Monthly Archives: June 2012

Train2Game News: “There’s never been a better time to run your own gig” – Ian Livingstone

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Now is a better time than ever been before for an aspiring game developer to run their own business. That’s according to Eidos life president and games industry veteran Ian Livingstone who was speaking at BAFTA’s Games Question Time.

“There’s never been a better time to run your own gig” said Livingstone, after praising the introduction of games tax relief earlier this year. The Fighting Fantasy co-author added that the rise of digital downloads and trends such as monetisation through free-to-play have all contributed to making it easier than ever to set up an independent games studio.

Ian Livingstone was one of a number of industry figures who aided in mentoring Train2Game students taking part in Make Something Unreal Live last April. The Games Workshop co-founder said he was “delighted” to be part of the initiative.

There’s more from Ian Livingstone here on The Train2Game Blog.

Do you agree with Ian Livingstone in believing that now’s a better time than there’s ever been to do your own thing?

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

Train2Game News: Register to take part in Paradox Interactive’s War of the Roses Alpha now

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Paradox Interactive are accepting sign-ups to join their War of the Roses Alpha, but hurry, because the short registration window closes this afternoon!

The open sign-up means anyone who manages to register will get to play the Alpha.

The publisher is looking for extra people to help test their upcoming medieval combat title, based during the 15th century wars between York and Lancaster that ultimately led to Henry VII becoming King of England.

Sign up to take part in the War of the Roses Alpha here.

There’s beta testing news, and information on how it’s useful for developers and Train2Game students, here on The Train2Game Blog. And be sure to keep reading for the latest news from Paradox Interactive.

Will you sign up to take part in the War of the Roses Alpha?

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

Train2Game News: United Front on the vast research behind Sleeping Dogs

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Game designers researching Sleeping Dogs at United Front Games have done so by taking newspaper cuttings, looking at films and taking 40,000 reference photos of Hong Kong.

“We took 35,000 to 40,000 reference photos and hour upon hour of video footage, but it’s not a street for street depiction. It was important for us to capture the essence of city. Lots of the landmarks are there, many of the names are similar yet, first and foremost, we wanted to make that space fun to navigate around.”  Executive producer Stephen van der Mescht told PlayStation Blog.

The United Front Games man went on to discuss how important it is for them to show the life of an undercover cop to Sleeping Dogs players.

“Well, the plot was built from scratch but we were heavily influenced by a lot of references. Look at movies like The Departed and Donnie Brasco – they both had an element of truth in them, which came from the stories they discovered by talking to people who were actually in those situations.” he continued.

“The important thing for us to get across was that dual world of a cop pretending to be a gangster, and the stresses that come with that, of having to live this lie.” van der Mescht continued, adding that while the plot of Sleeping Dogs, it’s influenced by a lot of their research.

“In terms of specifics, we referenced a lot of Triad crimes using newspaper cuttings. The game follows this guy becoming more intertwined with this world and we see his morality line get blurred. So yes, there are direct references to stories we discovered from the research we did.” said the executive producer.

Read the full interview, Sleeping Dogs And Telling Stories Through Games over at the PlayStation Blog. It’s likely to be interesting reading for anyone on a Train2Game course, especially game designers.

There’s more about Sleeping Dogs here on The Train2Game Blog, while you can also keep reading for the latest news from its publisher, Square Enix, here.

What are your thoughts on the research United Front are putting into Sleeping Dogs?

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

Train2Game News: Peter Molyneux will be “shocked” if anyone buys “amazing cheat” £50,000 diamond chisel

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Peter Molyneux would be “shocked” if someone buys the £50,000 diamond chisel for his upcoming ‘experiment’ Curiosity.  The game designer made the comments while speaking at BAFTA’s Games Industry Question Time.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, Curiosity, the first game from Molyneux’s 22 Cans studio, sees players chiselling away at one black cube, with the chiselling of every other player available to see. The cube will open to just one player after a certain number of taps.

However, one player will be able to buy a £50,000 diamond chisel which speeds up mining the cube by 100,000 times.

“There’s only one diamond chisel and it’s an amazing cheat” said Molyneux, revealing that there are already groups of people trying to club together in order to purchase the diamond chisel.

The veteran game designer wouldn’t be drawn on what’s actually inside the cube, or when it’ll open but believes “the most amazing thing” is at the centre, and it’ll be up to the one person who finds it to decide if they want to tell the world or not.

During the BAFTA event, Molyneux revealed that 22 Cans are still hiring, and urged anyone interested to get in touch. The former Lionhead man was one of a number of high profile industry figures who mentored Train2Game students at Make Something Unreal Live.

There’s more Peter Molyneux news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on his comments about Curiosity and its diamond chisel?

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

Train2Game News: Frozen Synapse dev blogs about ‘How to Be an Indie Game Developer’

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Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games is published through Steam

‘How do I become an indie game developer?’ is a question that’s often asked to industry professionals, so Mode 7’s Paul Taylor has attempted to answer that very query in a in a lengthy, but very interesting blog post.

Mode 7 Games is the Oxford indie game development studio behind PC tactical strategy title Frozen Synapse.

The ‘How to be an indie game developer’ blog post should make fascinating reading for any Train2Game student, as it discusses almost all areas of development and marketing. Subjects covered by Taylor include game design, concept, code, art and animation, music and audio, writing, business and marketing, free-to-play vs. pay once and even using videos.  Be sure to give it a read.

Taylor has previously written about what he thinks made Frozen Synapse a success, and there’s more about the indie title here on The Train2Game Blog.

Be sure to keep reading for advice from games industry professionals on how you can break into development.

What are your thoughts on the blog post from Mode 7? Do you have aspirations to be an indie developer and if so, what steps have you made towards it?

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

Train2Game News: Warren Spector considered making Deus Ex just a shooter while struggling to make it “perfect”

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Deus Ex designer Warren Spector worried that its open gameplay meant the game would be compared unfavourably to the likes of Half-Life and other titles which set the benchmark in 2000, and even considered making it into a straight shooter as a result.

“There was a point on the first Deus Ex when we were at alpha and tuning the game, trying to make it perfect.” Spector told CVG about development of his classic title.

“I remember putting my head on my desk going, “Why don’t I just make a shooter? Oh my God. If people judge our combat against something like Half-Life – which was state of the art at the time – then we’re dead. If people compare our stealth to Thief, we’re dead.”

“If people compare our role-playing elements to Neverwinter Nights, we’re dead.” he continued,

“There are games that are razor sharp in their focus, but if people get that in our game they can decide how to play or shift back and forth – that if a combat situation is too hard for them they can try something else – then we’re going to rule the world.”

Fortunately, people did understand that Deus Ex could be played in a variety of ways, and it went on to be one the most well renowned video games of all time.

“Luckily people got that, knock on wood, they got it.” Spector added.

Read the full interview with Warren Spector – which is actually about Epic Mickey 2 – over at CVG, while there’s more about Epic Mickey 2 here on the Train2Game Blog.

Spector’s comments just go to show that even at the top end of game development; it’s very difficult not to compare your work to others.

What are your thoughts on the troubles Spector had with Deus Ex? Have you had moments where you think about changing your games entirely?

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

Train2Game News: The Secret World beta test takes place this weekend

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The Secret World enters its third beta test this weekend, and there’s still time for Train2Game students to register to take part.

Funcom’s MMO is based in a modern day setting, and sees players join one of three secret societies – the Illuminati, the Dragon or the Templars – as each faction battles for world domination.  To register for a chance to take part to the upcoming beta weekend, visit http://www.thesecretworld.com/

The third beta test weekend will open up a region known as The Savage Coast, along with two dungeons The Polaris and Hell Rising, as Funcom look to gain feedback from beta testers.

“We are very encouraged by both the numbers of beta registrations and the positive feedback we are getting from our testers,” said Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas.

“The fact that so many gamers want to play ‘The Secret World’ combined with the high purchase intent among testers is something we consider a very positive indicator.”

There’s more beta testing news, and information on how it’s useful for developers and Train2Game students, here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on The Secret World? Have you taken part in any previous beta tests? Will you be taking part this weekend?

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

Train2Game News: Introversion Software developer session confirmed for Rezzed

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Introversion Software, developer of games including Uplink, Defcon and Darwinia will be hosting a developer session at Rezzed, the PC and indie gaming show in which takes place in Brighton next month.

It’ll take place at 1pm on Saturday 7th July and will see Inversion Software discussing their upcoming title Prison Architect, in a session which is sure to be interesting to Train2Game students. Prison Architect will also be available to play on the show floor for the whole two days.

“We’re really looking forward to showing off Prison Architect to a wide audience – it’s at a time when feedback from gamers will be really helpful,” said Introversion director and co-founder Mark Morris.

“We also think they’ll be a lot of questions about what happened to Subversion and we want to clear it up once and for all!”

Get a taste of Prison Architect in the preview video below, here on The Train2Game Blog.

There are plenty of other developer sessions taking place at Rezzed, including one from The Creative Assembly where they’ll be taking an exclusive first look at the future of Total War.

Rezzed takes place in Brighton on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th July with tickets available here. Keep reading The Train2Game Blog for the latest news as Rezzed approaches.

Are you a fan of Introversion Software? What would you like to find out from their developer session?

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

Train2Game News: BioWare senior writer Jennifer Hepler on getting into the industry

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Dragon Age 2 Train2Game

Aspiring game designers looking to break into the industry should work on tabletop roleplaying games in order to learn about writing. That’s according to BioWare senior writer Jennifer Hepler who wrote plots for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“If you don’t have a pressing need to make money, do a little time working for tabletop roleplaying games. It’s fairly easy to break in, because they pay peanuts, but you learn a ton about game design from working with dice systems.” she told the BioWare Blog, adding that it looks good when applying for jobs in the games industry.

“And since most videogame designers (certainly of RPGs) are huge tabletop game geeks, it’s a great credit to have when applying for jobs. Most people in the tabletop field end up drifting into videogames eventually, since you can live on what they pay you, so you’ll also make contacts who can end up being helpful down the line.” said the Dragon Age writer.

Hepler also described how she and her husband – Mass Effect writer Chris Hepler – broke into the games industry and even had a stint in Hollywood.

“My entry into games came in college when I met my now-husband and was introduced to Vampire and Shadowrun.” she said.

“Having spent my high school years writing and trying to sell short stories, I immediately thought about trying to do some professional writing for RPGs, and by the time we graduated college, Chris Hepler (now a writer on Mass Effect) and I had written several books for Shadowrun, Earthdawn and Paranoia.”

“We then took a detour in Hollywood for a few years, but it was a very natural gravitation back toward games which brought us to GDC to meet Bioware. After six years in Hollywood, when we were still calling “extras” “NPCs,” we figured maybe we were in the wrong field.” Hepler added.

Read the full interview with BioWare senior writer Jennifer Hepler here, in which she also details what her job involves.

There’s more advice from professionals on getting into the industry here on The Train2Game Blog, with more information on Train2Game courses here.

What are your thoughts on the idea of using tabletop RPGs as a base for getting into the games industry?

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

Train2Game News: Hideo Kojima on why he can’t walk away from Metal Gear Solid

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Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima keeps coming back to it because he isn’t convinced his true vision for the games can be achieved without his involvement.

Kojima has attempted to walk away from the stealth action series since each game after Metal Gear Solid 2, but keeps returning to work on them in order to ensure his ideals are followed.

“It’s very hard to come up with the concept of a game and hand it off to other people, as of course they can’t see what’s in my head.” Kojima told CVG when asked why he keeps coming back to Metal Gear.

“They may not be able to understand the concept completely or the messages that I want to convey and that’s where things went awry in the past as people couldn’t really understand what I wanted.”

I decided at that point that if I was going to make a game based around these ideals that I would do it myself, which is why I keep getting involved.” he added.

The full interview with Hideo Kojima is here, and should make interesting reading for Train2Game students. Metal Gear Rising: Revenge is scheduled to be released next year.

There’s more from Hideo Kojima here on the Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Kojima’s reluctance to walk away from Metal Gear Solid? When you have ideas in game development, do you find you’d rather work on them yourself than delegate your vision to others?

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