Monthly Archives: November 2011

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Jason Kingsley CEO and Creative Director Rebellion

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Train2Game at EuroGamer with Jason Kingsley CEO and Creative Director Rebellion

Together with younger brother Chris, Jason Kingsley formed Oxford-based developer Rebellion in 1991. Their first published title was Alien Vs. Predator on the Atari Jaguar, in 1995. They gained wider acclaim in the late 90’s with the PC game Aliens Vs. Predator. Following that, Jason bought famed UK comic publisher 2000 AD, gaining access to hundreds of intellectual properties, including Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Halo Jones.

The first fruits of the deal came with 2003’s PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC game Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death, while Rogue Trooper, released in 2006 for the same platforms, has been its most successful comic-to-game transition. Rebellion’s development headcount grew considerably with the purchase of Eidos’ Core Design, and Empire Interactive’s Strangelite in 2006, and Ignition’s Awesome Developments in spring 2007.

The Kingsley brothers also set up book publisher Abbadon, currently dormant film production company Fearnort and have a controlling share in Oxford-based motion capture studio Audio Motion. More recently Jason has again enjoyed exceptional success with Fox and Sega with the release of the new Aliens V Predators. In March of this year Jason announced the creation of a social division within rebellion responsible for creating games for Facebook and other social media outlets.

Train2Game at Eurogamer with Elspeth Lawson GameHorizon Project Manager Codeworks

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Train2Game at EuroGamer with Elspeth Lawson GameHorizon Project Manager Codeworks

Ms Lawson manages the day to day running of a business network for computer games companies, general account/membership management and building strong client relationships. She has also been the Conference producer for the GameHorizon Conference held at the Sage Gateshead for 350 International delegates. And very much involved with Train2Game Work Placements.

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam interview: Train2Game Course Director Tony Bickley

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 Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live 2012 and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game course leader Tony Bickley organised the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, and we spoke to him just after the event closed. He tells us how he feels it all went, the meaning of the prize for Train2Game students, and what it meant to have Epic on board.

Read the interview here, on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.

We’re here at the end of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, how has it all gone?

Fantastic, a little tiring, but absolutely fantastic. We’ have about 160 people turn up for the Game Jam, the team sizes were 10 teams of 10 and it’s been a pretty good event, I’m very proud of what the students have managed to achieve and even more proud of their dedication and passion driving through.

Tell us what the winners here have won in going onto The Gadget Show Live

We’re putting forward four teams of finalists moving through to The Gadget Show Live. The final prize at The Gadget Show Live is going to be the iOS version of Unreal Engine, as well as personal development plans and tutoring going forward. We believe this’ll put them in very good stead to increase their employability, as well as setting them off to producing their own titles in future.

So it’s a massive opportunity for these Train2Game students?

Absolutely. The most important thing for people trying to get into the industry at the moment is not just proof of understanding but rather proof of ability. With this level of support they’ll be able to work as a solid team on a product, working on one of the best engines in the world. With the tutoring as they go forward, this will really, really enhance their skillsets.

As you say, UDK is one of the best engines in the world, what does it mean for Train2Game to have Epic on board with this?

Fantastic. With the support that Epic have given us in terms of tutorage and support staff, as well as co-sponsoring The Gadget Show with us, it’s absolutely brilliant and has been really, really, appreciated by the students.

How difficult was it to pick out winners from the fantastic games on offer by Train2Game students?

Very tough actually, very, very tough. I’ve been very proud of the students as they’ve come into this, we’re only just moving into using UDK within the teaching materials of Train2Game, so the students, up until a couple of months ago, were not very experienced on it. They’ve had to bring their skill sets up very, very quickly and then on Friday night we assigned the teams for them so there weren’t even pre-formed teams, they’ve had to understand the team dynamics and then work with the UDK engine and they’ve created some fantastic products. The standards were very, very high, we looked for creative input, we looked for graphics, we looked for variations, we looked for innovation, creativity, and it was of a very high standard. 48 hours is not a lot of time and it’s even less time if you want to try and work with an engine of that magnitude. The work that they produced was great.

What next now for the winning teams with the four different genres of games they have to produce?

Apart from going home and sleeping, I will be contacting them with the start of a six month productivity plan for them where they can be milestoned with what they should be looking to learn, and improved the skillsets that they’ve learned here [At the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam] in the last 48 hours, and then starting to prepare them for what they’ll need to do at The Gadget Show Live. It’s going to be 4 days of live development at The Gadget Show, where they finalise a new product using the UDK engine and help present that to the world.

Anything else you’d like to add about this Train2Game & Epic Game Jam?

