Category Archives: games

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Shaun Steer

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me n zakI spoke to Train2Game student Shaun Steer last week. Shaun discussed with me how his career has progressed from being a Chef to the games industry and how he finds time to study whilst looking after five children.

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1274977-train2game-student-shaun-steer-talks-to-t2g-radio

Or read the transcript below:

My name is Shaun Steer, I’m doing the Game Designer course and the nearest town to me Ashford

Hi Shaun, how you doing mate?

Yeah not to bad, you?

I’m very well cheers mate. So what’s your story? What are the past experiences that have shaped your life?

Work wise, I’ve always been a chef. So it’s a bit of a drastic change to what I am doing now. I’ve been doing that since I was about 15 years old.

So why did you decide to change from being a chef?

Well a few years ago I had a few health issues which made me go out of main stream cooking and just take little jobs, in smaller kitchens. That was my chosen career path, pretty much, finished there. Last year I was getting fed up with where I was working and I just happened to come across a Train2Game advert. So I clicked on it, forgot about it, requested more information, a few more months down the line they contacted me and the rest is history. It’s all going really well at the moment, it’s all going very well.

Excellent, I understand that you’ve got quite a hectic family life as well?

Yeah, that’s one way to put it! Yeah I’ve got a house with five children to look after as well so that can take up a lot of your time.

Yeah it sounds like it! So how do you find the time to study with your five kids?

It’s a mystery to me as well! Sometimes I’ve actually got the little one you see there in my picture, little Zak, sometimes he’s just sitting on my lap while I’m studying away through the books and making the games. He was a tester for me actually on the Game Maker games I made.

That’s got to be quite good! Your own in house testers?

Oh yeah! He loved it, he loved the shooter and he is obsessed with Mario so when I did the platformer he was in his element.

I have seen you on the Train2Game forum and you get quite passionate about the course. Where did that passion come from?

I think it’s about gaming in general really. Well the first console I had was a SEGA Master System, way back when, what was it ’91 or something?

Yeah it was about that

I’ve had every console under the sun since then. So gaming has always been quite a passion. Well being able to learn how to put my input in on it, well it’s something I feel quite strongly about!

So it’s 2013 now Shaun so what objectives have you got in your course?

Well it’s funny you should mention that really. I’ve obviously been talking to quite a lot of people with in the course and we’ve just recently set up a student studio.

Oh really?

Yeah, we’ve started doing some concept work on a couple of game ideas already.

What’s the studio called?

The studio? We’ve named it Devils Ink Studios.

Very nice!

We’ve got a Facebook page up if anyone wants to click on it and like it for us! It will help get the word out.

What’s the address?

I think if you just search Devils Ink Studios and it will take you straight to the page.

Very nice so have you got a game in development at the minute or is it just ideas throwing around at the minute?

We are in concept stages at the minute. So we are just drawing up the concept documents and we’ve got some environments being drawn up and characters. We are just going to be writing the back story and everything like that well, today. We have been for the past few hours actually. There’s five of us at the moment but we will probably need more people to join the team so if anyone’s interested, just drop me a line! Just get in touch via our Facebook page, that’s Devils Ink Studios, thank you!

Well that’s perfect Shaun! I think that’s probably all we’ve got time for today so thank you very much for your time!

Excellent, thank you!

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 18.03.13

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Tomb RaiderTrain2Game brings you the Game Charts again this week with Tomb Raider still sitting at the top, God of War: Ascension was unable to knock the reboot of the top spot but came in at number 2. Number 3 is a new entry with a Starcraft 2 expansion pack and Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is the final new entry at number 4.

At the other end of the Top 20, the new Naruto game has plummeted from number 3 to just  clinging on at number 20 and after only a few weeks, Aliens: Colonial Marines has left the charts.

