Category Archives: games

Train2Game News: Injustice: Gods Among Us choose your winner! – Week 2

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AquamanTrain2Game brings you the results of the second week of the Injustice: Gods Among Us in game battles!

Last week we showed you a video with celebrity insights and asked you to choose who would win in a fight between some of the DC Universes biggest names! All the action was then played out in the up coming game Injustice: Gods Among Us.

In the first match the fastest man alive, The Flash faced the mysterious Shazam in an epic battle of speed versus strength. You can view the results of the match in the game play video below:

In the second battle it was a battle of the insane minds when The Joker and Lex Luthor faced off. You can be sure to see a lot of dirty handed tricks in this grudge match of the biggest villains!

This week’s pair of matches pit clever, gadget-laden specialists against brute force challengers, as the cunning Aquaman summons the powers of the deep to take on tech-heavy Cyborg, while intergalactic-traveling Green Lantern faces off against the brutish undead strength of Solomon Grundy.

You ca view these all-new Injustice Battle Arena videos below, analyzing each contender’s strengths, offering celebrity commentary on the matches, and posing the question – who would win?

Remember for participating in these show-downs, fans in the UK will be rewarded with an Injustice avatar item when they register on the site and an exciting piece of DLC content when they first vote. Voice your opinion via Facebook, YouTube or Twitter and join the debate!

You can learn more and vote at https://injustice.dccomics.com/

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 20.02.13

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Train2Game is again bringing you jobs from all across the games industry in the hopes that you will take that all important first step in to the industry.

DEVELOPER

Job Title Tools Programmer – Runescape MMO
Job Category Programming
Skills Required Tools
Location Cambridge, UK & Europe
Job Description Jagex Ltd, the UK’s leading independent online games studio, is looking for bright and passionate programmers who want to work with cutting edge technology to join our Tools Department. Joining the Jagex Technologies team, you would be developing new in-house tools to support our content development and graphics teams while also working with our code libraries, scripting language and game engine.

Key Duties Include:

  • Develop and maintain bespoke content creation tools using Java to the highest standards
  • Enhance and improve the game engine
  • Research new technology, platforms, techniques and ideas
  • Enhance both the tools team libraries and the game engine libraries
  • Act as lead on project, overseeing design and development

Essential Requirements:

  • High level knowledge of Java, C++ and object orientated programming techniques
  • Strong understanding of computer graphics or computer animation technologies
  • Strong understanding and appreciation of code design philosophies
  • Strong academic background at degree level or equivalent
  • Good industry track record, which may include previously published products, or tools development experience
  • The ability to think creatively to solve coding problems and to demonstrate a high degree of initiative, determination and flexibility

Desirable Requirements:

  • Knowledge of other platforms including, but not limited to, Mac OS, Linux, WII, PS3 and Xbox
  • Good understanding of GUIs and tools
  • Experience of working on network and MMO games
  • Experience as a lead programmer

You can apply, here.

DESIGN

Game Designer – UX (Runescape)

Jagex Ltd, the UK’s largest developer and publisher of online games, is looking for an exceptional individual to play a major role in shaping the world renowned RuneScape.

The successful candidate will be responsible for the UX design of key game features; guiding the production of their systems and content from original concept, to creation & prototyping, through final polish and community feedback.

This amazing opportunity to be a key contributor to a world class MMO from a successful and stable developer/publisher demands high levels of expertise, experience, passion and commitment.

Key Duties Include:

  • Channel the lead designer’s creative vision and management’s product strategy into everyday project development.
  • Support the creative process by producing UX design deliverables (wireframes, mockups, prototypes) of varying fidelity, used to communicate the desired experience
  • Use of industry best practice, heuristics and user testing to evaluate to relative usability of products
  • Set aims, use collaborative design and give feedback to ensure all projects achieve the best quality, stay within scope and are coherent with the wider game.
  • Design experiences, structural features and creative processes. Create and maintain high quality documentation.
  • Lead the creation of large, complex or multi-part features. Coordinate across development disciplines to prototype, implement and refine game content.
  • Be an expert on design practice and maintain awareness of the games industry and the online games market.
  • Be a mentor by giving support and guidance to the wider team

Essential Requirements:

  • Proven and demonstrable expertise in game systems design, including creativity, technical aptitude, commercial awareness and MMO genre knowledge.
  • Must have sound creative judgment and a solid understanding of broad UX design principles including interface design, usability, balancing and analytics.
  • Demonstrate exemplary UX design skills and knowledge
  • Strong communication & people skills. Able to work effectively with a diverse team, to give insightful feedback, to be able to write design specifications to high standard and able to verbally articulate ideas with passion, clarity and confidence.
  • A good general technical proficiency with game construction. Experience in game scripting, coding or development tools is also very beneficial.
  • Driven, organized and reliable. A positive attitude, steady under pressure, adapts to constructive feedback. Works in a thorough, timely and considerate manner.
  • A love of games & design, a broad knowledge of gameplay styles and an expansive yet insightful understanding of game mechanics.

