Category Archives: game

Train2game News Pokémon trading card mosaic

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The Pokémon Company International has partnered with British artist Quentin Devine to create the world’s largest trading card mosaic, consisting of 12,987 individual Pokémon Trading Card Game cards.

The massive work of art, measuring 71.54 square metres and hanging at over 10 metres tall and 7 metres wide, was unveiled today in Paris.

The finished mosaic, which secures a new world record, forms the image of beloved Pokémon character Pikachu, using the original iconic pose drawn by GAME FREAK illustrator Ken Sugimori.

Anthony Cornish, Marketing Director for The Pokémon Company International, said: “We are incredibly excited to have secured this highly ambitious world record, and are thrilled to have worked with renowned artist Quentin Devine to bring the mosaic to life.”

Quentin Devine is an artist, animator and designer from Surrey, England. He has previously created a giant mosaic of the Mona Lisa constructed from fan self-portraits, as well as an image of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland using only penny coins. The mosaic of Pikachu is his biggest creation to date.

Train2game News Skylanders Celebrity Toy Auction

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Activision today announces it has teamed up with some of Europe’s top sports stars and entertainment personalities – including the UK’s very own Ben Collins (AKA ‘The Stig’) and former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton – who have designed seven customised Skylanders™ SuperChargers toys.

The collaboration will see Activision donate the exclusive toys to Make-A-Wish, the world’s largest wish-granting organisation. The charity will auction off the models to the highest bidder, with the proceeds helping to support the many wishes that Make-A-Wish grants to children with life-threatening medical conditions around the world each year.

Alongside Ben and Max, well-known personalities from the racing world such as Timo Glock, as well as French TV presenter Joan Faggianelli, kitesurfing champion Gisela Pulido and popular YouTubers St3pny and TheKing77 have lent their talents to the project. Each have designed their very own SuperCharged car, either a Hot Streak or Crypt Crusher – two vehicles from the latest Skylanders game, Skylanders™ SuperChargers, in which vehicles are brought to life for the first time. The designs have been sprayed onto models of the cars for superfans to bid on and raise money for Make-A-Wish.

Jon Stettner, president and CEO, Make-A-Wish International, added: “On behalf of my colleagues across Europe, I would like to thank Activision, and all the famous faces involved in the project, for this fantastic collaboration. We are thrilled with the unique vehicles that have been specially designed and the money raised will help us in our ongoing efforts to grant wishes for children with life-threatening medical conditions.”

Former ‘Stig’ from Top Gear, Ben Collins: “As soon as I heard about this Skylanders activity I had to take part. Being a huge fan of racing and cars, I think Skylanders SuperChargers is really cool and I’m enjoying playing the game!  It’s a great idea to raise money for a highly deserving cause, like Make-A-Wish®, and getting to customise my own SuperChargers car was awesome.”

British racing driver, Max Chilton: “I’m really excited to be working with Skylanders on this activity. I love racing in SuperChargers so getting to customise my own HotStreak vehicle was awesome! Make-A-Wish® is a wonderful cause that does amazing work with children, so I’m proud to be supporting them with this campaign. My very own customised SuperCharger will be up for auction so make sure you look out for it – all proceeds will be going towards this incredibly deserving cause.”

To see all the auctions, click here: http://makeawish.vonality.com/, while links to the auctions for the vehicles that Ben Collins and Max Chilton designed can be found below:

·         Ben Collins: http://makeawish.vonality.com/collins
·         Max Chilton: http://makeawish.vonality.com/chilton

Happy bidding!

Train2game News Museum of London exhibits London Gaming

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From 18 March – 28 April 2016, the Museum of London will be examining London’s place in gaming culture with a new temporary display and offering visitors the chance to play four classic video games from the 1980s and 1990s.

The display will trace the city’s journey from the early text-based adventure games where everything was described in words and gamers used their imagination and experience to navigate the virtual world, to its first graphic representations, and finally its more modern and accurate representations in games such as Sim City 3000 and London Racer which offer an almost cinematic experience to the player.

The four games, played on specially emulated computers, will be the 1982’s text-based Streets of London (the very first video game to depict London), 1984’s cult classic Hampstead, 1989’s Werewolves in London (one of the earliest visual depictions of London in a video game) and 1996’s Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror (the first video game with actual interaction with a London landmark).

