Monthly Archives: May 2011

Interesting read for Train2Game students: Rocksteady on the Game Design of Batman: Arkham City

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Here’s one for those of you on the Train2Game Game Design course. In an interview with The Guardian, Rocksteady Studios Game Director Sefton Hill gives a massive insight into the Game Design of the upcoming Batman: Arkham City.

It also reveals what goes behind the scenes at the game developer, useful for anyone on a Train2Game course!

The Train2Game blog reported that Batman: Arkham City was in development in August last year.

“You need an engaging storyline created around compelling characters in a beautifully realised world, all built on the bedrock of original and fun core gameplay mechanics”

“No longer is it sufficient to excel in any one of these areas if you want to stand out.” said Hill when asked what Game Design features are needed for an action adventure title.”

“At Rocksteady, working on Batman: Arkham City, we started with two key driving forces: everything we do is built around creating a fun experience and this experience must be completely authentic to Batman and his universe.”

“In terms of what the content is, it’s simply about what excites us. I believe the only way to make something that people will feel passionate about is if you feel inspired by the ideas yourself. We don’t try and second guess what other people want; we make the game we want to play.”

That could be useful advice to those on a Train2Game course who’re looking at making their own games in the near future, make something that you find fun and it’s likely it will be fun!

The Batman: Arkham City Game Director was asked if Rocksteady subscribed to any particular theories of Game  Design.

“There are many different trends, but personally I believe there is no magic bullet [Game] Design theory that fits all situations,” Hill replied

“At Rocksteady, we believe the solution is to be flexible. Depending on what area of the game we’re designing, different people will be involved and different processes will be used.”

He continued, “We have a totally different approach when we design levels, to story, to bosses and to core gameplay mechanics.”

“Some of these processes involve repeated iterations and reviews by a large group over a number of days and some require monthly reviews by just a couple of people over the entire duration of the project.”

If there’s one thing we always strive to do though, it’s to keep the [Game] Design process as inclusive as possible. We have a team full of incredibly talented staff and great ideas come from everyone.”

Hill concluded by discussing the future of Game Design. Of course, those on the Train2Game Game Design course now would very much like to be a part of that!

“The beauty of video game development is that the potential for new ideas is incredible. The industry is so aggressively creative that the parameters of what is even possible changes every few years. It’s what makes working in this industry so challenging, competitive and rewarding.” he concluded.

Batman: Arkham City is scheduled for release on October 21st, see the trailer here on the Train2Game blog.

What are your thoughts on the Game Design behind Batman: Arkham City? And how about how Rocksteady Studios develop games? Are you looking forward to the title?

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

[Source: The Guardian]

Randy Pitchford’s BAFTA Duke Nukem Forever Game Developer Q&A – Part 1

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Duke Nukem Forever

Recently, the Train2Game blog attended a very special Duke Nukem Forever Q&A session with Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford at BAFTA in central London.

During the hour long event, the Gearbox Software CEO discussed many issues of interest for Train2Game students.

This included his path into the games industry, the history of the Duke Nukem franchise, Game Design concepts that were dropped during development, Borderlands and much, much more. Luckily, for those of you who didn’t attend the event, the Train2Game blog is here to give you a run down of the key points.

There was a lot of information, so we’ve decided to divide our feature into three pieces, with one published a day between now and Friday. So, be sure to stayed tuned to the Train2Game blog this week! Part one is right here.

The Duke Nukem Forever Q&A at BAFTA begun with Randy Pitchford talking about how he first started working was a game developer – something surely of interests to Train2Game students!

Like many who entered the games industry during the 1990s, Pitchford took his first steps into game development by programming computers as an amateur. (As the Train2Game blog recently reported, the Raspberry Pi could revive this era of bedroom coding)

The young Pitchford originally studied law at university – which he claims to have paid for through a part-time job as a magician – before dropping out to pursue a career as a game developer.

It’s a tale many Train2Game students surely see as familiar, with many now taking Train2Game courses with the aim of a brand new career.