All formats

Week ending 16 March 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX 1
2 GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION SONY COMPUTER ENT. –
3 STARCRAFT II: HEART OF THE SWARM BLIZZARD –
4 SNIPER: GHOST WARRIOR 2 CITY INTERACTIVE –
5 SIMCITY EA GAMES 2
6 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 5
7 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 8
8 CRYSIS 3 EA GAMES 6
9 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 7
10 THE SIMS 3: UNIVERSITY LIFE EA GAMES 4
11 – ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 11
12 HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX 14
13 – SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 13
14 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 12
15 DEAD SPACE 3 EA GAMES 19
16 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 10
17 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 16
18 – GRAND THEFT AUTO IV XBOX 360 CLASSICS 18
19 METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE KONAMI 9
20 NARUTO SHIPPUDEN: ULTIMATE NINJA STORM 3 NAMCO BANDAI GAMES 3

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 15.3.13

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Saints row IVIt is the end of the week so Train2Game news is bringing you a round up of games industry news.

Saint Row IV has got an official release date and teaser trailer today which was announced by the IP’s new owners, Deep Silver. What was originally imagined as a standalone expansion for Saints Row: The Third called “Enter the Dominatrix” became the basis for Saints Row IV after being re-purposed last year. “Enter the Dominatrix” featured the leader of the Saints being captured by an alien warlord and forced into a virtual reality simulation of Steelport. The game is being released on August 23 of this year. You can enjoy the suitably crazy trailer in the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ax5lfDVjF3w

The co-designer of the cult classic game Road Rash, Dan Geisler, has said that EA can’t do a decent remake of the hit bike racing title. He deduced that if they could have done it, they would have already. He voiced his opinions whilst taking part in an AMA on Reddit. When asked if a Road Rash game was possible for the mobile platforms. Dan replied “Absolutely! I would consider it a must.” So how likely is a new Road Rash? Dan said “As for Road Rash getting remade, a rose by any other name still can prick the shit out of your finger. I’m liking the chances of something really cool happening.” It sounds like a new Road Rash could be developed by the veteran but under a new name on mobile platforms.

A Crytek-authorised TimeSplitters game is in development for PC, built using the publisher’s sparkly CryEngine 3. TimeSplitters Rewind is being worked on by a team of fans – including members of the original TimeSplitters staff at Free Radical Design. Rewind will include multiplayer modes and challenges taken from the original three games, re-packaged in HD. Online play for 8-16 players and bots are in, project manager Michael Hubicka told Cooking with Grenades. But split-screen is out – CryEngine 3 simply does not support it at the moment. A demo is planned for December.

A new Warhammer 40k title is being developed by Slitherine. Slitherine are the publishers of tricky tactical strategy Unity of Command. Much of the details of the deal are being kept under wraps. All we know for sure is it’ll be a turn-based strategy, and that it’s being developed for multiple, as yet unnamed, platforms. Given Slitherine’s back-catalogue, this could mean the most faithful adaptation of tabletop Warhammer to date.

Finally, a new Pokémon game, Pokémon Rumble U, has been confirmed as a downloadable title that will feature all 649 pocket monsters battling it out, probably in a similar fashion to the last two games. As many gamers speculated when the Wii U’s NFC tech was first announced, you’ll be able to purchase Pokémon figurines, then place them on the NFC pad and have them appear in the game. It’s similar to how the popular Skylanders series works, except you won’t need a special accessory to link your figures with the game. You’ll also be able to level up your characters and record battle information on the toys themselves. Pokémon Rumble U is coming to Japan’s Wii U eShop on April 24. No news yet on North American or European release dates or pricing, but given the popularity of the Pokémon franchise, it will almost assuredly be heading our way soon.

Train2Game News: BioShock Infinite “False Shepard” Trailer

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BioShock InfiniteTrain2Game news has been sent another new trailer for the upcoming BioShock Infinite. This trailer features lots of game play and really gets you excited for the games release.

BioShock infinite comes out on March 26 and from its announcement back in August of 2010 there has been numerous teaser trailers and screenshots.

There is now only two more weeks to go before we get our hands on the game and explore the rich environment of Columbia. Will this game live up to all the hype it has received?

