Category Archives: Developer

Train2Game News Game Insight introducing Intel Context SDK

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Intel SoftwareGame Insight, a global game developer, plans to use the new Intel Context Sensing SDK 2014 for Android to roll out context-sensing features across a whole line-up of Android games by the end of the year via integration with Game Insight Center, its player-centric solution that allows players to interact with the brand through in-game forums, help, FAQs, and all the games’ latest news and events.

The Intel Context Sensing Software Development Kit (SDK) enables developers to create or enhance Android applications with context and motion awareness, proximity detection and on-device rules. Sensor solutions can also interact with the Intel Context Sensing Service and Intel Mashery API management to add additional information such as location, events, weather, global time, POIs, traffic and more . Sensor solutions empower mobile developers to create compelling cross-platform, context-aware experiences for apps such as fitness, smarter personal assistants or advanced next generation games.

Intel’s SDK allows Game Insight to tailor and personalize interactions with its games. By sensing the story behind actions that put the device back into the player’s hands, even while playing offline, Game Insight plans to send more relevant and timely push messages, which can otherwise be a distraction while running, sleeping or driving, and deliver the perfect in-game actions at the appropriate time. When players begin using their devices, games can deliver a message where and when it is most convenient, and about what the players care about most in the moment.

“Intel is excited about Game Insight’s adoption of the newly launched Intel Context Sensing SDK,” said Hank Skorny, VP and General Manager for Intel’s Internet Services division. “By using Intel’s new SDK for Android and context sensing cloud service, Game Insight will be able to develop games on Android offering a more personalized experience to users.”

When asked what context-sensing features mean for Game Insight and its games, CEO Anatoly Ropotov explained, “We spend a lot of time focusing on user experience in our products by simplifying UI, improving core game loops and looking for more non-intrusive ways to excite and retain users. Having a way to understand the context of user interactions ultimately lets us bug players less, generate more effective messages and find more appropriate moments to communicate them.”

Looking to the future, context sensing will blend real-life interactions with gaming, allowing players to even interact with friends from inside their games within their local vicinity.

Train2Game News Eleven year old girl releases game

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My Selfie SafariAspiring game developer, eleven year old, Maddie Beal is proud to announce the worldwide release and availability of her debut game, My Selfie Safari.

Available today as a FREE download on the iOS and Google Play digital app stores, this brilliantly designed debut title features John Maddie and her BFF on a Safari Adventure, requesting the aid of players to help Jesse The Giraffe keep his neck out of trouble by avoiding the clouds and flapping birds. You goal is to meet up with his Safari Friends, and if you need help, you can try on a pair of goggles, but use them sparingly, as only 10 are available (additional goggles obtainable through in-app upgrades).

Featuring 20 addictive levels, you can even congratulate yourself by posing for a selfie with your friend as levels are successfully completed. Maddie herself is stuck on level 14! Are you adventurous and talented enough to beat her in her own game?

My Selfie Safari began as a bonding opportunity with her dad, Dan Beal. He had just built a Minecraft server for her brother, Ben, and with this task complete, Maddie felt it was the perfect chance to spend some quality time with her dad. Inspired by her fascination and love for giraffes and self-portraits, My Selfie Safari blends gameplay mechanics from popular predecessors such as Flappy Bird and Defender, and adds its own personal touch to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience.

Featuring an exciting Safari Adventure, crisp colorful graphics, intuitive controls, and 20 challenging levels of fun, My Selfie Safari is a great debut title from Maddie Beal, whom at the age of only 11 undoubtedly has a promising career ahead of her.

Train2Game News New RPG Maker allows mobile ports

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Enterbrain and Degica collaborate on new middleware, which enables first official RPG Maker mobile ports.

Enterbrain recently partnered with Degica to distribute RPG Maker VX Ace, the latest version of the software, outside of Japan. Since teaming up, the pair have developed a new piece of middleware that allows developers to efficiently port RPG Maker games to mobile devices.

The RPG Maker software first emerged back in 1988 and, throughout several iterations, has remained the first choice when it comes to creating both traditional and innovative games in 16-bit.

Degica’s global director of sales and promotion, Mitchell Scott, said: “The RPG Maker software has been a great tool for aspiring and established game developers alike over the past two decades and we’re incredibly proud to be part of that legacy.”

While the majority of projects emulate major franchises such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, numerous teams have capitalised on the flexibility of the engine to create unique experiences.