Pitchford’s first role in the games industry as a game developer was at 3D Realms where he worked on…Duke Nukem 3D. He left the company in 1997 and went onto found Gearbox Software two years later. However, despite spending a relatively short period with Duke Nukem at 3D Realms, Pitchford said “I owe him my career”

Duke Nukem Forever Screenshot 02

15 years later and it’s Gearbox Software that ensuring Duke Nukem Forever is finally released, and despite all of the delays, and the cancellations, Pitchford believes the game will be the “ultimate version” of 3D Realms vision.

But with the original Game Design concepts being thought of way back in the mid 1990s, will Duke Nukem Forever work in 2011? Pitchford not only believes that it will, but believes it could be the most complete FPS experience since Half-Life 2. (As the Train2Game blog has previously reported,  2004’s Half-Life 2 remains an inspiration to game developers)

“The gameplay, I’m really excited to see how people respond to that because when you think about Call of Duty and games like that you realise that games today have really started to become narrow” he told the the BAFTA Audience.

“A shooter is now just an exercise of reaction-time skill test after reaction-time skill test. Get your cursor on the next guy and knock him down before he gets your health to zero, and every test is just a complication of that very simple [Game Design] mechanic”.

“Sometimes a new mechanic will be introduced like stunning guys and performing combos, or sliding on things and jumping around environments. Whatever it is, at the end of the day they all focus on that same one mechanic”

“It’s been a while since we had a game that was comfortable having pacing and variety from action to puzzle-solving to exploration and discovery. Even just non-sequiturs, like all the interactive stuff we have in Duke are total non-sequiturs but it’s just entertainment, right?

“It’s been a while since we’ve had that; I think the last great one for me was Half Life 2. So I’m excited for Duke to show up and have some of this because I think it will remind everyone how great that kind of experience is and it may motivate some more of us to remember that you don’t have to have all these one-trick ponies in terms of gameplay mechanics.”

Parts 2 and 3 of our report will be posted on the Train2Game blog on Thursday and Friday this week.

Dragons’ Den: The Official Game v1.1 update released

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Dragons’ Den: The Official Game – developed by Train2Game course providers DR Studios, under license from 2waytraffic, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company – has received its first update, changing a few elements of the game. They are listed below.

Dragons’ Den: The Official Game for iPhone and iPad is available to download from the Apple App store for £1.79. More information about Dragons’ Den: The Official Game can be found on the official website.

The following changes have been made to  Dragons’ Den: The Official Game v1.1

  • Increased number of inventions per game to 5
  • Double the players starting cash to £1,500,000
  • Added ‘Retire or ‘Continue’ buttons at the end of each game

After 5 inventions have been played through You will get the usual final ‘Outcome’ screen showing the outcome & final results table. The results table will NOT display the medals. In addition the player will see 2 buttons at the bottom of the screen

  • Next Episode
  • Retire

If the player decides to ‘Continue’ The game will roll into the next set of five inventions. Player retains their Dragon name.

If the player chooses to ‘Retire’ we will display the ‘ See you Next time on Dragons Den’ but will also display the final results table with the medals. Scores are updated on Open feint.

For the latest information about Dragons’ Den: The Official Game follow @dragonsdengame on Twitter, and ‘Like’ Dragons’ Den: The Official Game on Facebook. For a behind the scenes look how Dragons’ Den: The Official Game was made, see the developer interview with Lead Designer Mete Djemal

Gamers don’t want ‘hand holding’ says Ridge Racer developer. Do you agree Train2Game?

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Ridge Racer: Unbounded

Gamers – that’s you Train2Game student! – want more challenging and in depth experiences. That’s according to game developer Bugbear, currently producing the latest incarnation of the Ridge Racer series, Ridge Racer: Unbounded, which was revealed earlier this month.

The news comes after the Train2Game blog reported earlier this month that Driver – traditionally a difficult title aimed at hardcore gamers – is going to be ‘more accessible’ with the release of Driver: San Francisco.

“I think games in general used to be a little bit simpler, but also a little bit more demanding. I’m not sure if consumers actually want all of this hand holding we’re offering them now.” Bugbear producer Joonas Laakso told CVG.

“Nobody expected Demon’s Souls to do well but it did, and I’m really happy that Namco Bandai is now publishing Dark Souls.”

“For example, our previous games in the Flatout franchise were really difficult games – I couldn’t finish Flatout 2. There have been some really difficult games in the past but the fans seem to like it and we get fan mail weekly about it.”

