Category Archives: Developer

Train2Game News: Paradox Interactive’s Naval War: Arctic Circle introduces modding support

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Modding support has been introduced for Paradox Interactive’s Naval War: Arctic Circle with the release of a free mission editor update. The Naval War: Arctic Circle mission editor comes with full Steam Workshop support for publishing and downloading user-created missions.

Naval War: Arctic Circle is a real time naval wargame set in the near future. With the mission editor, you get access to all units in the game, and the ability to create your own missions anywhere in the North Atlantic Ocean. The game is currently discounted to half price on Steam. Get a taste of Naval War: Arctic Circle in the trailer below.

Modding is a great way for Train2Game students to practice and show off their skills, and there’s a lot more about it here on The Train2Game Blog. Keep reading for the latest news from Paradox Interactive.

What are your thoughts on the Naval War: Arctic Circle mission editor? Will you be giving it a try?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Watch the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo now

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Watch Unreal Engine 4 in action now in Unreal Technology’s elemental demo showcase, and get a glimpse at what could be just around the corner when it comes to tools in game development.  See it below, here on The Train2Game Blog.

It’s the same video Wired got exclusive access to a few weeks ago, when they spoke about it in depth with Epic Games. This week, Epic Games revealed they want Unreal Engine 4 to shorten game development time with.

There’s more on Unreal Engine 4 here on the Unreal Engine here on the Train2Game Blog.

What are your impressions of the Unreal Engine 4 demo? Does it leave you excited for the future of game development?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Call of Duty: Black Ops II developer diary takes you behind the scenes

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Get a glimpse at development of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in a behind the scenes preview from Treyarch.

The video sees studio head Mark Lamia discuss how Black Ops II is “pushing the boundaries of Call of Duty on every front,” while the team also discuss game design, technology, overhauling the lighting, the zombie mode and more.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops II behind the scenes video features Treyarch developers including director Dave Anthony, game design director David Vonderhaar, and lead animator Adam Rosas, and you can watch it below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

Keep reading for the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops II news, while you can see developer diaries for a variety of games here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Call of Duty: Black Ops II behind the scenes video?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Epic want to shorten game development time with Unreal Engine 4

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 Epic Games president Mike Capps wants their upcoming Unreal Engine 4 to make game development time much shorter.

“Our goal is to keep bringing budgets down for making games because we get more games and more game content that way. Iteration is really the key to good games.” he told GamesIndustry.biz in an extensive interview, when asked if the new engine will cut down the time needed for making games.

“You build something you think is going to be fun and you try it out and if it’s not, you just keep trying again. The faster that cycle works, the more likely you are to get something that’s really fun.” Capps continued, before discussing how Unreal Engine 3 changed things for game designers.

“For us, Kismet was a big step towards empowering level designers with Unreal Engine 3 to get them to be able to do some of that iteration themselves. They could see what it would be like to kick open the door and have two locust grunts come out from either side and play it themselves.” he said.

“The things we’re doing to empower content creators this time around, and to accelerate that iteration loop, are going to have a pretty profound impact on how fun games get quickly.” the Epic Games president added.

Train2Game recently partnered with Epic Games for Make Something Unreal Live, a contest that saw student teams building mobile games based on the Fighting Fantasy series using the Unreal Engine. There’s more on Make Something Unreal Live  on The Train2Game Blog, while you can keep up to date with the latest from Epic here.

What do you think about Epic Games aiming to make game development shorter with Unreal Engine 4?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Square Enix show off next-gen Final Fantasy tech demo

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Square Enix has used E3 to show off a tech demo of what will be powering their games on next-gen consoles, and it’s really quite impressive.

Agni’s Philosophy, the Final Fantasy real time tech demo gives us a glimpse at what Square Enix are developing behind the scenes with Luminous Studios.

“The Luminous Studio game engine aims to bring about greater productivity within game production teams, while simultaneously offering an environment to create games of fantastic quality,” said a statement from Square Enix.

“Furthermore, the Luminous Studio game engine is planned to support game consoles, PC, smartphones, and the web, encapsulating the many platforms of the next generation of quality”

Watch the Final Fantasy tech demo from Square Enix below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

There’s more Square Enix news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Agni’s Philosophy tech demo? Does it make you more excited for next-gen consoles?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Nintendo Wii U is the “Swiss army knife” of gaming

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E3 saw Nintendo reveal more about the Wii U, with one analyst dubbing the upcoming console the “Swiss army knife” of video games.

The one hour presentation saw Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime and Shigeru Miyamoto discuss how the tablet controller can be used in conjunction with the current Wii-remotes and how a “social window” allows new ways to play while allowing users to connect with others.

“For 30 years, game machines … couldn’t take on a more important role than the TV itself,” said Miyamoto  “We knew our next system was going to have its own dedicated screen even if it had to be small. We wanted it to be the first screen people went to when they went into the living room.”

Using the mini-monitor on the game pad was demonstrated by Pikmin 3 and how it uses it to monitor your strategy and the game world as you play through a TV, along with showing off a variety of other things the Wii U can do.