The trailer begins with introducing the premise of lead man Booker’s trip to Columbia, before bursting into an eloquent display of Booker and Elizabeth in combat, downing vigors, creating tears, and partaking in all-out dystopian chaos.

I am, personally, incredibly excited for this game and I can not wait to play it. Enjoy the trailer

Train2Game News: Bring Back Suikoden!!

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SuikodenIf you are a fan of the game saga, Suikoden, created by Konami, then this could potentially be fantastic news!

Fans of the RPG series Suikoden are desperate to see their beloved games revived, taking to Konami’s various social network outlets to politely ask for its return.

A group, founded on fan-site Suikosource and named Suikoden Revival Movement (SRM), draws inspiration from the Operation Rainfall movement, formed in 2011, which saw fans successfully campaign for three Wii titles (Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower) to be localised and brought to the US. Citing poor marketing as one of the main reasons behind Suikoden’s recent hiatus, SRM’s ultimate goal is to pressure Konami into “bringing the Suikoden series back to its former glory – or even better – to new glory.”

Suikoden is a role-playing video game series originally created by Yoshitaka Murayama. The game series is loosely based on the classical Chinese novel, Shui Hu Zhuan by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong.

Each individual game in the series centers around relative themes of politics, corruption, revolution, mystical crystals known as True Runes and the “108 Stars of Destiny”—the 108 protagonists who are loosely interpreted from the source material.

Though the Suikoden games follow an irregular chronological sequence of events, the entire series takes place within the same world among continuing and overlapping histories. In some cases, several characters appear in multiple installations.

The most recent Western numbered instalment of the series, Suikoden V, was released in 2006 for PS2; the series failing to make an appearance at at all in this generation.

Since its inception in July last year the Suikoden Revival Movement has garnered a large following, accumulating well over 10’000 followers on Facebook. Thus far, Konami have only offered two “small responses”, but the enthusiasm of SRM doesn’t appear to have waned, as they continue to press Konami on a weekly basis for a revival of the series, or at the very least to make all titles available on PSN and XBLA.

It’s a great example of gamers pulling together and working as a community. It is a cause that I am strongly behind and if you want to join in with the revival you can by visiting the Suikoden Revival Movement Facebook page or following them on Twitter.

If you have played the game before, view the video below for some nostalgia. If you haven’t played it before you can get a feel for the game in the video for Suikoden 2

Train2Game News: Train2Game radio talks to Laurence Gee

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Laurence Gee (Artist)Train2Game radio this week spoke to Train2Game Art & Animation student Laurence Gee. Laurence tells us how he got his job at Brain In A Jar and the exciting new project he is working on which is moments away from going on to Kickstarter!

http://www.braininajar.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/BraininaJarGames

https://twitter.com/openwheelgame

https://twitter.com/Braininatweet

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1267348-train2game-student-laurence-gee-talks-to-t2g-radio

or read the transcript below:

Hi my name’s Laurence Gee, I’m from Birkenhead and I’m on the art course.

Hiya Laurence, how you doing mate?

I’m not to bad, how about you Mark?

I’m excellent cheers mate. So then let’s start this off. So what’s your story? What are the past experiences that have shaped your life?

Basically, starting from School to College I basically focused my skills on Art and endeavor to get better and better at my art and try to focus on moving from the traditional art to the computer based art that I do now.

Excellent, so what do you currently do for a living?

I work as a 3D artist here at Brain In A Jar games development.

Excellent, how did you end up working there?

It was through placement. Train2Game got me a placement here, which I’m very grateful for, and I worked here for the placement and when the placement was over I was kindly offered the job.

Very nice and how long have you worked there?

2 years actually, just recently became 2 years.

Still enjoying it I assume?

I love it here, yeah!

So, what are you currently working on with the company if I can ask?

You can! We are literally about to release a Kickstarter any time soon, a game called Open Wheel. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding system. There’s a website you can go to and there are loads of different projects you can support. The actual users and the people that actually give them money are actually people of the world and basically Kickstarters a crowd-funding system where people actually get to judge the game themselves or the item it’s self that go on there.

