Category Archives: job

Train2Game News Women in Games New Ambassadors

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Women in Games, the not for profit, games industry diversity organisation, today announced the names of the first companies to be appointed as Corporate Ambassadors.
Women in Games is recruiting a number of Corporate as well as individual Ambassadors to support the growth of the Women in Games organisation, to help the organisation increase the reach and scale of its programmes and help it achieve the strategic goal of doubling the number of women in games over 10 years.

The first 4, founding corporate Ambassadors are:

Io-Interactive from Copenhagen, Denmark

Paradox Interactive from Stockholm, Sweden

Techland from Wroclaw and Warsaw, Poland

Wooga from Berlin, Germany

Ambassadors will reach out to women in all cities and regions of the UK and Europe and grow the Women in Games network. They will reach out to young women at school and university to encourage them to consider the games industry as a career. They will also reach out to regional leaders and governments to form corporate partnerships and long term strategic relationships.

Corporate Ambassadors are leading games companies in Europe with a professional standing in their country and a commitment to engage and promote more diversity.

At last week’s European Women in Games Conference representative from the four companies were invited on stage to introduce their companies. Pictured with David Smith from Women in Games are Henriette Lønn Jenssen, Junior Sound Designer and Sidsel Marie Hermansen, Game Designer from IO Interactive, John Hargelid, CIO from Paradox Interactive and Marie-Blanche Stossinger from Wooga. Also present but not pictured was Paulina Basta, Head of HR from Techland.

“I am convinced that only the most diverse team can deliver the best possible product for our global audience”, commented Jens Begemann, founder & CEO, Wooga. “We’re honoured to serve as a corporate ambassador for Women in Games and are looking forward to supporting the many extremely talented women we already have in our industry as well as showcasing the games industry as an excellent career option for girls and young women.”

Nikola Nielsen, HR Manager at Io-Interactive commented: “We are delighted to be able to support Women in Games and help promote diversity in our wonderful industry to the next generation of game creators. This is a great initiative and one we are very passionate about.” 

Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive said “Our philosophy is that by bringing people with different backgrounds, competences, experiences and ideas together, we will continue to grow as a successful industry. An industry that today is present in every aspect of society.”

Paulina Basta, Head of HR at Techland commented: “Techland is very proud to be a part of this Women in Games initiative. Diversity and inclusion topics are very close to our hearts and we are eager to promote the idea in our company and our part of the world.”

David Smith, Founder of Women in Games, said: “Women in Games is delighted to partner with these 4 Founding Corporate Ambassadors. We look forward to working with these companies to further diversity across Europe in the months and years ahead.”

Train2Game News Descendent Studios open source UE4 plugins

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Descendent Studios, makers of Descent: Underground, announced the open-source release of several Unreal Engine 4 plugins they developed for the game.
The studio rolled out their GitHub repository on the heels of last week’s announcement that Descent: Underground won an Open-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) Fund grant from Razer. Descent: Underground was the first high-end action title to natively support all of the major desktop VR headsets: OSVR, HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift.

“We use open-source tools and libraries in the development of Descent: Underground,“ said Descendent Studios’ CTO, Jason “Stormwind” Spangler. “We wanted to give something back to the development community by making some of the code we’ve created available.”

Among the new open-source offerings for Unreal Engine 4 is “Blinken,” which adds support for color-changing peripherals like Razer’s Chroma line, AlienFX, Logitech G in both Blueprint and C++. Other plugins facilitate XMPP chat support, more robust configuration menus, and ping time displays. The repository also features contributions, additions, and fixes to a number of other open-source projects, such as the OSVR-Unreal plugin, nodervisor, discord-xmpp, and more. Descendent’s GitHub repository is available at https://github.com/DescendentStudios.

The Early Access version of Descent: Underground is available at http://www.descentunderground.com, Steam, and other online resellers. The game already features a number of multiplayer competitive and cooperative game modes, among them a horde-style “Survival” mode, and a tongue-in-cheek capture-the-flag mode called “Miner Mayhem”. Single-player “Survival” and “Vs. Bots” modes allow offline play in advance of the upcoming storyline campaign.

Descent: Underground is also bundled with the OSVR HDK2 VR headset now through Sept. 19, while stocks last at http://www.razerzone.com/store/hdk2.

Train2Game News WoW Legion sells 3.3 million

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Blizzard’s new expansion for World of Warcraft matches launch-day record with 3.3 million sold.
Heroes of the Horde and the Alliance from around the globe unite as World of Warcraft achieves the highest launch-week player concurrency since Cataclysm®.

