Monthly Archives: October 2011

Train2Game news: Battlefield 3 game design “grounded in authenticity”

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Train2Game students who recently took part in the Battlefield 3 beta, or indeed any Train2Game student will be interested in this; DICE’s Battlefield 3 producer Patrick Bach has been speaking to Industry Gamers about the goals of Battlefield 3, and it isn’t to be realistic, rather authentic.

“We are not trying to create a simulator. But the feeling that what happens in the game is plausible and looks real and authentic is important to us.” Bach told Industry Gamers.

He said that the game design of Battlefield 3 has been heavily researched in order to make the story as authentic as possible.

“We have a story tell and want to carry that story across in a unique style and tone grounded in authenticity. Researching authenticity is extremely important for us and it’s impossible to make this stuff up without risking our desired style and tone,” he said.

“I don’t see it as a race to be the most realistic shooter – realism, as opposed to grounded in authenticity, is not our end goal with Battlefield 3 and probably never will be. Having said that, with greater graphics capabilities comes a greater need to focus on visual details.” Said the DICE man.

However, Bach admitted that developed needed to build a brand new engine in order to achieve what they wanted to do, because nothing strong enough was available. He believes that it’ll give the entire FPS genre to evolve.

“When we set out to do Battlefield 3, we realized that no existing game engines would be able to handle what we wanted them to do. That’s why we built Frostbite 2, and that’s why I think the genre will take a leap forward.”

As seen earlier today on the Train2Game blog, that’s different to rival shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which has just seen its predecessors engine tweaked.

Bach thinks that it’s an exciting time for FPS developers, with the potential for the genre to grow even further.

“On the arena as a whole, I think we are at a very exciting point in time. I think this year will see a huge growth in the total FPS market.”

He added that social devices will also change how people play games. Battlefield 3 has a ‘Battlelog’ service which Bach believes “will make a huge difference in how people perceive where the game starts and ends.”

Games, especially FPS titles with their deep persistence and team play are no longer just hard-coded discs. They are transforming into a service.” he added.

As reported by the Train2Game blog, Battlefield 3’s rival, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, so features a social system, Call of Duty Elite, and publisher Activision also believe social will become a huge part of gaming in future.

Earlier this year, the Train2Game blog reported that EA believe Battlefield 3 will be superior to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Battlefield 3 being ‘authentic’ rather than ‘realistic’? Are you impressed by the Frostbite 2 engine? And could it ultimately topple Call of Duty?

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

[Source: Industry Gamers]

Train2Game Announces bluegfx as Key Game Jam partner

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 Train2Game has partnered with bluegfx, a leading European Autodesk Gold Partner and supplier of Autodesk products, IT services, support and training, to provide resources for the upcoming Train2Game and Epic Game Jam on Friday 4th November. The company will be responsible for supporting all Autodesk products and associated plugins involved on the day, ensuring these vital content-creation tools run smoothly for competing teams.

Train2Game’s 48-hour video game creation marathon will bring together an estimated 150 games enthusiasts at the University of Bedfordshire, where they will go head-to-head to create innovative video games using Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of the award winning Unreal Engine 3.

The Train2Game and Epic Game Jam is open to aspiring games developers, includingTrain2Game students and hobbyist games developers. On Friday 4th November, registered competitors will convene at the University of Bedfordshire’s new development lab to form teams and build games around a secret theme, which will be announced on the first evening of the event. The jam concludes on Sunday 6th November, when three teams will be selected as winners by industry A listers from some of the UK’s hottest development houses, as well as Epic Games.

Neil Parmer, Co-Founder and Company Director of bluegfx, sees this as a natural extension of the work his company does all year round: “When asked if we could help with the Game Jam, we leapt at the opportunity. Keeping customers running and helping them understand what’s possible with Autodesk tools is what we do on a daily basis, we’re delighted to be able to offer our services to the next generation with this competition.”

Myra Smallman, Head of Teaching at Train2Game said: “Just as we stand by Train2Game students throughout their studies, we’re glad to be working with bluegfx to make sure nothing will interrupt competitors hard work during the Game Jam. Experience with tools like Epic’s UDK is an essential part of students becoming the calibre of candidate that the games industry needs today.”

For further informatio about the Train2Game and Epic Game Jam please visit http://train2game-jam2.com/, existing students can login into www.train2game-online.com.