So what we’ve done is we are putting a project on there called Open Wheel. An online racing game that we’ve designed and developed our selves. It’s pretty special because it features unique game connection system. There are no log in screens what so ever, when you want to race you can just drop straight into a game, in to any running server. No lobby’s means more time spent racing. You can customize the cars and drivers, loads of stats to track, on track celebrations, race teams, leagues. There’s lots to go in there.

So what drew you and the company to Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a great way, for small independent developers like ourselves, to fund projects, especially ones we really care about. If people like what we are trying to do then they can back us and help us out with the funding and stuff. The finances we need will make the game happen with a huge boost and we can make the game really really great!

What is your personal reason for getting into the gaming industry in the first place?

Do you remember Lemmings?

I do indeed, yeah!

I’m thinking back when I was at a really young age and I played my first game. Back from old PC games or modern consoles, I played computer games for a really long time. I was really intrigued by what went into a game, I wasn’t always intrigued about playing the game its self, but I spent a lot of time playing a game to figure who it was made and what made it work. That’s really what pulled me in.

Right is that what drew you to it was it, was that what drew you to the Art in particular or did that come from things in school?

What drew me to Art was that I’ve always done it. I’ve always been drawing and painted. I love to paint, I’m a very traditional artist and I decided I wanted to move in to the art in games because I wanted to see how they did it. When I discovered how they did it I thought it was quite interesting and I decided to take my traditional skills in to computer based skills.

So, how’s Train2Game helped you get to where you are now?

Well I started the course nearly three years ago now, very near the end of it, and I basically started the art course. I was frozen at the point where I had a basic job working in a shop and Train2Game contacted me to let me know they’d accepted me on the Art course and so I accepted, got on with the course, started doing the coursework and basically it was the placement that really helped me get to where I was.

Very nice. So finally then, where can people find out more about the project you’re working on?

Of course, that’s the main part! You can check out our Facebook page, Brain In A Jar, a twitter – we’ve got @Openwheel game and also @Braininatweets check out there – and also go to our website which is, www.braininajar.co.uk

Well thank you very much Laurence!

No worries! Thank you very much

I’ll talk to you again, bye!

Take it easy, bye!

Train2Game News: New Dishonored DLC

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Dishonored DLCTrain2Game brings you the great news that Bethesda and Arkane Studios are releasing the first bit of downloadable content that will add to the story of the epic Dishonored.

Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall will be available in Europe on April 16th for Xbox 360 and PC, and on April 17th for PS3. The add-on is priced at £7.99 / €9.99 /  AU$14.45 (or 800 Microsoft Points).

In The Knife of Dunwall you take on the role of Daud, the legendary assassin who killed the Empress, and access his weapons, gadgets, allies and supernatural abilities. After assassinating the Empress, and forever changing the fate of Dunwall, you embark on a search for redemption. The Outsider reveals the key to your atonement, but who—or what—is Delilah? Accompanied by the Whalers, your loyal band of mercenary assassins, your search will take you through never-before-seen districts of Dunwall as you face off against new and terrible foes. Employ a unique arsenal of new weapons and powers that enhance Dishonored’s dynamic combat, mobility and stealth systems. In the struggle to hang onto the last shred of your humanity, the choices you make will ultimately determine your fate.

Dishonored has received over 100 ‘Game of the Year’ awards from outlets including Game Informer, PC Gamer, Yahoo!, GameSpot.com, MSNBC.com, and CNN. In addition to garnering numerous nominations from the D.I.C.E. Interactive Achievement Awards and the Game Developers Choice Awards, Dishonored received ‘Best Action/Adventure Game of the Year’ at the SPIKE TV Video Game Awards and was recently named ‘Best Game of 2012’ by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) video games awards. For more information on Dishonored or The Knife of Dunwall please visit www.Dishonored.com.

Train2Game News: Live pitch at Develop for a chance to get funded

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Develop in BrightonDevelop in Brighton in partnership with the Wellcome Trust brings a Live Pitch event to this year’s conference. This could be the big chance a Train2Game student has been looking for!