With Azeroth on the brink of destruction, heroes from around the world were summoned to drive back the Burning Legion’s armies last week with the launch of World of Warcraft®:  Legion™, the sixth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game. 

Today, Blizzard announced that players have forged a truly formidable defensive front—as of the expansion’s first full day of launch on August 30, more than 3.3 million copies of Legion had sold through, matching the all-time record achieved by previous expansions and making it one of the fastest-selling PC games ever. In addition, World of Warcraft’s launch-week player concurrency climbed to its highest point since the 2010 launch of the Cataclysm ® expansion, as champions from around the world united to strike a mighty first blow against the fel invaders. But the battle has only just begun.
“It’s been a thrill to see players hunting demons, powering up Artifacts, and freely exploring all the new zones in Legion,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We worked hard to make this the best World of Warcraft expansion yet, and we look forward to providing players with even more content as Legion’s epic story unfolds in the months ahead.”

While players are currently entrenched against the first wave of demonic invaders, Legion’s next exciting chapter is already in the works. Last weekend at PAX West, Blizzard unveiled new details on the expansion’s upcoming first major content update, Patch 7.1: Return to Karazhan, featuring a reimagined version of one of World of Warcraft’s most popular raids. Players will explore a sprawling five-player Mythic dungeon, facing familiar foes from Karazhan’s past—and encountering plenty of surprises and twists along the way. The update also features a new set of quests unfolding over multiple weeks in the fallen night elf city of Suramar, as well as a brand-new raid: the Trial of Valor, which sends players deep into the vrykul underworld of Helheim.

WoW Legion Companion App Now Available

On Tuesday, Blizzard released the free WoW Legion Companion app, a new way for players to stay connected to their adventures on the Broken Isles, even from outside of Azeroth. With the app, players can manage their Order Hall missions and track World Quest availability, making it easy to plan out their adventures from afar. Available free now on iOS and Android™ mobile devices, the WoW Legion Companion App can help heroes keep the Burning Legion’s fel fire at bay even while on the go.

Train2Game News RealTimeVFX

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VFX Luminaries have announced the launch of a brand new industry-driven community platform, RealTimeVFX.

Developed to open up the knowledge base, support, best practices and resources to a previously underserviced group, the VFX community will throw a spotlight of discussion and education for artists working with video games, VR, AR, mobile, hologram, theme park and upcoming technologies. 

RealTimeVFX.com is available and free to sign up for VFX professionals today.

With a focus of giving back to the community, the platform is spearheaded by some of the most acclaimed names in interactive VFX including Keith Guerrette (Uncharted Series, The Last of Us), Jason Keyser (League of Legends), Drew Skillman (Tiltbrush Creator, Google VR) and Seth Hall (Star Wars, Battlefield Hardline), all of whom are highly proactive and are breaking new ground within this space.  RealTimeVFX will also provide online and offline events, as well as partner with market-leading companies and products as part of the platform.  

RealTimeVFX co-Founder Keith Guerrette commented: “As VFX continues to be in high-demand across video games and VR/AR studios, each with their own bespoke technologies and challenges, there’s been a growing need to solidify our insights and efforts.  Our hope is that the platform will help unify our community long-term and facilitate a more positive and collaborative approach to support VFX artists and technology at both an indie and big studio level.”

Train2Game News Facebook partner with Unity

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Recently Facebook have said that over 550 million people play games that are connected with Facebook every month on desktop, mobile and console, now it’s hoping to grow that number with a new partnership with Unity.
“Our mission is to give people the power to discover, play and share the games they love with the people they care about,” said Facebook’s Leo Olebe.

“Unity is the world’s leading game development platform. It’s great to be working with them to help developers find new audiences for the games they pour their hearts into.”

The alliance will include Facebook integration within Unity and a new PC gaming platform. Developers can apply now to be involved.

“Developers channel their talent and passion into creating amazing games, but development is only part of the challenge,” added Elliot Solomon, VP of Business Development at Unity.

“Integrating tools that provide effortless access to Facebook’s network is a key part of helping developers find the success they deserve.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

Train2Game News Catch up with Ben Stoneman

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Ben Stoneman now at Unity talks to Train2Game about his time with T2G, Game Jams, One Game A Month, Unity and his ongoing games making journey 
Ben is a favourite of Train2Game and studied with T2G for a number of years, taking part in game jams is a strong part of the wider community. It’s always great to speak with this young man who has a passion for games and is extremely well driven. Since finishing with Train2Game he’s gone on to a career in games and we caught up with him to hear how he’s getting on.