It’s been a fantastic experience, it’s been very tiring, we’ve all made new friends here, certainly learned a lot and it actually makes me very proud to help train the next generation of computer game developers.

And has it been so successful there will be more Train2Game Game Jams in future?

Absolutely! One of the things one of the students asked me on the way out, even though his eyes were closing, was ‘When is the next game jam?’ Well, give me week to sleep and recover and then we’ll start planning it. We certainly intend to do another one, we certainly intend to make it bigger and better than this one.

Great, thanks for your time

Thanks very much.

For more information go to www.train2game.com

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games

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Train2Game at EuroGamer with Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games

Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games has12 years of industry experience and 9 published titles, as well as having been involved in around 10 others.

Genuine Games Ltd was incorporated in 1998. Working to deliver innovative mass appeal gaming with a passion and desire to entertain, the industry veterans are the most genuine in the business.

There headquarters are based in the scenic Scottish Highlands (Scotland has the highest proportion of game developers per head of population of any country in the world) offering us a wide range of talent.

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam Interview: Craig Moore, leader of winning team ‘Team Gandalf’’

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Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game Game Designer Craig Moore was part of ‘Team Gandalf’ one of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams that’ll be heading to ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show. Train2Game caught up with him right after the winners were revealed to find out how it felt to win, how the game jam went, and if he’d recommend taking part in one.

Read the interview here,on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site. Leave your comments here on the blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Congratulations Craig, Team Gandalf are one of the winners of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, as team leader, how do you feel?

A bit dumbstruck but absolutely over the moon! We had such a fantastic team, they did such an amazing job. It almost felt as if it was going too well, we’ve had a brilliant weekend, just brilliant.

And what does it mean to you to be one of the four teams going to The Gadget Show Live to Make Something Unreal Live next year?

It’s a fantastic opportunity, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. It’s such a hard thing to get into, but this should really help us get into careers and with everything really.

Tell us a bit about your Guy Fawkes themed game

What we were aiming for was almost a Medieval Portal style game and we had a fantasy theme with puzzle rooms. Basically, you’re the guy who dobbed in the whole Gunpowder plot scheme and you’re being chased by the ghost of Guy Fawkes and it’s very psychological, we went for dark rooms and an almost horror like game.

So how did your team find the whole Train2Game & Epic Game Jam experience?

A lot of learning went on, we had such a range of skills in our team. You could tell as we were getting towards the end of the jam the levels were getting better, our knowledge was getting much, much better and it was just flowing really well and we felt like such a good team together.

And how did you deal with the tiredness that took place during the game jam, because 48 hours is obviously a long time to work. It was an experience, right?

Oh, complete experience! Thankfully because it was going so well people were just planning out their time and jobs we had between us and just sleeping when they needed to. It just went really, really well.

And how are you looking forward to making a game over the coming months for The Gadget Show Live?

This is the dream for all of us, it’s working towards the main goal, the main prize, that’s going to be the driving force for everyone. It’s going to be a hard six months but should be a fantastic time as well.

And what would it mean to you if you won the big prize, the fully licensed UDK iOS development kit.

I couldn’t even explain what that’d mean to me, it’d just be incredible. It’s obviously the dream and it’s because of Train2Game that we’ve managed to get there. We’re going to go for it and it should be a really good fight.

Overall then, would you recommend taking part in a Game Jam to anyone else?

Without a doubt, if you’ve got the opportunity, go for it, go to a game jam. It’s an amazing chance not only to get a feel for making games, but also being in a team, working with people you don’t necessarily know, it’s a brilliant personality building opportunity as well.

Going into a game jam you’ve just got to keep a level head, try not to be too enthusiastic, within the engine you’re using, work out what you can and can’t do, work out with your team what their skills are and just plan.

Thanks for your time

For more information go to www.train2game.com

Train2Game at Eurogamer with Dave Hawes Lead Programmer at Eutechnyx

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Train2Game at EuroGamer with Dave Hawes Lead Programmer at Eutechnyx

Dave has worked in the games industry for many years and worked in many different areas on previous and current generation consoles, He currently manage projects, advise on recruitment and architect new parts of the Eutechnyx engine. Hawes spoke at GDC 2008 on intergrating stackless python into a modern multi-platform console engine.
In 2009 Hawes had an article published in game developer magazine on the same topic.

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam Interview: Nick Stones, leader of winning team ‘Nova Eye’

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Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game Game Designer Nick Stones was part of ‘Nova Eye’ one of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams that’ll be heading to ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show. Train2Game caught up with him right after the winners were revealed to find out how it felt to win, how the game jam went, and if he’d recommend taking part in one.

