Category Archives: games

Train2Game students can play Civilization on Facebook as more devs join social media gaming

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Regular Train2Game blog readers will be familiar with Zynga’s Allies & Empires, which has gained more users than social gaming behemoth Farmville.

Its release was seen by some as a pre-emptive move against, Sid Meier’s Civilization World which is now available to play on Facebook. Yes, that’s the same Civilization that’s been such a hit with PC Gamers for many, many years.

“With over ten million units sold worldwide, Sid Meier’s Civilization  is world renowned as one of the greatest strategy game franchises,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of  publisher2K.

“We’re excited to bring this fun and social game to people on Facebook, enabling fans of the series to play Civilization World from almost anywhere in the world; while offering newcomers a chance to enjoy this addictive strategy gameplay that has fascinated gamers for two decades.”

The game is described as ‘an online world where players collaborate with friends to become the strongest nation to accomplish an end goal of becoming the world’s most powerful civilization.’

“Our team set out to create an exciting  Civilization  game for Facebook where for the first time, players can join with their friends to build a powerful empire and rule the world,” said Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development at Firaxis Games.

“Civilization World  is a fun and engaging game that both fans of the series and fans of Facebook games will find immediately addictive, and we look forward to adding to the experience as the game continues to evolve in this dynamic new gaming world.”

Civilization’s move to the social media sphere may not come as a big surprise to some Train2Game students, given that Frontierville and former Civilization II designer Brian Reynolds has previously heaped praise on social media games.

He also mentioned how the role of a Game Designer is much more important in a smaller, social media title than a Triple-A game.

“But it turns out that the skills we have are really valuable in social games and it’s actually really fun to design those games. First of all, I’m working on the forefront of a new thing. Second of all, I’m reaching (millions), tens of (millions) of players I could never have reached before” said Reynolds.

And third, I really need my skills. It’s harder to design these games. We do the same things we did with strategy games: Design simple systems that interact in complex ways, but they have to be so much more accessible then they used to.”

And as reported by the Train2Game blog, another PC strategy title in the form of Age of Empires will also soon be heading to Facebook.

Train2Game students already know that Facebook is a huge area of gaming now, and the fact that big developers and publishers want to get involve only solidifies this.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Civilization coming to Facebook? Would you play it? What other classic games would you like to see online?

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

[Source: Gamasutra]

Train2Game Game Developer Phillip Stevens from Paignton speaks to Train2Game Radio

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Phillip Stevens is studying to become a Game Developer with Train2Game. Train2Game Radio caught up with him to find out why he chose to study with Train2Game, how he’s finding the course and what he wants to achieve in a career in the games industry.

Listen to the interview at http://audioboo.fm/train2game

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

Train2Game students may have to wait for Skyrim mod tools

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Skyrim Dragon Fight screenshot

Train2Game students looking to get their hands on modding tools for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may have to wait for a little while after the game is released.

“We put a big premium on our editor, which we then ship with the games,” Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard told Gamasutra.

“It’s going to come out again with Skyrim, the Creation Kit. So when it comes to content creation, we just have so much of it that we have to put a lot of development time into the tools, because the game is so big.

“We’re hoping [the Creation Kit] will be available as a download on launch day. I don’t know if I can promise day-one, but it will be very close.”

Skyrim looks extremely impressive indeed, and it’d be interesting to see what modders can do with the Creation Kit.

You can find out a little more about Skyrim here on the Train2Game blog

In an interview published on the Train2Game blog last month, Red Faction: Armageddon Lead Level Designer Jameson Durall said that modding is an excellent way for those with desires to get into the games industry to practice their skills.

Indeed, Valve, who was reported by the Train2Game blog will be releasing the Source SDK for free have a long history of supporting modders, and as many Train2Game students will know, the popular shooter Counter-Strike begun as a mod for the original Half-Life.

More recently, Valve have allowed Team Fortress 2 community developers a cut of the revenue made from the in-game items sold through digital transactions.

Some amazing games have been made by modders for various engines, who knows what they could come up with when using the Skyrim Creation Kit.

So Train2Game, is the Skyrim Creation Kit something that interests you? Or are you just looking forward to the game itself?

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

[Source: Gamasutra via VG247] 

Train2Game Game Developers take note: The “real battleground” for new consoles is AI say Ubisoft

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As reported by the Train2Game blog, Ubisoft appear to be very keen to see the next generation of consoles appear sooner rather than later.

Now, in comments that may come as a surprise to Train2Game students, the publisher says it won’t be graphics that push games forward, but the A.I. in them. This one therefore may especially be of interest to the Train2Game Game Developers.

“AI has always been the real battleground. The challenge is that, if you see an AI coming, you’ve failed. And that’s a problem we have to overcome as we create the impression of flawless, seamless worlds.” Ubisoft’s Yves Jacquier told GamesIndustry.biz.

“In general the industry expects that graphics will not be a strong feature any more… Obviously, graphics are better for marketing purposes because you can show things. AI you can’t show.”

