Monthly Archives: November 2012

Train2Game News: Student Diaries – 12.11.12

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Amanda Blatch diary – week 8

Another week, another diary.. I think I may actually be running out of things to talk about. Doesn’t mean the work has stopped, it just means I am still working on the UI and it would seem a little tiresome to just repeat myself about the same thing as last week so I will keep this brief for you guys reading this.

The game itself is getting cleaned up pretty well now and we’re so close to completion, trying to beat the clock and get the game submitted in time for the end of this month for release. Alongside that one of the in-studio artists is starting to work on the concepts for the new project so it’s something we can see it breathed into life in the next week or so, all quite exciting here at DR! We have also seen the departure of one of the T2G students who will be missed in the studio, we wish him the best of luck in the future with his career as an animator!

So apart from that, there isn’t much else to talk about soooo… till next week again.

 

Craig Moore Student Diary – Week 51

This week has been another incredibly busy one, adding polish and “fun” to the game is much more difficult than you would expect when it relies heavily on the balance of numbers as well as a lot of subjective reasoning. It does however feel like it is making some headway and the game inside what we have made is slowly rearing its pretty little head and hopefully it will blossom soon.

Tutorials are probably the bane of my life right now; they are so incredibly hard to get right. This really fine balance between hand holding and making the player feel like they aren’t on a linear path, you just kind of need to say “this is what you need to know to play the game, therefore I need to tell you X,Y,Z”. Balancing that and pacing it seems to be a fine art though…

It is Eze’s last week this week, he has done some awesome work for us while he has been here and it will be a shame to see him go. He has a lot of opportunities ahead of him though and I look forward to seeing what he gets up to in the future.

Time to get back to the grind!

Craig

 

Matty Wyett Simmonds – week 49

This week has been a bit of a bug fixing week for me, no real sprint, more just doing what I can to fix any issues, there is still lots to do though of course! There is always lots to do but never enough time, but now I’ve been given some freedom to work on the things that have been bugging me for a long time ^^.

During the weekend we had a small gathering at hour house to say good bye to Ezekiel who has just left. He’s been here for 6 months which is a long time and a lot of experience, so hopefully he jumps right into another decent job somewhere quickly.

Over the weekend I finally got some free time to do whatever! I played some planetSide 2, some halo 4 and even worked on my own project for a bit which is slowly coming along nicely. I was using GameMaker 8 to make an RTS game called Data Wars, however due to some annoying issues and limitations I jumped ship and have moved to Unity where I need to start from scratch. Nothing is salvageable because they are both very different programs (one being 2D and the other 3D for starters). I moved to unity because although it will be harder to work with, it will give me more freedom and potential features that could not be done in Gamemaker, which seems to be a terrible program for RTS games. 😛

Anyway, more to do at the studio now, till next week!

MattyWS

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 12.11.12

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Halo 4 has shot straight to number one which I think most people expected. The other new entries this week are New Super Mario Bros 2 in at a slightly disappointing eighteen and it is followed up by Forza Motorsport 4 at nineteen.

Week ending 10 November 2012

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1   HALO 4 MICROSOFT –
2 ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 1
3 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 2
4 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 5
5 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 4
6 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 8
7 WWE ’13 THQ 3
8 BORDERLANDS 2 2K GAMES 19
9 –  JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 9
10 MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER EA GAMES 6
11 FORZA HORIZON MICROSOFT 7
12 –  MOSHI MONSTERS: MOSHLINGS THEME PARK MIND CANDY 12
13 –  RESIDENT EVIL 6 CAPCOM 13
14 DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 10
15 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 16
16 PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE MIRACLE MASK NINTENDO 11
17 –  F1 2012 CODEMASTERS 17
18   NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 NINTENDO –
19   FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 MICROSOFT –
20 –  LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 20

 

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2012 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game: SpecialEffect Case – Julian

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Julian is a young man with advanced muscular dystrophy and needs ventilation to help him to breathe. Helen & Douglas House in Oxford got in touch with us to ask if we could help him to be able to play games as he’s now only able to move his eyes and one of his fingers; he spends nearly all of his time in his care home in bed.