Ben enjoyed Train2Game and it was a catalyst in his gaming career.  He found he learnt on the course but experience in making games and having good mentors are essential to developing as a games maker and therefore a career in the games industry. Taking part in Train2Game Game Jams taught him about the development process. He’s gone on to mentor at Game Jams and be part of the judging process. Ben still regularly attends game jams and sees it as essential to becoming a better game developer. 

Ben now takes part in one game a month, a collective of games makers that share their projects in creating a title a month. Creating nice simple games and he encourages players to first make the first ever game: Pong.  He sees it as a way to train yourself as a developer which highly recommends. Through the experience he’s learnt a great deal and made a huge variety of games. He’s not going to release any games as yet as he is still aware that he is growing as a developer.

Ben works in the support team at Unity providing answers to any enquiry from any Unity user. He’s enjoying it a great deal, providing assistance by day and making games by night. He’s found that his skills as a rounded developer have continued to grow.

Ben Stoneman, Unity Support Team: ‘Train2Game is a catalyst in your game development career. However, I do believe that if you are not honing your skills without T2G’s help (in your personal/free time) then you will not make it in the industry. You need to want to do it, like an alcoholic wants to go to the pub.’

‘In my first T2G game jam, I learnt about the development process. Most of what I know now, the skills that make me a good game developer come from mentors and personal projects (make an inventory system that looks cool). The learning material helps only a small amount but having mentors is very important in life.’

‘I did go on to judge at a game jam, only a small game jam at “Insomnia” Games Festival. It was okay, but the fun was not in judging but in helping people with their Unity and general game development questions.’

‘One Game a Month, well it is exactly as it sounds. Starting from now, you begin making a game and the deadline is the last day of the month. The game does not need to be “call of duty” it can be as simple as pong, in fact I recommend that you make pong to start.’

‘After a year you will find that you have made 12 games and you have experience in making different games. It is a good way to train yourself. A body builder goes to the gym every week to get bigger muscles, a game developer makes a game every week/month to become better.’

‘I’m keeping to it. I never really show off the games as they are for my own personal learning. It’s taught me a lot. Through it I’ve made boss battles, memory games, inventory systems, quest logs, networking/multiplayer systems, graphical shaders, dialogue systems and so much more!’

‘I’m not currently looking to develop the games further, there are game ideas that I love and hold in my mind, but I’m not really looking to make a game to sell yet. Rovio (makers of angry birds) made over 40 games before angry birds, I’m getting my first 40 games done now and out of the way 😉 I would encourage Train2Game to help its students to achieve it!’

‘I am attending plenty of Game Jams. Game jams are the staple diet of any game developer. If you are not making games, then you are doing it wrong. Game jams are a really good way to practice; they prompt you by giving your ideas (the theme) and a deadline (T -48hours). It is surprisingly hard to give yourself a deadline in the same way.’

‘I work in the Support team at Unity. I’m currently a support specialist; I deal with any question that anyone wants to ask. I help users that do not pay for premium support with technical questions or other general questions. It is going great, I’m the happiest I’ve been. I get to help game developers all day and make and play games in my spare time.’

‘I’m learning all the time. I went from someone who could only design games to someone who can make games all by myself. It is easy to stop learning and just settle but if games are your passion then even if you are a billionaire, you would still make games. I feel like I can make any game that is presented to me. The key to this is not in knowing all the answers already but in knowing how to find the answers by myself when I need them.’

‘In the future I plan to progress in Unity and ensure that Unity stays strong and helps anyone who wants to make games. I also like to mentor and teach others C#, blender3d and the Unity editor itself.’

Train2Game, bringing City & Guilds to the Games Industry

Read the Train2Game blog at www.train2game-news.co.uk Train2Game is a proud supporter of www.gamatier.com

Train2Game News Career Fair returns to EGX

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Ukie, the trade body for the UK games and wider interactive entertainment industry, and GamesIndustry.biz, the world’s leading video games trade website, have today announced a renewed partnership to inspire and educate the next generation of games industry talent about how to build a successful career in the sector.The GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair, running throughout EGX on 22-25 September, is the unique careers and education area at EGX. Featuring a range of careers and education exhibitors, accessible advice from developers and educators, and unique networking opportunities, the Career Fair gives everyone a chance to get closer to the games industry.

