Monthly Archives: December 2011

Train2Game news: Final Fantasy VII intro remade using Unreal Development Kit

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Train2Game blog readers may have seen this post last week where Square Enix said a Final Fantasy VII remake would take too long to develop.

Final Fantasy VII is a game many have called to be remade for the current generation, and it seems one enthusiast has got fed up of waiting. They’ve used the Unreal Engine to show what a Final Fantasy VII remake could potentially look like.

You can see the video at the bottom of this Train2Game blog post.

The video shows the first section of Final Fantasy VII and is played from a first person perspective. While the animation and interaction is a little on the stuff side it offers an interesting glimpse and what could be.

Unfortunately, it’s likely this fan created game will be pulled offline by Square Enix in the near future. Still it’s an impressing showing of the variety of things that can be one with Epic’s Unreal engine.

Epic Games of course were heavily involved with last month’s Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, which saw four winning teams win places to the Make Something Unreal Contest at the The Gadget Show Live next year. The winning team will talk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit for Ios.

For more information on what that means for the winners, check out our interview with Epic Games Mike Gamble.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the fan make Final Fantasy VII remake?

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

Train2Game news: PlayStation targeting ‘younger demographic’

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PlayStation 3PlayStation will be targeting a younger audience in future, but emphasise that core gamers won’t be neglected. That’s according to SCEE CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine.

“If you look back at the history on PS1, PS2 the vast majority of the business that we did on both those platforms was done at the sub £129 price points,” said Ryan, who said that many more PS3’s are still waiting tp be bought, even if a future price drop is needed for it to happen.

“Now we’ve only got to £199 in the UK a couple of month back so you can see there’s still a lot of PS3’s potentially to be sold.”

He added that Sony were looking to market the PlayStation 3 to a younger audience.

“I think you’ll see us taking the console more towards a slightly younger demographic,” said Ryan.

“More family market. The core gamer will absolutely not be neglected. There’s going to be tons of great stuff for the core gamer but from our own studio, third parties there’s some quite interesting stuff happening in a number of areas which would allow us to open up a market that we accessed pretty successfully on both PS1 and PS3 but haven’t yet got to on PS3.”

Earlier this year, the Train2Game blog reported that Ryan doesn’t believe the time is yet right for download only consoles.

So Train2Game, what do you make of the idea of PlayStation aiming for a ‘more family market’? Is it an area Sony can tap into?

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

[Source: OPM]

Train2Game news: UK Charts – Modern Warfare 3 still No.1

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Train2Game blog readers might not be shocked to hear thatCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remains top of the UK charts. Sales recieved a a 2% increase over those reported last week on the Train2Game blog. More than 50% of this weeks’ Modern Warfare 3 sales were for Xbox 360.

FIFA 12 moves up three to No.2 but still falls 55,000 sales short of toppling Modern Warfare 3 from No.1. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations drops one spot to No.3 after two weeks in second place. Just Dance 3 jumps four places to No.4, while The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim drops one and completes the top 5.

Saints Row The Third drops to No.6 in its third week on sale, while Nintendo DS title Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call holds No.7 for the second week running. Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS debuts at No.8, Battlefield 3 remains at No.9 while Super Mario 3D Land stays at No. 10.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 3rd December 2011 is therefore as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
2. FIFA 12 (EA)
3. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (Ubisoft)
4. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
6. Saints Row: The Third (THQ)
7. Professor Layton and the Spectre’s Call (Nintendo)
8. Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo)
9. Battlefield 3 (EA)
10. Super Mario Land 3D (Nintendo)

Releases for the coming week include the PS3 version of Just Dance 3.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s continued chart dominance? Will anything beat it to the Christmas No.1?

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

Train2Game news: Minecraft’s Notch steps down, replaced by ‘mod friendly’ Jens Bergensten

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Train2Game forum users have a special place for Minecraft, so many of them will be interested to hear that creator Markus ‘Notch’ Persson is leaving his position as the games’ lead designer to rest and work on a new project.

Mojang developer Jens Bergensten will be taking over the position of Minecraft lead designer, Notch posted on his blog.