The SpecialEffect Team visited Julian to assess ways in which we could help him to use the computer to enhance his quality of life and the most important things to him were to be able to play games and to control the television. As soon as we’d raised sufficient funds to buy a loan eye-gaze system under our StarGaze+ project (as all others are already out on loan), we visited Julian again to set up the system for him. Marta had spent time researching the right games for Julian’s abilities and he can now use his system to control the television, play games, watch his favourite videos and play music.
Please do keep watching the video below and help them reach their goal of 25,000 views

Train2Game News: Fee Stewart talks to BBC Radio Leeds

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Train2Game Student Fiona Stewart, or Fee The Giraffe on the Train2Game forums, was interviewd by BBC Radio Leeds yesterday.

She discusses her move from traditional art to 3D Modelling and how her dislike of the smell of paint came about. She also explains how she got funding from Microsoft for FormerDroid LTD where she is the Managing Director.

You can listen to the interview by clicking on the picture below

Train2Game News: Forsaken Competition

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Forsaken Studios, who employ a few Train2Game students, has announced a new competition. This is the second competition from the studio.

The Embers of Caerus: Frozen Hell’s Crossing competition is very simple. Train2Game student and Forsaken tester Ollie Smith crossed the in game continent of Aaldnarech, he ran from Thaal on the western shore all the way to Nev on the eastern shore. We timed how long it took Ollie to run across the continent.

To win the competition, all you have to do is guess how long it took him in actual running time. The closest guess wins.

The winner will receive a Crucial 256GB M4, 2.5 inch Internal Solid State Drive. You can increase your chance of winning the hard drive by keeping a close eye on the Embers of Caerus social media pages on Facebook and Twitter, for this competition use the Twitter hashtag: #eocfrozenhell. You might get some hints towards the answer.

Forsaken studios is based in Texas, USA and was founded in 2011. It is responsible for the MMO Embers of Caerus.

Send your entry to competition@forsakenstudios.com and have a shot at winning this amazing solid state drive.

 
The competition is open as of now and remains open until 12pm GMT on Saturday the 10th of November 2012. The winner will be announced Sunday 11th of November 2012.

For more information and Terms & Conditions you can visit the site here.

Train2Game News: Mid-week Round up – 8.11.12

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Curiosity: What’s inside the cube? was released for iOS and Android on Tuesday and already the first layer has been tapped away. There has been so many people trying to satisfy their curiosity that there has been some server issues but Peter Molyneux and 22Cans are working to fix that.

Peter Molyneux has said that the big game that 22Cans is leading to will be the last game he makes. He revealed the information in an interview 24 hours after the launch of Curiosity. Mr Molyneux has also revealed that the next experience could be “kind of” live on Friday.

Total Film has revealed that a reboot of Mortal Kombat will be coming soon. The original film based on the video game is one I always enjoyed so I am really hoping they do a good job. Kevin Tancharoen has been named as likely director of the film, who previously worked on the digital series released in anticipation of Mortal Kombat 9.

This month, if you play the Halo 4 multiplayer Microsoft are giving you points to spend. You do have to clock some serious hours to earn points. 35 hours earns you a whopping 100 points. Over 70 hours and you’ll receive 300. Playing 140 hours earns you 600 MS points. It is all part of the Microsoft Rewards Scheme.

Several sources aware of plans within Microsoft’s Redmond HQ have said that initial hardware planning for an Xbox Surface has begun. Specifications for an Xbox Surface 7-inch tablet computer leaked back in June ahead of Microsoft’s Surface announcement. The news outlet says the final implementation of new Xbox tablet is being worked on now.

Resident Evil developer and publisher Capcom is looking to hire 1,000 developers over the next ten years, the company has claimed. Capcom, which currently houses around 1,500 developers, also said that it wanted to increase the number of employees at the company to create a larger percentage of its games internally.

Finally Angry Birds: Star Wars has hit iOS, Android and Windows Phones today. You can see the trailer for the game, here.