Read the interview her, the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.

 Nova Eye are one of four winning teams at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam with the opportunity to Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show Live next year, what does that mean to you?

It’s such a fantastic opportunity and we’re definitely going to make every effort to make 100% of that. I’m over the moon at the moment. I came here, this is my first game jam, I didn’t know what to expect and it’s gone all in our favour. I was delivered a great team and I’ve been able to manage that very well and it’s shown and that’s it at the end of the day. I’m really excited to know that we’ve done our job and it’s gone well. I’m very anxious to know what we can do now for the future.

Was it difficult to contain your excitement when the winners were announced?

Since we’ve been doing this for 48 hours I was quite fine, but overall I was still shocked because I’d only just done my presentation to the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam judges. That was a gruelling experience in itself because I was quite nervous so it’s all still going through my head really.

How big an opportunity for you do you think it is for you to go to The Gadget Show Live and potentially walk away with a fully licensed UDK development kit?

We’ve been given this opportunity, we can put this on our CVs, this is a landmark for us. Everyone who has participated in the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, we can always say we have won a game jam and there’s nothing that can change that. Overall, it’s amazing and I’m really happy to know that this is possible.

 Tell us a bit about the game Nova Eye has produced here at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, based on the theme of Guy Fawkes.

Our Guy Fawkes theme was quite wacky. We basically wanted to break the fourth wall. Our game was about Guy Fawkes and his production levels for Bonfire night. Fireworks weren’t selling, they were being outsold by Halloween and Christmas. So basically, Guy Fawkes is attempting to make sure that Christmas is knocked out of the sale so his markets would increase. What he ends up doing is going to the North Pole and using his custom rocket launcher that shoots fireworks to blow up anything that’s in Santa’s workshop.  That idea is completely crazy, I know that but it’s worked and I think it’s very refreshing.

How did you come up with that idea?

It was actually just a spur of the moment thing. We were talking about how Halloween and Bonfire night, and somebody just went ‘It’s crazy to see all this Christmas stuff before Halloween’ and it went from there. What if, thinking of it from a market side, Guy Fawkes is angry about that and he wants to change it. So there it was, it was a catalyst out of nothing really, just a spur of the moment thought that happened through socialising. So, don’t think you have to go out of the way to make these fantastic ideas, they can come from anything.

So you’d recommend taking part in a Train2Game Game Jam to others?

Yes, I would definitely recommend it. The experience that you get is unlike anything else. You get thrown in at the deep end but it’s not as bad as it sounds. You get to work with some fantastic people, don’t feel unconfident in your own skills, believe in yourself, make sure you’re happy with yourself to come down. Everyone didn’t know what they were doing so don’t worry about it, just come down and get in the moment really! That’s all I can say, get in the moment.

And the team will have to go through the process of designing a game with the genre you’ve picked out for The Gadget Show live. Tell us about the genre, and what your initial thoughts on it are.

We were given Action Adventure.  Our game that we won with was an Action Adventure so it’s something we can already work with depending on the construction of the brief. But since we’ve already done Action Adventure I feel that our confidence level is just that little bit higher than anyone elses’ because we’ve already got something that we’ve worked with already and have previous experience with. I’m over the moon with it. It’s got broad environments so I can work with it and I know my team will be able to do just as well.

 

For more information go to www.train2game.com

 

Train2Game at EuroGamer 2011 with Charles Cecil MBE Managing Director of Revolution Software

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Train2Game at EuroGamer 2011 with Charles Cecil MBE Managing Director of Revolution Software

Charles Cecil MBE has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for 25 years. He is currently Managing Director of Revolution Software which has released such hits as Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series. Mr. Cecil is on the advisory panel of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, and Develop Conference and regularly talks at events and to mainstream press about creative and commercial aspects of the video games industry. He is also a co-founder and remains a Director of Game Republic, an alliance of game developers, and is a Board member of Screen Yorkshire, a regional agency that supports film, television and interactive entertainment in Yorkshire. In 2006, Mr. Cecil was awarded the status of ‘industry legend’ by Develop, Europe’s leading development magazine

Train2Game news: Tesco & Sainsbury’s compete with cheap Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 discount deals

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MW3Train2Game blog readers, along with swathes of others, are preparing for the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 tomorrow. Supermarket giants including Tesco and Sainsbury’s are once again lowering the price of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 deals in order to secure as many sales as possible.

They’ll be competing with the likes of GAME and HMV who are promoting their own deals.