“Our challenge with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox [360] is that we’re extremely limited in what we can do. It’s a challenge for the engineers to provide nice graphics and nice AI and nice sound with a very small amount of memory and computation time.”

“We think that the next generation of consoles won’t have these limits any more. Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what’s the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?”

And as previously mentioned on the Train2Game blog, Ubisoft have previously stated that a new generation of consoles is needed to bring more creativity into game development.

Train2Game students no doubt have many ideas of what they could do if they could build better games with much improved A.I.

So Train2Game, do you agree with Ubisoft? Is improving AI the next step for the next-generation?

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

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

Train2Game students could be among them? The Games Industry needs ‘a greater number of female graduates’ .

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There are plenty of women on Train2Game courses aspiring to work in the game industry, they may therefore be interested to hear that LucasArts creative Director Clint Hocking says the games industry needs more female employees.

In a column in Edge magazine – a useful publication for Train2Game students – Hocking criticised what he called the ‘Viking Culture’ of the game industry, and says that it needs to change.

“Game development studios and their teams are largely staffed in the same way that Viking longships were crewed. Consequently, the culture is overflowing with beer and pent-up aggression, and a very significant portion of our overall cultural output is fart jokes. I think we can do better.”

He adds that establishing a more balanced culture in the games industry would go a long way to games reaching a “truly mass market audience.”

Hocking believes the best way to do this is to encourage more women into the industry.

“This means that we need to better position the industry as a desirable workplace, one in which female artists, designers, programmers and project managers would want to be employed. It involves reaching out to universities and colleges to help them attract more female applicants to their programmes, enabling us to benefit from a greater number of female graduates.”

“Like the Viking expansion itself, this transformation probably needs to be driven from the bottom up. Like it or not, the culture onboard your ships is the culture you’re exporting. Fart jokes have their place in culture, but when fart jokes become your culture you have a problem.” he added.

There are plenty of women on Train2Game courses who definitely want to become part of the games industry, and there are certain organisations that could help them.

As reported by the Train2Game blog last month, the Women In Games Jobs event that takes place in September could be of great benefit to female Train2Game students.

And as posted by Train2Game Course Director Tony Bickley on the Train2Game forum, WIG will be holding networking event for women working, or planning to work in the games industry, during the Develop Conference later this month.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Hocking’s comments? Is there too big a male culture in the games industry? Do you think it needs to change?

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

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

Train2Game students do you agree? Two screens “is the future” say Nintendo

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As extensively reported by the Train2Game blog, Nintendo revealed the Wii U at E3 last month. Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the new console is the controller which features a large touchscreen.

According to Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime a two screen set up for consoles is the future, and he believes that the company do have history setting industry trends.

“All I can say is that this is not the first time that Nintendo and our competitors have had dramatically different views on the future of gaming,” said Fils-Aime.

“When we launched the original DS everyone was saying the handheld competitor coming from Sony has more powerful graphics, that’s really the way to go. And we showed that no, two screens, a touch screen, a microphone, that actually led to better gaming experiences.” He continued.

“With the Wii, as well, Nintendo shunned the idea that a modern console needed high-resolution graphics. “We said we think that a motion-controlled experience could be more fun,”

“86 million units later around the world, I think people would say we got that one right as well.”

The Nintendo boss of America is confident the company have done it again with the Wii U.

“In this case we’re saying that this two-screen experience – either two screens playing the same game or two screens doing fundamentally different things – is the future,” he said.

And as reported by the Train2Game blog last month, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata sad that core gamers – which includes many Train2Game students – will be drawn to the Nintendo Wii U.

So Train2Game, do you think Nintendo are right? Is gaming on two screens the future of the industry? Or are Nintendo just pumping their own egos?

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

[Source: Beefjack]

Train2Game News, Smurfs’ Village ‘changing the market’ for mobile games

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It’s very likely that many Train2Game students are aware that Angry Birds is a hugely popular game. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the Train2Game blog reported that it’s been downloaded over 200 million times.

The CEO of one developer however, believes that it isn’t Angry Birds that’s the most important mobile game, but Smurfs’ Village.

Unsurprisingly, the man singing its praises is Remi Racine, CEO of Smurfs’ Village developer Behaviour Interactive.

“Everybody is talking about Angry Birds, but the game, to me, that is changing the market is Smurfs’ Village,” he told GamesIndustry.biz “Smurfs’ Village is outstanding.”

“I’d be curious to see who is making the most money between Angry Birds and Smurfs’ Village.”

When you look at the charts it’s always among the top three of four grossing games of the last seven or eight months. It’s always there. Angry Birds is in the top ten, but Smurf is in the top three. It’s amazing.”

“About 30 or 40 percent of the top grossing games are freemium based,” Racine added. “It’s the new way.”

Smurfs’ Village is free to download, but allows players to increase progress by downloading the in-game Smurfberry currency, with real money in various sized bundles that cost between £2.99 and £59.99.

For more information about Smurf’s Village, and how free-to-play could be the way to go for Train2Game students, see the Train2Game blog.