Train2Game News: Student Diaries – 07.11.12

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Matty Wyett Simmonds 5.11.12

Week 48! Not much change going on at the moment, we are edging ever so closer to the release of the current game and things are tightening up here, people are staying later and the game itself is starting to look pretty good. I’ve not been so much making art over the last week, I’ve been doing more putting stuff together which makes a change, and playing more with particle effects which is so much fun! I went crazy and started adding lots of cool stuff like ripples in water and sparks flying about. Not too detailed though but still fun.

My phone recently updated to jellybean (have an SIII) and it’s been awesome! It’s already guessed where my house and work place is and gives me travel times without prompt as well as recommending places to go eat or visit around where I am. It also showed me cute pictures of puppies as I went past a dog kennel, I think it knows me too well.

MattyWS

Craig Moore Student Diary Week 50

So after my “emo” week last week I feel a bit better about everything, having had a chance to talk through things with a couple of the other guys and step back a bit and refocus things feel much clearer and we have been able to iron out some major bumps which is a fantastic feeling.

I suppose it is something that comes only with experience, that ability to pull yourself back from an intense project and try to notice the problems, reassess them and then dive back in correct them and continue on with the same vigour and determination.

Suffice to say it ended up being a good week, we made some major changes and the project is better for it. I still can’t believe how close we are to getting this released but still haven’t announced anything, it feels incredibly covert, but maybe it’s for the better until we have something we are incredibly proud of.

In other news, I managed to get another Portfolio Project done at the weekend, really putting me in good stead for getting the course finished by the end of the year. It leaves me with one more to do before I am done, if it wasn’t absolutely humungous it wouldn’t be too bad.

Anyhow, I have stuff to do and not a lot of time to do it!

Till next week

Craig

Ezekiel Morris – Final Developers Diary

This is my last developer diary, so, what have I learned since starting work experience, well I have learned about production workflow, collaborating with other members of the project team, animation layers in 3d max and maya and also shotcut keys in photoshop.

I feel that all of these new skills will help me in the furutre, my next step is to develop the skills and keep getting better, so my main priority is this, stay focussed and progress, never lose site of what you really want, concentrate and study. I say knowledge is power and with great power requires the right knowledge to keep it, so when I say focus I break up the words.

F -stands for Follow

O – stand for On

C- stands for Course

U – stands for Until

S – stands for Successful

Doing this has been a good experience and I would like to say thank you to everyone for guiding me and also giving me good advice, this experience has opened my eyes.

The experience was stressful but I went thought it and the end result is I finished all of my sprints, so once again thank you Train2Game for arranging this and DR Studios for having me, much appreciated.

Amanda Blatch week 7

Soooooo…. this week’s diary. Not too sure what to say to be honest, I have finally gotten through all the characters that are needed in time for the deadline so far  and have been focusing almost entirely on UI this week. My job has been to clean up and ‘prettify’ it where needed, adding additional bits and bobs that could help improve the gameplay and user navigation. It’s strange how UI isn’t as easy as it would seem, I have a folder load of disused ideas and sketches of UI which wouldn’t make it to game and, still, two days later I can’t come up with the perfect button that can be universally used across the game. Hell, I even have a few versions of a ‘X’ all of which are un useable in-game as it doesn’t really fit in.  UI is not really my strong suit but still good practice and helps work my brain around a different way of thinking. With any luck I could turn that around today and come up with something that makes everyone happy!

Oh and the splash image has been completed and the font bought for the game so now we have something that really fits in and looks good. Hopefully that will be unveiled to you guys very soon. We are so close to the end (and yet feels so far away), some of the DR team are slowly being funnelled across to the next project which is being unveiled to us today so the transition between projects is easy and swift for everyone once this one ends. It’s all quite exciting!

Again, till next week where I will probably have more exciting things to write about for you internet munchkins.

Train2Game News: Game industry jobs – 7.11.12

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Art

 

Jagex Ltd, a World leading independent Online Games Studio, is looking for a highly motivated Junior Web Designer to produce online art assets for our games, including TRANSFORMERS UNIVERSE and RuneScape.