Train2Game news: Modern Warfare 3’s engine “is a Porsche”

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Train2Game students will obviously be aware that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is likely to be the biggest selling game of the year.

The title, being worked on by three different studios, is likely to receive a heavy marketing push and be snapped up by millions of gamers.

However, some have commented that the Call of Duty engine hasn’t aged well. Speaking in an interview with CVG, Sledgehammer Games Glen Schofield responded to this criticism.

“Well I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve worked on a lot of engines over my lifetime and spent a lot of time putting graphics in to them and this thing is a Porsche,”

“And what I mean by that is that it is stream-lined, everything in it is perfectly freaking clean. You can tell it’s been worked on for years. It’s easy to upgrade.” said the Managaing Director of one of the three studios working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

And Schofield argues that Modern Warfare 3 is a lot more detailed and a lot better looking that its predecessors.

“Modern Warfare 3’s levels now are so much bigger than the old ones because they go more vertically, they have a bigger footprint and on top of that, higher fidelity, more textures and a lot more detail” he said

“If you put Modern Warfare 2 next to Modern Warfare 3 you would see a huge difference. Look at all the character models, look at all the gun models, look at the reflections, look at the water.”

“There is so much that we’ve added, so when someone says ‘cut and paste’, I don’t even want to talk to them because they don’t know. They just don’t know. They have no idea.” added the Sledgehammer man.

Last week, the Train2Game reported that Schofield said tweaks to Modern Warfare 3’s game design mean it’s the “most accessible” Call of Duty yet.

Train2Game students can get a behind the scenes insight into development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 here on the Train2Game blog.

What are your thoughts on the Call of Duty engine? Do you believe Modern Warfare 3 looks dated? And should the developer be responding to its critics?

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

[Source: CVG]

Train2Game news: Uncharted needs PS4 for next big improvements

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Train2Game students are living in time when video games look better than ever, with the Uncharted series being some of the best looking titles of the lot.

And while the upcoming Uncharted 3 is graphically improved over its predecessor, developers Naughty Dog say the jump isn’t as big as it was between Uncharted 2 and the original. They believe a next generation console is needed in order to recreate this level of improvement.

Speaking to Spong, Game Director Justin Richmond revealed that changes to the Uncharted’s engine have been tweaks rather than massive upgrades.

“Uncharted 3 isn’t just an incremental update – we did change lots and lots of things – but graphically speaking, it’s not going to have the same gap, it was never going to happen.” he said.

And the Uncharted 3 Game Director believes we won’t see another huge jump on the PlayStation 3, hinting that we’ll only see a similar boost when Sony release a next-generation console.

“The way we made it, how much of the PS3’s power we were using… that huge gap that you saw between Uncharted 1 and 2 is the kind of thing that really only happens once per generation. We pushed it really hard.” said Richmond.

Train2Game students may be interested to find out that Naughty Dog only managed to make improvements to Uncharted 3 by re-writing the engine, and it’s something they’d prefer to do only once per console cycle.

“Uncharted 2 to 3 is still a jump, but it’s a narrower jump. And going forward, it depends on what we do. There are always ways to improve stuff, always ways we can pull out more stops… like changing optimisations, changing streaming animations, getting more polygons on screen, progressive mesh,” Richmond said.

“But I don’t think you’ll ever see that same jump again, at least on a PlayStation 3. There was just so much power left over in the PS3 when we made Uncharted 1, that we figured out how to use and really took it to town when developing Uncharted 2.” the Uncharted 3 Game Director concluded.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, the Uncharted 3 have a something of a “make it up as we go along” thing when it comes to game design.

Meanwhile, Train2Game students interested in how Uncharted 3’s script is written and performed should check out this behind the scenes look on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Richmond’s comments? Do you believe a new console is needed in order to make another leap forward? Does that leap need to be made?

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

[Source: Spong]

Train2Game news: Indie devs have “far more opportunities these days” say Team 17

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Train2Game students looking to form their own indie studios will certainly be buoyed by this; there are more opportunities than ever to break into the industry thanks to digital distribution.

That’s according to Yorkshire based Worms developer Team 17, who’ve been in the game development business for over 20 years.

“I actually think there are far more opportunities these days overall. If we were only talking about PSN, XBLA and Steam I’d tend to agree, but with the whole mobile and browser side thrown in, it’s bigger and better than the late ’80s.” Team 17 Managing Director Debbie Bestwick told The Guardian when asked if there are comparisons between today’s digital market and the bedroom coding days of the late 1980’s.

