Train2game News MobiStick

image

Designed by the brazilian indie developers from Vortex Game Studios, the mobiSTICK is a mobile app that transform your mobile device into a fully customised joystick.

The first concept is from 2011, with an idea of using any mobile devices not just as input device, but as a support device too, with information about characters, maps and more… Something like what we have today on Wii U.

The research started in 2013, where lots of tests were created to develop a very nice and comfortable virtual gamepad using all that the device has to offer, like touchscreen, camera and accelerometer.

After 3 years of research the mobiSTICK, a virtual and fully customisable joystick is available for your smart device, but not just that, it is a joystick where the player can modify the entire experience from the app as the user wants!

In some tests, a template was built where the player is able to play some platform games using just one hand, creating lots of possibilities to adapt the app to include people with some motor difficulty back to games!

The mobiSTICK Alpha can be downloaded on the official website and very soon will go out on an Indiegogo campaign. Everyone can support the project on Thunderclap for free.

Official website: http://www.mobistick.co
Thunderclap: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/39958-mobistick-on-indiegogo
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69pSnJblVVQ
Playing with mobiSTICK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmep0xA8Jow

Train2Game News Family Gaming Festival

image

The UK’s first Family Gaming Festival will make its debut this October half term at Excel London as part of Kidtropolis.

Hosted by FamilyGamerTV (http://www.youtube.com/familygamertv ), the gaming festival will be an integral part of Kidtropolis; the biggest UK consumer event for ‘all things kids and families’.

YouTube’s leading UK family gaming outlet (8 million views/month), FamilyGamerTV will be at the heart of Kidtropolis, providing a hub for all the latest games, tech, apps and toys to life products presented by YouTuber and Journalist, Andy Robertson.

Alongside gaming festival exhibitors, the family gaming hub will offer children the opportunity to ‘Become a YouTuber’ with Andy and star in a video. Parents can seek gaming advice and test out games in a Parent’s gaming zone. An Educational zone will enable children to seek career advice for getting into the gaming industry. Additionally, consumers can also tune in to FamilyGamerTV broadcasting highlights of Kidtropolis each day and exclusive looks at the best games.

Kidtropolis is designed to engage children and families with brands and products through play, immersive activities and experiences that can’t be found anywhere else. It will house a spectrum of products from toys to fashion all the way through to science and gaming; all the things that form essential parts of children’s and family lifestyles.

Simon Pilling Managing Director of Kidtropolis said “ Kidtropolis is going to be fantastic and I can’ t wait for the doors to open. I’ m a kid at heart, but I’ m also a parent and I can be sure that within the Family Gaming Festival, the content my children will be exposed to will be appropriate but still very exciting. I’ m delighted to be working with Andy.”

Gemma Gallagher Director of Brand Relations said: “There is a need for a gaming festival for families in the UK and Kidtropolis is the perfect place to host it. Gaming and toys to life products play significant roles in family life and we’ re thrilled to be able to offer this unique experience to brands and consumers in the UK. FamilyGamerTV is a hugely successful and well respected YouTube channel and Andy Robertson will bring enormous value to the show”

Andy Robertson, Director of FamilyGamer YouTube channels said “Families have been crying out for a dedicated video game festival for years. Catering for both children and parents, this is a unique opportunity to engage this huge audience of gamers.The Family Gaming Festival at Kidtropolis will be breakthrough space for families to experience amazing games, get expert advice and discover how to get more from the games they play.”

To get involved in the Family Gaming festival, contact simon@kidtropolis.co.uk or Andy Robertson editor@FamilyGamer.TV .

Train2game News Fear the Walking Dead Mobile Game

image

AMC and the video game publisher Versus Evil announced today that Fear the Walking Dead: Dead Run, the official mobile game based on AMC’s record-breaking TV series, is now available worldwide for free on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Fear the Walking Dead: Dead Run puts players in the shoes of their favorite characters from the show as they try to escape a devastated Los Angeles and the Infected hordes that have overrun the city.  Gameplay takes place across familiar landscapes including an abandoned church, a high school, and the local sports arena. The game features over 40 weapons and special episode levels that deliver storylines paralleling the events of the TV series.

The free mobile game will be discussed on “Talking Dead: Fear Edition,” which will premiere on Monday Night. AMC exclusively premiered the highly-anticipated new season of “Fear the Walking Dead” worldwide in more than 125 countries.

“We wanted to launch the game in a unique and exciting way that honored the great show on which it’s based. The game is both thrilling and visually-appealing as players try to survive the apocalyptic fall of Los Angeles,” said Mac McKean, SVP of Digital Media for AMC and SundanceTV.