“People really seem to like those old titles and they want something like that.”“I think that maybe there’s a demand for more in-depth gameplay experiences than what have been catered to lately. Maybe we’ve been doing too much automation.”

He argues that gamers still want to play games that provide them with a challenge.

“I think that studios really have to find a balance between offering more spectacle and higher production values, but I think maybe as an industry we’ve gone too far in that direction – for all spectacle and too little gameplay, and games become disposable experiences instead of games which you keep playing for years and years.” He concluded.

Ridge Racer: Unbounded is scheduled for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC next year.

So Train2Game, do you think some games are getting too easy? If so, which ones in particular? Do you have plans to produce challenging games for a hardcore audience? And are you excited about the return of Ridge Racer?

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

[Source: CVG]

L.A. Noire’s animation so advanced it almost came on six discs

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L.A. Noire screen

Earlier this month, the Train2Game blog reported that L.A. Noire’s Art & Animation technology is so advanced, that the Xbox 360 version of the game comes on three discs. (If you’ve not seen the facial Art & Animation in action, see it elsewhere on the Train2Game blog)

Now, Team Bondi has revealed that L.A. Noire could have needed as many as six discs if not for “miraculous compression”

“We’ve always been called stupidly ambitious,” L.A. Noire Director Brendan McNamara told GameSpot . “Along with Rockstar we make very big games.”

“It took a lot of effort to get down to three discs – I think we were on four or five or six at one point – and to get it onto one Blu-ray [for the PlayStation 3 version]. We’re pretty pleased that we got it down to that in the end”

“It’s the biggest map that we’ve done and that Rockstar have done, so there’s a lot of detail in there, and also a lot of actor’s performances – 21 hours worth,” he added.”

As the Train2Game blog reported last week, McNamara believes that Game Designers are realising that video games can be about human drama. He also believes that the MotionScan Art & Animation technique will make it hard to differentiate between game, film and television in future.

Earlier this week, the Train2Game blog revealed that Valve are keeping a close eye on L.A. Noire’s Art & Animation tech.

Of course, L.A. Noire isn’t just about tech, and you can find out more about the Game Design in this Train2Game blog post.

L.A. Noire is released in the UK on Friday.

So Train2Game, is the fact the game could have been on six discs testament to how impressive it is? And will you be playing on Friday? If so, which console will you purchase L.A. Noire for?

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

[Source: GameSpot via OXM]

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations development team over 200 staff strong

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Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Earlier this month, Train2Game news revealed that Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is in development at Ubisoft, with a big reveal planned for E3 next month.

It’s going to be a huge title, with GameInformer reporting that the development team behind Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is one of the biggest in Ubisoft’s history.

It’ll be produced by not only the near 200 Game Programmers, Game Designers and Game Artist & Animators at Ubisoft Montreal, but the publisher has also enlisted help from its other studios throughout the world.

Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Massive in Sweden, Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft Quebec City and Ubisoft Bucharest will all play a part in producing Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

“Assassin’s Creed has always been a Montreal production, and Montreal remains the lead studio,” Creative director Alexandre Amancio told Game Informer.

“But this is a huge game. The amount of time and data that goes into all of these systems to build the game is tremendous. So it’s a cooperative venture. We have different studios cooperating on different elements of the game.”

There are surely Train2Game students reading this who have desires to work for a huge publisher such as Ubisoft.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations has the aim on improving on the previous title in the series – Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – which although an excellent game, as reported by the Train2Game blog, it was named the biggest gaming surprise of 2010.

The surprise came through the development team producing such an excellent game in a relatively short turnaround time.

Details of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations can be seen on Train2Game news.

So Train2Game, do you think the huge size of the development team shows that Ubisoft has huge ambitions of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations? Do you want to work for a high profile developer in future?

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

[Source: CVG] 

Minecraft developer Mojang open to publishing games by other indie studios

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Minecraft is hugely popular on the Train2Game forum, with at the time of writing, the dedicated Minecraft thread almost on its 70th page.  The success of the title thrust indie developer Mojang into the limelight to such an extent they had to hire various extra staff.