Working within our busy in-house design team, you will be responsible for designing a variety of banners, web pages, Facebook campaigns, logos and other art assets. Working with the Lead Designer for each product you will have a great opportunity to learn and improve your skills while gaining valuable industry experience.

This unique and highly rewarding role will suit an up and coming designer with little or no industry experience provided you have a strong online portfolio demonstrating your design talent.

Key Duties Include:
– Working on the company’s products and designing art assets ranging from banners to websites.
– Working from a written brief, from concept to final launch.
– Following a products brand guide.
– Working closely with the Lead designer of each product.
– Working closely with internal clients & product brand managers

Essential Requirements:
– Good working knowledge of Photoshop.
– A strong online portfolio.
– A good eye for colours, typography, design and composition.
– Ability to show good initiative, judgement and excellent attention to detail.
– Good communication skills

Desirable Requirements:
– Working knowledge of Illustrator, InDesign, or Flash.
– Ability to paint with a digital tablet.
– Experience of working within large scale organisations.
– An interest in computer games.

You can apply HERE.

Junior Technical Artist

One of the most exciting and demanding challenges in modern game development is building bridges between increasingly complex art and code. The technical artist provides this vital link and combines an understanding of tools and technologies along with a keen artistic eye.

This Junior Technical Artist role will be for our Research & Development Art Team, prototyping and benchmarking the latest art techniques and supporting all our games in development. The successful applicant is expected to develop in the role and would be provided with the support network to learn all they need to know

Specific requirements for this role:

The following describes the full spectrum of expectations for a technical artist. Junior positions would not be expected to have experience in all of these areas.

Directly reporting to: R&D Art Director

Duties
-The evaluation of art creation pipelines to assess their effectiveness in the studio’s game development processes.
-The creation of tools and scripts to improve art pipelines in the studio. This can include Python, MEL or Z-Scripts and may extend to full tool creation within an applications API or in some cases windows based environments.
-The creation of pixel and vertex shaders for use in R&D and game development.
-The design and implementation of new processes in areas such as lighting, surfacing (shaders and materials), post processing and special effects.
-To document and communicate pipelines and technology updates to all relevant parties.
-Create and iteratively develop game assets from inception to final review on the target hardware within the game engine using appropriate tools (BlitzTech Tools).

Essentials
-A knowledge of applicable content creation applications such as Maya, Photoshop and Zbrush.
-Some knowledge of game development tools and pipelines in such environments as Unreal Engine, CryEngine, Gamebryo or BlitzTech.
-Some knowledge of scripting
-An understanding of techniques to accurately simulate surfaces in game. This may include texture, lighting and shaders.

Traditional Art Skills
-Appreciation and ability to make good fundamental artistic judgements.
-An understanding of the basic principles of lighting.
-Ability to develop and communicate ideas and concepts in a visual manner.

Self Management and Organisation
-Ability and willingness to work to a set brief and to deadlines.

Teamwork and Communication
-To maintain a good level of communication with all relevant parties at all times.
-Ability and willingness to fit into a creative team environment.

Professional attitude and work ethic
-A willingness and ability to learn is essential including the ability to accept constructive feedback.
-A consistent professional approach to naming, filing, backing up and archiving of all work in accordance with company and team policy.

 

You can apply HERE.

Developer

Games Programmer (iOS/Android)
Brighton

My client is looking for smart, energetic, friendly programmers with strong C++ or C# skills to join their growing company. The role will see you working on exciting projects with small team sizes, flexibility is key as the work will be varied – if you love games and technology and enjoy working in an environment where the pace of technological advancement knows no limits this is the role for you!
Required

• 2.1 degree in Maths, Physics, Computer Science or related, or equivalent industry experience
• Excellent knowledge of C# or C++
• Excellent knowledge of algorithms and data structures
• Experience of creating games on desktop or mobile platforms
• Desire to make great games
• Great communication skills (verbal and written)
• Happy to work as part of a team
• Demonstrable love for some area of game technology
• A passion for playing games and solving problems
• Flexible and keen to learn new skills

Great to have

• Knowledge of two or more other programming languages (for example Java, Python, PHP, Clojure)
• 1 or more years of games industry experience
• 1 or more shipped titles on console, desktop or mobile platforms
• Strong knowledge of console, desktop and mobile architectures
• Knowledge of asynchronous engineering techniques
• Experience of Unity, Unreal or XNA
• SQL
• Experience using digital content creation tools (for example Max, Maya, Photoshop)

You can apply HERE.