You can apply, here.

ART

Job Title 2D Artist for Smartphone Games – London
Job Category Art / Animation
Skills Required 2D / Concept / Texture Artist
Location Hammersmith, London, UK & Europe
Job Description Capcom, Beeline is currently seeking a talented 2D graphic designer and animator to join our London studio. The successful candidate will work with the Lead Graphic Designer and Producer to design, create and animate graphical content for freemium social games.

Required Skills:

  • Ability to design appealing and original 2D game content.
  • Highly skilled in 2D animation.
  • High proficiency with Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (or similar software).
  • Experience with isometric perspective.

Desired Skills

  • Adobe/Macromedia Flash.
  • Previous experience with graphics for mobile devices.
  • Previous experience working with a game development team or similar.
  • Audio experience; proficient with audio editing software.
  • 3D modelling/animation skills: Maya or Blender.

Profile

  • High creativity and attention to detail.
  • Strong background in sketching, drawing and illustration.
  • Ability to work within a schedule.
  • Genuine passion for the video games industry, design and animation.
  • Team player with strong social and communication skills.
  • Willing to learn, cooperate with the developers and open to feedback.
  • Good English language skills.

Applicants must be able to start ASAP and will work from our studio in Hammersmith.

Please send applications with your portfolio to jobs@capcom.com

 

QA

Job Title QA Functional Tester
Job Category QA / Localisation
Skills Required QA Tester
Location UK & Europe
Job Description Pole To Win Europe Ltd. – Functional QA Testers wanted for video game testing!

Pole To Win Europe Ltd. is looking for motivated and responsible people to join us as Functional QA Testers.

Ideal candidates will have a very strong knowledge of video games, ranging from consoles, handheld consoles and mobile devices. The video games industry is a fast paced industry; the candidate should have knowledge of video games history, having experience on previous generation of hardware as well as understanding the current status of the industry and its future development.

As a Functional QA Tester you will be responsible for finding bugs in the video game that you are testing. You will be making sure that all bugs that you find are written and tracked in a bug database, which the development team will receive and then fix the issues that are present. You will then have to verify that the fix has been successful in a new build, or sent the issue back to the developers in order to ensure the correct fix has been made.

The Pole To Win group is a leading company in providing quality services to the games industry with over 18 years of experience. Our West London Studio opened in April 2012 and has been expanding ever since! This is an excellent opportunity to join our passionate team and pursue a career in the videogames industry with opportunities to move up within the company.

The position is open to any person based in or around London. Contract will be based on the length of the projects.

Required Skills

  • Excellent knowledge of the video games industry
  • Experience in playing video games on a variety of consoles
  • High level of written and spoken English
  • Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines
  • Good communication skills and able to work as part of a team

Preferred Skills

  • Excellent MS Office Skills
  • Previous experience with using Bug Databases
  • Understanding of games and game terminology
  • Understanding the roles of other areas of the industry
  • Previous experience of Functional Testing, although training will be given on site

Due to the number of applications we are only able to contact candidates who have successfully passed on to the interview stage, thank you for your understanding

You can apply by emailing info@poletowineurope.com

 

Train2Game News: Train2Game radio talks to Terri Mardel

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Terri MardelI got the pleasure of talking to Terri Mardel last week about her work with Road Hog Games. She tells me about how her love of gaming grew from being a young child and the work she does with Road Hog.

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1222192-train2game-student-terri-mardel-speaks-to-mark-on-t2g-radio

Or read the transcript below

Hello my name’s Terri Mardel, I’m on the Designer course and I’m from St Albans.

Hiya Terri, how you doing?
I’m OK thank you

Good! So what’s your story? What are the past experiences that have shaped your life to who you are now?
Well I have been a gamer since my Dad introduced me to games, say from about the age of 6. 5, 6, 7 maybe. I have very early memories of a sports game on a Spectrum which involved wiggling a joystick really fast. I think from there I’ve always played games. I had a Master System in my bedroom and I used to love playing Sonic and stuff like that, so I’d say it’s something I’ve grown up with and at the moment I work in Blockbuster so I’m constantly trying all the news games out and I’ve just loved games my whole life! Then a couple of years ago, I saw an advert in the paper about Train2Game and I was like “Yeah, why don’t I make games?”