The likes of To The Moon are widely regarded as genuine indie success stories, with the game receiving numerous awards and praise from established publications and organisations including Gamespot, Wired and the Independent Games Festival.

Earlier this week, Undefeated – the popular RPG Maker title – was unveiled for mobile with a brand new trailer and an iOS/Android release date of 3 October, 2014.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Degica connects the dots between developers, distributors and publishers, and between the Eastern and Western markets. Their recent work with Enterbrain and RPG Maker aims to put the popular development toolkit, and the games it has spawned, firmly on the global map.

Train2Game News Hearthstone hits huge milestone

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Free-to-play card-combat phenomenon Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has been downloaded upwards of 20 million times, Blizzard has announced.

Hearthstone launched on PC and Mac back in March then appeared on iPad in April and Windows 8 Touch devices in August. It’s slated for release later this year on iPhone and Android.

“Thank you all for joining us in Hearthstone! We’re going to need a bigger tavern!” the developer stated on Twitter noting the milestone.

Earlier this month Blizzard released its single-player expansion The Curse of Naxxramas.

Train2Game News GDC Next survey results

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GDC NextThe Game Developers Conference (GDC) Next 2014 has released the results of the first annual Game Discovery Survey, which has uncovered emerging trends and attitudes from a pool of game industry professionals on launching and popularizing games.

Among the many trends revealed in the survey is the finding that first party platform holders and YouTube personalities are seen as the most effective forms of publicity among participating developers.

The GDC Next 2014 Game Discovery Survey was created by UBM Tech Game Network, organizers of the Game Developers Conference, to better understand the contemporary game industry before the start of GDC Next 2014.

Platform gatekeepers and popular YouTubers are seen to be the most effective publicity for games. YouTube has long been viewed as a powerful tool in publicizing new releases, and the survey now reveals that developers view YouTube personalities, along with first party platform holders, as the most effective avenues for publicity.

Specifically, being featured on digital storefronts like Steam or PlayStation Network, coupled with extensive video playthroughs on YouTube were seen as most positively affecting product visibility. 36.6% of respondents seeing platform holders as the most effective publicity, with popular YouTube personalities capturing 24.8% of responses. By comparison, community engagement and being featured on a popular video game website received 15.6% and 14.5% of responses, respectively.

Elsewhere, the majority of participating developers (73.4%) agreed with the statement “platform holders aren’t doing enough to improve discoverability on digital storefronts.” These results suggest that platform holders can do more to meet the needs of game makers, potentially finding more personalized recommendation methods for consumers.

Developers are largely split between traditional press and YouTube personalities as most trustworthy however. Despite an increasing priority towards prominent YouTube video features, developers surveyed were found to be largely split when asked whose opinion on games they trusted the most, YouTubers or traditional press/media. YouTube personalities narrowly won out with 55.75% of votes versus the traditional press, which received 44.25% of responses.

Is it the game, the promotion, or both that makes a title shine commercially? 69.3% of developers agreed that good promotion and making a good game were equally important to success, with 23% responding that making a good game was more important to success than promoting it well. Only 7.7% of respondents felt that good promotion is more important than game quality when it comes to achieving commercial success.

The GDC Next 2014 Game Discovery Survey tabulates the responses and observations of more than 300 game industry professionals/

For more information on GDC Next, please visit http://www.gdcnext.com/

Train2Game News Avenged Sevenfolds mobile game release date

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Avenged SevenfoldMulti-platinum hard rock superstars Avenged Sevenfold have pegged October 16, 2014 for the unholy release of their action adventure mobile game, Hail to the King: Deathbat.

Hail to the King: Deathbat is a brutal romp through the darkest depths of the underworld with an epic tale of redemption, devastating melee combat, towering boss fights, 7 hellish landscapes and classic Avenged Sevenfold cuts along with a new and original score composed by the band.

To celebrate the game’s impending release, check out this new teaser showcasing a taste of the action to come:

Hail to the King: Deathbat hits iOS and Android October 16, 2014.

Train2Game News Mojang sale to Microsoft Confirmed

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MojangThe rumours have been confirmed and Mojang is selling to Microsoft for $2.5 Billion. So what does this mean for Minecraft and the company?

In a blog on www.Mojang.com the deal was confirmed today with a few details about the sale and the reasons why.

The main reason Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft and the majority shareholder of Mojang has decided to sell is that he feels that Minecraft and Mojang have become to big on a global scale. He has attempted to make smaller games again to no avail and he feels that is because he has had to spend to much time and energy focused on the global phenomenon that is Minecraft.

