Monthly Archives: May 2012

Train2Game news: Skyrim mods downloaded over 13.6 million times using Steam

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Train2Game News reported that in February, two million The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim had been downloaded since the release of Skyrim Worksop on Steam.

Now, Bethesda has announced Skyrim Steam mods have topped 13.6 million. Modding is a great way for Train2Game students to show off their skills, with Ubisoft’s Adrian Lacey last week telling us that the Ghost Recon team features a number of former modders.

The Train2Game Blog has previously shown you some of the stranger Skyrim mods, including ones that let you turn Dragons into My Little Pony or “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and a mod that turns Mudcrabs into Futurama’s Doctor Zoidberg.

If you want to get involved with the Skyrim modding scene, but are unsure where to start, can watch this helpful Skyrim Creation Kit tutorial video from Bethesda. You can also look at this thread on the Train2Game forum in which students are sharing their own Skyrim mods.

There’s much more about modding here on The Train2Game Blog,

Are you involved in the Skyrim modding scene?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: “Free-to-play is the best model for gamers and studios” says Tribes: Ascend studio chief

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Free-to-play is the best business model both for development studios and gamers. That’s according to Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris, who has recently seen his studio release Tribes: Ascend.

As reported by The Train2Game Blog, the free-to-play shooter with an old school feel has reached over 800,000 users in the weeks since it launched.

“It’s really our belief that for an online multiplayer game, particularly, free-to-play is the best model for gamers and for studios,” Harris told Gamasutra.

” We really saw the potential in free-to-play, for gamers and for studios. With Tribes: Ascend, we really wanted to do a AAA, free-to-play game that’s the level of production, polish and gameplay that we were shooting for. Fortunately, reviews have been good.” he continued, adding that despite the free-to-play model, Hi-Rez has ensured Tribes: Ascend isn’t “pay-to-win”

“Our philosophy is to focus first on making a fun an engaging game, second, by making it free you create a large audience to play the game.” said Harris.

“And third, you implement the store so that it doesn’t give any gameplay advantage to a paying player, but it gives a time advantage or a prestige advantage — the latter in the form of cosmetic skins.” the Hi-Rez COO added.

Earlier this year, Brawl Busters developer Rock Hippo told The Train2Game Blog that the advantage of free-to-play is it allows them to reach a much larger audience.

There’s more about free-to-play and its impact on the games industry, here on The Train2Game Blog.

Do you agree with the statement that free-to-play is the best model for gamers and studios?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Get behind the scenes of Diablo III in new developer diary

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Train2Game students can get a look behind the scenes of the upcoming Diablo III in this new developer diary from Blizzard.

Game director Jay Wilson, and art director Christian Lichtner and Lead programmer Jason Regier discuss Inferno Difficulty, release expectations for Diablo III, PvP, their excitement about making the game and more.  Watch the Diablo III developer diary below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

Previous developer diaries from Blizzard can be seen on the Diablo YouTube channel.

As reported by The Train2Game Blog, the recent Diablo III open beta weekend attracted 300,000 simultaneous players.   The full-game is released for PC on Tuesday 15th May.

There’s more Diablo III news here.

What have you learned from the developer diary from Blizzard? Are you looking forward to Diablo III?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Call of Duty: Black Ops II officially revealed, 300 staff working on it

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Train2Game students will have noticed that Call of Duty: Black Ops II has been officially been revealed. The latest title in Activision’s highly successful series is being developed by Treyarch, with the story set in 2025 and a branching story.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is scheduled for release on Tuesday 13th November 2012 with over 300 staff working on it.

“There’s over 250 people at Treyarch, but there’s over 300 people working on the project,” Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia told VentureBeat.

“We do have contractors and test teams that aren’t part of the company. Those others aren’t actually employees of Treyarch. But there’s over 300 people working on the game right now.”

He added that due to the size of the project, Treyarch are happy to share resources with other Activision studios.

“We actually do open up anything from our side that they can have access to, but they have their own team with their own creative work,” said Lamia.