Excellent! So you are quite a fan of the old classic games then?
Yeah, yeah as I say, I have very good memories of childhood, spent in my bedroom playing on Sonic and Alex Kidd and various other games like that!

So you’re now part of Road Hog Games, how did you get involved with that?
Well me, Gareth and Izzi all met at the Game Jam. I’d actually been talking to Gareth before hand, we met over the forums and stuff but the three of us met face to face at the Game Jam and we decided we work together so well that we were going to carry on afterwards and so its just grown from there really!

So What is it you do for Road Hog Games?
I’m the design director, that’s my official title, and basically myself and with Gareth’s input as well we basically design the games and come up with the story lines and all the attributes and features that we want to have. Then communicate that to Izzi the developer and Amy the artist and then it all comes together to make a game!

With Road Hog Games, you are working on Little Green Dude, what was the idea behind that?
It actually came out of wanting to make a game quick sharp and Gareth came up with the idea of doing like a Pong style game and then from there I suggested elements of other games that we could then bring in to make it more interesting, instead of just a single Pong game and its grown from there!

So it was quite a lot of influence from all those classic games you used to play then?
Yeah, yeah! There’s quite a few games I’ve designed through the course and for other things which are based on mechanics in games which I used to love as a kid.

So I know that Road Hog Games has input from an industry veteran, what’s it like working with him?
It’s really good! Just the wealth  of experience and knowledge that he has and that he is willing to impart that on us, it’s just amazing!  

You’re learning a lot from him then?
Yeah!

What is your greatest ambition in your personal career?
Wow, uh, one of several! I guess I’d like to create the next million dollar franchise, character and story behind it. I’d like Road Hog to take off and make something of ourselves that way. There’s tons of dreams!

Always good to dream big! Well I think that’s all we have time for today Terri, so thank you very much!
Ok then!

Train2Game News: Top 20 UK Games Chart – 18.02.13

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Aliens: Colonial MarinesTrain2Game brings you the Top 20 UK Games Chart with another new number one this week! Aliens: Colonial Marines has taken the top spot, pushing Dead Space 3 down to number 2. At the other end of the chart, Dishonored has made another appearance coming back at number nineteen and Grand Theft Auto IV has re-appeared at number 20!

All formats

Week ending 16 February 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES SEGA –
2 DEAD SPACE 3 EA GAMES 1
3 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 2
4 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 3
5 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 4
6 ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 12
7 – NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 7
8 – JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 8
9 SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED SEGA 10
10 HALO 4 MICROSOFT 13
11 HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX 9
12 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 11
13 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 15
14 HITMAN: HD TRILOGY SQUARE ENIX 5
15 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 18
16 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 17
17 FORZA HORIZON MICROSOFT 14
18 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 16
19 DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS –
20 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV XBOX 360 CLASSICS –

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

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Lee Sainsbury

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Lee SainsburyEarlier this week I got the pleasure of talking to Lee Sainsbury, Game Designer of Icey Monty who are hoping to release there first title, Tamarex, this Sunday, Lee talks about how Train2Game has helped him and how the idea behind Tamarex was formed.

You can listen to the interview, here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1215262-train2game-student-lee-sainsbury-speak-to-mark-on-t2g-radio

Or read the transcript below:

Hi I’m Lee Sainsbury, I am 24 from Manchester and I am studying the Game Design course.

Hi Lee, how you doing?
I’m not to bad Mark, how are you?

I’m very well ta buddy! So tell me a bit about yourself, how did you get to where you are now?
Well I started the Train2Game Course in 2009, I really wanted to study Game Design all my life. I’ve always been a gamer and Train2Game just popped up and it was a perfect opportunity to study in my own time and yeah really give me the opportunity to grow.

What sort of things are you doing with it now?
Well since I’ve been on the Train2Game course for so long, I’ve made a lot of contacts, worked on a few personal projects and recently I’ve just joined Icey Monty, where we developed Tamarex.

How did the idea for Tamarex come about?
Well, before we worked on a project that ran into some circumstances and we had to stop. So really we wanted to come up with a really easy fun idea that we could just sit down and work on. The idea for a Tamagotchi game came around and of course, my generation, everyone had a Tamagotchi! I thought it would be fun to make a fresh take on the Tamagotchi genre. That’s where the idea for Tamarex came around.

So what’s the idea behind Tamarex?
Ah, the idea behind Tamarex. OK well, the idea behind Tamarex is that you take care of a pet Dinosaur. We didn’t really want to go for the usual Cats and Dogs. We found that the Dinosaur was a bit funny, a bit quirky. So yeah you have to take care of a pet Dinosaur, you can feed it, you have to wash it, you have to clean up after it, you can play with and yeah that’s it.

