Category Archives: games

iOS owners download an average of 60 apps per device

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Train2Game blog App Store Image

Apple device owners have downloaded an average total of 60 apps each according to analyst group Asymco.

The news is sure to please any Train2Game students who are thinking of developing game applications for likes of the iPad and iPhone in the future, with over 30 million apps being downloaded everyday.

The study by Aysmco was conducted through measuring iOSdevice sales against actual Apple App store data.

And with re-downloads not being taken into account, it’s likely that the there are in fact more iPhone and iPad app sales everyday.

Many ‘casual’ games on Apple devices will also make extra revenue through in-App sales. Both these in-app sales, and the downloading of games themselves, means research group eMarketer predict that social media gaming will be worth more than $1 billion in revenue by the end of this year.

The prediction is made even more likely given that another report suggests that one in five consumers now play social games.

It’s also likely that the number of apps being downloaded as the market for iPhone’s and iPad’s gets larger, will only increase.  Last month the Train2Game blog spoke with industry consultant Nicholas Lovell , who discussed the concept of in-game purchases as part of the interview.

30 million apps downloaded a day, and Ios users owning 60 each on average, what are your thoughts on this Train2Game? Do you own an iPhone or an iPad, how often do you download apps and games?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Develop Online]

The Train2Game blog Top 5 most anticipated games of 2011

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2010 was a great year for video games and 2011 looks set to be even better. With that in mind, the Train2Game blog presents a run down of our top 5 most anticipated games of the year. Some of these may not be absolute blockbusters, but represent what we’re personally looking forward to in the coming year.

5. Fight Night Champion


This might be a controversial one to begin with because previous comments on the Train2Game Facebook page suggest that the excellent Fight Night Round 4 wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. However, as a fan of the sport myself I thought it was an excellent game that truly represents an accurate simulation of boxing, without forcing you to step between the ropes.

Fight Night Round 4 looked great and played even better and it felt great taking a created boxer to the top in the career mode. If the trailers that have already been revealed are anything to go by then Fight Night Champion isn’t just an update with a few new fighters on the roster, the game looks like it’s been updated in every department.

If the screenshots we’ve seen are anything to go by then not only does it look better, but fighters will react more realistically to damage during fights. Noses can be broken, eyes can be bruised and the new stamina system where each limb has its own energy means you’ll need to do more than just throw right hooks for 12 rounds.

Not only that but the new story based champion mode means that the latest incarnation of Fight Night is set to become the first EA game to have a mature rating thanks to a gritty tale involving corruption, drugs, and prison. It should be excellent entertainment for boxing fans.

Fight Night Champion is due for release on March 4th.

4.  Portal 2

Train2Game blog Portal Image

The original Portal was released in 2007 and was perhaps the biggest surprised to come out of the rather amazing Orange Box. The charming little puzzler based around the use of portals may not have been very long, but it stole the hearts of many. (Over three years later this tribute recently turned up in Minecraft!)

Now, 2011 sees Valve release a full sequel to Portal that not only is at least twice as long as the original, and a lot of new features, but also full length game co-op game mode. As we’ve seen in previous posts on the Train2Game blog, Portal features a lot more character interaction for silent-protagonist Chel in the form of Wheatley, a small robot voiced by Stephen Merchant. Portal 2 also apparently features 13,000 lines of dialogue which points towards there being more conversations rather than listening to the oh-so-adorable sentry guns talking at you.

Personally, what I’m looking forward to most is the new co-op mode, especially when you take Valve’s track record with co-op and team based games into consideration.  You may have heard of two little games called Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series both of which make co-operation the utmost importance.

And if for some reason you need extra convincing that that Portal 2 should be one of the best games of the year, then remember that it’s from Valve, the team behind Half Life 2. (Of course, there will be some of you who’d hope that Half Life 2: Episode 3 or Half Life 3 will at least appear this year!)

Portal 2 is released on April 22nd. If that’s too long to wait, you can check out these trailers on the Train2Game blog.

3. Tomb Raider


No, Train2Game blog reader you haven’t angered a wizard and been sent back in time to 1995, Tomb Raider is coming out this year. Tomb Raider is simply a reboot of the entire franchise that see’s a 21 year old Lara Croft stranded on an island and fighting for survival.