This includes business development director Daniel Kaplan who recently spoke exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz and revealed a little about what life is like behind the scenes at Mojang.

“We are in a great spot right now, we can basically do whatever we want to. The hardest thing for us right now is to say “no” to all the deals we’re being offered.” Said Kaplan. “There are tonnes of opportunities out there for us right now. But we have to wait it out and figure out what’s the best thing for us to do.

“We get requests every week, it’s quite hard to sort them out, to figure out, okay, this is what we’re going to do. If you take one path then you can’t take the other, you know?”

Kaplan said that Monjang is interested in publishing games by other indie developers – it’s something that many Train2Game students would surely jump at the chance to be a part of if the opportunity ever came up.

“We hope to help people, to keep them involved in the process and create a successful game, to make sure people know about their games so they can create better games later on by themselves. So we’ll see how well we can work that position.”

The idea of helping up and coming games industry talent echoes calls from Peter Molyneux for the industry to offer more support to newcomers, as reported by the Train2Game blog. Molyneux also said that Minecraft is his favourite game of the decade.

Even with the increased in size of Mojang, the developers still feel that working in small teams is the best way to go about creating games. According to Kaplan, just three people are working on new Mojang title Scrolls.

“The biggest team is the Scrolls team, but that’s just three people, it’s still very small. We like to work in small teams, because we believe we can make decisions faster, or have shorter meetings, more creative freedom for the teams. So they’re small but very multitalented.”

And despite finding himself as an icon amongst the gaming community – including with Train2Game students – Minecraft creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson  – is still involved with programming on a full-time basis.

“He’s working full time, he wants a 100 per cent focus on coding. As far as he’s concerned, he doesn’t want to be going to any meetings at all so he can just sit down and code. He’s working 40 hours a week, just like we do, so he’s very active in the company.”

Kaplan added that Mojang are also open to the idea of producing games for consoles.

“We’re always looking for new platforms, and consoles are very interesting for us, obviously. There are huge possibilities for us there. But I try to believe that Minecraft will be looked at just like Doom was. That created the first FPS game, if Minecraft is the first game to start a genre of voxel engine, sand box games, whatever you want to call them, we’ll be really proud of it.”

Minecraft has been downloaded over two million times, and last month the Train2Game blog reported that the full-game will be released in November.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the possibily of Mojang publishing games by other studios? Do you think it’d provide a massive boost for indie developers? And are you pleased to see that despite his success, Notch is still focused on coding?

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

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

Valve ‘keeping an eye on’ L.A. Noire Art & Animation tech

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L.A. Noire

By now, it’s likely that most Train2Game blog readers have seen the impressive facial Art & Animation techniques used in L.A. Noire.  (If not you can see it here on the Train2Game blog)

While Valve are impressed by the motion captured used in L.A. Noire,  they’re unsure if it’d work with the particular style of “reactive” Game Design they’ve used to create the likes of Half-Life 2 and Portal 2.

As reported by the Train2Game blog, the Art & Animation techniques of L.A. Noire are so advanced, the Xbox 360 version of the title comes on three discs.

“It’s impressive technically, for sure,” said 3D graphics man Jason Mitchell told Develop in an extensive feature on Valve

“And I think it’s an important inflection point in the continuum of ever-increasing fidelity in game characters… There are pros and cons to that LA Noire approach, and we’re keeping our eyes on that piece of tech, but it’s not clear how we would integrate it.”

“I guess I’m not really familiar with the performance characteristics of that technology, on the playback side. One of my first impressions was the incredible high-fidelity of it… But the system is based on a playback of a performance, which can go against how we like to think about characters interacting with our players.”

“We like our performances to be far more reactive to what the player does, and not to something pre-acted on a sound stage. It’s not completely obvious how this tech would integrate into our work.

“But since I haven’t played that game, I’m not incredibly familiar with that technology. It’s super interesting, regardless. I’m sure it’s something people will be referring to for years to come on the history of interactive facial tech.”

Train2Game students can read a hugely in-depth feature that goes behind the scenes at Valve at Develop Online.

Last week, the Train2Game blog reported that Rockstar believe the structure of L.A. Noire as a whole will be revolutionary for the games industry.