“As of yesterday, Jens Bergensten is the new lead developer on Minecraft. He will have the final say in all design decisions, so he will kinda sorta become my boss, I guess. I’ve promised him to not pull rank” wrote Notch, who has high praise of Bergensten, revealing a little about the game design process at Mojang.

“We’ve been working together on Minecraft for a year now, and I’m amazed at how much in synch we two are when it comes to how to design the game” he said.

“And when we don’t agree, we discuss it and something much better comes out at a result. He’s truly a great person to work with, and I feel very confident handing over the leadership of Minecraft to him.”

Notch told Gamasutra that Bergensten will mean more modding opportunities for Minecraft.

“He’s exactly what Minecraft needs right now. He’s a bit more mod friendly than I am, and we need to embrace mods more.” he said.

So Notch will still be involved with Minecraft, which finally received its full release earlier this month. It’s been downloaded over 4 million times since it was made available in its Alpha stage of development. Not bad for a completely independent studio.

For more about Minecraft, see the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Notch stepping down as lead developer of Minecraft?

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

Train2Game news: Bioware gets new specialist social studio

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Mass Effect 3 will have Kinect supportTrain2Game students will of course know Bioware as developers of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises, as well as the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Now the Bioware group also has a specialised social games studio thanks to EA’s acquisition of casual developer KlickNation.

KlickNation has been renamed Bioware social and will specialise in developing RPGs for social networks such as Facebook.

“KlickNation’s expertise in building innovative and compelling RPGs for social platforms makes them a seamless tuck-in with the BioWare team at EA,” Bioware co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka, who along with fellow co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk, recently spoke to the Train2Game blog.

“We share the same creative values. The new BioWare Social unit will bring BioWare and EA franchises to the growing audience of core gamers who are looking for high quality, rich gameplay experiences on social platforms.” Muzyka added.

KickNation has developed social games since 2009, with releases including SuperHero City and Six Gun Galaxy.

“While developing social RPG experiences, we held BioWare as a role model for storytelling and game design,” said Mark Otero GM of the new Bioware Social label.

“Joining with BioWare and EA is an opportunity to realize our vision for bringing high-quality RPG titles to the fast-growing, highly-engaged core gamers looking for deeper experiences on social platforms.”

The Train2Game blog previously reported that Bioware were exploring the ‘experimental’ mobile market.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on EA and Bioware’s continued moves into mobile gaming? Are you excited by the prospect of a Bioware RPG on Facebook?

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

[Source: GI.biz]

Train2Game news: Skyrim mod tools coming next month

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Train2Game students will get their hands on official modding tools for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim from next month.  Bethesda’s Creation Kit contains the tools used to develop Skyrim itself and will be available to download for free.

In a post on the Bethesda Blog, the studio also say  they’ll be producing a Wiki and videos to help aspiring Skyrim modders get started.  The Elder Scrolls developer also revealed that they’re going to be working closely with Valve to integrate Steam Workshop into the creation kit.

Using the Workshop, you’ll have free user content with the push of a button. The Creation Kit will bundle your mod and upload it to the Workshop, where everyone can browse, rate, and flag mods for download.” read the Skyrim mod tools post.

“You’ll be able to do this from any web device, including your smartphone. Like a live Netflix queue, when you fire up Skyrim, mods you flagged will be automatically downloaded and installed. Everyone here is really excited about the opportunities and possibilities this opens up for our entire community.” added Bethesda.

Not only is modding an excellent way for those on Train2Game courses to practice their skills, but it can also provide that extra experience needed to get into the games industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” Valve’s Chet Faliszek previously told the Train2Game blog on the subject of modding.

“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.”

Faliszek’s comments echo those of id Software Creative Director Tim Willits, who as someone that started their career as a modder, also believes it’s a good way to get into the industry.

“Modding is a great way to get into the industry. Most of the key guys at ID come from the mod community – myself, Matt Hooper, Robert Duffy, Jan Paul Van Waveren – and we have numbers of other guys” Willits told the Train2Game blog in an extensive interview.

“What I suggest to people who want to get in the industry is find their favourite engine – Unreal, Source, it doesn’t matter, id tech – find whatever engine they like, what games they like to play, get the mod tools and make a mod. And make sure they complete it!”

