Monthly Archives: October 2012

Train2Game News: Sony hits milestone and launches new service

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Sony’s PlayStation 3 has surpassed 5 million sales in the UK and they have launched PlayStation Mobile for PS Vita and some Android devices.

The PlayStation 3 has now sold over 5 million units as of this morning. The company has enjoyed a 138 per cent jump in sales the week of September 28 following the launch of the new PS3 Super Slim. A second edition of the Super Slim, a 12GB edition targeted at casual audiences, is due for general release tomorrow.

PlayStation UK boss Fergal Gara said “It is fantastic that we passed the 5m mark.

“Most importantly to me it is not the milestone itself, but the fact that there is momentum behind it. With the new chassis and the way the market is panning out this year, PlayStation definitely has the momentum.”

Secondly, PlayStation mobile has gone live today on the Vita and certain Android devices.

The service, designed to bring PlayStation style gaming to Android devices, is available in countries including the US, Canada, UK, France, Spain, Germany and Australia with more set to follow. The cross-platform gaming service currently supports Sony tablets and mobiles such as Xperia smartphones, Sony Tablet S and P and HTC smartphone One S, X and V.

The launch-lineup for PS Mobile includes 21 games, featuring titles such as Vlambeer’s popular shooter Super Crate Box, Crash Labs’s puzzle action game Twist Pilot and Albino Pixel’s puzzler Underline.

The Mobile SDK is being released in November for an annual fee. The development kit is set to be released in 11 different regions, appearing in a phased manner to Japan, US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Train2Game News: Kickstarter rides in to the UK

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The popular business model, Kickstarter is coming to the United Kingdom on October 31.

Kickstarter is the service that allows developers to show their plans and ideas to the public and, if it is liked, people can donate money to the development of the project. It lets consumers decide what gets created.

Kickstarter has announced that it will be opening to projects in the UK on October 31, 2012. Users can begin building their projects today.

The Kickstarter team said “We thought the three-week gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning October 31, they can launch and share their projects with the world.”

Kickstarter really flexed its muscles in February earlier this year with Tim Schafer’s Double Fine. Their latest project earned record breaking funding. It has seen many high profile developers creating new interesting projects, which some publishers may not of allowed them to do.

UK campaign amounts will be listed in pounds sterling but international parties that attribute will see their donations in the approximate equivalent of dollars.

Other localised changes see UK backers not being redirected to Amazon for payment, international shipping has been streamlined, and new options are available to campaign organisers to alter reward tiers for international backers.

Train2Game News: Jonny Robinson’s Blog

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Train2Game Student Jonny Robinson has been writing his own blog. He talks about his experiences on being a fledgling games designer. He covers subject such as his time at DR Studios and his work with Commando Kiwi, the winning team of the Make Something Unreal Live at the Gadget Show Live earlier this year.

You can read Jonny’s blog below:

http://ironcore1.wordpress.com/

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 10.5.12

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The OnLive console is not dead according to CEO Charles Jablonski and UK general manager Bruce Grove. The new plan is all about forming partnerships to provide OnLive’s service, instead of relying on PCs and its own console.

The Volus race has come to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer with the new DLC, The Retaliation Pack. The comic relief character has been put in to the online game play to show the ever expanding war according to BioWare’s Chris Schanche. The new pack also sees the return of The Collectors to battle against.

Earlier this week it was announced that Windows 8 will primarily use real world currency over Microsoft points. This had the games world speculating that the Xbox Live Arcade was going to start phasing out MS points. Microsoft have announced this is not the case. XBLA will still use the previous points system.

Rovio and LucasArts have teamed up in an interesting combination to create Angry Birds Star Wars. The game will see the birds dressed as the main Star Wars protagonists and the pigs are going to be dressed as Storm Troopers and Darth Vader. The levels will be famous Star Wars locations such as Hoth and Tattooine. The game is being released November 8 for iOS.

IGN have brought their application to Xbox in the UK. The app is already available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The app offers content, shows and access to its pro-gaming league.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook has now surpassed one billion users. Since Facebook’s formation in 2004, it has seen more than 140 billion friend connections made, 219 billion photos uploaded, and 1.13 trillion likes. Facebook’s director of developer products said around a quarter of its active user base, about 230 million people, play games on the site in a month. He also noted that Facebook has more than 130 apps.

A one-man company, Cryptic Sea, has created a game called A New Zero. The game has no animation and only uses physics for any movement in the first person shooter. In addition, visuals are also procedurally generated, chopping Zero’s total size below a single megabyte. You can download the game from Cryptic Sea’s website.

Train2Game News: Games industry jobs – 10.5.12

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This is going to be another regular blog where I post up the latest jobs from around the games industry. Making it easier for you to find the jobs you want.

ART

CREATIVE ASSEMBLY are looking for an Animator. The job is based in Horsham.

Key responsibilities:

Full responsibility of producing high quality animation for in-game animations and cinematics as set by the animation lead.
Deliver work in the required time.
Make sure all work is implemented correctly, providing feedback to other members of the production team so all issues are driven to closure.
Reports to the Lead Animator

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Have an excellent understanding of animation principles – timing, weight and staging
Must be self-motivated, enthusiastic and a team player
Good knowledge of a 3D package (Motionbuilder, Maya, Max, XSI)
Good knowledge of human and animal anatomy
A strong passion and enthusiasm for animation and video games
Critical analysis and problem solving

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Futurlab is looking for a Junior Artist for their studio in Brighton. As Junior Artist you will be assisting the Lead Artist in the creation of both 2D and 3D game assets. You will be working closely with all other members of the team to ensure high standards of presentation are maintained across each project.