On the other hand, Quantic Dreams David Cage believes that L.A. Noire’s Art & Animation provides an ‘interesting dead end’ as reported by the Train2Game blog last month.

L.A. Noire is released here in the UK on Friday.

Where do you stand on L.A. Noire? Could it used to produce the “reactive” games Valve do? Is it the future of the industry? Or do you agree with David Cage in that it’s a dead end?

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

[Source: CVG via Develop Online]

UK developers ‘bedrock’ of games industry say SEGA

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SEGA say their UK based studios are the bedrock of the UK games industry, in the same 7 days as it was reported by Train2Game news that one of them – The Creative Assembly – are hiring for a new Alien game.

SEGA are also the parent company of Football Manager developers Sports Interactive. Train2Game students may see the support SEGA give to their studios as a positive thing for their future careers.

“Our UK internal studios are probably the bedrock of our business.”  SEGA Europe senior vice president – Production Gary Dunn told GamesIndustry.biz

“Certainly, when I was signing off our studio bonus scheme and I was signing of the incentives last week, for the second year both Sports Interactive and Creative Assembly are outperforming their business plans from a profitability perspective. These guys are on top of the game, it’s a real testimony to the games they make.”

SEGA West President Mike Hayes added that The Creative Assembly are one of the crown jewels of the company.

“It’s interesting: Creative Assembly are seen as the jewel in the crown of SEGA. That’s an interesting thing, I don’t think that would have been a thought about that fifteen years ago – but probably Creative Assembly has the consistent highest quality in terms of gaming for any studio, so SEGA’s very proud of both,”

As many Train2Game students may already know, The Creative Assembly are the studio behind the Total War series of PC games.

Train2Game students can get an in-depth look behind the scenes at The Creative Assembly in a report detailing the Shogun 2: Total War developer session at last years Eurogamer Expo.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Shogun 2: Total War is competing with James Bond: 007 Blood Stone and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the ‘Best Original Video Game Score’ at this weeks’ 56th Ivor Novello awards.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on SEGA’s comments? Does their praise of The Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive give you a positive feeling about the UK Games Industry? And do you have a favourite game by either developer?

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

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz] 

UK Charts: Brink takes No.1 as British developers reign supreme

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Brink Train2Game blog image

In news which could be positive for Train2Game students, UK developed Brink is the new No.1 of the UKIE/GFK Chart-Track All Formats chart, which this week features a strong showing from British game developers.

Why positive? Because successful multiplatform titles developed here in the UK – Splash Damage are based in Bromley – could potentially lead to more opportunities for Train2Game students to find work.

The PlayStation Network downtime has arguably influenced the choice of format, with almost 70% of Brink sales for the Xbox 360. (As reported by Train2Game news, the PlayStation Network is slowly coming back online.)

For a more in depth look at the development of Brink, see extracts of an interview posted on the Train2Game blog last week. The Train2Game blog has also taken a look behind the scenes with the Art & Animation department at Splash Damage.

Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is another new entry at No.2, with Oxfordshire developers Travellers Tales multiformat title selling well across all platforms.  The new entries of Brink and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean push last week’s No.1 – as reported by the Train2Game blog – Zumba Fitness down to No.3.

Portal 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops drop to No.4 and No.5 respectively, with Mortal Kombat falling three places to No.6, while Lego Star Wars III: The Clone wars at FIFA 11 move down two places each to No.7 and No. 8.

Former No.1 Crysis 2 moves up seven spots No. 9, while a third new entry in the form of MX vs. ATV Alive completes the top ten.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 14th May 2011 is therefore as follows:

1. Brink (Bethesda)
2. LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (Disney)
3. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
4. Portal 2 (EA)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
6. Mortal Kombat (Warner)
7. LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (LucasArts)
8. FIFA 11 (EA)
9. Crysis 2 (EA)
10. MX vs ATV Alive (THQ)

New releases this coming week include L.A. Noire – which as the Train2Game blog reported could be revolutionary for the games industry – and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

So, is it a well deserved No.1 for Brink? Is a strong showing from British game developers good news for you? And will L.A. Noire stroll to top spot next week?

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

[Source: UKIE Games Charts©, compiled by GfK Chart-Track]