Monthly Archives: May 2013

Train2Game News: Xbox One revealed

Posted on by

Xbox OneThe big news from yesterday evening was that the next generation Xbox was revealed, the Xbox One. Train2Game has written up a round up of the features on the new system.

The console is shaped in the 16:9 aspect ratio and employs a horizontal orientation optimized for its high-speed Blu-ray disc player. It is moulded in a deep and rich liquid black colour and includes a distinctive bevelled edge.

The completely redesigned, revolutionary 1080p Kinect is more precise, more responsive and more intuitive. Its unparalleled vision, motion and voice technology let you reach into games and entertainment like never before by dramatically expanding its field of view and fidelity. It works in nearly any lighting condition, recognizes precise motion control from a slight wrist rotation, and distinguishes your voice even in a noisy room using advanced noise isolation.

The Xbox controller is refreshed with more than 40 technical and design innovations. Updated directional pad, thumb stick and ergonomic fit immerse all gamers in ways that are uniquely Xbox, and precision and control have been dramatically increased with all new vibrating impulse triggers. The Xbox One Wireless Controller is designed to work in concert with the new Kinect, allowing the two to be paired automatically to create seamless player syncing.

With Xbox One, games push the boundaries of realism and your TV obeys your commands. Say “Xbox On” to launch your personalized Xbox One Home screen, discover what is popular on TV or see friends’ latest gaming achievements all using the most natural interface — your voice. The more you interact with Xbox One, the more it gets to know you and learns what you like. Some of the breakthrough Xbox One features that put you at the centre of your living room entertainment include the following:

TV on Xbox One Navigate and watch live TV from your cable, telco or satellite set-top box through your Xbox One. Microsoft is committed to bringing live TV through various solutions to all the markets where Xbox One will be available

Home Turn on your entertainment system with two powerful words, “Xbox On,” and a custom-tailored Home dashboard welcomes you with your favorite games, TV and entertainment.

Snap Do two things at once on the biggest screen in your home. Use Snap to jump into a multiplayer battle while watching your favourite movie, talk with friends on Skype while watching live TV, or track your fantasy team on TV as you watch the big game and more.

Skype for Xbox One Specially designed for Xbox One, talk with friends on your TV in stunning HD, or for the first time ever, hold group Skype calls on your TV.

Trending Stay on top of what is hot on TV by discovering the entertainment that is popular among your friends, and see what is trending within the Xbox community.

OneGuide Find your favorite entertainment easily, searching by network, name or time, all with the sound of your voice and presented in a tailored program guide.

To create the most advanced Xbox system ever designed for games, TV and entertainment, Microsoft created a state-of-the-art gaming operating system and fused it with an equally amazing entertainment platform, so you will not have to switch inputs to watch TV or play a game. An eight-core, x86 processor and more than 5 billion transistors helps make lag and load times a thing of the past, so you can instantly jump between a game and your entertainment at lightning speed or run a host of apps right alongside your game with no loss in performance.

Xbox One is built to amplify an all-new generation of Xbox Live that is more powerful, more personal and more intelligent. Unleashing the virtually unlimited power of the cloud makes everything more convenient and accessible, from allowing games to be installed in segments so that gameplay can start quickly to updates downloading in the background. Save and store your personalized profile, games and entertainment in the cloud to access them anytime, from any Xbox One console.4 In addition, existing Xbox Live Gold Membership for Xbox 360 will seamlessly carry over to Xbox One.

Xbox Live takes you deeper into the games you love with all-new features:

Smart Match A new Smart Match matchmaking system virtually eliminates waiting in lobbies by estimating wait times and finding people you want to play with while you are enjoying other activities — reputation fundamentally matters and helps find best matches.

Game DVR A dedicated Game DVR captures and accesses your magic moments, all saved to the cloud. Along with sharing tools, you will have the most amazing bragging rights with Xbox Live.

Living Games Dynamic, living worlds evolve and improve the more you play, and advanced artificial intelligence can learn to play like you, so friends can play against your shadow.