Requirements:

Exceptional 2D draftsmanship essential.
Strong ability in 3D modeling and texturing a plus.
Animation, lighting and rendering skills a plus.
General understanding of game design and development.
Ability to work both individually and in a small team.
Excellent communication skills with a friendly and positive demeanor.
Self motivating and diligent.

You must also be excited about working in the sci-fi genre!

You can find out more about the job HERE.

DEVELOPER

SEGA is looking for a junior developer for their studio in central London

Key Responsibilities:

Learn and help develop various areas of the game on handheld platforms
Work with Senior Developers and increase skill set
Help analyse existing projects and improve upon them.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Experience in C/C++
Comfortable with game design and implementation
Examples of own demos, with source code, very beneficial.

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Q & A

Creative Assembly are looking for a games tester. The job is based at their studio in Horsham. These fixed term contracts are for our established Total War team, testing our project currently in development

Requirements

Test games in development for software bugs

Enter bugs clearly and accurately into our bug database

Verify and recreate bugs as required

Report additional balancing, design and accessibility problems

Essentials

A clear understanding of QA process

A keen enthusiasm for gaming

Good communication and reporting skills

Driven and flexible approach

You can find out more about the job HERE.

Train2Game News: Microsoft pulling us closer to the future

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Microsoft are developing a new technology to read hand gestures. The device means more games design potential.

The device, currently named Digits, is worn on the wrist and creates a 3D model of the hand gesture that you do. It has been designed to be more comfortable than sensor gloves.

The technology was developed at the University of Cambridge, with help from researchers at Newcastle University and the University of Crete. It was unveiled at a conference on user-interface technology and a video has been posted online demonstrating the device in action.

Digits uses a camera-based sensor that detects infra-red (IR) light coupled with software that interprets the data produced to construct a model of a fully articulated hand skeleton. This is then used to interpret what the user’s hand is doing.

The equipment involves a IR laser beam which sends out a thin invisible line across the user’s hand to measure the distance to their fingers and thumbs to determine to what degree they are bent upwards.

David Kim, project leader, said “The Digits sensor doesn’t rely on external infrastructure which means users are not bound to a fixed space

“Ultimately we would like to reduce Digits to the size of a watch that can be worn all the time.”

Microsoft have given some ideas of how the device could be used including, but not limited to, shaping your hand like a gun for first person shooters and pressing your thumb down to fire, further improving your immersion without the need for a lot of space, like is the case with Kinect.

Microsoft’s team acknowledged the current device was still some way from being ready for market. It currently needs to be attached to a PC to carry out the necessary computations, making it impractical for real-world use. It also struggles if two fingers are crossed, the hand is flattened or if the user is holding something while making the gestures. However, the researchers suggested all these issues could be overcome with further work.

Train2Game News: University of Surrey starting development on 5G

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University of Surrey received £35 million to set up development of the new mobile technology, 5G. This follows the recent launch of 4G.

The money has been invested by mobile operators, infrastructure providers and the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund. The University has said the money will be used to create a 5G Innovation Centre.

The new 5G Centre will provide a unique facility which will attract international telecoms giants to conduct research and development on new 5G standards in the UK.

Prof Rahim Tafazolli, professor of mobile wireless communications and the director of Surrey University’s Centre for Communications Systems Research, said: “The boundaries between mobile communication and the internet are blurring, so the fifth generation is internet on the move

“4G for us is old hat. We started working on 4G 10 years ago.

“Statistics showed mobile data traffic is soaring. It looks like every year the traffic is doubling. Unfortunately capacity is not. We need to come up with technology, within the limited radio spectrum that we have, to accommodate this huge surge

“5G would be in place by the year 2020. What we have is good for the next 10 years but we need to be progressive, we can’t be complacent, the area is extremely dynamic.”

The release of 4G recently has meant that mobile games can be bigger, holding more content with no worry of the download speed being affected. The news of 5G being developed solidifies mobiles as a viable gaming platform for many years to come.

Train2Game News: Xbox360’s first free-to-play MMO

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The first free-to-play MMO is coming to Xbox360 next week. The game looks action packed, fun and very cute.

The game, Happy Wars, has been developed by ToyLogic who have previously assisted in the development of Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers Brawl. You can certainly see the Smash Bros. influences in this game.

The 30 player strategy/action title pits two teams of up to 15 players against each other as they attempt to lay siege to enemy castles and defend their terrain. Each player’s character will be completely customizable with thousands of items, including outfits, weapons, and shields. In addition to the large-scale multiplayer battles, the game will also feature an offline single-player campaign mode, co-op mode with computer-controlled adversaries and more.

You must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber to get the game but it is free to download and play. You can purchase ‘Happy Tickets’ from within the game to spend in the in game shop.

Although the ToyLogic developed title is Xbox Live’s first foray into free-to-play, it isn’t planned to be the last. Signal Studios’ Ascend: New Gods will rely on micro-transactions for its money, and is set to launch next year.

The free-to-play business model has been long used in the mobile industry but this is the first time it has been used on an Xbox title. Time will show how it plays out.

You can watch the trailer for Happy Wars below:

Train2Game News: Game Jam on the Guinness World record site

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Train2Game’s World record Game Jam has a story on the Guinness World Record official website.

There are some great pictures from the weekend in the story.

You can read the story in the link below:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/10/games-development-students-lose-sleep-but-win-game-jam-record-45209/

Train2Game News: World Record Certificate

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We have been sent our Guiness  world record certificate! The certificate was awarded for most participants at a 48 hour Game Jam. Well done everyone once again! It is a huge achievement.