From what we’ve seen so far this open world adventure not only takes a number of elements from the world of survival horror, but will also require the player to sustain Lara with drinking water. It’s another game that looks set to have a mature rating with Lara able to suffer a number of brutal deaths if the player isn’t careful enough.

The open world nature and change in tone from previous games in the series certainly marks Tomb Raider out as one of top prospects of the year.

You can check out some artwork for the upcoming Tomb Raider here on the Train2Game blog.

There’s no official release date for Tomb Raider yet, but it should be with us before the year is over.

2.  Uncharted 3


Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was an impressive video game, while Uncharted 2 was arguably even better.  Will Uncharted 3 continue the trend and trump them both?  It looks like we’ll be getting a lot more of the fantastic character interaction that features in all of the Uncharted games thanks to screenshots and gameplay footage that show Drake and mentor Sully playing a bigger role in the game.

The intense action sequences, the game play and the dialogue between the characters have all helped make the Uncharted games classics of this generation and have near enough made Nathan Drake the icon of the PlayStation 3.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will see our protagonists spending a lot of time in the desert and from what we’ve seen so far it looks visually amazing. Expect fast paced action, an epic story and lots of twists and turns when Uncharted 3 is release for the PlayStation 3 on November 4th.

1. Dragon Age 2


So, given that how much we at the Train2Game blog have praised Dragon Age: Origins in previous posts, we may get called out as biased here, but Dragon Age 2 lets set to be amazing.

OK, some people aren’t happy that we’ll no longer be able to ‘truly’ create our own character anymore thanks to us now being restricted to a human called Hawke. But we’ll still be able to make decisions through now fully voiced dialogue and decide which class our main character will be. The Dragon Age 2 team recently released this video saying why focussing on one character will make it a better game.

Some PC gamers are also worried that Dragon Age 2 has been ‘dumbed down’ for the console market but Bioware have been keen to show that the tactical option is still available for players who want to experience Dragon Age 2 as a true role playing game.

But looking at any of the trailers for Dragon Age 2 that have appeared which demonstrate shiny new graphics, a new visual style, both old and new characters and lots of huge battles, it looks like Dragon Age 2 is sure to be very impressive indeed.

Personally it’s a PC release for me, but when Dragon Age 2 is released on March 11th, it’s also available on PS3 and Xbox 360

Of course, this list is just my opinion, and will focus on the sort of games I like. Perhaps you’re looking forward to other games in 2011? If so, why not leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum?

Portal’s ‘Still Alive’ composed using Minecraft note blocks

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Minecraft + Portal Train2Game blog image

Minecraft has a huge following on the Train2Game forum, so given the subject of a new video that has appeared,  it’s a no brainer to post this!

Train2Game Minecraft players have probably already seen the Note Block that was released during the latest update. Some have probably even made their own little tunes.

However, they probably won’t have put as much effort as Tritex989 has into using the Note Blocks to compose the ending theme from Portal and all round internet favourite ‘Still Alive’ Apparently the project only took around 6 hours to complete which is rather staggering given the effort involved.

Train2Game students can watch Minecraft being used to play Still Alive in the video below.

It’s impressive, isn’t it? And you can download the map here. Also impressive is the fact that Minecraft has now been sold over 1 million times. Not bad at all for a game by an indie developer which only recently entered its Beta stage. Developer Notch says Minecraft will get a full release before the end of the year. For more information about the indie sensation that is Minecraft, on the Thoughts of Train2Game blog.

Train2Game blog readers will know that there’s a lot of love for Portal on the internet, with one example being this recreation of the game made using LittleBigPlanet 2.

Portal 2 itself is due for release on April 22nd this year, having originally been scheduled for February. You can check out a trailer here which features Stephen Merchant as robotic companion Wheatley. You can also see how the new additions of Faith Plates and Repulsion Gel work in these mini trailers.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Minecraft recreation of Still Alive? Will you download the level? And what songs would you like to make using Note Blocks?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

UK Charts: Black Ops back on top

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Call of Duty: Black Ops is once again top of the UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40. It’s Black Ops’ seventh number one and now the game only needs one more to match Modern Warfare 2’s total of eight weeks at the top.

