Category Archives: Developer

Train2Game news: UK Charts – A hat-trick of No.1’s for FIFA Street

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Train2GameNews readers see FIFA Street take No.1 for the third week in a row, in a top ten that continues to be dominated by EA. As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, FIFA Street also topped the charts for the previous two weeks.

The football title takes top spot ahead of Mass Effect 3, which moves up one to No.2, and EA Sports’ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 which debuts in the UK charts at No.3. FIFA 12 slips one to No.5, marking the fourth EA title in the top five.

Narto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations from Namco Bandai arrives at No.6 in its first week on sale, pushing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 down one to No.7. The FPS from Activision is one spot ahead of EA shooter Battlefield 3, a non-mover at No.8.

Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games moves up one to No.9, while SSX completes the top ten.

Other new entries this week include Silent HD Collection at No.12, Silent Hill: Downpour at No.15, while Ridge Racer Unbounded only reaches No. 21 in its first week on sale.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 31st March 2012 is therefore as follows:

1. FIFA Street (EA)
2. Mass Effect 3 (EA)
3. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (EA)
4. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Capcom)
5. FIFA 12 (EA)
6. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (Namco Bandai)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
8. Battlefield 3 (EA)
9. Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)
10. SSX (EA)

Releases this week include Devil May Cry HD Collection.

What are your thoughts on FIFA Street’s continued dominance? Or perhaps you have a view on Ridge Racer Unbounded’s low entry position?

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

Train2Game student industry experience diary: Chris Robinson at AppCrowd – Week 4

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Train2Game Game Designer Chris Robinson is on a Train2Game work placement at AppCrowd. In his latest industry experience diary, Chris discusses designing levels and carrying out all important research.

Read what he has to say about his Train2Game work placement  here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.

You can read previous entries from Chris here, while there are also plenty more industry experience diaries from other students on the Train2Game Blog.

Train2Game news: Auto Club Revolution enters open beta

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Train2Game students now have the opportunity to take part in the open beta for Auto Club Revolution, an online racing game from Gateshead based studio Eutechnyx.

Auto Club Revolution will let players be part of an online community, completing in single player challenges and allowing them to own, customise and upgrade their own officially licensed cars. The open beta will allow players to begin their permanent collection of cars and different achievements.

Train2Game students can sign up for the open beta by visiting the Auto Club Revolution official website.

The Train2Game Blog published a video interview with Eutechnyx Lead Programmer Dave Hawes in November last year, in which he offers advice on getting into the industry.

Beta testing is an excellent way for Train2Game students, especially those on the Games QA Tester course to practice their bug hunting skills. In a recent interview with The Train2Game Blog, Brawl Busters developers Rock Hippo told us that beta testing is “crucial” to the game development process.

Keep up with the latest Auto Club Revolution news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your initial impressions of Auto Club Revolution? Will you be taking part in the open beta?

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

Train2Game news: EA’s advice on getting your first job in the games industry

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Train2Game students can get some useful advice on getting a job in the games industry, in the latest instalment of EA’s ‘Breaking into the industry’ feature.

It provides advice from EA University Relations Specialist Iris Lin on how to get noticed when looking for that first job, even if you don’t have any ‘real-life’ experience of working in a games development studio.

“We understand that the majority of students don’t have any real life experience so early on in their careers, so details on school projects are very important.” said Lin discussing how to get noticed as a school leaver.

“Showing an interest in the gaming industry is important as well. Activities they are involved with outside of school are important too, such as game clubs and conferences and seminars they attend.”

She added that being patient and hardworking are key to securing that all important first job in the industry.

“Start with something little and build a strong foundation of your craft. It doesn’t matter if you are a software engineer or an artist.” said Lin.

“Be patient and don’t be discouraged by the rejections. No one is great overnight. Have an open mind and be a hard-working person, and with a great attitude you will get far.” the University Relations Specialist added.

The full Breaking into the Industry feature with Iris Lin is right here on the EA website.

Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning Producer Benjamin Smith, Dead Space 2 game designer Brian Bartram, and EA Environment Artist Phillip Simmons are among those that have previously spoken to The EA blog, providing advice on how to get into the industry.

There’s more advice from industry professionals on getting into the industry right here on The Train2Game Blog.

As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Rayman Origins developer on benefits of ‘less is more’ game design

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Train2Game game designers should find Rayman Origins designer Chris McEntee’s discussion of Ubisofts ‘rational design’ interesting, as he explains how he believes its key to success in game design.

“Rational design is all about eliminating unnecessary information, making things inherently readable, understandable and apparent, introducing mechanics in an orderly and easily digestible fashion, and preserving the learning and difficulty curves of a game, known as macro flow.” McEntee told Gamasutra in a huge feature on game design.

“In principle, it is best to provide a player with significantly interesting and deep mechanics that are well explored and exploited through clever rationalized level design, rather than injecting the game full of one-shot gameplay mechanics to feign depth.”

The Rayman Origins designer added that when it comes to game design, keeping it simple with a less is more approach is a good philosophy to follow.

“We try, as designers, to overstuff our games with content, ideas and objectives because we think that makes it more clever or fun,” said McEntee.

“When we rationalize our game systems and keep things simple but deep, we can truly create a good and meaningful gameplay experience that is also efficient for the team and easy to troubleshoot through iterative play-testing.

“I feel that rationalization is one of the keys to success in the game design field.” he added

Train2Game students can read the full 8 page feature on game design over at Gamasutra.

What are your thoughts on the idea of less being more as a philosophy for game design?