By playing these games visitors will be able to see not only how video games have advanced in the past 35 years but also how basic representations of London in text-based games on consoles such as the Commodore 64 and Spectrum ZX evolved into more recognisable depictions of the city by the 1990s on more modern platforms like Windows 9x.

As part of the London Games Festival (1-10 April), the Museum of London will also be hosting the Games Culture Summit at 3pm on Friday 8 April. The Summit will bring together leading cultural institutions and creative leaders to look at a variety of issues including how galleries and museums curate, collect and archive games.

Train2game News GDC Awards

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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the mature and expansive open-world fantasy role-playing game from developer CD Projekt RED, was honored with the Game of the Year award at tonight’s 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) ceremony during the 2016 Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The acclaimed title also received the award for Best Technology for its complex game engine that combines brilliant visuals with a huge game world. An archive of the award ceremony, as well as the full presentation of the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGF Awards), can be viewed at http://twitch.tv/gdc

Her Story, the interactive crime fiction game from independent game developer Sam Barlow, earned the most awards of any nominee tonight, taking home the awards for Innovation, Best Narrative and Best Handheld/Mobile Game. Starring actress/musician Viva Seifert, the game cleverly combines taped confessions and a simple computer interface to engage players in a compelling murder investigation. Earlier this evening, the game also received the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Narrative awards at the 18th Annual IGF Awards, the sister event that celebrates the best independent game development, which immediately preceded the GDCA ceremony.

Ori and the Blind Forest by developer Moon Studios earned two Choice Awards, for Best Debut and Best Visual Art. Ori and the Blind Forest is an action platformer set against a visually stunning hand-painted world and offers players a deeply emotional story about love, sacrifice and hope.

Other winners tonight included Rocket League, the wildly fun and deeply competitive soccer-meets-rocket cars title, which earned developer Psyonix the award for Best Design. The Audience Award, which is chosen from among all of the GDCA finalists through a public online voting process, was presented to developer DONTNOD Entertainment for Life is Strange, the captivating coming-of-age tale told in five episodic installments. The title puts players in control of Maxine Caulfield, a teenage girl with mysterious powers, and forces them to make and reckon with moral decisions and their sometimes wonderful, sometimes terrible consequences. The honor of Best Audio was earned by the Crypt of the NecroDancer from developer Brace Yourself Games, which uniquely blends action, role-playing, and rhythm games, challenging players to explore dungeons and battle monsters to the bumping rhythms of Danny Baranowsky’s eclectic metal/electro/dance soundtrack.

The Game Developers Choice Awards honor the very best games of the year, and was created for and voted on by developers. Winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only group comprised of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.

Every year, the Game Developers Choice Awards also recognize developers who have made significant contributions to the art, science and craft of video games with three special awards. This year, the Pioneer Award was given to Markus “Notch” Persson, the famed creator of the multiple GDCA and IGF Award-winning indie sandbox title, Minecraft. The game, which has sold more than 70 million copies over multiple platforms, has revolutionized the sandbox game genre and helped cement the role of video games in stimulating creativity and ingenuity as well as rewarding skill.

The Ambassador Award, which recognizes those whose actions have helped video games to “advance to a better place,” went to Tracy Fullerton, professor and director of the University of Southern California (USC) Games program, and leader of the Game Innovation Lab. Fullerton has been instrumental in the creation of influential independent games that include Cloud, fl0w, Darfur is Dying, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom and The Night Journey, with artist Bill Viola.

The Lifetime Achievement award was bestowed upon Todd Howard, the distinguished creative director, designer and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios. Todd Howard’s work on the acclaimed Fallout and Elder Scrolls series of open-world games has helped define an entire genre of games with deeply enthralling worlds with virtually endless opportunities for adventure and discovery.

“The world of video games can include every imaginable and unimaginable experience, from the vast world of The Witcher 3, to the intimate interrogations in Her Story, and the Choice Awards have evolved to honor this diversity of titles,” said Meggan Scavio, General Manager of the Game Developers Conference. “All of these winning and nominated titles have expanded what we think what games can be, how to maturely handle story, and how to make games that are ridiculously fun. I’m excited to see all of these wonderful developers recognized for their amazing contributions, and I congratulate all of this year’s winners and nominees.”

The Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

Best Debut
Moon Studios (Ori and the Blind Forest)

Best Audio
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)

Innovation Award
Her Story (Sam Barlow)

Best Technology
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED)

Best Visual Art
Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios)

Best Narrative
Her Story (Sam Barlow)

Best Design
Rocket League (Psyonix)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
Her Story (Sam Barlow)

Audience Award
Life is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment)

Game of the Year
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED)

Pioneer Award
Markus “Notch” Persson

Ambassador Award
Tracy Fullerton

Lifetime Achievement Award
Todd Howard

For more information about the 16th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, please visit the official website at http://www.gamechoiceawards.com . For information about the 2016 Game Developers Conference, please visit the official website at http://www.gdconf.com .

Train2game News UKIE on the 2016 Budget

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Chancellor George Osborne announced the 2016 Budget yesterday, setting out the government’s tax and spending plans for the next year and beyond.

95% of games companies are micro, small or medium sized enterprises, and 64% of firms were incorporated in the last 5 years. The Budget introduces a number of measures which will have a positive impact on small and micro games firms. Chief among these are cuts to business rates and stamp duty for lower-value properties, as well as some targeted support for the digital economy.

Responding to the announcements, Ukie CEO Dr Jo Twist said:

“It’s good news for small studios.  The overwhelming majority of games firms are small or micro studios, most of which have emerged in the last five years.  Cuts to business rates and stamp duty will reduce the tax burden for these firms and boost growth and so will be welcomed by the UK games industry.

Looking to the future we will continue to call for public support for innovative games content through National Lottery funds, just like Film and TV have at the moment.  We also want to see long-term investment in talent and await further details in the Education White Paper tomorrow.”

More detail will follow once the Treasury and other Departments follow up on the speech.

Taxation
·         Cuts to business rates totalling £6.7 billion over five years, targeted at small businesses. 600,000 small businesses, including games companies, will pay no business rates at all.
·         Stamp Duty on commercial properties will be changed to a marginal system, reducing the large jumps in taxation between different property values, and rates will be cut for lower-value properties. As a result, 90% of non-residential properties will be taxed less or the same.
·         A new Museums and Galleries Tax Relief from April 2017, supporting the development and touring of new creative exhibitions
·         Corporation tax will be cut further to 17% in 2020
·         Capital gains tax will be cut from 28% to 20%, and from 18% to 10% for basic-rate payers
·         Self-employed people will see class 2 National Insurance Contributions abolished from April 2018, representing an average tax cut of £134 each.
·         A new sharing economy tax allowance of £1,000 each for property and trading income – removing taxes from income made through online platforms such as AirBnB.
·         Tax-free personal allowance and higher-rate threshold both to be raised. The personal allowance will go up to £11,500 in 2017-18. Higher-rate income tax will be incurred from £45,000, rather than £42,500.

Apprenticeships
·         Some new detail on the Apprenticeship Levy: from April 2017, employers will receive a 10% top-up to their monthly levy contributions in England and this will be available for them to spend on apprenticeship training through their digital account. The government will set out further details on the operating model in April and draft funding rates will be published in June.

Digital Economy
·         A new Broadband Investment Fund, in partnership with private sector investors, to support the growth of alternative broadband networks by providing greater access to finance
·         A 5G strategy in 2017, based on an assessment by the National Infrastructure Commission of how the UK can become a world leader in 5G
·         Establish a panel of leading experts, chaired by Kathryn Parsons, to shape the £20 million Institute for Coding competition

Measuring the Industry
The government has accepted all the recommendations from the Bean Review of Economic Statistics, including:
·         Invest over £10 million in a new ONS hub for data science: “The centre for excellence will improve the Office for National Statistics’ capability to measure the changes in the UK’s digital economy and to push the frontiers of economic measurement.”

Ukie will continue to make the case to the government, setting out how the UK can be the best place in the world to make and sell games, as demonstrated in our Blueprint for Growth report.

Train2game News Games Finance Market

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Dan Pinchbeck, founder of The Chinese Room and co-creator of Everybody’s Gone To the Rapture – last week nominated for 10 BAFTA Video Games Awards – will deliver the opening keynote address at the very first Games Finance Market in April.

The Games Finance Market is a first-of-its-kind event for games developers in London and the UK, matching 30 qualifying games companies with 30 investors. The Games Finance Market will take place 5 April to 7 April at The Grange City Hotel, part of the London Games Festival.

In an on-stage interview Pinchbeck will offer the 120+ delegates and industry guests an insight into working as a successful developer using different funding sources and partners. The Chinese Room has created a number of famed mods and the acclaimed games Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, working with a diverse mix of partners such as the Arts & Humanities Research Council, Frictional Games, Creative Europe and PlayStation.