It marks something of a revival for Call of Duty: Black Ops, which had slipped to third last week. The change at the top pushes FIFA 11 – which had held top spot for the previous two weeks – back down to second, while Just Dance 2 drops one place to third.

The top five completed by two motion controller based games with Wii Fit plus up one place in fourth while Kinect Sports has jumped from fifth to tenth spot.

The rise of these two pushes Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit down two places to sixth while Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and former Number 1 Gran Turismo 5 drop a spot each to seventh and eighth respectively.

Another former chart topper in the form of Fallout: New Vegas remains in the top ten but slips to ninth while Sony’s PC and PS3 MMO DC Universe Online claims 10th spot in its first week on sale.

The UKIE GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top Ten for the week ending January 15th 2011 is as follows:

1. Call of Duty : Black Ops (Activision)
2. FIFA 11 (EA)
3. Just Dance 2(Ubisoft)
4. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo)
5. Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
6. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
7. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
8. Gran Turismo 5 (Sony)
9. Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda)
10. DC Universe Online (SOE)

The coming week sees a couple of big releases in the form of the long awaited Mass Effect 2 release for PlayStation 3, and LittleBigPlanet 2.  The latter has been getting some great review scores which you can see here on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, are you surprised to see Black Ops back on top? What do you think about DC Universe Online making the top ten? And will one of the big new entries this week be Number 1 come next Monday?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Nintendo sold 15 million consoles in US during 2010

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Train2Game blog image Nintendo Logo

Over 15 million Nintendo consoles were sold in the United States alone during 2010 the gaming giant has announced.

Their figures say the various Nintendo DS consoles sold a combined total of 8.5 million units during 2010 while the Nintendo Wii was the best selling home console with over 7 million of them sold.

Nintendo sold more than 2.5 million Nintendo DS systems and more than 2.3 million Wii systems in December alone, bringing their lifetime U.S. sales totals to more than 47 million and more than 34 million, respectively.

“Nintendo has sold more game systems than anyone else for five years running,” said Charlie Scibetta, Nintendo of America’s senior director of Corporate Communications.

“Of the quarter billion hardware systems sold in the United States during the past 10 years, Nintendo sold more than half. We look forward to bringing fun new experiences to consumers when Nintendo 3DS launches in March.”

The 3DS looks set to bring Nintendo even more success. The handheld console doesn’t yet have a European release date, but it’s likely to be revealed at an event in Amsterdam next week. The Nintendo 3DS already has a Japanese release date which is set for 26th February

While we have no official confirmation of what the European launch titles will be, though this is likely to change after the Nintendo event! You can check out the Thoughts of Train2Game blog to see which games Gabe believes will be available with the Nintendo 3DS at launch.

It’s not only the Nintendo consoles that had a successful 2010, with Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports resort both appearing the top selling UK games of the year.

What do you think about Nintendo’s success? Is it well deserved? Can they keep the momentum going? And how successful do you think the Nintendo 3DS will be this year?

You can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game blog student interview #1: Lauren Black

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There are over 2000 students currently on Train2Game courses, and with so many out there we decided it’d be a great idea to chat to them. Our first mini interview is with Train2Game Development student Lauren Black. Subjects she talks about include why she chose Train2Game, what was she doing before and her favourite part of the course so far.

Train2Game Blog: Hi Lauren, why did you choose to study with Train2Game?

Train2Game student Lauren: Since leaving school I’ve had quite a problem with studying in an academic environment. I had tried college, with the ultimate aim of going for a degree three times, and I’ve always felt like the tutors don’t know the subject they’re teaching well enough.

I even had one tutor who didn’t know the difference between Java and JavaScript, and for a web development module that would be quite an imperative titbit. With this being the case, I felt like I wasn’t learning anything, so why continue? I found out about the course when I was moving house – I found one of those little blue leaflets on my new doormat, and I took that as a good omen. A new house and a new direction, it couldn’t hurt to give it a go!

Train2Game Blog: Which Train2Game course did you decide to take and why?