Britain’s biggest supermarket chain Tesco are selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for £25 when bought with a £16.99, 2100 Microsoft points card, a £34 year long Xbox LIVE membership, or a £25 PSN Card.  Sainsbury’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 offer sees the game cost £28.99 when purchased with £30 or more shopping.

Like Tesco, Morrisons will sell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for £25 when purchased with a 12 month Xbox Live membership which costs £34.99. ASDA sell Modern Warfare 3 for £38.97 with no deals.

HMV looks to be the retailer that’ll sell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the lowest price, with the game available for just £9.99 if you trade in Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3 or Goldeneye.

Meanwhile, GAME will be selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for half-price when Gears of War 3, Dead Island, FIFA 12, Batman: Arkham City, Resistance 3, F1 2011, Forza 4, Dark Souls, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon,  or X-Men Destiny are traded in.

As reported by the Train2Game blog, developer Sledgehammer say Modern Warfare 3’s game design makes it the “most accessible Call of Duty yet”

Train2Game blog readers can get an in-depth insight into the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 here.

But what’s perhaps most interesting to Train2Game students is the fact that community created multiplayer modes, could find their way into the full Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game.

So Train2Game, will you be purchasing Modern Warfare 3 tomorrow? Perhaps you’re attending a midnight launch? Is it still the biggest game of the year?

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

[Sources: MCV & CVG] 

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam interview: The A-Team’s Jonny Robinson on winning

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Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game Game Designer Jonny Robinson is one of ‘The A-Team’ one of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams that’ll be heading to ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show. Train2Game caught up with him to find out how it felt to win, how the game jam went, and if he’d recommend taking part in one.

Read the interview here, on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.

Congratulations Jonny, your team, the A-Team are one of the winners of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, how does that make you feel?

I just love it when a plan comes together. [Laughs] As crazy as that seems I’m over the moon. I was saying to the team there’s a good chance we’re not going to win, but I said to every single one that we’re going to have as much fun as possible, we’re going to get along and we’re going to make friends. Don’t aim to win, aim to have as much fun as possible was my advice.

What does it mean to you to go onto The Gadget Show Live, to Make Something Unreal Live, and have the chance of walking away with a UDK development kit?

Nervous, maybe? I remember speaking to you earlier about this, saying I didn’t want to win because I was so petrified that there was a chance that I might win, there’s such pressure on you. Obviously as a team, the team felt the pressure in the 48 hours. But My God, you don’t realise that absolutely everyone who went to the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, the amount of pressure there was. Believe it or not our game actually broke an hour before it was going to be shown to the judges, and the team bundled together and managed to build it again which is amazing.

The pressure of going to The Gadget Show Live is amazing, it’s a real win and I’m glad not for me, but the team, they’ve really earned it. I’ve not really put any visual input into the actual UDK engine but more direction for them and they’ve gone with it and it’s worked so…win! And congratulations to The A-Team, not just me but everyone, they all deserved it.

Tell us a bit about your Guy Fawkes themed game

Believe it or not it took us 4 hours to decide on a theme for the game. The team wasn’t really getting along together because 10 people into one idea isn’t really a good idea in itself. The thing to be a good game designer is to take everybody’s opinion into account to make a game everybody wants to make and not just that one person. I’m not a power hungry person so I don’t really say ‘I want to make a game about me, or what I want’ I say ‘I want to make a game that’ll make you feel happy.’

This is a game we’ve all had input on and I said ‘We’ve got this vision, lets drive it’ And everybody’s been fantastic, the team are dead proud of themselves and I’m happy for them more than me if anything.

And they’ll need to go through the process of thinking of a game again with the genre you’ve picked for The Gadget Show Live. Tell us about the genre and your initial thoughts on it.

I kind of messed up the announcement at the presentation! I said ‘3 R D’ kind of announcing how tired I am. I meant 3rd person and I wish I’d cottoned on sooner! With 3rd Person Action I feel more confident a lot more than any of the others actually. I know FPS is the general given with the UDK engine. UDK I know, I’ve watched tonnes of tutorials. I want to give a shout out to two guys from 3D Buzz and The New Boston. These guys have really helped me, I spent hours learning their tutorials. I’ve learned the UDK engine within the space of 4 months. That’s a lot of hard work, I’ve been doing 3 hours of work a day to learn the engine, so yeah, it showed!

Despite your tiredness, you’ve enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to others?

Oh definitely. We got to this point where we had the pessimistic and the optimistic. I was kind of the optimistic, trying to push people forward. There were a few team members who were negative but that just balanced it out. All together we’ve made a great game development team. I’d recommend anybody going to a Game Jam, especially a Train2Game Game Jam.

Thanks for your time Jonny, and best of luck.

Thanks very much.