Nintendo has made the console a “Swiss Army knife” said P.J. McNealy of Digital World Research. “Nintendo has a history of creating hardware devices that it takes advantage of over time, whether it was voice commands, the touch panel, the accelerometer, or the gyroscope.”

As of yet there are no price or release date details for the Nintendo Wii U. Games shown for the console however include Nintendo Land, Pikmin 3 and a Wii U version of Batman: Arkham City.

What are your thoughts on the Nintendo Wii U? Do you have a clearer idea of what its about after the E3 presentation?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.


Train2Game News: When and where to watch Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo E3 conferences

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Train2Game News won’t be updating over the Bank Holiday, as we’ll be enjoying the extended weekend like many of you. However, the games industry won’t be stopping, with E3, the biggest event in the video games calendar beginning at the start of next week.

Many of the large publishers and hardware developers will be streaming their conferences live from Los Angeles, allowing you to watch them as they happen, or in the case of some, watch them you’re willing to stay up until the early hours here in the UK!

Microsoft are the first of the console manufactures to give their E3 presentation on Monday 4th June at 17:15 British time, which you can watch live on the Xbox website, or through your Xbox console if you’re an Xbox Live Gold subscriber.

Sony’s E3 press conference in which they’ll run through their latest plans for PlayStation, takes place on Tuesday 5th June at 02:00 British time, and will be available to watch through the Sony E3 2012 website.

Nintendo have three separate live streams planned, but all of them are likely to follow the same theme; their next console, Wii U. Their main conference takes place on Tuesday 5th June at 17:00, a Developer discussion, perhaps the most interesting part for Train2Game students, bright and early on Wednesday 6th June at 07:30a.m. Nintendo’s Software Showcase is on Thursday at 02:00a.m. All three Nintendo presentations can be seen on their official E3 website.

Of course, The Train2Game Blog will be back on Wednesday, ready to bring you all the big news that comes out of E3.

What are you most looking forward to about E3 2012?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Hideo Kojima talks Zone of the Enders HD Collection in E3 2012 developer diary

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Get behind the scenes of Zone of the Enders HD Collection in an E3 2012 developer diary from Konami.

The video sees director Hideo Kojima discussing the robot anime influences of Zone of the Enders, where the HD updates are most noticeable, and how the new opening animation was produced.

Watch it below here on The Train2Game Blog.

Zone of the Enders HD is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan later this year.

Get behind the scenes of many more games by watching other developer diaries here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Zone of the Enders HD developer diary? Were you a fan of the original?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Take-Two not worried about a lack of next-gen consoles at E3

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There’s no need to panic if no new console systems are shown off at E3 next week. In fact, an extended life cycle for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is good for game developers and publishers.

That’s the view of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview with MCV.

“There is still ample opportunity in the market with the current generation, provided that you deliver the highest quality entertainment experiences – which we always aim to do,” he said.

“We’re seeing some evidence of an ageing console cycle, which generally is a good thing for a company with very high quality titles, like Take-Two.”

Games coming from Take-Two in the near future include Borderlands 2, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, BioShock Infinite and Grand Theft Auto V, the latter of which doesn’t have a release date as of yet.

“Hardware transitions historically have created both challenges and opportunities for third-party publishers. In order to succeed, it seems to me that any company needs: talent, tech, IP, and a strong balance sheet.” Zelnick continued.

“Take-Two has all four. As always, we’ll need to make triple-A titles that delight consumers. Frankly, our creative folks will be thrilled to have an opportunity to do just that.” he added.

Keep reading The Train2Game Blog for the latest news on next gen consoles.

What are your thoughts on the possibility of next-gen consoles not turning up at E3? Do you think their needed yet? Or are developers doing just fine with the current crop?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Quantic Dream “unhappy with everything” about Heavy Rain says David Cage

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Heavy Rain Train2Game blog image

Heavy Rain may have been rather successful, even scooping three BAFTAs, but that doesn’t mean developer Quantic Dream is satisfied with what they produced. In fact, game director David Cage has admitted the team thinks they could’ve done better.

“We were pretty much unhappy with everything. We thought we could have done a better job in all areas, and have better rendering, and better visuals, and better gameplay, and better everything,”  Quantic Dream boss David Cage told Gamasutra in an extensive interview.

“This is definitely things we took into account designing the new technology, wanting to work with performance capture. And we wanted a better blend of storytelling and interactivity. We thought that sometimes in Heavy Rain there were moments where the balance wasn’t exactly right. We are working on new ways of merging this in a more natural and fluid way.” he added.

Heavy Rain did, however, sell well, something that Cage was satisfied with.

“I think it performed better than anyone’s expectations, including ours, to be honest,” he said.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, Quantic Dream released their Kara tech demo earlier this year. It’s rumoured to lay the foundations for their next project, with suggestions it could be revealed at E3.

Keep reading The Train2Game Blog for more from Quantic Dream.

What are your thoughts on Cage’s comments about Heavy Rain? How important is it for developers to look at their work and examine what could be done better?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.