“We’re all huge fans of the ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’ and it’s been great working with AMC to bring this game to the fans,” said Steve Escalante, GM and founder of Versus Evil. “Our goal from the beginning was to create a fun, accessible experience that stayed true to the energy of the show. We hope fans enjoy playing as their favorite show characters and competing with their friends in a world falling apart.”

Fear the Walking Dead: Dead Run is initially available exclusively on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch at https://itunes.apple.com/app/fear-walking-dead-dead-run/id1084407935?mt=8&ls=1

Download for free on iPhone and iPad: www.getdead.run

Train2game News EGX Rezzed 2016 Success

image

Gamer Network is pleased to announce that EGX Rezzed has maintained its position as London’s premier games event with another sold out gala of gaming at Tobacco Dock. More than 15,000 flocked to East London over three days from April 7th to the 9th to enjoy the biggest collection of games in the capital.

Part of the London Games Festival, EGX Rezzed had more than 175 playable and pre-release games, with AAA Blockbusters such as Dark Souls III, Just Cause 3: Sky Fortress, and Total War: Warhammer alongside popular indie offerings such as Shadowhand, The Assembly, The Banner Saga 2, Overcooked and Giant Cop.

EGX Rezzed was also the place to try cutting edge VR tech. In addition to the HTC Vive, a number of games were playable on the Oculus Rift including the public debut of Gang Beasts VR.

PlayStation VR also brought along its Playroom VR suite of experiences to try, along with RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Battlezone and Superhypercube.

The Developer Sessions brought gamers face-to-face with world renowned game creators as they presented their latest projects, took part in panel discussions and answered questions from fans. Sessions included talks from the creators of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst: Inspirations, Dying Light, and Total War: Warhammer. All the sessions were streamed on the EGX YouTube Channel

CEO of Gamer Network, Rupert Loman said “It’s fantastic to have another successful EGX Rezzed under our belt. The event goes from strength to strength and continues to grow in both attendee’s numbers and exhibitors, whilst maintaining its rare and unique atmosphere.  The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all the people that make this show so special, developers, publishers, investors and most importantly the gamers.”

Dates for EGX Rezzed 2017 will be announced soon and tickets for EGX at the NEC Sept 22nd – 25th are now available to buy on the website www.egx.net

Train2game News No Man’s Sky Soundtrack

image

UK instrumental band 65daysofstatic today announce the official global release of their first video game soundtrack, No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe, via Laced Records on 17th June 2016.

The release will coincide with the release of No Man’s Sky, the highly-anticipated science fiction exploration game from Guildford-based studio Hello Games, available on PS4 and PC from June 21 in North America, June 22 in Europe and June 24 in the UK.
                      
After the track ‘Debutante’ accompanied the first reveal of No Man’s Sky in 2013, the band spent over a year composing original music for the game’s soundtrack. No Man’s Sky’s procedurally generated universe is unlike anything yet seen in the gaming world, and 65daysofstatic’s sonic assault is equally ambitious.

The release itself comprises 10 tracks of original music, plus a second collection of 6 soundscapes and sound design, exclusive to Laced Records in an all-encompassing journey of almost two hours. This music, alongside a vast library of raw audio comprised of loops, sound textures and melody is currently being fed into the game’s unique music engine under the auspices of audio director Paul Weir, effectively creating a self-generating soundtrack to infinity.

Attempting to move away from the granular, soft-focus ambience often found in procedurally generated games, the in-game music aims to travel effortlessly between the minimal, barren melodies of outer space to the intense, visceral, aural squall of galactic survival. No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe is equally grand in its ambition, an experimental and overwhelming sonic experience that pushes 65dos into new territory while retaining their innate sense of relentlessness, driving rhythm, and a tune you can hum.
                      
Work on the game’s audio will continue right up to No Man’s Sky’s release, and 65daysofstatic are immensely privileged to have been given the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of sound design and composition. Given that their involvement in the project is now reaching the two-year mark, they are equally excited to get back out on the road and bring the energy and scope of infinite space to the live arena.

65daysofstatic said; “Being involved with No Man’s Sky is as unlikely as it is exciting. Two years of our lives have disappeared into a black hole and we’ve been spat out into another dimension. The project has pushed us to explore new processes and techniques, to rethink our relationship with our own music and to essentially soundtrack every narrative thread of a ‘choose your own adventure’ novel that exists only in our minds. We’re really proud of the results, and can’t wait to release the album and play it live.”

No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe will comprise of a ten track album including a second collection of six soundscapes, all essentially part of the same body of work. Recorded at Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire with co-producer Dave Sanderson (Reverend & The Makers), and mixed at Castle of Doom, Glasgow by Tony Doogan (Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian) in early 2015, the album will be released by Laced Records June 17th.

No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe will be available for purchase and streaming at all major digital music retailers, as well as on deluxe double CD, 10 track double vinyl with digital download of all 16 tracks, and a deluxe vinyl collector’s edition featuring all 16 tracks spread across 4 LPs.