“Lots of times we have people who send resumes’ in with 20 half completed mods; we don’t want that, we want a handful of one’s that are actually done, and that’s really important” said the RAGE Creative Director.

So Train2Game, will you be using the Skyrim Creation Kit? How positive is it that Bethesda are releasing it for free? Have you tried modding before?

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

Train2Game news: Devs need to be ‘surgical’ and ‘creative’ with next gen games – Bleszinski

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Train2Game students will see fewer Triple-A titles when the next generation of consoles arrives, and they’ll need to be developed in a surgical manner.  At least that’s according to Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski, who wants the next gen to have Avatar style visuals.

“The six-to-eight hour triple-A game might be going away, maybe there’s only three or four that come out a year, and those are the established brands.” he told OXM when asked about next gen hardware.

The Gears of War designer argued that the key for game developers to survive is to understand the market, both from a business and development point of view.

“The key is to bet on people who understand technology, but also understand creative and business. Too many games are made just because somebody says ‘A bullfighting game sounds cool!’ And you’re like ‘That would only play in Spain.’ said Bleszinski.

“People just get these random things they want to make, and other people throw money at them without looking at the business. We need not only to be creative but also to be surgical in terms of the games we make.” he added.

It isn’t the first time Bleszinski has commented on what’s needed to get by in the games industry. Indeed, as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, he’s given advice on what games industry professionals should do to make a name for themselves.

And while Bleszinski has previously hinted he has knowledge of next-gen consoles, the Train2Game blog has previously reported that he believes there’s much more to come from the current crop. It looks like Triple-A titles still have some time left then!

What are your thoughts on Bleszinski’s comments? Are the days of huge Triple-A titles numbered? Will developers have to think more about the games they produce?

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

[Source: OXM]

Train2Game news: MMO Glitch goes back to beta testing

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Train2Game students may not have heard of Glitch, the casual MMO from Tiny Speck, but they’ve done something rather interesting with the games’ development.

Two months after Glitch was officially launched, it’s gone back into beta after Tiny Speck decided the game needed “radical changes”

“Two months ago we launched Glitch to the world. Now we’re unlaunching it,” said Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Tiny Speck.

“There are two obvious and huge improvements we need to make: the first is to make the early game reveal itself more easily to new players so they can get into the fun faster.”

According to Butterfield, the second major change needed is to make it easier for players to create levels and buildings.

“Some fairly radical changes to core game mechanics are going to be necessary to make Glitch what it needs to be. And making radical changes to core game mechanics is something that’s a lot harder to do while the front doors are open,” he said.

For more detailed reasons as to why Glitch, the MMO which “takes place inside the minds of eleven peculiarly imaginative Giants,” is going back into beta, see the Glitch blog.

More information about beta testing, it’s importance to game development and how it’s useful to Train2Game students, is available on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what do you make of Glitch going back into beta? Is it a bold move for Tiny Speck? Or should the game have been more thoroughly tested before release?

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

Train2Game news: Wii U audience will be ‘different’ to Wii consumers say Nintendo

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Wii U controllerNintendo believe that their Wii U console will appeal to a different type of audience than the Nintendo Wii.  At least that’s according to Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime.

“The consumer buying Wii hardware today is going to be a different consumer than the one who will be buying Wii U in the future,” he told TIME.

“This is the first holiday that the Wii is available at $149.99 or below, so its an expanded demographic we’re reaching. These are consumers who have heard about Wii for the past couple years, but at $199 or $249 it was economically out of their reach.

“We haven’t announced pricing for Wii U, but you can definitely expect that pricing is going to be different and that the games are going to be different.” said Fils-Aime, in an interview that should provide interest to Train2Game students.

As reported by the Train2Game blog, Nintendo have previously claimed that their Wii U console will attract core gamers.  The company revealed the Wii U during their E3 presentation, and you can find out more about it here on the Train2Game blog.

Nintendo haven’t revealed a release date for the Wii U, but in an interview with the Train2Game blog, We Sing Rock producer Kevin Leathers revealed that they’re already looking into developing for the new console.

So Train2Game, what do you make of Fils-Aime’s comments? Do you believe the Wii U will appeal to a different kind of audience? Is the new Nintendo console on your radar?

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

[Source: Time]