And Bestwick believes the rise of mobile gaming, on the iPhone in particular, means it’s actually easier for prospective game developers – such as Train2Game students – to enter the market.

“Digital distribution has removed manufacturing and physical distribution costs; hence the entry point is so much lower these days than back then” she said.

“If anything, the App Store reminds me more of the whole shareware scene in the ’80s, just shaken up and organised, and it is a great place to be.”

And in more good news for Train2Game students, the Team 17 Managing Director is optimistic about the future of the British game industry, “because right now we’ve got more platforms, bigger audiences, more direct to consumer sales channels and lower entry costs than ever before for all indie developers.”

“Our traditional market has changed forever with the introduction of smartphones, social gaming and digital store fronts” added Bestwick.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Bestwick’s comments? Do you believe it’s the best time there’s been to be an indie developer? Is self-publishing a model you can see yourself following?

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

[Source: The Guardian]

Train2Game news: Volition Design Director on how game designers can stand out

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Train2Game Game Designers, this is a must read blog post for you, as it contains some excellent advice on how to stand out as you try to break into the game industry.

The tips come from Volition Design Director Jameson Durall in an #altdevblogaday post titled ‘How Can Entry Level Game Designers Stand Out?’

If the name seems familiar to Train2Game blog readers, it might be because he spoke to us earlier this year about Red Faction: Armageddon, game design and getting into the industry.

Writing about what he likes to see when hiring a game designer, and as he previously told the Train2Game blog, being able to use editing tools is essential.

“While someone focusing on Game Design may not have a background in programming…scripting gameplay in an Editor like UDK or Unity is a must in my opinion.”

Of Course, Train2Game students have the opportunity to create games using UDK at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam next month.

The Volition Design Director states that experience with UDK or another engine provides evidence of not only creating ideas, but also being able to create the actual product itself.

“I want to see that they have the ability to get in and do meaningful work to create content instead of just planning gameplay and expecting others to develop it.  Show me examples of gameplay situations that you designed and created and be ready to talk about why they are fun.”

Durall added that doing this is also a great way for aspiring game designers to practice their skills.

“This skill set also helps them prototype ideas early in development and create crude gameplay spaces to help get their gameplay ideas across.” he said.

The post makes excellent reading for Train2Game Game Design students, and contains plenty of helpful information on what a top game designer wants when looking to hire someone in an entry level position.

You can read Jameson Durall’s full post ‘How can entry level game designers stand out?’ on #altdevblogaday.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the Train2Game blog has reported on a game designer suggesting that using a development kit is a great way to get into the industry.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek told the Train2Game blog that modding is a great way to get noticed in the games industry, while in an interview at Gamescom, id Software Creative Director Tim Willits also told the Train2Game blog that modding is a “great way to get into the industry”

What are your thoughts on Durall’s advice on how to get an entry level game design role? Is it something you do already? Do you believe the upcoming Train2Game Game Jam could help this?

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

[Source: Altdevblogaday]

Train2Game news: UK Charts – Forza 4 powers past FIFA 12 for pole position

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After a record breaking debut week, as reported by the Train2Game blog, and a very successful second week on sale, FIFA 12 has narrowly lost its place at the top of the table and slips to No.2

It’s replaced by brand new racer Forza Motorsport 4, with the Xbox 360 exclusive pipping FIFA 12 to No.1 by just 700 sales. Forza claims the title of biggest launch week ever for an Xbox 360 racing game, and is one of seven new entries in this week’s top 20.

Just Dance 3 is the second highest new entry, with the Nintendo Wii version of the latest in the popular dance series making up over 90% of sales. Id Software’s Rage drops two places to No.4, with FIFA’s main rival PES 2012 reaching no.5 in its first week.

Former No.1 Gears of War 3 drops to No.6, while Namco Bandai’s Dark Souls slips from No.3 to No.7 in its second week on sale. Long time chart topper Zumba Fitness continues to feature in the top ten, despite slipping to No.8

F1 2011 drops four places to No.9, while new entry Jonah Lomu Challenge from Alternative Software completes the top ten in its debut week.

