Monthly Archives: January 2014

Train2Game News: OlliOlli coming to PSVita this month

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OlliOlli LogoSkateboarding game OlliOlli, developed by Roll7 – who employed some Train2Game students, is coming to PlayStation Vita on January 22 in Europe.

OlliOlli is a 2d skateboarding game that mixes addictive one-life gameplay with over 120 tricks and grinds with 100 deviously crafted levels & 250 challenges across four gameplay modes.

OlliOlli rewards the most skilful and riskiest of players, always tempting you to go for that massive 360 Inward Heelflip and ludicrous chain of combos. Leaving you to time your landing to perfection – or risk losing your score!

The whole game is hand-drawn in pixelly loveliness, which is no mean feat considering the number of tricks, grinds, slams and stages.

“At PlayStation, we’re delighted to be working with the talented Roll7 to bring the savagely addictive genius of OlliOlli to the PS Vita” said Shahid Ahmad, Senior Business Development Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). “We loved OlliOlli from the first prototype and can’t wait for PlayStation fans to play this beautifully crafted game on their PS Vitas”

OlliOlli is developed and self-published by Roll7 and was QA tested by a couple of our very own Train2Game students! This is a big triumph for them and will do wonders for their CV’s

You can enjoy the trailer for OlliOlli below:

Train2Game News: PS3 infographic

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Now the new year has begun and the next generations are under way, one of my contacts from musicMagpie sent me this infographic about the life of the PlayStation 3.

We will just have to wait and see if the PlayStation 4 can match up or even beat its predecessor.

PS3-Era-Infographic - 7

Train2Game News: Valve to stop Greenlight

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GreenlightValve hopes to render Steam Greenlight defunct by gradually eroding the blockades between small developers and Steam publishing.

Steam Greenlight launched in August 2012, designed as a system to enable small developers to attain Steam publishing rights via community voting.

Greenlight allows users to vote on game projects and concepts posted by indie developers that they would like to see published on Steam. The highest voted software is then considered by Valve for a global Steam release.

But reports from Valve’s Steam Dev Days event on Wednesday quote Valve boss Gabe Newell as saying the firm is looking to make the voting system ‘go away’. Newell’s revelation was Tweeted by various attending developers, including Hot Blooded Games CFO and Marketing director Dave Oshry.

“Our goal is to make Greenlight go away,” Oshry quoted Newell as saying. “Not because it’s not useful, but because we’re evolving.”

Newell reportedly spoke of breaking down the barriers between developers and Steam publishing, potentially opening up the platform to more indie developers and their games, perhaps in similar ways to Apple’s iTunes App Store.

Greenlight suffered a troubled launch, being initially plagued with spam posts containing fake projects and ‘jokes’, or requests for titles such as the Origin-only Battlefield 3 or ‘Half-Life 3’.

Valve announced on Wednesday that Steam has grown to 75 million registered users, up 15 percent in the three months since its October announcement of 65 million users.

The firm also revealed significant changes planned for the Steam Controller, which will reportedly lose its central touch screen and gain traditional face buttons, and its plan to bring music, TV and movies to SteamOS before its final public launch.

Source: CVG

Train2Game News: Unity for PlayStation Vita

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unity-logoIn March 2013, Unity Technologies announced a partnership with Sony based on support for every single one of SCE’s PlayStation platforms, in addition to Unity for PlayStation 3.

Today, Unity announced that with Unity 4.3 they are releasing Unity for PlayStation Vita to the public.

Developers with a licensed developer agreement from SCE for PS Vita will now be able to deploy their game to PS Vita via the Unity engine and make use of platform-specific functionality including:

· Motion sensors

· Front and rear cameras

· Dual analog sticks

· Rear Touch pad

Furthermore, Unity for PS Vita will allow them to integrate the full suite of PSN features into their games, including Trophies, Friends and Matching functionality into your game.

Unity for PS Vita allows developers to develop their game once, without rewriting the code from scratch; simply build and run it on the PS Vita devkit. Not only that, developers can now create both 2D and 3D games with Unity 4.3, animate almost anything with the native animation system Mecanim, and implement awesome graphics.

Zoink! has just released their new game “Stick It To The Man” developed in Unity for both PS3 and PS Vita. Check out “Stick It To The Man” at http://www.stickitgame.com/

Train2Game News: New Android testing software

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Intel SoftwareAppthwack is the new software to make testing Android games easier!

You’ve spent hours designing and coding your application and things are looking pretty good. But now you have another hurdle: ensuring your app is bug-free and operational. After all, a good user experience is central to having happy, content and engaged users.

