Category Archives: Games Developer

Train2Game news: L.A. Noire development took 7 years because it was “too big” says creator Brendan McNamara

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L.A. Noire Cole Phelps Train2Game blog imageTrain2Game students will know that game development can take a significant amount of time, but even in this industry, L.A. Noire’s seven year development cycle was extensive. (Though only half as long as that of Duke Nukem Forever…)

Why was this? Well, partly because of the impressive Motionscan facial animation, and also because L.A. Noire creator Brendan McNamara believes his film noire title, published by Rockstar, was “too big”

“One [thing] is the size, it’s a huge game – probably too big. The map’s massive, and so that’s probably my fault. We had to build a new process to do that” he told OPM

“We were a brand-new studio – we had brand-new tools, new technology. We have tools that allow you to build cities now, but we had to build that kind of stuff and make it work. Everything from the road network, where all the trolley cars go, all the cables connecting automatically to all of the buildings…”

McNamara revealed that at least 18 months of L.A. Noire’s development was dedicated to research.

“The tech was pretty extensive, including MotionScan. I’d say the first year and a half – [maybe] even longer – was just research.” he said

“Newspaper research, guys going over to LA and doing research on the buildings, taking photos, getting all the resources together… We were quite a small studio – 16 people or something – and we had to have all this material so we could start building stuff.” McNamara concluded

Facial animation was a huge part of L.A. Noire, however, in an interview with the Train2Game blog last November, Brink Lead Writer Ed Stern told us it isn’t something that’s needed in order to enjoy video games.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, L.A. Noire broke records to take No.1 in the UK charts when it was released last year.

For more on L.A. Noire, see previous posts on The Train2Game Blog.

So Train2Game, what do you make of McNamara’s comments? Is it possible for a game to be too big? What lessons do you thinkcan be learned from the development of L.A. Noire?

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

[Source: OPM]

Train2Game news: Mod adds Futurama’s Doctor Zoidberg to Skyrim

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Train2Game blog readers will know that here, we’re fans of modding, because not only does it allow you to practice your game development skills,  but it gives you a portfolio to show potential employers.

However, it’s also a way to add more silliness and fun to games, and that’s exactly what a modder named Snoopey has done with his Doctor Zoidberg Mudcrab mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was released was released towards the end of last month.

The mod does exactly what it says it will, replacing the skins and sounds of Skyrim’s mud crabs with the likeness and voice clips of Futurama’s Doctor Zoidberg.  You can see the Zoidberg Mudcrabs in action in the video below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

Want to use the Doctor Zoidburg Mudcrab mod? Download it here.

As previously reported by The Train2Game Blog, official modding tools for Skyrim, featuring Valve integration, are set to be released sometime this month.

Not only is modding an excellent way for those on Train2Game courses to practice their skills, but it can also provide that extra experience needed to get into the games industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” Valve’s Chet Faliszek previously told the Train2Game blog on the subject of modding.

“Normally modders have to work as a team and that’s important, and they also have to be able to finish something and that’s really important. So those two things together are a really good way to demonstrate that you’re ready to work in the industry.”

Id Software’s Tim Willits has also previously told the Train2Game Blog that modding is a great way to get into the games industry.

So Train2Game, what would you use the Doctor Zoidberg mod? Is modding something you’d like to try in 2012?

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

[Source: Beefjack]

Train2Game news: UK developer Eutechnyx nominated for global award

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British game developer Eutechnyx have named among the finalists for Red Herring’s Top 100 Global Awards, which recognise the “most audacious and far reaching private technology companies from across the globe.”

Train2Game students may have previously seen Eutechnyx Lead Programmer Dave Hawes give advice on getting into the games industry in this Train2Game video interview. The Gateshead based studio are currently working on Auto Club Revolution, scheduled for release next year.

“To be in with a chance of picking up a global recognition award before the end of 2011 is a remarkable achievement”, said Eutechnyx CEO, Brian Jobling.

“With Auto Club Revolution entering the final phases before a full release in 2012, the Red Herring nomination is vindication of the vision that we have for this unique product. We have the right team in place, and the right backing from our investment partners, to ensure that Eutechnyx can deliver on all objectives and ensure Auto Club Revolution becomes a global success.” he concluded.

“Technology companies are becoming the bright spot in the economic outlook. Eutechnyx has performed exceptionally in its field and strongly deserves to be singled out as one of the Red Herring Global finalists.” added Chairman of Red Herring Alex Vieux.

The Top 100 winners will be announced at a special awards ceremony that will take place on December 7th in Los Angeles, California.

Train2Game students can find out more about Eutechnyx in this feature about 7 UK game studios to keep an eye on.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on an independent UK game studio being nominated for a global award?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Devs need to be ‘surgical’ and ‘creative’ with next gen games – Bleszinski

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Train2Game students will see fewer Triple-A titles when the next generation of consoles arrives, and they’ll need to be developed in a surgical manner.  At least that’s according to Epic Games Cliff Bleszinski, who wants the next gen to have Avatar style visuals.