C++/C# Games Programmer

Ideaworks Game Studio was established in 2005 to develop AAA native C++ based mobile games. Using in-house cross-platform technology developed by parent company Ideaworks3D, the studio was able provide high quality, efficient and rapid development of console games to mobile. We quickly became the cross-platform developer of choice for leading games publishers and developers from all over the world, earning industry awards for our artistry and technical mastery. Some of the games we have brought to the mobile gaming market include original and franchise-based games Metal Gear Solid Mobile, Backbreaker Football, Call of Duty: WaW: Zombies, Call of Duty Black Ops: Zombies and Fable: Coin Golf amongst many others.

 

Job Description
We are seeking talented and capable programmers, with strong technical competence and passion for making mobile games. Candidates will professional development experience, and be capable of working in a collaborative team development environment. Excellent written and ability to articulateyour ideas are key, as are a dedication to quality, and the ability to adapt quickly to new challenges.
– Requirements
– C++, C# is a bonus
– Experience with scripting languages such as Python and Lua
– Ability to rapidly prototype
– Experience with animation, graphics or physics programming
– Familiarity with/ability to rapidly prototype
– Ability to work within a dynamic and collaborate development team
– Self-motivated with a strong work ethic
– Good verbal and written communication skills
– Bachelors degree in Software Engineering or Computer Science, or some work experience with a proven track record

Responsibilities

Candidates will be skilled and passionate developers, with a creative mind-set and a burning enthusiasm for making great games.

– Develop project-independent games technology
– Estimating code tasks and assignments
– Work with other disciplines [Design, Art etc] to plan & execute work
– Ensure that your code is configured to meet a high standard of technical quality
– Maintain a balance between long-term engineering goals and those driven by production realities and delivery constraints to deliver great games
– Contribute to the technical evaluation and resource planning of projects under consideration or under execution,balancing high-level aims (such as staff development and technical quality) against practical development demands.
– Work with other disciplines [Design, Art etc] to plan and execute work

 

You can apply HERE.

QA

Rockstar North is looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated individuals to join our Games Test team in
Edinburgh. You will be expected to play through our latest games looking for problems and reporting errors, to ensure game quality before release. 

Responsibilities

You will be finding and reproducing bugs, errors or problems in-game as directed. The role will require accurate, detailed and complete reporting to the required standards and subsequent revision of those errors or problems.

Qualifications

Successful applicants will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and enjoy working as part of a team. You will have good general computer skills and be a confident learner working with word processing, databases and spreadsheets. You will be able to show consistent attention to detail and have the ability to remain focussed when approaching repetitive tasks. We will be looking for flexibility regarding unsociable and extended working hours to meet the demands of the role.

Additional Information

Candidates must be 18 years of age and above and provide two references. The position will be a full-time fixed term contract. Applicants will preferably be educated to further or higher education standards.

This is a two stage application process. You will first be asked to complete an application pack from which you may be asked to attend an interview.

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Student diaries – 06.11.12

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Amanda Blatch week 6

So for my diary this week. To be honest with you my memory is a little bit shoddy, especially when the cold weather hit and my body seems to have started shutting down into a weird state between wanting to hibernate, and needing to stay functional. However despite needing to do that, in the few minutes it took me to write that opening paragraph in my morning-daze, I have been sipping at my coffee and recollecting my thoughts of the past week.