And as reported by the Train2Game blog just last week, EA believe free-to-play titles can be as profitable as console games.

So Train2Game, do you agree that Smurfs’ Village is the most important mobile game? Is free-to-play a model a smurfy way of developing games?

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

[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]

Train2Game students will be happy, Over half of UK population plays games

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If Train2Game students ever needed something to remind them about what reach the games industry has, this is it; over 50% of people in the UK play games.

That’s according to a report from games market research firm Newzoo, which suggests estimates the 31million people in the UK, or 52% of the population, spend money on video games.

Train2Game students probably aren’t surprised to hear that its consoles that bring in the most money, with an estimated £1.6 billion to be spent on the various consoles and their games this year.

Other estimates suggest that £450 million will be spent on physical copies of PC & Mac games, £400 will go on casual games, with£350 million being spent on MMOS. Digital downloads of PC and Mac games through programmes such as Steam will see £330 million being spent on them, while Brit is will spend £300 million on mobile games.

The average person in the UK plays games on 3.9 of the above platforms, with casual gaming websites proving the most popular. Consoles are the second most popular means of playing video games. People spend an average of 43 minutes playing games everyday.

“Compared to the US, the UK shows a more traditional divide of money spent by consumers, with 56 per cent spent on console and boxed PC/Mac games, whereas in the US, this figure has dropped to 45 per cent,” Newzoo CEO and co-founder  Peter Warman said..

“No other country surveyed shows such a significant difference between time and money spent. For instance, in the UK, online and mobile gaming takes 60 per cent of time but only 35 per cent of money.

“We expect the free-to-play business models on all platforms, including consoles, to not only push the UK market back to growth but also decrease the current gap between time and money spent.”

Warman may be right when it comes to predicting that free-to-play model will expand, indeed, as reported by the Train2Game blog just last week, EA believe freemium can be as profitable as console games.

What’s certain is that with an ever increasing number of people playing games, partially thanks to the rise of casual and mobile games, it’s a good time to attempt to get into the games industry through completing a Train2Game course.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the figures? Does anything surprise you? Does it offer you encouragement about your choice of career path?

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

Train2Game News, Minecraft passes 10 million registered users

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The Train2Game blog has kept a close eye on the progress of indie sensation Minecraft, which as reported last month has reached over 2.5 million sales. Minecraft has long has a cult forum among Train2Game forum users.

The game has hit yet another milestone, with over 10 million people now having registered to play the free version of Minecraft. The free version doesn’t receive the regular updates the full-game does, such as the “adventure mode” as reported by the Train2Game blog.

Currently over 2.7 million people have bought the Beta version of Minecraft, with the full release coming later this year.  Imagine if the free-to-play Minecraft users all bought the full version, Notch would become even richer!

As reported by the Train2Game blog, we’ll also see an Xbox 360 version of Minecraft towards the end of this year. Minecraft is also heading to smartphones, there will be no escaping it!

Minecraft can act as a massive inspiration to Train2Game students as to how successful an indie game can now be thanks to digital distribution and word of mouth. Last week the Train2Game reported that Mojang’s next title, Scrolls, will follow the same release pattern.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the continued success of Minecraft? If you’re playing the free version, why are you sticking to it?

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

[Source: PC Gamer]

Train2Game News, Cloud gaming service Gaikai founder on how to combat latency

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As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, streaming video games directly to televisions or other devices is increasingly being talked about as a means of getting them directly to the consumer.

However, with internet connections, well, notoriously unreliable there are those that doubt whether steaming games can truly take off in the near future.

Indeed, Dave Perry, founder of cloud gaming service Gaikai, acknowledges that latency is “the biggest elephant in the room” but claims the company has gone to great length to combat it.

“A lot of programmers  went on record straight away saying ‘this’ll never work’, Perry told Edge “I am an engineer and I get it, I’m there with them, I understand the conceptual problem”

Of course, Train2Game game developers are working towards a career in the area of programming.

“The thing they don’t think about is I have about 60 people coming to the office every day working on this problem. We found many, many ways to do it, and we’re executing all of them.”

“The way the math works is that if I get two states closer to you, I actually get four states closer,” he said

“Two states is four states in latency, we had that epiphany pretty early on. That’s why we have so many data centres.”

Another solution is rather interesting, and also surprising.

“Imagine your game’s running at 30 fps on your console, but we run it at 60 fps [in the data centre], the amount of time that the game took while it was running,” he explains. “The engine itself took less time because we’re running it faster.

“So we take that time and use it for compression and sending, and you can suddenly see how the math starts to work in our favour. The faster we run the game, the more we overclock it, the lower the feel of the latency. This is one of many, many ways we’ve discovered to tighten up the feel of it.”

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, there are those that truly believe cloud gaming is indeed the future of this industry, could Gaikai’s methods be a step towards this?

So Train2Game, do you think it’s the future of the industry? Does Perry address concerns about latency?

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

[Source: Edge]