Train2Game student Lauren: I’ve always been a bit of a geeky chick, and because of my history in web development I chose the Game Development course. For a couple of years I’ve wanted to break into the gaming industry so that I could both do something interesting with my skills, and also gain the knowledge and expertise to expand my businesses.

Most of my expertise lies in PHP development and since the course seemed to cover C++ in quite some depth, I figured that it would be beneficial to learn, not only to be applied to games, but to other performance-critical applications relevant to my clients.

Right now I’m having so much fun doing the course, hearing the ‘thunk’ of the book hit the floor in the post has become the highlight of my week!

Train2Game blog: What were you doing before you started your Train2Game course?

Train2Game student Lauren: Before starting the course, I had mostly been working on a freelance basis. I currently own and run an IT business, which deals primarily with web application development.

Prior to hearing about the course, I knew I needed to gain more skills; specifically I needed to learn C++. What most people don’t realise is that games, no matter how trivial they may seem, are a result of very sophisticated pieces of performance optimised software, making thousands of independent calculations every second.

The Train2Game Development course seemed like the perfect compliment to the direction I was already taking, and is allowing me to continue my career.

Train2Game blog: How are you finding balancing the course with the rest of your life?

Train2Game student Lauren: The course itself is very easy to keep on top of, each new chunk of information is provided in bite-size sections. I may be a little more experienced than the average student, but generally it takes me about an hour to read through each section followed by the tutor marked assignment I usually take around lunchtime. It’s the sort of thing that can easily be done in the evenings, or spread over a number of days.

Given my academic history, it’s great because I can take the course at my own speed without feeling patronised by incompetent tutors. Actually, speaking of tutors, twice I’ve called the tutor team to ask fairly complicated questions – and both times I really felt like I was speaking to someone of my own level, who actually knew what they were talking about. Definitely not someone in a call centre reading from a script!

Train2Game blog: What has been your favourite part of the course so far?

Train2Game student Lauren: Currently I’m about half way through Section 2. I’m just in the middle of developing a simple 2D game engine to build a platform game on top of.

Whilst it’s true the code given (at least at this stage) has been simplified, it clearly illustrates each integral part, so as a little side project I’m now able to expand upon the lessons learned by studying the engine provided to create my own cross platform version that will run on Windows, Linux and Apple machines and even iPhones.

Granted, these extras aren’t taught by the course, but it does go to show that the same fundamental lessons can be applied in many different circumstances.

Lauren is on the Train2Game Game Development course.

Codemasters recruiting for new online F1 game

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F1 2010 Train2Game blog image

Codemasters are hiring staff for a new browser based Formula 1 game. – encouraging news for Train2Game students keen to see jobs being created in the video games industry.

The new game development team will lead the development of what Codemasters describe as a ‘service-based online game.’ The announcement from Codemasters states:

“Set to deliver a fully official and high quality FORMULA ONE browser gaming experience, the as-yet-unnamed game will focus on being highly accessible, thanks to an innovative design approach to car control, while offering persistence and depth of gameplay for a mainstream online gaming audience.”

“FORMULA ONE is incredibly popular in many countries around the world, particularly in countries where online gaming is either already big or rapidly growing such as India, Brazil, Korea and China, the potential is clear” said David Solari, Vice President and General Manager for Codemasters Online.

“We have proven F1 is a major games brand and what we have planned will build upon that”.

No date has been given for the release of the newly announced project.

F1 2010 proved massively successful for Codemasters last year, with the game even taking top spot in the UK Charts during late September. The provided the Warwickshire based company with their most successful ever game.

What are your thoughts on the announcement? Are you pleased to see more jobs being created in the games industry? Do you think targeting a ‘mainstream online gaming audience’ could point towards Codemasters looking towards social media gaming?

Leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum

Social gaming market to pass $1 billion this year

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Another day and another Train2Game blog post about the ever-growing world of social media gaming. This time, a report by research group eMarketer suggests that social media gaming is set to pass $1 billion in revenue this year.

The estimate is up 28% over last year where revenue totalled £856 million.  The report also suggests that 62 million internet users in the United States – or 27% of those online – are expected to play at least one social media game a month. That’s up almost ten million from 53 million in 2010 according to eMarketer.