Michael French, senior games programme executive of Games London, organiser of the Games Finance Market and the London Games Festival said: “The opening keynote for our inaugural event will set the tone not just for the day ahead but the years to follow. There’s no one better than Dan and The Chinese Room to inspire our delegates with their experiences in using key funding and financial support to create powerful, provocative and also lucrative digital experiences. Games Finance Market is all about connecting great ideas to funding, so hearing Dan’s experiences will be a perfect opening for us.”

Taking place over two days (6 and 7 April), the Games Finance Market will see 30 games studios and 30 investors meet for over 450 pre-arranged meetings. Representatives from leading private equity firms, tax-structured financiers, banks, international sale companies, publishers, games platforms and distributors will be amongst the accredited delegates.

The day prior, April 5, includes the Games Finance Summit – a special conference and training event dedicated to helping games studios understand games financing and investments – plus the Finance Market’s evening icebreaker drinks. 

The Games Finance Market and Games Finance Summit are sponsored by UK Games Fund and Pollen VC.

The Games Finance Market is part of the new London Games Festival which runs April 1 to 10. London Games Festival is organised by Games London, an initiative delivered jointly by Film London, the capital’s screen industries agency, and games trade body Ukie.

Backed by the Mayor of London, with funding worth £1.2m from the London Enterprise Panel, Games London is a new three-year programme to promote the UK’s wider games sector and make London the games capital of the world. Other key events in the LGF schedule include Now Play This at Somerset House (1 – 3 April), a special series of summits, the BAFTA Game Awards (7 April) and EGX Rezzed (7 – 9 April), plus a Fringe of 20 alternative events.
 
Follow @londongamesfest on Twitter or head to www.games.london for more updates.

Train2Game News Numskull and Bossa endorse Stand Up for GamesAid

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Numskull and Bossa Studios have endorsed their support to the Stand Up for GamesAid comedy event coming this May 9th.

GamesAid’s funniest night, Stand Up for GamesAid, is reaching for another magnificent triumph with a first class lineup and drum-rolling hype. It’s no wonder tickets are already flying fast.

Numskull has signed up as Premium Event and Exclusive Bar Partner and Bossa Studios has snapped up Event Partner.

Ben Grant, MD of Numskull says of GamesAid, “Having seen first hand the excellent work GamesAid do for smaller charities, we are honoured to support this initiative which will help the disadvantaged, disabled children and young people. We are looking forward to working together on this and many more projects over the coming years.”

Rob Gotlieb, Head of Marketing at Bossa Studios, “We’re delighted and proud to support GamesAid. Stand Up For GamesAid is such a special event, because it brings everyone from the industry together to have a really great laugh, but also shows how we can make a really positive difference to a young person’s life in just one night.”

Last year was a sell out year and this time it will be even bigger. Imran Yusuf is hosting the night, pulling together an award winning line up including, Mike Gunn and Allyson Smith. He has been nominated best newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and organised some of the country’s leading stand up acts. “One of the most captivating, energetic and animated stand up comedians I have ever seen,” reviews The New Current with a 5-star crown.

More information and tickets can be found at The Comedy Store. Money raised will go to GamesAid and their life-changing charities.

Numskull website: http://www.numskull.co.uk/

Bossa Studios website: http://www.bossastudios.com/

Train2game News Marmalade at GDC

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Marmalade is at GDC 2016, showcasing Marmalade 2D Kit, available as part of the award-winning Marmalade Platform.

Marmalade 2D Kit offers a set of tools and APIs to make creating 2D content easier than ever before.

With a focus on user interfaces, Marmalade 2D Kit, can dramatically reduce the time and cost of producing a rich, dynamic and engaging UI experience for your game.

“Marmalade 2D Kit combines an editor and runtime that are purpose-built to cater for 2D content and offers a great alternative to Flash,” says Daniel Hall, Technical Marketing Manager at Marmalade. “It allows content creators to iterate fast and often, which is of high value in the mobile gaming market.”

A good in-game UI is crucial to the overall player experience and with built-in support for UI widgets and a powerful keyframe based animation system, Marmalade 2D Kit lets you take full advantage of this key factor.

By supplying a dedicated runtime as part of Marmalade 2D Kit, integrating the content you create with your existing pipeline and game code is quick and straightforward.