“Whether it’s inside of the Call of Duty franchise or, frankly, some other area of essential technology or whatever other area – if there are things that teams can access or leverage, then they do.

“For example, the facial rig and the performance capture was something that we worked with Activision’s central technology team on quite a bit. There are a lot of learnings there that can be applied to other teams.” he added.

The full Call of Duty: Black Ops II interview with Treyarch’s Mark Lamia is over on Venturebeat, while you can watch the Black Ops II reveal trailer below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your initial thoughts on Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the size of the team behind it?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier creative director on the complexity of AI coding

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Coding AI is the most difficult part of developing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. That’s according to the game’s creative director Jean-Marc Geoffroy, who recently offered Train2Game students advice on getting into the industry.

“When we started to work on co-op the first main issue was AI.” he told Beefjack about the team focused Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

“And it was very simple, as you have a lot of shooters where the AI is player-centric, so the AI knows where the player is, but we were not able to do so because with four human players you don’t know what they are doing, especially as the levels are pretty open, so you don’t know.”

The details about coding will no doubt be of interest to those on the Train2Game game developer course.

Geoffroy said Ubisoft had to code the AI in a way that meant that it wouldn’t know if when looking at a four man squad, it was seeing a human or fellow AI player.

“What we have decided to do – and  really, what the most difficult challenge was – is that the AI will not know where the player is unless it sees the player, and will never know if the player is an AI teammate or human being.” said the Ubisoft Creative Director.

“It sounds stupid to say that but it’s a very, very important point. When your AI doesn’t know who is behind the ghost, it changes everything in terms of how you code, how you programme the AI.”

“So, the AI is basically reacting according to its own life, the situation, and the coordination between all the AI.” he added.

There’s much more about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier here on The Train2Game Blog, including this interview from Gamescom last year.

What are your thoughts on the complexity of the code for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Fable Heroes developer diary gives insight into life at Lionhead

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Train2Game students can get an insight into life at Guildford based studio Lionhead thanks to a Fable Heroes developer diary. The XBLA game is released on Wednesday 2nd May.

The video explains how Fable Heroes started life as part of Lionhead’s yearly ‘creative day,’ before the project was given the go ahead. The multiplayer XBLA title has been developed by a team of five people. Watch the Fable Heroes developer diary below.

Lionhead Head of Art Paul McLaughlin gave tips on how to be a great games artist earlier this year, you can read his advice here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Fable Heroes? How positive is it that Lionhead are letting younger developers work on their own projects like this?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Mass Effect 3 Development Director’s advice on getting into the industry

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Mass Effect 3 will have Kinect support

Train2Game students looking for an extra advantage in getting that first job in the games industry should get involved with modding. That’s according to Mass Effect 3 Development Director Robin Mayne in an interview with the BioWare Blog.

“There are three avenues I can think of that are worth looking into: get involved with a modding community.” he said when asked how aspiring developers can get a foot in the door.

Modding is something that developers often emphasise as a great way to practice your skills, with Ubisoft’s Adrian Lacey last week telling The Train2Game Blog that the Ghost Recon team features a number of former modders.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek and id Software Creative Director Tim Willits are among those that have also spoke highly of modding when talking to The Train2Game Blog.

Mass Effect 3 Development Director Robin Mayne also told the BioWare Blog, that those aspiring to get in should make themselves familiar with the industry by reading specific websites and attending show.

“Check out the job listings at as many companies as you can and look for patterns in what skills are sought after. Find creative ways to obtain those skills.” he added.

There’s more advice from professional game developers on how to get into the industry, right here on the Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the advice?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game & Epic Games Make Something Unreal Live: The Book

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Train2Game and Epic Games co-sponsored Make Something Unreal Live, an unprecedented game development competition that took place at the Gadget Show Live.

Four teams presented their new iOS games based on individual books in the “Fighting Fantasy” series to the franchise’s esteemed creators, Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone OBE, and the duo determined that Commando Kiwi’s fresh twist on the third-person adventure genre makes the best use of the property and exhibits the most outstanding commercial potential.

Read the story of the whole show, and the run up to it in this virtual book here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.