The artwork is currently being produced by long time 65daysofstatic collaborator, Caspar Newbolt of Version Industries (Louis CK, Alessandro Cortini, Daft Punk, Big Black Delta) and will be revealed at a later date.

Fans can now pre-order all editions of the audio-only soundtrack via the Laced Records store:
http://www.lacedrecords.com

Train2game News Gaming Comedy Show

image

Comedian-led TV show for gamers Console Yourself , produced by GINX TV, is set to return for a third season this week on Sunday April 10th at 8 p.m. on Virgin Media channel 290 in the UK.

Building on the trend to rally gaming to TV audiences, the show will see the return of Host Neil Cole (award-winning comedian & broadcaster) and some of the UK circuit’s favourite comedy talents dissecting the common ground of video games. The show is like a stress-busting therapy session for gamers – but funny.

Guests in the new series include comedians and gamers  Inel Tomlinson (CBBC, Virgin Radio),  Steve McNeil (Go 8 Bit), Ellie Gibson (Eurogamer), Bec Hill (Sky’s DC Fancast), Jim Smallman (BBC Radio 5 Live), Bisha K. Ali, Archie Maddocks, Matthew Highton, Sam Golin and Simon Feilder.

Series 3 of the comedian-led show will see Host Neil Cole and stand-up favourites chat the loves  and loathes of videogames, with every episode focusing on a range of popular gaming themes from the PlayStation 4 console and the Street Fighter Franchise, to Pokémon, the Zelda series and the SNES.

Neil Cole commented: “When I first started performing stand-up comedy, it was a relief to realise that I wasn’t the only comedian who spent as much time playing videogames as writing jokes and driving to gigs – so this show is as natural a meeting-place for funny gaming chat as the arcade at the services on the M6 Toll Road” 

Console Yourself will be co-produced by Adam Mason and Neil Cole. For a look at previous episodes of the series, see https://ginx.tv/tv-shows/console-yourself/.

The brand new season 3 of Console Yourself will premiere on Sunday April 10th at 8 p.m. in the UK on Virgin Media Channel 290 and on GINX TV worldwide.

Train2game News Crytek announces VR Partnership with IEEE

image

Expanding the reach of its VR First academic initiative, Crytek today announced a new strategic partnership with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The IEEE is the world’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology, supporting a network of over 2,300 universities worldwide by providing course accreditation and learning resources.

Yu Yuan, Chair of the IEEE Digital Senses Initiative, said, “The IEEE Digital Senses Initiative is pleased to be a partner in the VR First initiative. We believe that virtual reality, as well as augmented reality, will have a great impact on all aspects of industry.”

Tom Coughlin, Director of the IEEE Region 6 and Chair of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Future Directions Committee, said, “Providing laboratories at universities and colleges where students can learn and create using state-of-the-art VR tools will be important to prepare the next generation of innovators who will make these technologies a part of our daily lives.”

Welcoming the partnership, Ferhan Özkan, Crytek’s Senior Business Development Manager Partnerships & Alliances, said, “Collaborating with the IEEE dramatically broadens the potential reach of VR First and emphasizes our commitment to ensuring the program makes a genuine impact on the landscape of VR research and development at the grassroots level.”

Crytek’s collaboration with the IEEE follows news that the VR First program – which provides state of the art VR research facilities on university campuses – is being rolled out to seven new academic institutions in North America with support from AMD, Leap Motion, OSVR and Razer.

For more information on VR First, visit vrfirst.cryengine.com.

Train2game News The eGames

image

Launched today as part of the London Games Festival, the eGames is an international gaming tournament where national pride is the prize.

Speaking at the event, Minster for Culture Ed Vaizey said “The eGames promises to be an exciting venture that will give eSports competitors across the UK even more opportunities to showcase their talents on an international stage. I welcome the ambitions of the IEGC and their efforts to promote the UK as a leading nation in the eSports sector.”

In line with other globally established sporting events, the eGames will be a medal only competition, with no prize money, but the opportunity to take home gold for your country.

The IEGC is a not for profit initiative, and has been set up with the aim of positively shaping the future of competitive gaming . They will set up an International Advisory Board to assist in running the eGames and assist it with: instilling good governance, responsible gaming and ensuring the competition is inclusive and diverse.

Each country will have the opportunity to enter their eTeam. Currently eTeam Britain, eTeam Canada, eTeam Brazil and eTeam USA are already on board.

The first planned event is a two-day pop up in Rio during the Olympics to showcase the eGames to the world of competitive gaming and attract further partners.