Were you a big fan of the Tamagotchi when you were younger then?
Oh definitely! I think every kid my age, at the time, had a Tamagotchi and we all used to palm it off on our parents when we went to school.

Yeah I remember doing the same thing! So how’s the course helping you get to making the game?
Well there’s no bounds, it’s helped me massively! Just understanding game design and game development was a help too. I think that if I hadn’t done the course, I wouldn’t be where I am now. It’s just helped me so much, it’s unbelievable!

Is that where you met the other members of Icey Monty?
Yes! John and Nick, both Train2Game students and they’re both programmers. We met through the forums, we did a couple of projects together and then decided we would go for a commercial release eventually, which was Tamarex!

Where can people find out more about the studio?
We’ve got a website which is www.iceymonty.com we also have a Facebook page at IceyMonty. Or you can come and chat to us on the forums at http://www.forum.train2game.com we are all on there.

Excellent, so it’s all going pretty well then?
Yeah, it’s going fabulous actually!

When is the game going to be out?
We have scheduled the release for this Sunday! If everything goes well with Apple, and they decide the game’s going to be released then it should be this Sunday, hopefully, fingers crossed! It will be on the Android store as well.

Excellent, brilliant news! Thank you very much Lee
Thank you very much Mark

And good luck with everything
Cheers

Train2Game News: Chimpact in The Sun

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Chimpact in The Sun

Earlier this year, Train2Game covered the story of the Windows 8 game, Chimpact. This morning the national paper, The Sun have reviewed and covered the same game.

The Sun ran the article this morning alongside a review for Sega’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. Chimpact was the second biggest review on the page with a huge rating of 4 out 5 where as Aliens: Colonial Marines only got 3 out of 5.

The review in The Sun says: “Though the iPhone and iPad, understandably have a stranglehold on the market, some games are actually better on other platforms. Chimpact is an example of that.”

The whole review was very positive and ended by saying: “Chimpact is mega-addictive, delivered with impressive graphics and spot-on gameplay.”

This is excellent news for anyone else thinking of developing for Windows 8 as it shows you can get recognition on the platform from some of the top news distributors.

It also shows the Train2Game blog keeps you one step ahead of the rest with us getting to this great game first!

If you want to find out more about the game you can go to www.chimpact.com

Train2Game News: End of week round up – 15.02.13

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It is the end of the week which means it is time for the end of week games industry news round up from Train2Game.

A game that I blogged about earlier this week, Injustice: Gods Among Us, has had a new character confirmed. You will be able to play as Aquaman in the DC Universe beat ’em up game. You can view the King of the seven seas in action in the following trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ-68LvoY4k

A new Pokémon has been revealed this week for the upcoming Pokémon X and Y. The new Pokémon, Sylveon, is a new evolution of Eevee, one of the most beloved Pokémon since it was first discovered in Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. Players with Eevee can evolve it into one of seven evolutions, like Vaporeon, Jolteon, and Flareon. Sylveon will be the eighth Eevee evolution.

A new PR campaign has been launched by 11 bit studios, who created Anomaly Warzone Earth and Funky Smugglers. The studio have just released a teaser trailer for their next big game and any one who pre-orders it now, before any more information is released, will get 50% off. In addition they will also get access to the multiplayer beta in March. You can view the teaser trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVbaqQIySE8

Last November Bungie’s follow up project to Halo was leaked and now the company have confirmed it. Some information on Destiny that leaked last year was later confirmed by Bungie to be real. Destiny is to be an open world sandbox game with an engaging universe set 700 years into the future. Whether or not it’ll be an MMO is still unclear, but I guess we may find out this Sunday.

Telltale games, the creators of the episodic Walking Dead games have said anything is possible in the second series of the game. Telltale have already stated that they want to carry over your choices from the first season of The Walking Dead game to the second one. What these choices will impact is still up in the air, as the studio is currently in the conceptual phase. Dan Connors, CEO and co-founder of Telltale Games said “We’re talking through different scenarios, though I don’t think we’ve talked through one where we just start with a new set of characters.” The possibility of having more cross over characters from the TV show are also being discussed.

Train2Game News: Game music on Classic FM

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Aerith's ThemeEver since I became your Train2Game blogger I have been contacted by a PR Guy for some of the biggest games developers. He has been leading his own personal campaign.

The guy I am talking about is a man called Mark Robins. Mark is a 13-year games industry veteran who used to work as a journalist at Computec and Future Publishing before moving into PR. The firm he works at, Lunch PR, is an agency whose clients include Bethesda Softworks.