Developers are invited to apply for the chance to receive up to £10,000 each to develop a high-impact pitch for their game to help secure a distribution platform and funding. The ideas for your game need to draw on or be inspired by contemporary or historical biological or medical science in an innovative and accessible way. The games can be developed for any mass-appeal genre, platform or business model.

Those who are successful will go on to pitch their developed game ideas to a panel of publishers and funders at a live event at Develop in Brighton on Wednesday 10 July 2013.

Panellists joining the Wellcome Trust, who are a global charity dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health, include Sony XDev and crowd-funding platform Indiegogo.

Participating developers will be invited to receive additional pitch training ahead of the live event.

Previous game developers who have been funded through this is Fayju, an independent games company, who linked with University of Essex biochemistry researcher Dr Jody Mason to create an interactive game – ‘Cascade’ – to convey Alzheimer’s disease pathology at the cellular level, as well as potential therapeutic intervention approaches. With an ageing population and the number of people with dementia set to double every 25 years, it is clear that without better therapies, young people of today will become the carers of those with Alzheimer’s disease tomorrow.

How To Apply

Submissions are open until Friday 26 April.

Development funds can be used to develop a game prototype, demo or mood reel.

To enter your idea, apply through this link, where you can also find more details on what the Wellcome Trust are looking for.

If you have any queries about this opportunity, please email Iain Dodgeon i.dodgeon@wellcome.ac.uk

Train2Game News: Train2Game Student running for SpecialEffect

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Wahib Yousaf meets Miles Jacobson

Wahib on the right and Miles Jacobson in the middle

Train2Game student, Wahib Yousaf, is going to run for SpecialEffect in the British 10k in London this year. There is still time for you to sign up and join Wahib!

Wahib has been a Train2Game QA student since February 2012. Since joining the course Wahib has made sure to put himself out there and network as much as possible. He has a desire to make a real impact on the games industry and has decided the best way to start is to network with some of the games industry big hitters.

He also contributed to the ‘From Bedrooms To Billions’ IndieGogo campaign last year and one of the perks was an invitation by Creative Director of the ‘Football Manager’ series, Miles Jacobson, to come down to the S.I Games developers’ studio, meet their team and take part in a Q&A session. It was during this conversation that Miles Jacobson informed Wahib that he was a SpecialEffect ambassador.

On hearing about SpecialEffect, Wahib researched the charity and was moved by what he saw. Last December he made a sizeable donation and after reading about the SpecialEffect run on the Train2Game blog he saw another way in which he could help.

When asked why Wahib decided to run for the charity he said “It’s a Gaming Charity and I get to wear a costume! So, I have started doing 10K Training at my local Virgin-Active gym and endurance training every week for 30 minutes”

The costume that Wahib is so excited to be wearing during the run is his Assassin’s Creed 3 Connor Kenway CosPlay he wore previously to Excels’ Comic Con Expo last year. During the run Wahib will be running with the Flintock Musket and Tomahawk replicas that the character uses through the game.

If you want to run with Wahib and the SpecialEffect team you can still sign up by going to https://www.eventelephant.com/ee/events/pages/summary.htm?siteurl=specialeffect2013

You can watch a quick promotional video on the event below:

If you would like to sponsor Wahib and help him get to his goal of £200 you can do so by going to http://www.justgiving.com/wahib-yousaf

Train2Game wishes Wahib all the luck in running for SpecialEffect and hope he has a great time in doing it!

Train2Game News: Phil Cross of Microsoft talks to Train2Game Student Studios

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Phil CrossEarlier this month ,Phil Cross, audience marketing manager of Microsoft, held the first of a series of mentoring sessions with Train2Game student studios.

The session was recorded by Train2Game radio and you can listen to the podcast here: http://www.spreaker.com/user/train2game/train2game_radio_phil_cross_of_microsoft

You can read the transcript for the mentoring session below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/130135616/Phil-Cross-Mentors-Train2Game-Students