Category Archives: job

Train2Game News Make Real Investments

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Solutions-driven immersive technology company, Make Real, has secured equity investment to fund the development of Virtual Reality & immersive products.

The Brighton-based company has raised an undisclosed amount, via the investment round led by M&A Advisory.

This investment arrives at a key time in the immersive technology space, especially as Brighton has been highlighted as one of the growing key clusters, according to Innovate UK’s Immersive Economy in the UK Report, launched in May this year.

Make Real intends to use the investment to fuel significant growth, including the hiring of new talent and building out a number of immersive e-learning products.

The focus of the investment will cover three core areas ;
● Building an R&D team to focus on prototyping and creative product development.
● Marketing & PR investment to increase Make Real’s discoverability and presence within the industry.
● Investing in experimentation with non-commercialised technology for learning and development applications.

Robin Scott, Managing Director said:

“The Immersive technology market is growing and maturing rapidly. This investment round allows Make Real the opportunity to exploit the background IP we have generated over our decade of immersive development. We are thrilled that our new partners have seen the potential in our business and look forward to contributing further to this fast growth sector.”

Jane Burgess, Chairman said

“Make Real has established a strong position in the growing immersive industry. With this capital injection, we’re excited to move to the next stage of company growth, focusing on the areas that provide even more value to our clients. We are delighted to be working with an investment partner who provides us not only capital, but also years of strategic experience in growing businesses.”

Train2Game News 10 years of Brains Eden

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One of the top games events in the UK, Brains Eden, is set to kick off next month and celebrate its 10th anniversary, in the games and technology hot-bed Cambridge.

Hosted at Anglia Ruskin University, the four-day festival which centres on a 48-hour games jam with a surprise theme, has sold out of team places, making it the biggest jam to date.

University teams from the UK, across Europe and as far afield as China, will be travelling to Cambridge to compete in the event.

Completely backed and supported by organisations in the games, technology and education industries, Playstation, Frontier Developments, ARM, Cambridge Assessment English, Jagex, Codemasters and Sumo Digital (just to name a few) will all be present at this year’s festival.

Alongside some of the biggest industry names will be a full roster of mentors, specialising in everything from environment artwork to sound production, helping the student teams along the way.

To find out more about the event visit http://www.brainseden.net/

Train2Game News Escape Studios Game Jam

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The Future is Creative – it’s time to make your mark on the games industry by joining your peers and taking part in the annual Escape Studios’ Game Jam, from 22 nd – 24 th June at 190 High Holborn, London.

At the Escape Studios Game Jam, gain insight and advice from industry leaders, and learn about the creative job opportunities in the games space.

For the third year running, the Escape Studios’ Game Jam is going to be offering up-and-coming talent a chance to meet their peers and put their skills to the test. In a task set against the clock, teams will be challenged to create the best game to fit the brief and theme (the theme will be revealed at the start of the event!).

Team work, creativity, endurance and a desire to learn from your peers are all that is required in this annual game design competition, which is now in its third year.

Running from Friday 22nd June, through to Sunday 24th June, each team will get 48 hours to create and present their game to a panel of industry judges, in order to win an exclusive prize package!

Full Details on the weekend’s activities can be found below:

Exclusive Prize

Part of the grand prize is a Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia game code and exclusive t-shirt, with further prizes to be announced.

The Teams

Each team will consist of 4 gamers and members will be selected by the event organisers to ensure an even skill-set for each team. The Game Jam 2018 will be made up of a maximum of 6 teams, so get in early to secure your spot!

As part of the sign-up process, to secure your place, you will need to submit a £10 deposit, which will be refunded once the event is complete. The deposit will not be refunded if you do not turn up to take part after committing to do so.

The Competition

The theme of the Game Jam will be provided on the day and teams must make all components of their game over the weekend – no part of the game can be pre-made.

The competition will be judged on the game concept, design, art, relevance to the brief and overall delivery.

Mentors

We have teamed up with up with Industry body UKIE, Creative Assembly and 3D World Magazine to bring you top industry professionals to help build your ideas. Representatives will drop in over the course of the weekend, to offer advice and will be part of the final judging panel.

Additional judges also include Tom Constable, Seconded Level Designer at Creative Assembly. who has worked on games such as Total War, Alien Isolation and Halo Wars 2 ‘Awakening The Nightmare’. Escape Studios’ Head of Games, Simon Fenton, who has over 23 years’ experience in the games industry and has worked for the likes of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Simon will also be on hand to provide mentoring and guidance over the weekend. In addition to Simon’s expertise, jammers will be joined by George O’Keefe, alumni of Escape Studios who is currently an Environment Artist at Rare Ltd.

The Venue

The Game Jam 2018 will be held at Escape Studios’ campus, 190 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BH, in central London (nearest tube – Holborn).

All participants must bring their own laptop, power cables, converters and any other equipment you may need. All participants are responsible for their own property – Escape Studios cannot be held liable for property damages or loss. We will be providing power supply and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as food and drink to get you going and everything you need to plan and brainstorm your ideas.

Timings

You will have access to the building within the below dedicated times, outside of these times you are free to work on your game as a team, at a location of your choice:

Friday 22nd June – 19:00 – 21:00pm

Game Jam Kick-Off – Full Briefing and Introduction to Industry Partners.

Saturday 23rd June – 07:00am

Development to commence – You will be given 24hour access to the facilities, to work on your game through the night (if you choose to!) until the end of judging on Sunday.

Sunday 24th June – 15:00pm

Game Jam to end, judging and announcement of winning team to take place.

You will be able to tweet the event across the weekend at @Escape_Studios and share images on Instagram @escapestudios by using #EscapeGameJam

Train2Game News BAFTA Young Game Designers Game Jam

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Multi award-winning games studio and creators of the Total War franchise, Creative Assembly, invited local students into their Horsham-based studio and turned their game concepts into reality in a first-of-its-kind game jam.

Students from the West Sussex all-girls school Millais, created their own game concepts as part of an exercise to help inspire them about the opportunities within the fields of science, technology, arts, engineering and math (STEAM), through the process of game design. The activity was hosted in partnership with BAFTA’s Young Game Designers initiative.

This is the first time a studio has developed student concepts into playable games. Nine teams of expert developers from Creative Assembly spent an hour sitting down with the 14-year-old students to understand their concepts as part of the discovery process. The teams then had 48hrs to create the games, ready for the students and their parents to play.

Creative Assembly has published a short video documenting game jam here: http://bit.ly/CAgamejam

Tim Heaton, Creative Assembly’s Studio Director and EVP of Sega Studios, said: “Working with BAFTA, we’ve been able to challenge students’ perceptions of games and give them a valuable first-hand insight into the development process. We know that diversity breeds innovation and we want to inspire more young people from all backgrounds to consider careers in the games industry and to recognise that it is an incredibly creative and professionally rewarding place to be.”

Melissa Phillips, Games Event Producer at BAFTA, said: “It has been fantastic to work alongside Creative Assembly to bring the BAFTA Young Game Designers initiative to Millais School. It is so important to provide visible role models for young people and encourage them to express their creative ideas. We’ve enjoyed helping to connect the students with industry professionals to turn their game concepts into reality.”

Sammi McEwan, Concept Artist at Creative Assembly, said: “Meeting the students from the local girl’s school was a great experience. When I was their age, being in the games industry was my dream so I wanted to share some of my experiences with them and give them some advice. It was fun to meet them and I hope that they liked the game we made.”

Zongyi Chen, Lead Character Artist at Creative Assembly, said: “It was an absolute joy to meet the students at the end and see how pleased they were with what we made for them. This game jam has been such an incredibly positive experience for us and I really hope it has made a difference to how these young people see the industry.”

Creative Assembly’s game jam, FrancoJam, is now in its 4th year but 2018 is the first time it has included an educational aspect, as part of the studio’s commitment to UK STEAM education via its Legacy Project.

The UK continues to face a digital skills gap with Engineering UK estimating the shortfall of UK engineering graduates to be 20,000. Additionally, only 8% of the UK’s current engineering workforce are women – the lowest number across the whole of Europe. Creative Assembly’s Legacy Project aims to educate and inspire young people into the industry through a number of initiatives with local schools, leading UK partners like BAFTA and Digital Schoolhouse, and on University-level curriculums, like the East London Academy of Music and Arts.

Creative Assembly has written about the digital skills gap and their work to address this as part of the Legacy Project here: bit.ly/gameseducation.

Find out more about BAFTA’s Young Game Designers Competition and discover resources on how to come up with your own game concept at http://ygd.bafta.org/

Train2Game News Square Enix work potential

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Square Enix® Montréal, the award-winning and critically acclaimed mobile games studio, has announced that it is attending Casual Connect in London on May 29-31, 2018, and will be located at booth #206.

The studio will be a Gold Sponsor of the conference and has recently made the move to the freemium mobile game development model. As a result, Square Enix is actively looking to fill new positions within the Montréal and London mobile studios. Key members of the Square Enix Montréal and London mobile teams will be available at the booth to discuss any of the available positions, spanning Creative, Analytics, Product Management, and beyond.

As well as sponsoring this year’s ‘Best Kids and Family Game Indie Prize Award’, Square Enix Montréal’s Head of Studio, Patrick Naud will join fellow industry experts to discuss Live Operations on the ‘Live Game Ops Power Panel’ at 4pm on May 30, 2018 in the St. James’s suite. Senior Producer Dominic Allaire and Lead Game Designer Jean-Francois Dugas will deliver their ‘Live and Kickin’ presentation covering the evolution of Hitman Sniper at 11am on May 30, 2018 in the St. James’s suite.

“We’ve always strived to provide the highest quality experience for mobile players and premium was the most appropriate format for us to do so initially in order to prove our know-how,” said Patrick Naud, Head of Studio at Square Enix Montréal. “While we remain absolutely committed to delivering innovative experiences to our existing IPs, we also want to make original games that are accessible to all players, hence we are now fully embracing the freemium format, while being mindful that we continue to provide the mobile gaming community with unforgettable experiences; a value central to every Square Enix Montréal title.”

For more information regarding the ‘Live Game Ops Power Panel’ and ‘Live and Kickin’ presentation: http://europe.casualconnect.org/schedule.html

Casual Connect will be held at The Queen Elizabeth II Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, London, SW1P 3EE. Square Enix Montréal will be located at booth #206.

Train2Game News Shenmue reboot comes from UK

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Growing Cheshire company revealed as the software developer studio resurrecting classic video game Shenmue and Shenmue II.

d3t Ltd has confirmed that it is the development studio responsible for resurrecting the 20 year old games, that pushed boundaries on their original release, the classic and hugely popular Shenmue and Shenmue II. d3t Ltd take client confidentially extremely seriously and the project remained top-secret until the news was announced in April at SEGA Fes 2018, in Tokyo.

Noel Austin Operations Director said, “We can finally reveal that the d3t team have been resurrecting Shenmue from the original source code written over 20 years ago! We are bringing Shenmue and Shenmue II to modern platforms: Playstation4, Xbox One and PC. It’s been a journey of discovery, delving into the original code, also an honour and a privilege to work on such high-profile titles, delivering this classic franchise to new platforms and new audiences.”

d3t is a growing tech company in the northwest of England. d3t is only 6.5 years old, founded with just 3 people, it has grown year on year to its current team of 50. d3t was created by Stephen Powell and Jamie Campbell in 2011 and acquired by Keywords Studios last year. The company is forecasting continued expansion and has recently upscaled to a larger HQ in Cheshire.

d3t stands out in the UK game development sector because it strategically does not develop its own IP, instead it exclusively delivers game and interactive projects on behalf of international clients. Household names like SEGA, Sony, the BBC and independent studios worldwide regularly engage d3t on projects and d3t provides invaluable, confidential support across the games and interactive media sectors.

This technical port of Shenmue I & II represented an enormous technical challenge for the team at d3t. Piecing together the 20-year old archives of code and source data could be termed “digital archaeology”. The re-release of Shenmue 1 and 2 will be available together as a single package later this year and will remain true to the originals.

Studio Head Richard Badger added, “A lot of the work we undertake stays under wraps, so it’s great that we can actually talk about this amazing project. The global Shenmue gaming community have shown us incredible support and we are really excited about the launch of the games later this year. We are extremely proud of our team and being able to showcase the remarkable software development talent that can be found right here in the northwest of England.”

d3t does not just deliver when it comes to resurrecting well-loved cutting-edge games. The company also provides the same level of expertise to the museum and heritage sector and have recently been involved with real life archaeology. Working as a technology partner for the amazing installation which was opened at Yorkshire Museum, by Sir David Attenborough. d3t Ltd worked with lead designer Bright White Ltd, to develop a set of digital museum exhibits for the highly esteemed “Yorkshire’s Jurassic World” d3t animated a lifelike raptor, and an augmented reality window giving visitors a unique opportunity to view some of the world’s most amazing extinct dinosaurs and sea creatures as they would have looked when they lived on earth.

To learn more about d3t you can visit their site http://www.d3t.co.uk/

Train2Game UK Studio recognised as one of 1000 studios to inspire

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Outplay Entertainment has been named as part of 1000 Companies to Inspire.

Devised by London Stock Exchange Group, this report celebrates the fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK and Europe. It also examines the opportunities and challenges facing SMEs today and looks at the sectors and trends that will shape the future of the British and European economies.

Douglas Hare, CEO of Outplay Entertainment comments: “To be acknowledged in 1000 Companies to Inspire is testament to our team’s ability to develop and market engaging games that can be enjoyed by players from across the world, and is further proof that we’re heading in the right direction. We started small and built on our initial success, and are very bullish about the future. 2018 is proving to be another exciting time for Outplay Entertainment.”

This recognition follows a string of business accolades for the largest independent mobile developer in the UK. The studio ranked 61st in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (December) – a league table of the fastest-growing technology companies in EMEA and placed 11th in the UK Fast 50 (November). It also reported 1,904% revenue growth since 2013.

Headquartered in Dundee, Scotland, Outplay’s 170-strong team has developed several critically acclaimed games which have surpassed over 150 million downloads to date.

For more information about Outplay Entertainment please visit https://outplay.com/

Train2Game News Wearable SDK

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Tap Systems, Inc., the company behind the Tap wearable keyboard and mouse, announced today they have released a developer SDK.

The released software kit enables interested developers to design applications that incorporate and/or include the Tap wearable and its functionality. The Tap device is a comfortable wearable that sits at the base of your fingers and senses finger taps as input. Connecting to any Bluetooth enabled device, Tap users can currently compose text, play games, point, click and scroll using just about any available surface.

“Since Tap’s inception we’ve been contacted by everyone from mobile game and language input developers, to folks developing for accessibility use and even enterprise,” said Dovid Schick, CEO and Founder of Tap Systems. “The Tap has so much potential and we are excited to share our SDK with the developer community to see what amazing applications and uses people come up with.”

Interested game developers can now create novel gameplay experiences and increase engagement by utilizing the precision and diversity of Tap’s input. These games can easily be ported between mobile, console and desktop platforms while preserving the same game interface. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers can now use Tap for eyes-free control and input for their virtual environments. Language Input developers will now be able to apply Tap for other languages and custom alphabets.

Tap System’s released toolset includes SDKs for both iOS and Android, a plug-in for Unity, as well as example applications and documentation. The company has also released an API to enable any BLE enabled platform to interface directly with the Tap wearable.

Interested developers can sign up to be a part of our Tap Developer community for updates, news and support: https://www.tapwithus.com/developers .

Train2Game News Games London gets Financial Boost

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan today committed a further £1.2m to Games London in support of the capital’s burgeoning games industry.

The funding from the Greater London Authority guarantees a three-year programme of events and activities – including the annual London Games Festival – committed to generating revenue, supporting businesses, creating jobs and boosting skills and training.

The global games industry is worth over £100 billion per annum and the UK is the 5th largest video games market in terms of consumer revenues. UK games sales in 2017 generated a record £3.35bn, increasing 9.6 per cent on the previous year, and there are more games companies in London than anywhere else in the UK.

Games London is a partnership between the capital’s screen industries agency Film London and games trade body Ukie and the renewed three-year programme will include:

· The London Games Festival, showcasing the industry’s cultural and economic impact

· International networking events to attract top investment to the UK

· Trade missions to promote the UK’s Video Games Tax Relief and talent in the sector

· A range of training and skills initiatives

These activities are set to generate over £35m for games businesses and 270 full time jobs.

Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries said: “London’s creative industries are vital to our success as a global city. That’s why I am delighted that the Mayor has committed a further £1.2m to Games London. This deal will ensure the capital’s reputation as an international games centre will continue to grow and will provide a boost to jobs and investment in the city’s creative sector.”

Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, said: “Creative industries are the big success story of the London and UK economies and the rapidly expanding global Games industry is a key component of this success. London is a major player and I am delighted that the Mayor has recognised the importance of supporting the games industry, both within the newly launched Cultural Strategy and through the further investment into Games London to continue driving this cultural and economic success. It is a hugely exciting time and we are committed to cementing London’s status as a games leader and look forward to celebrating the sector’s achievements and talent at the London Games Festival in April.”

Dr Jo Twist OBE, Chief Executive of Ukie, said: “The Mayor’s continued support for the Games London programme is critical in maintaining and building on our global reputation as the capital for games and interactive entertainment. As an important part of the Mayor’s Cultural Strategy, the Festival celebrates the significance games play in an inclusive, diverse culture for all, and the investment programme is crucial in driving economic success for our innovative businesses making cutting edge experiences and technologies.”

The funding announcement comes as London gears up to welcome the third London Games Festival, arriving in the capital next month from 5 April to 15 April.

Delivered by Games London, the festival is expected to attract over 50,000 people across a mix of 40 public events for consumers and industry professionals in a programme the covers mobile, PC and indie games, VR and AR, esports, and fun and fascinating new forms of interactive entertainment.

For more information on the London Games Festival visit www.games.london

Train2Game News Create Facebook Instant Games Using Gideros

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Leading open source games development kit, GiderosMobile, has added the ability to export to the popular Facebook Instant Games platform in their latest 2018.3 update.

Gideros allows you to code your game for multiple platforms using the same API and enhanced Lua programming language. One of the key features of Gideros is the ability to code, then quickly test your game live on the target platform – with Gideros you can make code changes then instantly test how the changes affect your Facebook Instant Game!

The process of adding the new export to Gideros started in early 2018…

“The first task was to get in touch with the right people to speak to at Facebook that would allow us to join the platform. I went to London games week in January to track them down – luckily, I was successful. The Facebook team have been great at providing us with enough information to create the export.” said Anthony Ball, one of the contributors to Gideros.

To make it suitable for the new platform, Gideros had to be made more efficient – both in terms of size and speed – that job became the responsibility of Nicolas Bouquet, the main Gideros coder and responsible for the original HTML5 export.

“When I began working on Instant Games for Gideros, I thought the work would be merely to package a standard HTML5 export for new platform – I was both right and wrong!” says Nicolas.

“Gideros has had HTML5 export for years, but Facebook Instant Games brings both a deployment framework and specific gaming services, for this Gideros had to make use of specific Facebook APIs. First, I had to modify our HTML5 apps loading system to play nicely with the Instant Games launch screen, then make a ‘player’ to ease further development. This allowed me to quickly code and test integration with instant games API. Then I had to put it all together and have gideros tools export projects specifically for instant games. All this work has allowed us to greatly improve gideros performances in HTML5 – now twice as fast as it used to be!”

Gideros brings some unique features to creating Facebook Instant Games:

  • Live asset and code uploading from the studio directly into your Facebook Instant Game for quick and easy development (both on desktop and Android).
  • Direct feedback from your game into the studio to help debug your code.
  • Support for Facebook ads and other Facebook Instant Game features.
  • Go from code to a fully built Facebook Instant Game in seconds, no compile time!
  • Fully open source development kit with regular updates and a great support community.

Download now from: http://www.giderosmobile.com