Expanded achievements A new and expanded achievements system captures video of your epic moments, continues to grow a game’s achievements over time and rewards you in new ways, and your Gamerscore carries over from Xbox 360.

Xbox SmartGlass Xbox SmartGlass is natively part of the Xbox One platform, built in from the beginning with the ability to quickly render content directly onto your device, and now more devices can connect at one time for multiplayer and shared entertainment.

Microsoft have also confirmed that all Xbox One games will require mandatory installation on the system’s hard drive. To install the same disc on another Xbox Live user’s drive, a fee must be paid.

Microsoft exec Phil Harrison elaborated in an Xbox One interview with CVG that players who activate a pre-owned retail disc will need to pay the same price as the original buyer in order to access its content.

Microsoft later added that it is “designing the new console to enable customers to trade in and resell Xbox One games”, but the company’s not yet ready to share details on how this process will work.

Sadly, yet understandably with it’s new drive, Xbox One won’t be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 games.

To put to rest one of the rumours in the lead up to the console, there is no sweeping mandatory always-online requirement for Xbox One games. However, Harrison suggested that Xbox One will require an internet connection once every 24 hours.

Following the reveal event, a number of UK retailers kicked off Xbox One pre-orders. Zavvi has predicted an Xbox One price of £400 and release date November 30.

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 21.05.13

Posted on by

Train2Game wants you to work in the industry we all love and with that in mind it is time for another job posting!

DEVELOPER

Job Title Gameplay Programmer
Job Category Programming
Skills Required Programming
Location North West, North West
Job Description My client is a successful studio based in the North West, together with their partner studio they have been responsible for creating some of the most fun and original titles of the last few years.

They are seeking a gameplay programmer to work on a major next-gen project. It will involve a bit of everything on the gameplay front – game mechanics, AI, scripting, UI, effects etc. All based on a long established game engine. The role could possibly include working on the handheld version of the title at a later date.

For this role, the ideal candidate will need:
At least one product’s industry experience, or a stunning demo to show their ability/potential.
Solid knowledge of C/C++ with a strong maths background.
Good all round programming techniques.
It goes without saying that experience in any of the aforementioned gameplay tasks would be a major bonus.

In return the company offer an excellent Salary and Benefits.

More details are available by contacting Lisa Corbett via email: lisa@aswift.com

 

ARTIST

Job Title Artists
Job Category Art / Animation
Skills Required Art / Animation
Location UK & Europe
Job Description Videogame 3D Artists

We’re looking to recruit a number of experienced artists with a wide range of skills at our studio on the South Coast of England to work on high-profile projects.

We offer excellent conditions and a competitive package in a fun working environment.

As an artist at Stainless you will be working with a creative agile team to deliver high quality art assets in collaboration with designers and programmers.

Successful candidates will be passionate about making the best games and making them look damn fine at the same time!

Essential Requirements:
Passion for creating art for games.
Good sense of scale, composition and staging.
Professional attitude and work ethic.
Good written and verbal communication skills.
A desire to learn.
Self-motivated and organised.

We require artists with any or all of the following skills:
3D Environment creation
3D Vehicle creation

The following are desirable but not essential:
Experience working on games as an artist at any level.
Keen eye for detail and art style.
Skills in Adobe Flash / UI Design
Strong traditional art skills.
Understanding of open world/driving games.
Formal qualifications in related fields.
Knowledge of additional software and plugins

You can apply here, http://www.stainlessgames.com/careers/go/

QA

Area: South East
City: Horsham
Company: Creative Assembly

Position Overview
– The Games Tester position is a responsible job; reporting bugs and providing quality feedback for our titles in development.
– These fixed term contracts are for our new Alien IP title currently in development. Several additional positions are also needed for our established Total War team during the same period.
– 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
– Specific support and general roles available

Essential
– A clear understanding of QA process
– A keen enthusiasm for gaming
– Good communication and reporting skills
– Driven and flexible approach