Ukie will once again bring its popular Ukie Careers Bar to EGX, featuring talks by Video Games Ambassadors from some of the biggest names in the UK games business. The talks will deliver expert advice from all disciplines in the games industry, from programming and design to publishing careers in PR, marketing and community management.

Over 30 of Ukie’s Video Games Ambassadors will also be at the Careers Bar throughout the fair to meet future games industry stars to talk about their games industry experiences and career histories. The industry volunteers will also give one-to-one advice on study choices or career paths, and give personalised job application and portfolio advice. Visitors to the stand are encouraged to bring CVs and work portfolios to the Careers Bar to make the most out of this one-to-one opportunity.

Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of Ukie, said, “The Ukie Careers Bar is an unique opportunity for the next generation of games talent to meet and pick the brains of games industry experts about building a fulfilling career in the sector. The Video Games Ambassadors can provide one-to-one advice which is invaluable to those just starting out in their career or those considering a career change. We’ve seen huge success from the Careers Bar in the past few years and so we’re delighted to be bringing it back to EGX, sharing the expertise of our network, and inspiring the games stars of the future.”

David Lilley, Event Director of EGX, said “EGX has really benefited from the contribution Ukie has made by running the popular Careers Bar at our GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair. At EGX, it’s not just about playing games, but also exploring games culture and inspiring the next generation of games makers. The feedback we get from schools, colleges and universities alike, who all bring coach loads of students in their thousands to EGX, is that the GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair featuring the Ukie Careers Bar is a vital part of their enjoyment of the show. We look forward to welcoming Ukie and another great lineup of games industry experts to EGX this year.”

Announcement of the speakers and VGAs on the Careers Bar will follow.

For more information about the Ukie Careers Bar, the GamesIndustry.biz Career Fair and the EGX event, please visit: www.egx.net/egx

Train2Game News Student Studios Secret Project

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Appatier’s new top secret project is going well… don’t tell anyone!
Train2Game student studio Appatier is working on yet another paid contract. The team is creating a new mobile game, but they’re not allowed to talk about it.

A Train2Game success story, Appatier is now working on its second major project of 2016. The small and diverse studio staffed by a group of friends is working on a new title.  But the studio can’t give out the details as it has been sworn to secrecy. The project is under NDA but they can say, it’s a mobile game…

According to John Esslemont MD of Appatier the project is going really well. They are working hard, there’s a great Producer onboard who’s giving them excellent leadership and direction. The nameless Producer has kept an eye on the team, helping them to overcome many obstacles.

This is by far the largest project the team has undertaken and they have learnt a great deal. Appatier is working to deadlines and milestones in the project. Overcoming bugs has been a key obstacle as has tinkering with the original code as the design changes.

They did not think they would get the project, it’s a huge step up for them and they are now working with professionals at the top tier of games development. John says the project was easy to staff as he chose friends that have a similar ethic to him.

The team has done some ludicrous hours to deliver what the client wants but learnt a great deal along the way. For John he’s learnt to be prepared and earnt even more respect for Designers. His advice for others is to ‘’work smarter’’ and to make sure you are spending time on the right things.

John Esslemont, Managing Director, Appatier: ‘The project is going really well at the moment three days away from a deadline which I only just realised but we are on track apart from one little bug. There have certainly been times where I think “Ok we have gone and messed up now”. But it has always turned out to be really good in the end. We have Stephen our producer to thank for that, the guy is so down to earth and understands development which from my previous experience is a hard thing to come by.’ 

‘I have learned so much I feel like I have forgotten more. The one thing I have learnt is to design everything before a single line of code gets written. We went ahead and carried on development after we passed a milestone, when we delivered it was not what the client wanted, so crunch time it was, 16 hours days became the norm, all the way through to 36 hour days and nights to make sure we got what they wanted done and we got it done fast. They trusted us to get something done so we made sure we delivered on it.’ 

‘It is actually awesome working with a Producer! He knows about development so it’s really good as he understands the hurdles you go through and little things that crop up. Not only that but when he found out we were working stupid hours he told us to stop and get rest he doesn’t want us getting ill. Now I have never had this before so that too me by surprise. He is so relaxed about stuff, you know when he wants something done by talking to him, Also the guy is like a mind reader he can just tell if you are thinking something or if something is up does it with Edd all the time haha.’ 