Proper testing can be a challenge, however. There are testing services out there that can take care of this for you, but they usually charge by the minute incurring further development costs (and those costs are further dependent on how many devices you want to test on).

This is where the service AppThwack can be a lifesaver. Thanks to a partnership with Intel Developer Zone, the AppThwack service is provided completely free of charge for testing on Intel-based Android smartphones and tablets.

These tests are run on real, non-emulated devices and mean you can test your app on a wide range of devices you don’t have to own yourself. AppThwack will run a number different test processes including launch, stress tests and uninstalls and then outputs low-level logs, screenshots and performance data to show how well your app has performed on the corresponding devices.

As part of the partnership, the Intel Atom-based Android devices you can test for free on include:

Asus MeMO Pad FHD 10
Dell Venue 7
Dell Venue 8
Lenovo IdeaPhone K900
Motorola Droid RAZR i
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10

On the Intel Developer Zone there is a handy How-To Guide for AppThwack to get you started, which runs you through how to upload your application’s APK to the cloud service and schedule in your tests, as well as giving you a look at what sort of performance results you can expect.

Now there’s no excuse not to thoroughly test your APKs and ensure they run optimally on Intel hardware!

Source: Softalkblog sponsored by the Intel Developer Zone

Train2Game News: Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught coming soon

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Call of Duty GhostsGamers mark your calendars as the first of four massive Downloadable Content Pack offerings for Call of Duty: Ghosts, is on the way with Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught.

Onslaught debuts four unique multiplayer maps, each with their own distinct environments, small to medium scale and varied gameplay, as well as the all-new “Maverick” dual-purpose Assault Rifle/Sniper Rifle. Anchoring Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught is “Episode 1: Nightfall,” the first instalment in Extinction’s four-part episodic narrative that delves deeper into the storyline and features new characters, a new weapon and new alien species including a towering, three-story tall alien enemy.

Onslaught is also included as part of the Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Season Pass, which gives fans access to four epic Call of Duty: Ghosts DLC Packs planned to release in 2014 – Onslaught, Devastation, Invasion and Nemesis. Additionally, Call of Duty Ghosts DLC Season Pass holders get instant access to the downloadable multiplayer map, “Free Fall,” as well as the Team Leader Digital Pack, which comes with a unique multiplayer character head, weapon camo, reticle, player patch, player card and player background.

“We know our fans have an appetite for new gameplay content all year long and the team here is committed to delivering a full season’s worth of amazing new maps, weapons and more, starting with Onslaught in January,” said Mark Rubin, Executive Producer at Infinity Ward. “This year will see an assortment of content for players to dig into, with new, uniquely themed maps, new multiplayer weapons and an episodic Extinction story arc that introduces new characters, new locations and new weapons as they try to uncover the genesis of the aliens’ existence.”

Call of Duty: Ghosts’ initial DLC Pack will include the first instalment in Extinction’s four-part episodic narrative, “Episode 1: Nightfall.” Introducing a narrative driven by two new characters and featuring two all-new alien species and an exclusive weapon, “Episode 1: Nightfall” is a fast and frenetic, action-packed continuation of the original Extinction experience in Call of Duty: Ghosts. Set in a remote facility hidden deep within the Alaskan wilderness, the shadowy Nightfall Program has been researching the origins of the newly revealed alien threat. A small recon team of elite soldiers must infiltrate the site to retrieve intel and exterminate the hordes of savage creatures and along the way uncover a three-story tall terror unlike anything they’ve faced before.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Onslaught is set to launch on 28th January first, exclusively on Xbox Live for both Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Train2Game News: Train2Game Winners spreading

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T2G WinnersFollowing the announcement of the Train2Game Winners website, the story was then picked up by Gamasutra and Develop.

The news of how great our students are doing is spreading around the internet which is fantastic news! The more recognition our students get the better.

If you would like to view the captures of the articles you can do below:

Train2Game Winners Launched

The links for the articles are below:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/208061/Train2Game_Winners_Launched.php

https://www.develop-online.net/press-releases/train2game-winners-launched/0187808

If you would like to be featured on the website you can email your achievements and story to Harrycole@swanpr.co.uk

Train2Game News: Max: Curse of the Brotherhood Review

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MaxFor my first review of 2014 I got to review my first Xbox One Game, Max: The Curse of the Brotherhood.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a 2.5D side-scrolling platform video game developed by Press Play for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The game is a reimagining of Press Play’s previous work, the 2010 Max and the Magic Marker.