Desirable
– A clear understanding of QA process
– A keen enthusiasm for gaming
– Good communication and reporting skills
– Driven and flexible approach
– Experience of testing one full shipped title
– A good understanding of Strategy games (Total War)
– A good knowledge of current generation consoles (Alien IP)
– Games industry related degree (e.g. audio, art, design, etc.) or expertise in a specific game area is an asset (e.g. audio, technical, PC hardware, design or scripting etc.)
– Fluent in one or more of the following languages: French, German, Italian or Spanish
– Strong technical knowledge/skills (e.g. programming, scripting)

You will need to be available to start between June and October 2012

You can apply here, http://www.creative-assembly.com/jobs/

Train2Game News: Stillalive studios respond to scepticism

Posted on by

Son of NorFollowing the release of the video demonstrating the partnership stillalive studios have formed with Emotiv to allow players to control the gameplay mechanics with brain activity, there have been suggestions from viewers that the device and its functions are not genuine.

Today stillalive studio released a further video outlining exactly how the Emotiov EPOC devise works with Son or Nor to quash rumours of fakery and demonstrate the phenomenal function the Emotiv EPOC brings to the 3rd person action adventure PC/Mac/Linux title.

Julian Mautner, CEO of stillalive studios says in the video; “In response to our recent video about the Emotive EPOC mind control device, we got a lot of scepticism. I don’t blame [people] at all because I know how insane and fake it really sounds. So I want to show how the thing works; if you have a certain thing in your mind then the EEG data of that specific thought is stored and as soon as you think it again it will recognise it and trigger some action.” Mautner goes on to demonstrate this in the video by shooting a fireball from his characters hands by only thinking the action.

“The cool thing about the EPOC devise is it recognises more than brain activity, it also recognises facial expressions.” Maunter adds as he demonstrated this by raising the landscape by raising his eyebrows and lowers it with clenched teeth. “The other very cool thing is it can actually measure your emotions; if you are excited or if your are bored or if you’re full of anxiety, [for example] and you can use that data with Son of Nor. For instance, the sound tracks could be selected according to your current emotional state.” Mautner concludes.

The video and claims made by stillalive studios are 100% genuine and backers to the Kickstarter campaign (http://bit.ly/SonOfNor) can pledge to have the EPOC headset included in the reward package; when bidding $300 backers will get the EPOC device plus a digital copy of Son of Nor, a $530 pledge will secure backers an EPOC device plus a pysical collectors edition of Son of Nor.

If Son of Nor is successfully funded through Kickstarter, the team anticipate a release in Q2 2014.

Train2Game News: Unity goes free to develop for mobile

Posted on by

unity-logoGood news for Train2Game students, the Unity engine is now free to use for development for iOS and Android.

In a move to further democratise game development, Unity is making its basic mobile tools free for independent developers and small studios.

Unity is a game development ecosystem: a powerful rendering engine fully integrated with a complete set of intuitive tools and rapid work flow to create interactive 3D content. It also has thousands of quality, ready-made assets in the Asset Store and a helpful knowledge-sharing Community.

Starting today, indies will be able to publish their games and apps to iOS and Android in the build menu. Publishing options for other mobile platforms, such as BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 will also be included “at no additional cost” once they are released.

Unity CEO David Helgason said “We were able to make Unity free for the web and for desktop computers a while ago, but have been dreaming of doing the same for mobile for what seems like forever.

“Mobile games development is possibly the most dynamic and exciting industry in the world, and it’s an honour to be able to help so many developers be so successful in fulfilling their visions and in building their businesses.”

Taking to Twitter, Unity rendering architect Aras Pranckevičius said that there will be some compensation for developers who had already paid for their licence but he is unsure of how the compensation scheme will work.

This is obviously amazing news for Train2Game students and student studios as it is one less boundary stopping you from developing games. You can download the engine and start developing today from here, http://unity3d.com/

Train2Game News: Icey Monty require staff

Posted on by

Icey MontyTrain2Game Student studio, Icey Monty have been so successful over the past few months that they need a new member of staff!