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

Train2Game news: The Witcher 2 makes you “face the consequences of your actions”

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Train2Game Blog readers who play The Witcher 2 will need to “face the consequences of your actions” whatever decisions you make when the RPG gets its Xbox 360 release.

That’s what lead level artist Marek Ziemak told CVG about the game that CD Projeckt have previously described as “The most complex and non-linear story ever told on Xbox 360″

“The spine of our whole game is the storyline and it’s a dark fantasy world where you have to make choices, then later on you have to face the consequences of your actions.” said Ziemak.

“We were looking for a way to make those consequences meaningful and really important for the players. To show that, we sometimes have to kill some characters, sometimes burn places and sometimes make huge changes in the game’s world.”

When asked if that meant CD Projeckt were making parts of the story that might only be seen by a handful of players, Ziemak responded that no matter what, players need to see what consequences their decisions have.

“It’s not always enough to tell you that someone died because of your choice, we want to show you those consequences, because you’re the man deciding, then we have to be prepared that you choose one option or the other.” he said.

“We may have to create twice as much content, but then, there’s twice as much fun!” The Witcher 2 developer added.

Find out more about the development of The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings in The Train2Game Blog’s own interview with lead level artist Marek Ziemak from Gamescom last year.

Train2Game students have the opportunity to question The Witcher 2 developers CD Projekt during a special Q&A event at BAFTA next month. There’s more information about it here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Ziemaks comments about consequences in The Witcher 2? Is it something that game developers need to put more focus on?

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

Train2Game news: “Presentational quality can be an integral part of gameplay” says Dear Esther creator

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Train2Game Blog readers may recall the success of immersive indie title Dear Esther, and its creator Dan Pinchbeck has been discussing the importance of “presentational quality” in making a game a good experience.

He believes that’s just as important as other elements such as gameplay mechanics.

“Presentational quality really only came into play recently, not that presentational quality has been missing in games, but the discussion about how presentational quality can be an integral part of gameplay.” Pinchbeck told Gamasutra.

“Games like Assassin’s Creed or Skyrim or S.T.A.L.K.E.R., for example, they work not just for their mechanics, they work because they present these incredible worlds.” said Thechineseroom founder.

He added that if game developers put time and effort into making a game world believable, then players will become more engaged as they’re “more likely to buy into this world that’s being presented.”

Pinchbeck’s experimental; story driven indie title Dear Esther reached 50,000 sales in its first week on sale. As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, it started life as a Half-Life 2 mod. Thechineseroom’s current project is a sequel to Frictional Games’ Amnesia: The Dark Descent, titled Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

Train2Game students in the Nottingham area have the chance to see Pinchbeck give a talk about Amesia, storytelling, modding and more when he appears at GameCityNights on Wednesday. There’s more information about it right here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Pinchbecks comments on “presentational quality.” How important is a game’s world in immersing you in that title?

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

Train2Game news: SoulCalibur V story mode “one fourth” of planned size, each character was to have own story

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SoulCalibur V’s story mode was originally planned to be four times bigger than it actually is, but time restraints meant it needed to be cut back.   That’s according to game director Daishi Odashima who was speaking in an interview with The Train2Game Blog.

He explained that Namco Bandai team didn’t have the staff or the time needed realise their full vision for Soul Calibur V’s story. The story of the released game mainly focuses on two characters, Patrokolos and his sister Pyrrha, opposed to each character on the roster having their own individual story as previous games in the series do.

“Our first plan on the storyboard was that we had every characters story, and actually we do have it in the studio, but time-wise, man power-wise we weren’t able to do it and only one fourth of what we planned to do is in the game.” Odashima told The Train2Game Blog.

He added that many of the other planned stories got full voice-overs during SoulCalibur V’s development, but there has been no decision on how to use them yet.

“Actually, some of the voice-overs are already taken but haven’t been used, so we want to make use of it somehow, but we don’t know how that’s going to be.” he said.

The Train2Game Blog interview with SoulCalibur V game director Daishi Odashima, featuring discussion of game development, the importance of community feedback, advice on becoming a good game designer and more, is here.

What are your thoughts on the amount of story mode that was cut from SoulCalibur V? What do you think it says about the pressure on game developers?

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

Train2Game student industry experience diary: Chris Robinson at AppCrowd – Week 2

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Train2Game Game Designer Chris Robinson is on a Train2Game work placement at AppCrowd. In this industry experience diary, Chris discusses working on four live titles, testing levels and writing in-game text.

Read what he has to say about his Train2Game work placement  here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.

You can read previous entries from Chris here, while there are also plenty more industry experience diaries from other students on the Train2Game Blog.

 

Train2Game news: End of Nations beta accepting sign-ups, begins soon

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Train2Game students can now register to take part in the upcoming End of Nations beta test.

The free-to-play MMO RTS from Petroglyph and Trion Worlds is scheduled for release later this year, but you can become part of the closed beta by registering your interest at http://endofnations.com/en/beta/

You’ll need to sign up for a Trion Worlds account to take part in the closed beta which will begin during Spring.

There’s much more information about End of Nations in this interview with Senior QA Tester Karl Tars, who even suggested that beta testing can potentially provide decent opportunities for breaking into the industry. Watch the latest End of Nations trailer below.

We recently spoke to End of Nations senior producer Chris Lena, who offered advice on getting into the industry. There’s more End of Nations news right here on The Train2Game Blog.

We’ll keep you informed about the latest beta testing opportunities.

So Train2Game, will you be registering to become part of the End of Nations closed beta? What are your initial impressions of the game?

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