‘This is by far the biggest project I have even done, Financially, Professionally, and everything else in-between. When we put in our pitch I truly didn’t think we would get it, I mean we have the skills and experience we were not fazed by anything. But to go from freelancing to working with top tier people in games is a huge level up for all of us.’ 

‘It was easy to choose who to work with. I have worked with Domm for about 3 years, I knew he didn’t like his job and wanted to offer him something better so with us being mates it was a no brainer. I worked with Edd over the last year and his work ethic and attention to detail is insane! Not only that but a UI Artist, Designer, Web Developer, and musician all in one, is a no brainer.’

‘We have hit a fair share of problems while working on the game, infact I’m busy fixing one now. Essentially we wrote a system that would do what we needed it too at the time, but as the design changes we need to go back and change it to accommodate for the new changes.’

‘As for design, well let’s just say I now know what a designer does and I’m not into that! I help a lot with these things but it is so time consuming and you really need to break the idea down to will it work or not, do we think it is good or not, if not why if yes why. It’s all theoretical of course but the amount of work that goes into it I never even knew. So yeah respect to all game designers!’ 

‘Recommends for others, well with design just send a lot more to client and see what is said, have more meetings about things. One thing that the producer did say to us which we are still using right now is “Work Smarter”. If we need to know something and no one is say online or your waiting for a reply just do what you think until they are available. Do not leave it and go work on something else finish your task as best you can until you really cannot do any more on it then move on. Or if you are starting to get code block or your mind is fried take a break and go chill for a bit. A fresh mind is always better than a foggy one.’ 

‘What’s next? Well we need to finish this current deadline so we can move onto our server side stuff and social integrations.’

Train2Game, bringing City & Guilds to the Games Industry

Read the Train2Game blog at www.train2game-news.co.uk Train2Game is a proud supporter of www.gamatier.com

Train2Game News New UK Publisher

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​Announced today at Gamescom 2016, PlayStack is a new UK games publisher made up of a team of highly experienced leaders and individuals from across the games, entertainment and finance industries. 

PlayStack brings diverse experience and access to investment and marketing capital to redefine the way in which games are developed, enjoyed and shared.

PlayStack is led by CEO & Founder Harvey Elliott who has previously shipped games worth over $1BN in market value. By building a powerhouse team which, in conjunction with his experiences as chair of the BAFTA Games Committee and across the industry, PlayStack will seek out creative developers with world-class IP to fund and support their studios from concept to launch.

Identifying and surfacing new talent and studios is at the heart of the PlayStack business strategy. “The closure of so many leading studios means that a huge amount of creativity is at risk of going to waste, and puts us as players at risk of missing out of some of the defining experiences of the industry.”, says Harvey Elliott “By centering ourselves in the UK we will harness a rich pool of developer talent whilst creating an organisation capable of building global success for new IP”.

PlayStack are also announcing their first title Nemesis: Air Combat developed by Stratosphere Games, a mobile development studio formed by gaming veterans from Splash Damage, Nexon, Rocksteady, and Yager. Releasing in late 2016 this new top-tier mobile IP exemplifies PlayStack’s dedication to surfacing games created by new and highly talented development studios.

For further information, or if you think you have the next big hit, please visit www.playstack.com.

Train2Game News Behind the Schemes

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​The amatuer filmmakers of Devolver Digital have announced Behind the Schemes, a new take on the traditional behind-the-scenes series. 
Each episode in the series aims to uncover the spirit of each game through intimate conversations with the personalities behind them and exploring the tiny apartments, humble offices, and vibrant cities where they are made.

The Behind the Schemes series began as an experiment at E3 to document the notorious Devolver Digital E3 trailer park and shenanigans that took place there each day. The first proper episode launched today putting the spotlight on Le Cartel, the team behind Mother Russia Bleeds, as they take viewers on a tour of the team’s office flat and local boxing gym where the lead artist trains and draws inspiration for the game’s combat animations.

Future episodes will take viewers to the literal attic office of Fourattic (Crossing Souls), the retro FPS altars of Pixel Titans (STRAFE), and the bustling crowds of Gamescom.

“I told the filmmakers that if I saw a single shot of some nerd typing fake code on a monitor or blankly staring at some untextured model I’d cancel the whole thing,” noted Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. “Not that I’ll watch a minute of this arthouse garbage.”

The Behind the Schemes series is an ongoing effort and each new episode can be found on the Devolver Digital YouTube channel. And now for an obligatory call to follow Devolver Digital on Twitter @DevolverDigital.