Revenue from virtual goods will continue to bring in the biggest share of dollars this year and next. And marketers are expected to spend $192 million to advertise on social networking games, up a massive 60% from last year.

“Forecasts of audience and revenue growth present an opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games,” said Paul Verna, author of the upcoming report “Social Gaming: Marketers Make Their Moves.”

The news comes only one day the Train2Game blog reported over 100 million people are playing Zynga’s latest social media game Cityville. This week also saw a report from EConsultancy – also featured on the Train2Game blog -which suggested that one fifth of all consumers now play social media games.

It’s likely that a lot of this revenue will also come from in-app purchases, a subject discussed during last months Train2Game interview with games industry consultant Nicholas Lovell.

All this goes to show that a Train2Game student who cast their eye towards producing social media games may not me making a bad move at all.

What are your thoughts on the report? Do you believe that social media gaming is really going to pass $ 1 billion in revenue this year?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Reuters]

Cityville has over 100 million people playing

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Cityville Train2Game blog image

Over one hundred million people are now playing Zynga’s latest Facebook game, Cityville.  The social game only launched last month but Inside Social Games reports that the latest Facebook stats say 100,064, 578 people are playing the game. And impressive number that even eclipses Farmville.

This new information confirms the findings published on the Train2Game blog yesterday that Social Media Gaming is on the rise. This news was met by a mixed response from users of the Train2Game Facebook page, but as Train2Game students will know it’s much simpler for a small team to develop a game for social media than it is for them to produce a big blockbuster title.

Cityville was launched on December 2nd and in just two weeks managed to attract 26 million users, just a month later this has quadrupled to over 100 million! Some Train2Game students may not find social media games to be their cup of tea, but it’s hard to disagree that there is a wide audience for them!

Yesterday’s Social Gaming Smart Pack from EConsultancy said that one fifth of all consumers now play social media games online with one third of those playing several times a day.  Among other things, the report also suggests that a fifth of regular social gamers have paid to play and that more women than men play them. These are numbers that Train2Game students can’t really ignore!

In fact during the Third Official Train2Game webinar last year, veteran games designer Jon Hare said that it’s relatively simple for a small team of developers to produce a casual title. Cityville is quite a basic social media game, but that only adds to its appeal which can be seen through the massive growth in the user base!  Developing a good, successful social media game could provide a Train2Game student with a good start in the games industry.

What do you think about the massive user base of Cityville? Have you played it yourself? Can you see yourself developing a social media game in the future?

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

Train2Game student favourite Minecraft passes 1 million sales

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Train2Game blog Minecraft Image

Indie success and Train2Game forum user favourite Minecraft has now passed the one million sales mark.

The creator Marcus ‘Notch’ Perrson announced the news on his blog with a small update that simply read “Minecraft just passed one million sales.” And given that Minecraft costs over $10 to purhcase, Notch is now a very rich man….all thanks to a game that has only recently entered its beta stage!

The success of Minecraft is sure to be something many Train2Game students with aspirations of their own will admire. Especially those involved on the unofficial Train2Game Minecraft server! The Train2Game forum thread about the runaway indie success now stretches to over 16 pages.

It’s not just Train2Game students who are impressed by Minecraft, with many publications including Eurogamer and PC Gamer declaring it one of the games of the year

Notch still has plenty of plans for Minecraft, and recently wrote on his blog that it should get a full release by the end of this year:

“We’ve written down major goals that we want to do for Minecraft release, and it looks like the release will happen sometime late this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to set a date soon.”

He also added that he plans to make Minecraft even more fun:

“Because I want to avoid us just focusing on reaching release, I suggested that we should dedicate 50% of the development time in Minecraft towards adding fun new stuff. Basically, any developer working on the game (two people at the moment) can just come up with something they’d want to add on a day-to-day basis, as long as the rest of the team thinks it’s a decent idea. If it ends up being fun, it gets added.”

It’s amazing to think that such a huge game is being developed by such a small team, but it’s something that Train2Game students will no doubt be encouraged by. You can read a lot more about Minecraft on the Thoughts of Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the success of Minecraft? Is it worth all the hype? And what do you want to see Notch add to the game?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.