The campaign he has been leading is to get some of the orchestral game music more well known. Robins’ campaign made amazing headway last year and recorded amazing success. Thanks to his efforts, he and his followers not only propelled Aerith’s Theme from Final Fantasy 7 and the theme from Skyrim into the Classic FM Hall of Fame, but Classic FM produced a pair of two-hour shows featuring nothing but video game music.

Mark has been using his contacts he gets through his job to ask for there help in spreading the word about his cause.

He firstly stresses “This campaign has nothing, nor has it ever had, anything to do with any of the clients I represent”

He goes on to say “This is a purely personal crusade. Skyrim made the Hall of Fame thanks to community motivation by Bethesda’s social media team. It’s no secret that I run the campaign, but I don’t actively tell people who I am via the social media channels and I’m actually really keen to keep this as distant from my work as possible.

“One of the interesting things I found when I started this was just how accepting the people at Classic FM were of the music. To them the revelation was, ‘Oh, we thought game music was all beeps and bloops, but actually this stuff is great. If Mozart or Beethoven were alive today then who’s to say this isn’t the stuff they’d be composing. It absolutely sits alongside movie and traditional classical music.'”

This year Robins is encouraging people to vote for Nobuo Uematsu’s soundtrack to Final Fantasy 7 again. He points out that thanks to last year’s voting effort there is now loads of video game music in Classic FM’s voting database, making it easy for people to highlight particular favourites. He also encourages fans of classical game music to join the Facebook group – not just to rock the vote, but also to share their enthusiasm.

This is great news for the games industry as it further cements the games industry as a main stream art form. I think it would be a good idea to further spread the news of this around to as many people as we can.

Train2Game News: The Dark Knight Returns

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Arkham CityYou may or may not know that your Train2Game blogger is a massive fan of the Dark Knight so hearing the news that there is going to be a third Arkham game made me very happy.

The next entry in the Batman: Arkham series will be released this year, Time Warner quietly revealed in a financial meeting last week. A transcript of the company’s Q4 2012 earnings call, quotes CFO John K. Martin as saying:

“We expect [digital home video revenue] to grow close to 20% in 2013. And we also have a strong games release this year, which will include the next release in the Batman Arkham franchise.”

Batman: Arkham City, the previous game in the franchise, was released in 2011 and was a huge success thanks, in part, to the story being written by the Batman animated series writer, Paul Dini. The game play was also incredible and as you were battling with the thugs of Gotham you did feel like Batman. The game was then retooled for Nintendo’s Wii U and re-published last November.

Last year it was rumoured that the next game in the series would take the form of a prequel, with developer, Rocksteady drawing inspiration from the Silver Age of comics. However, VG247 claims the UK studio is not developing the next game in the series.

In addition, in August of last year Paul Dini, announced he also will not be working with Warner Interactive on a Batman: Arkham 3 and Mark Hamill said that he would never voice The Joker again after Arkham City. A few months after the games release however, in an interview with film director Kevin Smith, Hamill said that he wouldn’t be opposed to playing the insane villain again if the part was right.

Train2Game News: Pokémon TV app for mobile devices

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Pokémon TV appToday Train2Game brings more great news for Pokémon fans around the globe! You can now watch Pokémon episodes on your iOS or Android device.

The Pokémon Company International launched the official Pokémon TV application earlier this week, it is available now for free on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch—and Android devices. The Pokémon TV app helps fans follow the many adventures of Ash, Pikachu, and their friends in fan-favourite episodes from the animated television series that will be updated weekly from a library of more than 700 episodes spanning fifteen seasons. In addition, Pokémon fans can catch special features, trailers, and Pokémon movie events using the Pokémon TV app.

Also, Pokémon fans can catch the debut of the animated short Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade on February 15—available only through the Pokémon TV app and on www.pokemon.co.uk. This special event will be the first time Meloetta’s Moonlight Serenade is shown in English, and fans who watch can expect a sneak peek at the magic of Meloetta’s Pirouette Forme! Stay tuned—further exciting Meloetta news for video game fans will follow shortly!

Standard data charges will apply when using the Pokémon TV app. The Pokémon TV app is available in countries outside of Asia and can be downloaded from the App Store here:
https://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/pokemon-tv/id594261405?mt=8

Or from the Google Play Store here:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pokemontv&hl=en_GB
.
Be sure to visit Pokemon.co.uk, Like the official Pokémon Facebook page at Facebook.com/Pokemon, and follow Pokémon on Twitter @Pokemon to receive the latest Pokémon news.