“We provide a lightweight playback component as part of Marmalade 2D Kit,” continues Hall. “This runtime can easily be integrated into any existing rendering pipelines, allowing you to create compelling UI experiences by combining both 2D and 3D content with the UI layout created using the editor.”

“Also, our solution has no Flash runtime overhead and the associated performance impact that often affects VM-based solutions, particularly on mobile.”

Marmalade 2D Kit uses an open format for content, allowing the possibility of integration into any codebase in whatever way you want.

Marmalade 2D Kit is available now as part of the latest Marmalade Platform release.

Train2game News Global game industry rapidly growing

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The Open Gaming Alliance (OGA), a non-profit trade association focused on the games industry business, will be presenting new research during this week’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) that forecast the global game software market to pass $100 billion in 2019.

An overview of these forecasts will be presented by DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole at a seminar on Monday, March 14th, at 3 PM at the OGA Networking Lounge located at SF Green Space at eefg.

DFC Intelligence is forecasting that in 2019 PC games will be the single largest platform at $36 billion. This is up 35% from the $28 billion generated in 2015.

“A major driver of industry growth is not just software but hardware,” said DFC analyst David Cole. “The emergence of eSports and virtual reality is driving consumers to buy high end PC systems to not only play games, but watch others playing games.”

OGA board of director member Matt Ployhar (Intel Corp) is also remaining very bullish on PC gaming:

“I’m very optimistic that 2016 will be the year that PC gaming finally breaks the $30 billion milestone in software revenues,” said Ployhar. “Not only was there a bumper crop of new PC game releases such as Fallout 4, Grand Theft Auto V, & Metal Gear Solid V performing really well on PC for 2015, but this year another incredible lineup of games is on deck with World of Warcraft Legion, Civilization VI, Doom 4, and Dishonored 2. Strong release schedules like this also tend to bode well for vendors on the hardware side of the business, too.”

DFC has been providing research reports to OGA members since 2008. The OGA will release its full market report this spring, free to all OGA members. Currently OGA members are eligible to download the new Game Market Analyzer app for iPad at no cost. The Game Market Analyzer is designed to allow developers to identify key markets for their products so they can better focus their efforts. The app was developed by LAI Global Game Services in conjunction with market research firm DFC Intelligence.

“We designed the Game Market Analyzer app with indie game developers in mind. Our objective was to create an easy-to-use tool that would help developers find the best opportunities for their games worldwide.” said David Lakritz, LAI’s president & CEO.

The research panel will take place Monday, March 14th from 3-4 pm at the OGA Networking Lounge at SF Green Space and is open to all journalists and attendees of the conference.

Train2game News UK Games Industry at GDC

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Biggest ever UK Industry contingent flies out to leading games developer conference

·         Ukie hosts the largest ever UK industry stand at GDC, with 40 UK games businesses exhibiting on their managed stand
·         2016 will see a new UK Growth and International Trade seminar, chaired by Ukie CEO
·         UK Industry Drinks reception returns, sponsored by Games London, UKTI, Wells Fargo and BAFTA

The world’s leading games developer conference, GDC, is set to feature the largest ever UK industry stand this year, managed and organised by games trade body, Ukie. Exhibiting businesses will demo new game releases and products on the official UK stand, as well as hosting meetings with international business partners.

The UK industry stand will host over 40 of the top UK games companies, including delegations from Wales, Northern Ireland and the Northern Powerhouse.

On Wednesday 16 March, Ukie CEO, Dr Jo Twist, will also be chairing a seminar at the British Consulate in San Francisco. The seminar, ‘UK Growth and International Trade’, will cover opportunities for international trade from the innovative games sector. The seminar will also include case studies of the financial incentives of developing games in the UK, such as the highly successful Video Games Tax Relief, which supported the development of 237 games in 2015. Companies speaking include transatlantic business experts Fitzgerald & Law and EKS&H, as well as a panel discussion with Edge Case Games and Silicon Valley Venture Capital.

Ukie will also host the annual UK Industry Drinks Reception on Wednesday 16 March, an evening of international networking, in partnership with Games London, Wells Fargo, BAFTA and UKTI.

Dr Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie, said, “It’s important that we continue to inform the global marketplace why the UK is such an attractive and important location for games businesses. GDC gives the UK industry a vital platform on which to showcase world-leading content and services to a global audience, attracting important investment and generating business with the brand new London Games Festival launching in April this year, part of Games London, we hope to see even more international attention to the sector in the UK.”

For more information on Games London visit www.games.london