If you are unaware of who they are, Icey Monty Ltd. is an app and games development start-up targeting PC and Mobile markets, headed-up by Train2Game students John Esslemont and Nick Walker. The young developers didn’t anticipate the acceleration of business and in the next few months are looking to hire an additional developer on a full time basis.

Due to the nature of freelance work, the length of the employment cannot be guaranteed. Similarly, Icey Monty cannot give any exact figures about wages, work hours or job demand. Given the studios current rate of work, you can expect a junior designer’s salary, this is likely to fluctuate however.

The chosen candidate will likely be hired on a per job basis, as this is how the team currently pay themselves, with a schedule based work flow on a semi-consistent hourly rate. Icey Monty is looking exclusively for a Unity3D developer, who is able to work from home.

The ideal candidate would have the following:

  • Ability to code to a moderate standard in any object-orientated language, although proficiency in C# is preferable.
  • A good understanding of Unity’s IDE, including its non-scripting features.
  • Coding skills in the context of Unity’s engine; Abstraction, Inheritance, Serialization, 3D math, generics, reflection, modularity, logic, events & delegates, procedural, state machines, commenting. Most importantly, the desire to be consistently improving and the ability to teach oneself.
  • General skills, including; time management, mathematics, cooperation, commercial business software, communication, composure, literacy, dedication, stress management, commitment, confidence, respect, ambition and drive.
  • Skype and mobile availability.
  • A passion for games development, design, and quality.

The Icey Monty team are hoping that you can expect an average of forty hours per week. Usually 9-5 Monday to Friday, although there will be fluctuations and quiet days on almost every project. Bonuses may be available for these periods, depending on the client.

Those forty hours will be used doing the following:

  • Creating entire games and apps to client’s specifications in a given time frame.
  • Working with SVN software on team based projects.
  • Scripting key components on top of existing frameworks.
  • Suggesting and incorporating new game and level design to clients in parallel with their ideas and direction.
  • Working with the Icey Monty team; handling clients, organising prices, features and meetings.

The team will ease you into all of the above, especially regarding finances and client interaction. Icey Monty is relatively new to operating as a studio and learning through experiences what works best.

If you think you would like to work with Icey Monty, you can send your CV and application to them at nick@iceymonty.com. Icey Monty also require you to CC them to nickwalker12@googlemail.com

Train2Game News: Batman Arkham Origins full trailer

Posted on by

Batman Arkham OriginsThe full trailer has been released for Batman Arkham Origins following the little tease we received last week.

As regular readers probably know, I am a big Bat Fan so when I heard of the move to Warner Bros from Rocksteady I was cautious but hopeful. After watching this trailer, story wise, it seems my hope was well placed.

The trailer depicts the Cowled hero and his universe, from what I can tell, as good as the previous Arkham Games.

There is also a nice little nod to another DC character in the trailer that has got me wondering if the character will be in the game in any way.

The trailer also reveals that if you pre-order the game you will get to play as Deathstroke in the challenge mode for the game.

You can enjoy the gorgeously crafted trailer below:

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 20.05.13

Posted on by

Metro-Last-LightIn this weeks UK Top 20, Dead Island Riptide has been knocked off of the top spot! Metro Last Light has debuted at number one. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Infinity has also debuted this week. The Pokémon dungeon crawler wasn’t enough to break into the top three though and sits at number four.

All formats

Week ending 18 May 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 METRO LAST LIGHT DEEP SILVER –
2 DEAD ISLAND: RIPTIDE DEEP SILVER 1
3 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 5
4 POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON: INFINITY NINTENDO –
5 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 2
6 TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX 3
7 THE WALKING DEAD TELLTALE GAMES 9
8 INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 4
9 ASSASSIN’S CREED III XBOX 360 CLASSICS 7
10 BIOSHOCK INFINITE 2K GAMES 6
11 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 12
12 LUIGI’S MANSION 2 NINTENDO 10
13 LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER: THE CHASE BEGINS NINTENDO 8
14 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 15
15 GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 14
16 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM XBOX 360 CLASSICS 17
17 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV XBOX 360 CLASSICS 20
18 GRAND THEFT AUTO EPISODES – LIBERTY CITY ROCKSTAR 19
19 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS –
20 DRAGON’S DOGMA: DARK ARISEN CAPCOM 13
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News: Rugby Nations 13

Posted on by

Rugby Nations 13The biggest rugby game for smart phones and tablets is back and aims to grow its existing 2.5m fans with new features including professional commentary and improved rugby simulation.