I do remember finishing off some work from the previous week of a couple of characters who just needed to be cut out, rigged and imported in game. Luckily I was able to finish that lot in an hour or so before moving onto daunting and important piece for the game; The Splash Screen. As most of you know, the splash screen is a pretty bit of artwork that advertises the game and is one of the first points of call for the player when they load their freshly download game from the app store. So to me that is pretty important task as an artist and I, admittedly, often judge a game based on its opening. To me it shows that if developers are putting that much care and attention into an opening sequence and/or image for a game, then the rest of the game would surely receive that sort of treatment as well. So daunting. But I got to work and got a lot of input from everyone in the studio to find that ‘perfect’ medium that would make the majority happy. It took a little while to get right, but we got there in the end and were able to create a splash that seemed to sit well with everyone. And that was pretty much my week! It got rounded off nicely with another bit of character work for our tutorial guide which I managed to get all done in about half a day (whooo setting new records for myself!) to our designer’s standards. But that is about it, so enough of this writing thing for now and back to the work!

Craig Moore

Student Diary

Week 49

Not a great deal has changed since last week; it’s been a heavy week of work and a weekend of T2G coursework, to come, for me.

We had a big push in regards to presentation of the game this week, title screen has gone in and work on the font has happened. I have also begun adding music and sound which helps to make the game more fleshed out and actually feel like a *thing*. The biggest hurdle now is really improving the players experience within the game.

As it currently stands things are a little choppy, there are some key elements missing that enable the player to know what they are doing, where to go, what to do etc.. And these all need going in and making clear and incredibly approachable. The biggest hurdle is making sure everything is represented, and with mobile devices it all needs to be done with little real estate.

Getting this done is a major hurdle for me, I’m really pushing myself to do everything that’s being asked of me and it is incredibly stressful, I don’t want to let anyone down and failing is my worst fear. I just have to try my best not to let it get the best of me and fight through the pressure.

Never Give up

Craig

Ezekiel Morris – Developers Diary

Well this week I’ve been animating again, all of my character animations are complete so

at this point I wasn’t sure if there was any work for me. I have finished my tasks for the week and I thought there was no more animation left to do but that’s a lie because there is more animation and animation always takes time, you can’t rush it.

When you start to see what’s needed it looks simple at first but it’s not, I find it annoying when I’m working on these animations for hours and hours and it looks the perfect in your eyes but you get told that the animation is good but it’s too short so add a bit more or it’s getting there keep working on it, so I pause and do this in my mind Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Rage quit.com. I can’t wait to finish the game particularly can’t wait to relax and chill but hold on I can’t chill I’m working late again yayyy!!!

Finally I found something that will make my life easier and that’s iclone5, it’s a real-time animation program. I want my workflow to be efficient and simple no worries, no stress and doing it in iclone5 is the real deal I don’t use iclone5 at D R Studios and it wouldn’t work for this project, animating it manually is a skill to learn.

Matty WS week 47

Week47 went by very fast, got a lot of work in, and stayed late a few times again. The weeks are merging together now and time flies by, its winter time now essentially! That would make it my second winter here, so I’ve been here a long time now. I think I’ve been exposed to a lot of hard work and late nights and I’ve so far gained a massive insight in to what it’s like to work in the games industry. Even now every single thing I’ve done has been a learning curve, I’ve used many programs that I’ve not used before and I’ve done a lot more 2D work here than I have done in my entire life, albeit that isn’t much. 😛 Either way though I’ve also learned that it’s not an easy job. I also haven’t only worked on games since I’ve been here, there has been a few other projects that weren’t to do with games at all!

Since I started in September last year it’s been a great experience that I hope will continue for a lot longer. I could never go back to working in retail or any other boring/manual labour job after working here, I can only see myself going forward and getting better with every game asset or document I produce, slowly but surely working my way up the ladder of what seems to be my choice of career, chosen when I was still in school. I’d like to think I’ve done rather well considering I haven’t gone to uni and even dropped out of college, and it’s just proof that you can do what you want regardless of official education, it’ll just be harder to get there.

Anyways, I’m gunna go home and play some games. Till next week!

Matty WS

Train2Game News: Adorable TED talk

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This is an incredibly cute talk taken from TED. The video was brought to my attention by a member of the Train2Game forum.

It is a talk by a Dad and his young daughter about the game they made together at a weekend game jam.

They make some very excellent points together in a heart melting way.

You can enjoy the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YwJr1WUlhVU