“We plan to take the very best practice from the sports world and bring it to competitive gaming. Our ambition is to bring credibly to the sector, dignity to the players and inspiration to the spectators.” – Chester King, Chief Marketing Officer, International eGames Group.

Jules Robinson Head of Business Development at Pinewood Group, where the IECG will operate from, added “We are delighted to be welcoming this exciting new initiative to our growing gaming community here at Pinewood. This bolsters our ambitions for Pinewood Games to become the leading games hub and go to location for the British games industry looking for state of the art facilities and a cluster of likeminded companies to work alongside. The IEGC will also be able to take advantage of outstanding venues for hosting events as well as our industry leading broadcasting services, which will prove essential in delivering all the action that the eSports community demands.”

For more info please go to www.egames.org

Train2game News VR Tourism

image

Realities, the first VR tourism experience to hit the global market, is released today as a free download.

The users can wander within photorealistic landmark environments from around the world. These places have been scanned using photogrammetry to capture every last detail. Graphine’s texture streaming technology ‘Granite SDK’ makes it possible to visualize this scanned content at the highest quality available while still only requiring a PC with the minimal specifications for VR. Users of Realities use the app’s innovative locomotion methods to explore these photorealistic environments.

realities.io is another addition to the list of leading content creating companies that use Granite for their VR projects. Other VR companies using Granite are Sólfar Studios with Everest VR, Nurulize with Nu Reality and companies like Oculus and The Mill with undisclosed projects.

“The need to display photo-realistic content at the most detailed quality level, while keeping a solid very high frame rate is a requirement from all companies that want to create state-of-the-art content for virtual reality. We are proud to support more and more companies like realities.io that use Granite to deliver extraordinary experiences to the consumers with unseen graphical fidelity.” affirms Aljosha Demeulemeester, Graphine’s CEO.

realities.io’s CEO Dominic Eskofier confirms: “With Realities, we put real, mesmerizing places 1:1 into Virtual Reality and make them fully explorable – at a quality level that we couldn’t achieve without Granite. Walking around in Realities’ unique environments is the closest thing to actually be at the places we capture – thanks to the great performance and extreme texture resolutions we get from Granite in Unreal Engine 4.”

Realities released today on Steam and is available for free to all VR users.

Granite is available as a standalone SDK that can integrate in any engine and as a plugin for Unreal Engine 4 and Unity3D.

More information on the web site:

www.graphinesoftware.com/blog/realities-released-on-vr-stores-includes-granite

Train2game News Develop Brighton 2016

image

Tandem Events, organisers of Europe’s leading game developers conference Develop:Brighton, today announce Hideo Kojima, director of Kojima Productions, as keynote speaker for this year’s conference.
                                                                                               
Hideo Kojima is a world-renowned game creator and auteur known for pushing the boundaries of the video game medium.  Widely considered the father of the stealth genre, he is also credited with innovative story-telling and cinematic presentation in video games at large.

Famed for the hit Metal Gear Solid franchise, Kojima will be joined onstage for an hour long fire side chat with industry legend, president of Cerny Games and long-time friend, Mark Cerny. The discussion will focus around Kojima’s inspirations, process and his thoughts on the future of the game.

As well as delivering this year’s keynote, Hideo Kojima will be awarded the 2016 Industry Legend Award at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards on the evening of Wednesday 13 July, the same award fellow keynoter, Mark Cerny received in 2014.

“We’re delighted and honoured to announce Hideo Kojima as our keynote speaker for Develop:Brighton 2016,” commented Andy Lane, managing director of Tandem Events. “Known the world over as someone who’s at the forefront of what’s possible within video games, he continually pushes the boundaries. Alongside his good friend, Mark Cerny, these gaming legends have an amazing history within the games industry and I’m looking forward to hearing more.”

Develop:Brighton takes place at the Hilton Brighton Metropole from Tuesday 12 July to Thursday 14 July. The keynote entitled Industry Legends Discuss the Future: A Conversation with Hideo Kojima, will take place on Wednesday 13 July at 10am.

Other sessions announced for Develop:Brighton 2016:

Don’t Forget the Eyeballs: Developing Compelling Games for eSports Audiences
Ian Sharpe, Azubu

Converting an Established Genre in VR: Pitfalls and Opportunities
Martin de Ronde, Vanguard

What Not to Do as a Startup
Ella Romanos, Strike Gamelabs

Lets Talk Narrative with Rhianna Pratchett
Rhianna Pratchett, Writer

Harnessing the Power of the Crowd to Get Your Game Noticed
Kate Russell, Journalist, Reporter and Author

From 2 to 13: Growing from Nothing and Working with the “Big Boys”
Aj Grand-Scrutton, Dlala Studios

Community-driven Game Development through innovative Marketing Analytics
Ammar Jawad, Radiant Worlds.

Passes are currently available at http://www.developconference.com/