraft? And will you be jumping in straight away?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamasutra]