Monthly Archives: October 2012

Train2Game News: Steam Greenlights concepts

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Valve has introduced a new area to Greenlight where developers can upload concepts and get feedback from the public.

Concepts are free to post for feedback but won’t be distributed. The idea is to get opinions from the community. Examples of concepts already uploaded are Portal expansion Afterword, Elevator Engineer, Savegame Explorer, first/third-person logic shooter B.R.I.S.k, Vertex Wars and more.

This is a good place to see how a game idea would do out on the market which can be invaluable information. It can stop you working on a part of a game that might not be so popular with the paying public, giving you more time to concentrate on another part that is popular.

In addition Steam now allows software to be submitted to Greenlight. It follows the same rules as games do on Greenlight. That is, there’s a submission fee ($100) and the community votes whether they want to see the app/software released on Steam.

Steam Greenlight has been generally updated to show friends’ favourites and recent news on the home page, plus some other minor extras.

To date, thirty games have been ‘greenlit’ by Steam including the Half-Life mod Black Mesa and Project Zomboid. The only game to have been released from the service so far is McPixel.

Train2Game News: Games industry jobs – 17.10.12

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Developer

SEGA are looking for a mobile games engineer for their studio in the Midlands.

Studio Overview:
Hardlight is SEGA’s third UK based studio and is focused exclusively on creating high quality, innovative game experiences for mobile and handheld platforms.

The Studio comprises small, agile teams working on new IP & well-known SEGA IP. Project durations are 5-10 months, with their first projects due for late 2012.

The team follows an ethos of staying compact, agile and focused – combining talent from a variety of game genres and backgrounds, and welcomes applications from candidates of all levels of experience.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Work with other members of the team on creating high quality mobile titles
  • Implement game features in partnership with artists and designers
  • Learn and help develop various areas of features going into mobile handheld titles
  • Constantly develop your skillset and experience in the mobile space

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

  • Development experience in C/C++
  • Experience developing titles for mobile devices (either independently or as part of a larger studio)
  • Comfortable with game design and implementation
  • Examples of own demos, with source code, very beneficial dependent on past professional experience

Pluses:

  • Passion for computer games highly advantageous
  • Development experience with C# or HTML5
  • Knowledge of OpenGL ES and other graphical development libraries

You can find out more HERE.

Art

Fullfat Games are looking for a UI Artist for their studio in Coventry.

Position Overview:
• This position involves designing and creating 2D Artwork and Graphics for the UI Interface as well as other 2D items on various mobile and console platforms, which include Wii, DS and iphone.

Key Responsibilities:
• Working with the entire Development team to design and implement focussed, practical solutions within a realistic time frame.
• Design Icons and logos within the style constraints of the product.
• Work efficiently and at a speed representative of the platform.
• To be responsible for all 2D art aspects of any given project
• Be able to create all levels of Art from palette controlled pixel sprites up to hi Res Marketing Assets.

Skills and Experience:
• Excellent 2D background, including ideally pixel work.
• Use of Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Willing to work with Engineers to work within the technical limitations of the platform.
• Self Organised and willing to participate in team meetings.
• The ability to draught out a variety of concepts styles at speed to fit within the design constraints before game assets are created.

You can find out more HERE.

 

QA

Fullfat games are looking for a Mobile Test Engineer for their studio in Coventry. They unfortunately had no information on the position on the website but you can email them and find out more from HERE.

Train2Game News: Matty Wyett-Simmonds – Week 45

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Week 45! Weeks are getting faster and faster I think. I’ve had a pretty awesome weekend as it was my birthday. I went out in Southampton for the night and hung out with some friends and my girlfriend flew down from Leeds as well which was cool! One of my birthday presents is a trip to Sea Life centre! Since I was only little I’ve always liked sharks, they’re awesome! Also it’s shark week there so bonus!

PlanetSide2 has been awesome too, Craig got a beta key as well now so we’ve been attempting to play it at the same time but Craig has a crappy computer at home and the servers are down every day during lunch time at work so I’ve still been playing on my own. If anyone actually has the beta come join in!

Not too much to say about work yet, sorry! It’s been the same as always, tight deadlines and what not. I had two late nights (10pm ish) and got my work done pretty quickly so that I could go home early on Friday to get home to Southampton. The release date for the current project is set and it’s very soon so you’ll all get your hands on it soon if you have a smart device of some sort. It’s a very tight deadline and we are probably going to be working nonstop to get everything done on time!

We have a new person coming to work for us soon that used to be here before, I think he’s jumping right in to this project asap which will be good! This project will be a bit bigger than My Sea Park hopefully, as it will be for a wider audience and a wider range of devices.

So yea, more late nights, more takeaway food and less sleep for me over the next month or so I think.

Til 46!

MattyWS

Train2Game News: Ezekiel Morris student diary – Week 18

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So what have I been doing this week? Well I’ve finished animating characters and now I’m going back to doing vector art again. The project manager wanted me and Amanda to change our roles, my task for this week was animating characters and Amanda’s task was to create character costumes in vector art, so we mixed up, she does one animation and I do one character costume.

Matty and I were helping Amanda to use the tools in Maya so hopefully she will pick it up, I will be there to guide her if she needs any help.

I was knackered working late on Wednesday and also Thursday but the end result is that all the animation for this week is completed and now I’m starting to create one costume for the character.

I know there’s a tight deadline coming soon but I feel confident that all my sprints will be done before the deadline hits. I’m glad that I’m getting my work done and I’m learning a lot since working at DR Studios.