“The six-to-eight hour triple-A game might be going away, maybe there’s only three or four that come out a year, and those are the established brands.” he told OXM when asked about next gen hardware.

The Gears of War designer argued that the key for game developers to survive is to understand the market, both from a business and development point of view.

“The key is to bet on people who understand technology, but also understand creative and business. Too many games are made just because somebody says ‘A bullfighting game sounds cool!’ And you’re like ‘That would only play in Spain.’ said Bleszinski.

“People just get these random things they want to make, and other people throw money at them without looking at the business. We need not only to be creative but also to be surgical in terms of the games we make.” he added.

It isn’t the first time Bleszinski has commented on what’s needed to get by in the games industry. Indeed, as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, he’s given advice on what games industry professionals should do to make a name for themselves.

And while Bleszinski has previously hinted he has knowledge of next-gen consoles, the Train2Game blog has previously reported that he believes there’s much more to come from the current crop. It looks like Triple-A titles still have some time left then!

What are your thoughts on Bleszinski’s comments? Are the days of huge Triple-A titles numbered? Will developers have to think more about the games they produce?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: OXM]

Train2Game news: MMO Glitch goes back to beta testing

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Train2Game students may not have heard of Glitch, the casual MMO from Tiny Speck, but they’ve done something rather interesting with the games’ development.

Two months after Glitch was officially launched, it’s gone back into beta after Tiny Speck decided the game needed “radical changes”

“Two months ago we launched Glitch to the world. Now we’re unlaunching it,” said Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Tiny Speck.

“There are two obvious and huge improvements we need to make: the first is to make the early game reveal itself more easily to new players so they can get into the fun faster.”

According to Butterfield, the second major change needed is to make it easier for players to create levels and buildings.

“Some fairly radical changes to core game mechanics are going to be necessary to make Glitch what it needs to be. And making radical changes to core game mechanics is something that’s a lot harder to do while the front doors are open,” he said.

For more detailed reasons as to why Glitch, the MMO which “takes place inside the minds of eleven peculiarly imaginative Giants,” is going back into beta, see the Glitch blog.

More information about beta testing, it’s importance to game development and how it’s useful to Train2Game students, is available on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what do you make of Glitch going back into beta? Is it a bold move for Tiny Speck? Or should the game have been more thoroughly tested before release?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Mode 7 Games on Steam, indie development and free-to-play

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Frozen Synapse by Mode 7 Games is published through SteamTrain2Game students should find this Gamesbrief guest post by Frozen Synapse developer Mode 7 Games very interesting.

The bulk of the post sees developer Paul Taylor take a look back at how both business and design influenced the design and marketing of their turn based tactical title.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Mode 7 Games have argued that getting onto Steam is essential for an indie PC game developer. Taylor reiterates that this was vital to the success of Frozen Synapse.

“Steam’s position in terms of digital distribution right now is well documented; having seen the results, there is no doubt in my mind that aiming to create a game which would stand up against other titles on there was the right thing for us to do in this instance.” he said in the Gamesbrief post.

Taylor also suggests that release timing was an element in the success of Frozen Synapse, with Mode 7 Games releasing it in a quiet time for PC releases. His advice to indie developers is to avoid releasing titles during busy periods, such as the run up to Christmas.

“The end of May turned out to be a fairly quiet time and a good time to launch for us: I’d just suggest that indie devs focus on avoiding busy periods (e.g. Christmas and late June to early August) when they’re shaping up for launch.” wrote Taylor.

The Frozen Synapse developer also discusses the growth of Free-to-play, but insists that the ‘pay-once’ model was right for their game.

“Pay-once is the most maligned business model out there right now:I would suggest that even the most hardcore entrenched old-school developers have been won round by the raw data that free-to-play games have generated, so pay-once is in decline.” said Taylor.

“I’m yet to hear a sane scheme for an F2P Frozen Synapse – I don’t think that a free-to-play game along similar lines would be impossible; however I have not heard any viable suggestions for how we could have done it with this game, the game we cared so much about making.” he added.

The Gamesbrief post certainly makes interesting reading for Train2Game students and it can be read here.

Gamesbrief examines the business of games, and Train2Game students can watch an insightful interview with website founder Nicholas Lovell here on the Train2Game blog.

Lovell also spoke in-depth to the Train2Game blog last year, providing useful advice about indie and social game development.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Mode 7’s post-mortem of Frozen Synapse? Will you take the advice on board?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamesbrief]

Train2Game news: Square on Final Fantasy VII remake – it’d take too long to develop

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Train2Game forum users regularly post in the ‘If you could remake any game…’ thread, sharing which classic titles they’d like to see remade.  Final Fantasy VII is a title that keeps popping up in the discussion, and there are many out there who wish to see the classic PlayStation RPG remade.