New entries outside the top ten are Ace Combat : Assault Horizon from Namco Bandai at No.12, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record from Capcom at No.14, and Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure published by Activision at No.16.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 15th October 2011 is therefore as follows:

1. Forza Motorsport 4 (Microsoft)
2. FIFA 12 (EA)
3. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
4. Rage (Bethesda)
5. PES 2012 (Konami)
6. Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
7. Dark Souls (Namco Bandai)
8. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
9. F1 2011 (Codemasters)
10. Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge (Alternative Software)

The upcoming week is a big one for new releases, with Batman: Arkham City and Football Manager 2012 both hitting the shelves.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the new look top ten? Is it a well deserved No.1 and No.3 for Forza Motorsport 4 and Just Dance 3? And is it inevitable that Batman: Arkham City will soar to the top next week?

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

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

Train2Game students can go to BAFTA’s Game Writers Panel for free

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Train2Game blog readers may have seen a post earlier this week about a special BAFTA game writers panel at the end of this month.

The event is £5 for members of the public, but Train2Game students can book their place on 26th October FOR FREE here.

The BAFTA event is free to attend for anyone studying or working in games and could provide Train2Game students with a great chance to meet people in the industry or at least hear their thoughts on game design during the Q&A.

The game writers panel will feature game designers, Jim Swallow Ed Stern, and Rhianna Pratchett as they discuss whether  “Putting protagonists in the hands of a player kills traditional narrative concepts,” and much more.

For more information, see the original Train2Game blog post, or the official BAFTA website.

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

Train2Game student advice from Trion Worlds on QA reports: write for an alien

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Train2Game Games QA Testing students should find this blog interesting, as it features some interesting advice from a Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester on how to write a great QA Report.

Trion Worlds are the developer behind MMO Rift and the upcoming strategy title End of Nations.

And in a soon to be published interview with the Train2Game blog, Karl Tars, Senior QA Tester at the Austin Studio has some great advice for Train2Game QA Testers about producing bug reports.

“Imagine you have an alien, they understand the language in some respects, but they don’t necessarily know a lot of the noun, they wouldn’t know what a fork this, they wouldn’t know what a knife is.”

“Now try and tell them how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when they don’t know what any of those things are.” Tars told the Train2Game blog.

The Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester argued that a well written, easy to follow bug report written by a QA Tester means that the developers can easily fix any issue that’s been found.

“You have to describe them being very descriptive and giving a good guide of exact steps and also including things like ‘it doesn’t work if you do this,” he said.

“So when the developer gets it they can just immediately go click, click, click, straight through your steps and ‘Oh there’s the issue, I can see it now, and now that I can see it on my machine I can fix it really easily.” Tars added.

The full interview with Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester Karl Tars, featuring an extensive insight into QA Testing and a look at upcoming title End of Nations, will be published on the Train2Game blog in the near future.

In the meantime, feel free to check out this post from earlier this week in which Valve discuss the importance of playtesting to game development.

Full details on the Train2Game Game QA Tester course are available here on the official Train2Game website.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Tars advice for writing bug reports? Will you take it on board?

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

Train2Game news: Team Fortress 2 community makes $2m from created items

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Train2Game blog readers will have previously read that since the introduction item store to Team Fortress 2, community item creators have been earning money for their work.

Now a year on since the Mann. Co store was introduced, Valve has revealed that community item creators have collectively earned over $2 million from selling the items in the virtual store.

They’ve also introduced an update called ‘Steam Workshop’ that’ll make it easier for community item creators to test, share and get feedback on their weapons, hats and items.

“The ‘Mann Co. Store’ represents an important new direction for games and game makers,” said Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell.

“By leveraging and extending the platform features of Steam, Team Fortress 2 has enabled a viable marketplace for independent content creators and significantly extended the gameplay experience in an incredibly short amount of time.”

Of course, this being Team Fortress 2, the Manniversary Update also sees the introduction of plenty of new hats. Train2Game students can find out about the modelling process behind Team Fortress 2 hats here on the Train2Game blog.

Team Fortress 2’s community tools could potentially allow Train2Game students to submit items to the game, make money and earn a reputation from their creation.

Valve have a reputation of being supportive of their community, and activity encourage modding using the Source SDK.

And in an interview with the Train2Game blog last month, Valve’s Chet Faliszek told us that modding is a really good way to get into the games industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” he said.

“Normally modders have to work as a team and that’s important, and they also have to be able to finish something and that’s really important. So those two things together are a really good way to demonstrate that you’re ready to work in the industry.”

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Mann Co. Store? Is it a good way for game developers to get noticed?

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

[Source: Gamasutra]