Train2Game News: Craig Moore student diary – week 47

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We now have a date for when this next title is due to be available, and we have a lot of work that needs doing. I’m not going to let it slip yet, but it’s still coming on in leaps and bounds edging closer and closer to a releasable game.

Due to the nature of the title release will be a minor milestone. We are looking to further support it after release and add content, modifications and updates as we go.

I keep saying it but work is still incredibly busy, I would never lie to anyone and say this job is easy because it simply isn’t. There is no slacking, no twiddling of thumbs, if work isn’t done it is your fault and everyone is responsible for their own work and workload. It’s great as long as everyone knows this, thankfully everyone here does and it seems to flow pretty well.

Next week we have more work to do, polishing, fixing, tweaking, updating, and balancing. All the fun of the fair!

Craig

Train2Game News: Amanda Blatch Student Diary – Week 4

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This week has been a productive week once more, creating five characters and a single animated sequence for one character in it’s home environment as given to me by our project lead as he wanted to see me and another colleague try something different to see how easily we adapted to different roles.

It was a tough start on the animation of the characters as I had never animated in Maya before and barely scratched the surface with animating in 3Ds Max. I  was fortunate however that I have had a lot of experience in animating traditionally and in film-software packages so it was very easy to pick up once I learnt the processes.

With the combined efforts of Eze, Matty and good old online tutorials I managed to grasp the basics of it overnight and was about to complete my animation by the end of the next day. Overall not a bad turnaround methinks! Also… two more awesome characters coming into the game that I am pretty happy with and hopefully you guys will be too! Anyways.. back to work with me.

Train2Game News: Mobile Phones taking over the world

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A report by the International Telecommunication Union has announced that, at the end of 2011, there was six billion mobile phone users.

There are over seven billion people in the world and six billion of them have a mobile phone. One billion of those people with mobile phones are in China alone.

The head of the agency’s data division, Susan Teltscher, said: “We count Sim cards, not the number of devices or people, so if one person has two Sim cards in one device, it counts as two subscriptions; and we count monthly subscriptions as well.”

Sim cards used in a tablet or to access the internet on a laptop computer had not been taken into account, she added.

The Geneva-based agency also said almost two billion people – about one-third of the world’s population – had been internet users by the end of 2011. There were almost twice as many mobile broadband subscriptions globally as fixed broadband ones, said the agency.

The director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau, Brahima Sanou, said: “The surge in numbers of mobile-broadband subscriptions in developing countries has brought the internet to a multitude of new users.

“But despite the downward trend, prices remain relatively high in many low-income countries.

“For mobile broadband to replicate the mobile-cellular miracle and bring more people from developing countries online, 3G network coverage has to be extended and prices have to go down even further.”

These numbers show how open the market is for mobile gaming. With a potential six billion customers there is a lot of money and exposure to be had if you make the right game. This really is an exciting time to be getting in to the games industry.

Train2Game News: Oliver Smith in the paper

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Oliver Smith, a Train2Game student on the QA course, has been featured in his local paper, the Exeter Express & Echo.
Oliver talks about his plans to help the elderly and also has an exciting job prospect on the horizon.

You can read the article below:

Exeter Train2Game Oliver

Good luck to Oliver in everything he does.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 15.10.12

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On Monday mornings I will now be posting the top 20 UK games chart from UKIE to keep you all updated.

 
Dishonored has come in as the highest new IP this year at number 2 but nothing can knock FIFA off the top spot for the third week running. It is interesting to see that Skyrim and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are still in the top 20.

Week ending 13 October 2012

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 –  FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 1
2   DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS –
3   POKEMON BLACK VERSION 2 NINTENDO –
4 RESIDENT EVIL 6 CAPCOM 2
5   POKEMON WHITE VERSION 2 NINTENDO –
6 JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 4
7   XCOM: ENEMY UNKNOWN 2K GAMES –
8 BORDERLANDS 2 2K GAMES 3
9 F1 2012 CODEMASTERS 5
10 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 8
11 SLEEPING DOGS SQUARE ENIX 10
12 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2013 KONAMI 9
13 FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 MICROSOFT 11
14 ROCKSMITH UBISOFT 7
15 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 NINTENDO 12
16 GRAN TURISMO 5 ACADEMY EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 13
17   CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 ACTIVISION –
18 NBA 2K13 2K SPORTS 6
19 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 14
20 DEAD ISLAND GOTY EDITION DEEP SILVER 16

 

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Case: Craig & James

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Craig

Craig’s father Paul contacted us after seeing one of our videos for a one-handed controller set-up we created online. He wrote “Hi, my son Rifleman Craig Wood lost both his legs and left hand and nose in Afghanistan and I have just seen the “XCM Re-mapper” plus “Saitek Aviator Joystick” in use. Is there any way the lad could try one before buying one?”.

As this is a complicated piece of equipment to set up, we visited Craig at his home in Doncaster to show him how to configure it to his own requirements. He took to using the controller straight away. Craig has the controller on loan through our Loan Library.

A week after our visit, we asked Paul how Craig was getting on with it. “Yes, going good, never off it!”.

James

We were contacted by James via email requesting help with accessing his Xbox 360. “Hi, I am an injured soldier in the British Army and due to my injury, I have lost the use of my left hand now. I just want to play the games I play with the efficiency I used to be able to with two hands.”

We set James up with the controllers he was interested in trying, to enable him to try each one and see which helped him play to the standard he hoped for.

“I am writing back to say I have been using the controller since it arrived and I find it really useful.”

Do remember to keep sharing SpecialEffect’s video around and try and get them to reach their goal of 25,000 views by Christmas day!