Distinctive Games launches the fourth instalment of the biggest rugby title for the smart phone and tablet, Rugby Nations 13. The series has gone from strength-to-strength since its creation in 2009, new features include: Commentary from Sky Sports’ Bill Leslie, improved visuals and animations with guidance from ex-professional rugby player James Waterhouse and increased accuracy and realism of the rugby simulation, directly requested by players of previous games in the franchise.

Powered by the Phoenix engine, the astonishing visuals and incredibly fluid game play of Rugby Nations 13, propel your rugby experience to new heights. Charge into the action with all-new set play mechanics, offload passing and strategically increase your scoring potential using the in-game team management to ensure only the fittest make the pack.

Rugby Nations is one of Distinctive Games major franchises, to date it has released four games in the series that have been played by over 2.5m players. Rugby Nations 13 will the 5th in the series and will be released accompanied by Rugby Kicks 2, a free rugby flicking game which will be available a few weeks after Rugby Nations 13 is released. Rugby Nations 13 will be launched exclusively on iOS with plans for release on additional formats later in the year.

The Distinctive Games team have a huge amount of experience in creating sports games, having previously worked with the biggest sports IPs in gaming and now with over 30 million people playing their sports titles. The franchise has achieved over 2.5m downloads, is the #1 rugby game for smartphones/tablets and has featured in the top 10 sports games on Appstores, with Rugby Nations 2011 reaching #1 within two days of release.

Distinctive games have also recently employed Tarnya Smith, a Train2Game student who worked on this years Rugby Nations game. We will catch up with her soon to find out about her experiences with Distinctive Games.

Nick Dent, Creative Director, Distinctive Games, said: “We’re all huge fans of sports and sporting games at Distinctive Games, so it’s great to bring the latest version of Rugby Nations to our enthusiastic and passionate fan base. We’ve taken a lot of time to look over reviews of the previous titles by the players and improve aspects of the game they have specified. We’ve also been continuing to work with ex-professional rugby player James Waterhouse to improve the realism of the game. With professional commentary by Bill Leslie this is the biggest and best Rugby Nations to date.”

Distinctive Games recently won the Windows 8 “Power Up” gaming App competition. To find out more visit the Distinctive Games website at www.distinctivegames.com.

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 17.05.13

Posted on by

Batman and DeathstrokeIt’s the end of the week so it is time for the Train2Game round up of Games Industry news from across the week!

First of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment released a teaser trailer for Batman Arkham Origins. This most certainly is a tease! The full trailer is scheduled to be released on May 20, the day before the big Xbox reveal. You can enjoy your teaser here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvQXipKxrCE&feature=youtu.be

To continue our trailer theme, a trailer for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was also released earlier this week. This is following comments made by CEO Yves Guillemot who stated that they don’t expect AC4 to do as well as it’s predecessors. This cautious approach is a refreshing change. You can enjoy the PEGI 18 trailer here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Iys4wq7O_fQ

2K and Gearbox Software today announced that the sixth playable character for Borderlands 2, Krieg the Psycho, is now available via digital download across all available platforms for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. The Psycho Pack offers fans a chance to play with one of the most iconic personalities in the Borderlands universe. The sixth playable character for Borderlands 2, Krieg the Psycho, harnesses his psychotic multiple personalities to give the bandits and baddies of Pandora a taste of their own medicine. Vault Hunters can use the new character class to shoot and loot their way to new heights in Borderlands 2 with the recently released Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack. The pack raises the level cap to 61 for all six characters, unlocks a third play through called Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, and is available now for $4.99 or 400 Microsoft Points as a standalone purchase. It is also included as part of the Borderlands 2 Season Pass.

Valve has announced the Steam Trading Card beta is available for sign up now. Fans participating in the beta can unlock virtual trading cards by playing selected titles including CS: GO, Portal 2,  Dota 2 and more to come. The cards can be turned into game badges and trade-able Steam community items, according to info on the Steam site. Full sets of cards can be combined to earn Steam badges, all of which will contribute to your overall Steam level. “Up to half the card set is dropped through game play, the other half is earned through your collecting prowess,” says the blurb. Collecting prowess means that you can get more cards by interacting and trading with fellow Steam community members. Images on the Steam Trading Cards page indicate that these could entitle you to money off purchases on the Steam store. If you’d like to sign up for the beta, you can do it here.

Tech website The Verge is reporting that Microsoft is about to kill off its points system, the method by which we use to buy products off Xbox live, and is moving instead towards using real world prices, and allowing gift cards to pay for its services. These gift cards will supposedly work in the same way as Apple iTunes vouchers do, and the change will also allow users to buy with normal credit or debit cards. This comes after Windows 8 was changed late last year to reflect real-world prices rather than points. This should be confirmed to be true or not at this years E3.

Train2Game News: Employee pranks for womens rights

Posted on by

HawkenMark Long, CEO of Hawken publisher Meteor Entertainment, loved a piece of comic art from the game so much he blew up a print to frame and hang on the out-facing wall of his office. It’s the first thing workers and visitors see when they enter the building, and the last thing they see when they leave.

The art features a voluptuous mechanic in a tiny top and tiny denim shorts, flexing a welding iron and flashing midriff and underboob. She’s in fact referred to as Ruby Underboob.

Ruby Underboob
“I loathe this picture,” shared an otherwise very content female employee of Meteor on The Hawkeye Initiative, a website dedicated to illustrating “how contorted and hyper-sexualised women are commonly drawn in comics”.

“Why do I loathe it? How, you ask, can I stay mad at a sweet young belle who has so obviously taken a break from her important welding to offer me a piping hot cup of coffee and/or a vigorous hand job?”

The answer, she hopes, is obvious.

Perpetually peeved, she decided to do something about it. With the help of artist Sam Kirk, the pair designed a new poster to rival the old, and Bro-sie The Riveter was born.

In his picture he has forgotten all of his clothes apart from his tiny pants, somehow, although thankfully he remembered his wrench and helmet. Luckily he has the body to pull the look off, plus a beard to hide his blushes.

Bro-sie was blown up to poster-size and framed, and early one morning our female heroine did what you probably now expect: switched Ruby Underboob for Bro-sie The Riveter.

Bro-sie
“I stood in the entryway, dizzy with joy. It was glorious,” she wrote. “There Bro-sie stood, proud, nipples testing the air like young gophers in springtime, the post-apocalyptic breeze gently swaying his banana hammock. Bro-sie said, loud and proud: ‘Get ready, world! I am here to lubricate your joints and tighten your socket.'”

Co-workers arrived for work, took pictures, giggled, raised eyebrows, blushed or even asked for prints. Then, CEO Mark Long showed up.

“We hear a loud: ‘What the hell is this?!’ And then all goes quiet. Ten minutes pass. We panic.

“We are both suddenly and painfully aware that we have, in fact, just punked the CEO of our company,” a late-50s ex-army guy in control of their jobs.

“Twenty more minutes pass,” she continued, “and then our CEO comes up to my desk, taps me on the shoulder, and says this:

‘That was a brilliant prank. You called me on exactly the bulls*** I need to be called on. I put up pictures of half-naked girls around the office all the time and I never think about it. I’m taking you and Sam to lunch. And after that, we’re going to hang both prints, side by side.'”

This taught our heroine two things: that there are guys as fed-up as girls, and that there are “totally decent, open-minded human beings” who don’t realise they’re doing what they are.

“We just haven’t been around enough for them to notice.”

She signed off by encouraging the women in games to “turn this damn industry into the environment we want it to be”.