This is in essence the first arcade game to be released on the Xbox One and it is a good starting point. The graphics for the game are not the ultra realistic that most current games for the XB1 are, they are a nice cartoon style that still looks very attractive on the next generation console.

The game play reminds me of Limbo but it does miss that charm that Limbo has which makes it the classic game it is. Max uses his Magic Marker to create; pillars, vines, branches, water slides and Fireballs to navigate his way through the levels and overcome puzzles. When I first saw the trailers for the game I assumed the magic marker was going to be controlled using Kinect which could have shown off how well it can work but the game only uses the controller.

There is a nice level of humour within the game with the main antagonist being called Mustacho which never failed to make me smile. Speaking of Mustacho though, when facing him it has to be one of the most frustrating final bosses I have ever faced.

Throughout the game where death doesn’t hold much of a punishment apart from being restarted at the puzzle you were on, during the boss this becomes incredibly irritating.

My issue with the final boss aside, Max: Curse of the Brotherhood was still an entertaining first arcade game for the Xbox One. If you enjoyed Limbo you will enjoy this.

Max: Curse of the Brotherhood is out now on Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 13.01.14

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FIFA 14It’s the usual suspects in the charts again this week with just a bit of a shuffle around. FIFA 14 is still sitting at the number one spot.

All formats

Week ending 11 January 2014

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – FIFA 14 EA SPORTS 1
2 – CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS ACTIVISION 2
3 BATTLEFIELD 4 EA GAMES 4
4 ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG UBISOFT 3
5 – GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 5
6 LEGO MARVEL SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 7
7 NEED FOR SPEED: RIVALS EA GAMES 6
8 KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL SONY COMPUTER ENT. 14
9 MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT 8
10 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES SEGA 15
11 JUST DANCE 2014 UBISOFT 9
12 FORZA MOTORSPORT 5 MICROSOFT 11
13 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 12
14 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2014 SEGA 17
15 WWE 2K14 2K SPORTS 14
16 DEAD ISLAND: RIPTIDE DEEP SILVER –
17 TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX 19
18 DEAD RISING 3 MICROSOFT 13
19 NBA 2K14 2K SPORTS –
20 GRAN TURISMO 6 SONY COMPUTER ENT. 10
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2014 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: New Razer tech impresses at CES

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Project ChristineRazer, the world leader in entertainment devices and software, took top honors at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) for the third consecutive year with its modular PC concept Project Christine and the wearable Razer Nabu smartband.

Project Christine earned “Best PC” distinctions from Engadget, the official awards partner at CES. Concurrently, the Razer Nabu was selected as Engadget´s “People´s Choice” by way of an open public vote. This is the third year in a row that Razer walked away with a “Best of CES” win, including “People´s Voice” in 2012, and “Best of Show,” “Best Gaming” and “People´s Voice” in 2013.

“Razer is not just a gaming company – we are a company that designs products for gamers,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “Our continued success at CES really speaks to the gaming lifestyle as a global phenomenon. We´re just a start-up, but our worldwide community of gamers and what we do for them positions us shoulder-to-shoulder -albeit uniquely – with the largest tech companies in the world.”

Selected by Engadget´s editorial team, Project Christine is a revolutionary new PC concept design. It will allow a user to build and customize a computer without advanced technical knowledge – a PC for everyone. As new upgrades come to the market, the PC can be easily and quickly upgraded without assistance or the fear of incompatibility or obsolescence. Project Christine´s modular design allows users to select and install modules on-the-fly, whether it´s a CPU, GPU, or memory and storage configuration, all in a liquid-cooled environment. The result is an ultimately modular, upgradable and powerfully silent computer that can run on any operating platform.

Engadget´s People´s Choice of CES was awarded to Razer for its Nabu smartband, a product in an entirely new category for the company, built on an open platform that delivers smartphone notifications, collects physical data and communicates with other users´ bands, all from one´s wrist. The Nabu tracks fitness data, location, sleep data, and biometric information (such as distance traveled and stairs climbed), all on an opt-in basis. Additionally, the Razer Nabu incorporates a social component, offering band-to-band active and passive communication, so users can find nearby friends, mutual acquaintances and more.

The Razer Nabu won the Popular Mechanics Editor´s Choice Award, the Tom´s Guide Readers´ Choice Award, and the Digital Trend´s Best of CES in the Sports and Fitness category. Project Christine won Tom´s Hardware´s Best of CES in the Outside the Box category, and PCWorld and TechHive´s Best of CES Award in the Best Prototype category.

If you would like to know more about Razer and their products you can visit www.razerzone.com