There are only a handful of potential buyers with the resources to grow Minecraft and Mojang have worked closely with Microsoft since 2012. They have been impressed by their continued dedication to the game and its development.

The other versions of Minecraft will still continue to run but as for what happens with future multiplatform projects is yet to be seen. That will be down to Microsoft to decide.

The founders: Notch, Carl, and Jakob are leaving Mojang with nothing confirmed of what they are going on to do.

The main points to take from this sale is that Minecraft will continue to evolve and thrive and that small project you are working on may net you $2.5 Billion.

Train2Game News UK Top 20 Games – 15.09.14

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DestinyAs was the games destiny, Destiny has soared to the number one spot knocking The Sims 4 in to second. The yearly version of NHL debuted this week at number seven and the new Naruto game, Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution has just creeped in to the top ten at number ten. Lower down the chart at number seventeen is the first week for Infamous: First Light.

All formats

Week ending 13 September 2014

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 DESTINY ACTIVISION –
2 THE SIMS 4 EA GAMES 1
3 WATCH DOGS UBISOFT 2
4 CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS ACTIVISION 6
5 THE LAST OF US: REMASTERED SONY COMPUTER ENT. 4
6 MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT 7
7 NHL 15 EA SPORTS –
8 – PLANTS VS ZOMBIES: GARDEN WARFARE EA GAMES 8
9 – MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION 3 EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 9
10 NARUTO ULTIMATE NINJA STORM REVOLUTION BANDAI NAMCO GAMES –
11 GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 10
12 – THE LEGO MOVIE VIDEOGAME WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 12
13 DIABLO III REAPER OF SOULS ULTIMATE EVIL BLIZZARD 5
14 METRO REDUX DEEP SILVER 3
15 TITANFALL EA GAMES 13
16 TOMODACHI LIFE NINTENDO 15
17 INFAMOUS: FIRST LIGHT SONY COMPUTER ENT. –
18 MADDEN NFL 15 EA SPORTS 11
19 TERRARIA XBOX 360 CLASSICS 17
20 SNIPER ELITE 3 505 GAMES 19
< 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 PEACEapp competition

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PEACEappA new competition is searching for a game or app about facilitating peace or an idea for one.

The competition, PEACEapp, aims to showcase the work of developers who examine peace and promote games as venues for cultural dialogue and conflict management. PEACEapp is a joint project between UNDP, UNAOC and Build Up.

Sponsored by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the United Nations Development Programme, and Build Up, the competition will award the winning entries with $15,000 in cash prizes, an invitation to present their game at the Build Peace Conference in Cyprus, and exclusive mentoring and advising from Games for Change. The competition will consider entries at all stages of development, from prototypes to fully developed, with awards going to five games or apps—three completed works and two prototypes.

An international jury, which includes representatives from Games for Peace, the Institute for Economics and Peace, Fields of View, Games for Change, and more, will review submitted games and apps according to three values:

  • Affording users a novel experience to engage with knowledge of other groups and issues of identity
  • Creatively engaging players in a playful manner
  • Enabling connections to key social media globally, in terms of functionality, language and reach

Click here for a complete competition guidelines, and then submit your entry.

Train2Game News Destiny sells huge amounts

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DestinyActivision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc announced that the company sold more than $500 million of Destiny into retail stores and first parties worldwide as of day one, making the game the biggest new video game franchise launch in history.

“Based on extraordinary audience demand, retail and first party orders worldwide have exceeded $500 million for Destiny,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “This industry milestone marks another blockbuster success for our company and demonstrates our unique ability to create some of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world. The success of Destiny, along with the recent introduction of Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone, is further validation of our unique capabilities to create great entertainment franchises from the ground up.”

Destiny launched at over 11,000 midnight openings around the world, as fans in over 178 countries (Source: Radian6) shared their fervour on YouTube and in social media.

“Since the beginning, we’ve been confident that our investment and belief in Destiny would pay off. But not many people believed we’d be able to say it did so on day one,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “Destiny is officially the biggest new franchise launch in our industry’s history. It’s also the highest-selling day one digital console release in history. We have more confidence than ever that Destiny will become one of the iconic franchises of this generation and Activision’s next billion dollar brand. Most importantly, it’s just a great game which we can’t stop playing. A big thanks to our incredibly talented team and partners who helped make this happen; most importantly, our partners at Bungie.”