Square have never really given a definitive answer fan requests for Final Fantasy VII to be remade, but in an interview with OXM, Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase said remaking the older titles in the series would take too long and cost too much. Meanwhile, Kitase also states that making Final Fantasy XIII-2 in a relatively short space of time is possible because its technology is so similar to Final Fantasy XIII.

“In the transition between XIII to XIII-2, it was quite easy because obviously we kept all the data and the engine – we had just finished using them so it was almost like they hadn’t gone cold. The technology was already warm and ready to use, so it was quite good.” Kitase told OXM.

Also within the team, we still had a feel for the game, it was still new to us, still lingering with us, so we were ready to move on to the sequel.” he added

Kitase says that it’d be a challenge to work on a past Final Fantasy title not only because it’d need a huge graphic overhaul, but also because the game worlds were bigger.

“But if we were to take one of the past Final Fantasy titles and make a sequel to it, I think that would be a lot more challenging because when they were on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 their actual game volume was a lot bigger, kind of.” said the Final Fantasy XIII producer.

“Graphically they weren’t as advanced as they are now, but there were lots of towns and worlds and cities and whatever.” he continued.

“So if we were to recreate the same kind of game – sequel or not – with the same volume, but give it a much higher level of graphical quality, it would us take three times, four times, even ten times longer to make such a game. So making a sequel for an old game would be a lot more challenging.” Kitase concluded.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was announced earlier this year and marks only the send direct sequel in the series. It’s scheduled for release on 3rd February 2012.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Kitase’s comments about not being able to remake older Final Fantasy titles? Does the acknowledgement that older game worlds were bigger suggest style over substance with current gen Final Fantasy titles?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: OXM]

Train2Game news: Ultima creator Richard Garriott on game design

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Ultima series creator Richard Garriott  believes game design need to be more creative if the medium is going to continue to advance.

“There are tons of free-to-play, beautiful looking MMOs that are feature-complete and challengers in theory to World of Warcraft, they come across from Asia every day.” said Garriott, also known as ‘Lord British,’ in an in-depth interview with Industry Gamers.

“They’re all beautiful, they’re all full-featured – if you try to go why is this game not as good as World of Warcraft, you’d have a hard time picking individual features as to why, but with all of them you go, “look, it’s free to play, free to download, I’ll try it!”

But the man behind Ultima Online believes that rather than trying to introduce new features, many developers are just trying to recreate game design elements of their competitions titles.

“You go, “OK, kind of looks the same, here’s my town, here’s my shop, here’s my level one monsters I have to fight,” he said. “And you spend an hour or two going through the play cycle and finishing a quest and levelling up, and you go… well “OK, it works, but why do I care?”

“The vast majority of people are making these me-too games, they’re quality, there’s nothing wrong with them, there’s just nothing compelling about them.”

Garriott added that he hopes to be able to look at his own work, including Ultima and Ultima online and be satisfied with what he did to change games.

“And I’m hoping that if I look back on my career down through the years, I’m very proud of the fact that with some periodicity, I have truly advanced the art form in some meaningful way.”

The full interview with Richard Garriott, an interesting read for Train2Game students, can be seen on Industry Gamers.

So Train2Game, what do you make about his comments on game design? Does more need to be done in order to make games innovative?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Industry Gamers]

Train2Game student diaries of Jonny Robinson 12 to 16

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Train2Game Game Designer Jonny Robinson is on a Train2Game work placement at DR Studios, these are his latest industry diaries.

Read Jonny’s latest industry experience diary here on the Train2Game blog, on the Train2Game Scribd site, or on the official Train2Game industry experiences website.

Train2Game news: Get involved with Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Test

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Train2Game students can get their hands on a Star Wars: The Old Republic beta thanks to EA providing tens of thousands of beta codes to various outlets of the UK gaming press.

The Star Wars: The Old Republic beta keys, give Train2Game students the opportunity to take part in an upcoming beta weekend where EA and Bioware plan to stress test their servers ahead of the MMO’s December release.

While the Train2Game blog doesn’t have any Star Wars: The Old Republic beta keys to give away itseld, you can pick of thousands up from UK outlets including CVG, NowGamer, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Just choose one of the links, then follow the instructions to receive your key for the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta weekend. The exact time for the STWOR beta will be revealed by email at a later date.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Bioware have spoken about the importance of playtesting to game development.  Meanwhile, for an in-depth look at the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic, check out the Train2Game blog interview with Associate Lead Game Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi

Train2Game blog readers will be aware that beta tests are an important part of video game development as thousands of beta testers can find issues that may slip past a handful of QA Testers.

And in an interview with the Train2Game blog, End of Nations Senior QA Tester Karl Tars said that getting involved with lots of beta tests for one studio is potentially a way to get into the games industry.

So what are you waiting for Train2Game? Sign up for the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta now.

Have you been involved with beta tests before? Will you get involved with this one?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum