Category Archives: mobile

Train2Game News Warhammer 40,000 Tactical Objectives app gets release date

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Former Train2Game students now professional developers, Derp Studios announce officially licenced Games Workshop app will arrive 18th December 2015

Independent Video Games and Apps developer, Derp Studios, announce official release date for its tactical objectives app created with Games Workshop. Warhammer enthusiasts will be able to add the app to their Christmas wish list, with the release date set to the 18th December 2015.

Independent Video Games and Apps developer, Derp Studios, has created a tactical objectives App to accompany the Warhammer 40,000 board game. The team which includes Train2Game students has been working with Games Workshop to create the app.

The app has been designed to assist in playing the latest version of the popular table top game, offering a digital version of tactical objectives cards which previously were only available on limited edition print runs. This is one of the first ever officially licensed Tactical Objectives apps which supports the Warhammer 40,000 board game.

Chris Ledger, CEO and Lead Designer of Derp Studios, “Derp Studios was formed late 2011 during Make Something Unreal Live 2012 hosted by Train2Game and Epic Games, where we developed a mobile title based on the Fighting Fantasy IP.  Since then we’ve done a couple of self-funded projects and most recently we have become Games Workshop Licensees!”

“The Warhammer 40,000:  Tactical Objectives App is one of the first hobby Apps to directly support the Warhammer 40,000 table-top board game.  The aim of the App is to enable players who don’t have a physical copy of either the regular or faction based Tactical Objectives cards to be able to own their factions deck, since the physical copies are on limited print runs. So the app is fairly niche as it appeals to Warhammer 40,000 table-top players, however that doesn’t mean the target audience is small in any way!”

“Games Workshop are really good work alongside with.  They’ve been really supportive and have provided a lot of assets for us to use.  So far it’s been nothing but positive and a really enjoyable experience!”

“For Derp Studios this app alone is a big milestone in the company!  I’m not sure what the future holds for more hobby apps within the Warhammer 40,000 IP, however if I’m unable to produce another hobby app then I’d happily make a small licensed video game for them.”

Website:  www.derpstudios.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/derpstudios
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/derpstudios

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Train2Game News iClone

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Reallusion levels up game development with the launch of iClone Game Character Design Platform, the first Lip-Sync Ready 3D Character solution in the market.

This platform takes the 3D character creation process into another generation where the long and arduous 3D character design is no longer necessary.

Designing a high-quality, playable character is a long and difficult process which involves massive amount efforts from multiple professional talents that spent weeks toiling away in front of 3ds Max or Maya. Furthermore, with the market trending towards a more intricate story-driven game design, developers are investing a greater amount of time on optimizing details that deepen immersions such as facial expressions, audio lip-syncing for cut-scenes, NPC interactions and other game-design logic.

This is where iClone Character Creator Platform comes in. The latest Reallusion offering provides developers with access to 3D characters with highly morphable topology, clothing dress-up system that conforms to all body shapes, and facial and body rig that are ready for animation. Developers no longer need to design 3D characters from scratch and worry about any technical details, but can instead concentrate their focus on refining the character’s contour and clothing to generate truly unique characters with shared facial control and motions.

Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKaqOOR7Nbk

iClone Game Character Design Platform is Created  for Game Developers

“This is a game changer for developers everywhere using Unity3D, Unreal Engine and Stingray for their game design,” said John Martin, VP Product, Reallusion. “We have worked closely with the game community to create this product platform. Our goal throughout has been to empower developers with a powerful quick-start solution. We understand that with aggressive deadlines to meet, speed and customizability are crucial. That is why all characters created from this platform are pre-rigged and comes with hundreds of motions ready for use. Best of all, these characters are capable of vivid facial expressions and can perform natural lip-sync automatically without painstakingly keying each frame. There is no other solution in the market that can do this.”

“We created and animated every character in our game with iClone,” said Guilherme Ressel, RGBird Games, developer of Mute, the game. “iClone generated 3D characters we customized to the western-themed style and then animated and imported everything to Unity. Between its ease-of-use and its compatibility with Unity3D,  iClone has become a permanent part of our toolbox.”

The Complete 3D Characters Creation Workflow

1.       Design Your Character
Create variety of characters using 3D morphs, texture designs, and clothing options.

2.       Animate in Real-time
Create animation with live motion capture using Kinect for Xbox One.

3.       Add & Edit Motion
Use iClone with HumanIK to refine motion, add lip-sync & facial animation.

4.       Export to Game Engine
Convert your character and animation to any game engine and 3D tools using 3DXchange

Reallusion Offers Free 3D character for Unity 3D

Experience the power of iClone Character Creator with free 3D character downloads for Unity 3D platform. Get 3 fully rigged, lip-sync ready characters in various styles that showcase a wide array of character designs. Visit the iClone website to download. Website: http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/game

Game developers can learn the workflow directly from Reallusion’s website with free video training on how to create animate and export 3D characters for games.

Train2Game News Simplygon 3D optimization on MGS 5

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Simplygon, the leading provider of automatic 3D optimization solutions for digital content creation, and Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd, today announced that Simplygon has been used in the creation of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, available for Playstation, XBox and PC.

Over the course of production, Simplygon was used to process assets for all 42 levels including test data while delivering Level of Detail (LoD) models that optimized the polygon counts to help deliver a stunning visual experience.

Developing what critics have called “greatest stealth game ever“ meant adapting LOD assets to handle a map of massive scope and scale. “We used Simplygon to merge 100-400 assets into a single asset and we used those features to create assets displayed at mid-range from the player” said Konami. “Because we built the automated mid-range asset generation workflow using Simplygon, when we changed the assets layout, we were able to re-create mid-range assets with very low cost.”

“Simplygon saved the labor equivalent of 10 man months” said the development team of Konami. “The benefits are clear as we used the tool to reduce polygons as much as tenfold in models ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 polygons. The best result is that players can’t see the reduction because the models keep their fidelity at all distances which keeps the players immersed.”

“Konami are legends in the games industry and over the past three decades have been at the forefront of high quality games that truly excite players through their gameplay and visuals,” said Martin Ekdal, Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development at Simplygon. “With Simplygon we’re enabling creators to focus more on the creative parts of development while we automate multiple production processes and improve the performance.”

Simplygon is popular amongst developers of mobile games; AAA PC and console games; and large MMOs, and is applicable to any medium where 3D art assets are created or utilized. By automatically generating lower-polygon models that are required for different levels of detail (LOD), an optimization process for making games and visual scenes run smoother, at higher frame-rates, and requiring less data, Simplygon helps digital content creators save important resources where artists would otherwise need to manually re-create large amounts of content.

Train2Game News Universal Reattribution

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adjust, the leading business intelligence platform for mobile apps, today launched Universal Reattribution, a new feature that enables marketers to finally close the analytics gap and track 100% of re-engagement campaigns.

With Universal Reattribution, app marketers will better understand where and how lost users return to an app and the re-engagement channels that are most effective. Starting today, Universal Reattribution is available to all of adjust’s 1700 clients.

According to adjust’ s recent Mobile Benchmark report, most users leave an app within a few days of installing, never to return. Average retention rates in the report indicate that only 15% of users still enter an app after seven days on average. App marketers currently leverage retargeting and re-engagement ad campaigns to bring users back to an app. Only 55% of returning users are tracked and reattributed accurately through other market analytics tools when explicitly marked as a retargeting campaign, leaving 45% of all returning users invisible to tracking. Now available, adjust’s Universal Reattribution feature provides the first-ever reattribution technology for mobile apps to capture the 45% of untracked users who re-engage in an app.

“With our Universal Reattribution tool, marketers are now able to get a more complete understanding of the performance of all their marketing channels – from ads to email marketing, web content and more,” says Christian Henschel, CEO and Co-Founder of adjust. “This type of reattribution requires a highly complex and fast technology to be useful and effective for marketers. We match every incoming session with its corresponding incoming click in real-time, whereas our competitors have opted to shortcut tracking by showing only the interactions that explicitly retarget previous users, and ignore other marketing outreach that also contributes to re-engagement. This is why we are the only platform worldwide that is able to conduct reattribution coherently and in mass volume. Universal Reattribution is the result of dedicated, hard work to make our systems faster and stronger.”

With the launch of its Universal Reattribution tool, adjust reveals that the potential for re-engagement generated by non-retargeting ad campaigns has been hidden for a long time. From these findings, not only the relevance of advertising sources will change, but also the dynamics of performance analysis. Previously, re-engagement and user acquisition were two completely different topics and separate efforts, and now, marketers can cohesively understand the effects of their outreach across all users and channels.

For more information on adjust’s Universal Reattribution tool, visit www.adjust.com or contact sales@adjust.com.

Train2Game News Cocos2d-x Engine

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Chukong USA today revealed several of the top grossing games rocketing up the 2015 charts in the App Store and Google Play have been developed with the award winning Cocos2d-x game engine.

Cocos2d-x is the world’s largest open source mobile game engine with over 490,000 registered developers and 50,000 published titles. According to research firm AppAnnie’s game index, Cocos developers from indie to enterprise alike have recently achieved the prestigious top 10 ranking with games including: Clash of Kings, Puzzle & Dragons, Monster Strike, Fantasy Westward Journey Mobile, Big Fish Casino, The Legend of Mir 2, The King of Fighters’ 98, and the new indie title Floors.

Ricardo Quesada, the main author of Cocos2d, said: “We’re focused on providing a powerful, yet lightweight game engine with easy-to-use APIs, intuitive tools, and an enthusiastic community. Additionally, with the availability of Cocos SDKBOX, we can further offer mobile game developers a comprehensive solution for building and marketing highly polished, well-performing games, as exemplified by these top performing games in the app stores.”

Hiroshi Sugiyama, Chief Engineer of Alim, a subsidiary of gumi Inc., said: “We chose Cocos2d-x for its excellent multi-platform support and open source code; no part of Cocos2d-x is a black box. Its potential as a great game development tool helped us right from the beginning. When we began production on Brave Frontier, Cocos2d-x had just been released; tools and information was scarce at the time. Thanks to the platform, we were able to deliver a high quality game.”

Yuri Sanachev, developer with Ketchapp, said: “Floors was my first mobile project, and it only took about a week to learn Cocos2d-x basics for designing the core gameplay. The Cocos engine is very flexible and developer-friendly, while the resources, memory management, particle engine and actions model made my life a lot easier. I also leveraged the Cocos SDKBOX IAP, and I’m looking forward to the roadmap of future integrations and updates that will be invaluable for my games.”

Additionally, today’s news falls on the heels of a recent update to Cocos SDKBOX, where thousands of developers are already leveraging the framework for managing game data SDKs used for analytics, attribution, user acquisition, social, IAP, mediation and other live operations services to grow their player base and rise to the top of the app store charts. Since the release of SDKBOX version 1.3 in September, the number of games with the service installed has grown to over 4,500 titles.

For more information on Cocos2d-x and SDKBOX, please visit us at http://cocos2d-x.org.

Train2Game News AppGameKit update

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The Game Creators today released App Game Kit Version 2.0.15. This significant key release adds many new features including animated 3D features, Bullet physics support and Assimp 3D model format importing.

Developers can now take their app ideas into the third dimension and have projects up and running in record time.

AppGameKit is available for both Windows, Mac and Linux platforms and apps can be deployed cross platform including iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry, Mac and Linux. The pay once, royalty free price also drops down to an even more affordable $79!

The Game Creators Development Director, Rick Vanner, said “The new 3D engine has been eagerly awaited by our community and they’ve already started creating demos and games with it. We’re very excited to see what users do with all this new power.”

Alongside this release are four new DLCs that complement the core AppGameKit product. There are two detailed user guides that are designed and written to take any novice coder and turn them into an expert game developer in easy-to-follow steps. Witten by educationalist Alistair Stewart, the Guides are available in two versions; the Official AppGameKit Beginners Guide ($29.99) for novice users, and the Official AppGameKit User Guide ($39.99) covering many more programming subjects.

To aid developers two Giant Asset Packs are also being launched today. They are packed to the rafters with thousands of sprites, backdrops and sample demo projects. Users can incorporate any of the assets into their projects for just $19.99 each.

Lee Bamber, CEO of The Game Creators, said “AppGameKit is the perfect choice for beginners and professionals looking to create cross platforms apps, combining an easy to learn programming language with a powerful and flexible engine capable of turning your ideas into reality. Supported by a fantastic community and a wealth of additional resources, such as a 900-page full-color user guide and thousands of assets via the DLCs, help is here if you need it.”

The Game Creators developed Driving Test Success Theory, Hazard Perception and Highway Code apps for UK publisher Focus Multimedia, deploying them onto the App Store, Google Play, Amazon, Mac Store and Blackberry World – all from AGKs executable code. These Driving Test Success apps are now the UK’s #1 ‘Learning to Drive’ apps.

The App Game Kit official website: http://www.appgamekit.com/

Train2Game News Hands on with VR at VRTGO

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Samsung and CCP Games will be giving all VRTGO attendees the opportunity to get hands-on with the best that VR has to offer.

VRTGO, the annual conference and expo that explores the future of virtual reality (VR) for both entertainment and business applications, today reveals that Samsung will have full retail units of its impending Gear VR headset available for all attendees to try as the event kicks off on Thursday 12th November at the Newcastle Gateshead BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead.

Samsung’s Gear VR headset is released in November, and VRTGO is the ideal opportunity to be one of the first in the country to try out the brand new VR technology that Samsung will be releasing to the wider public.

Jason Lovell, wearable’s senior product manager at Samsung Electronics UK (SEUK) commented, “The VRTGO event is very timely as we will shortly be releasing our first consumer Samsung Gear VR headset, so attendees will get a chance to try out the device for themselves and ask any development questions they may have.” He continued, “Enabling people to use the Gear VR headset in a free and open environment means that VRTGO attendees will be able to not only experience the product, but also engage with the development team behind it and understand many of the nuances that make it a stand out device.”

Samsung will also be joined by CCP Games, who will be showcasing EVE:Valkyrie and inviting attendees to experience a playable version of the hit 2015 trailer.

“At this years VRTGO we’re inviting players to join the Valkyrie and fight alongside the legendary Rán Kavik in our ‘Convoy’ single player mission on Oculus Rift Crescent Bay.” outlined Andrew Robinson, artist and narrative designer, CCP Games. “Built from the ground-up for virtual reality, it’s now possible to experience the visceral combat of EVE:Valkyrie in a completely new way, and VRTGO is the perfect place to showcase this.”

VRTGO will be hosted by respected technology journalist Will Freeman. The conference gives all attendees the opportunity to experience the newest developments in the world of VR, complete with keynotes and panel discussions.

A full agenda of the day’s events can be found at: http://vrtgo.co.uk/agenda/

Tickets for the event can be purchased from: http://vrtgo.co.uk/buy-tickets/

Train2Game News PreLaunch.me Launched

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Adways Interactive (Head Office: San Francisco, CEO: Ken Asakura) today announced the full launch of PreLaunch.me.

Adways Interactive are releasing the Android app out of Beta with new features and debuting the PreLaunch.me web app for iOS and Android, available for publishers and gamers in the US, Canada, Australia and UK.

PreLaunch.me is a new pre-registration platform for game developers to enhance pre-launch exposure by building and engaging a targeted audience of gamers with new assets, closed beta testing periods, robust social tools, and participation rewards. PreLaunch.me also provides the industry’s first built-in A/B testing combined with pre-registration services, including a full-service user data analytics suite. Developers that have used PreLaunch.me have seen significant post-launch results with one week ARPUs hitting $1.50 and one week retention rates performing 270 percent higher than non-PreLaunch.me users.

Gamers can use PreLaunch.me to research a curated roster of featured games they want to closely follow from announcement through launch. After pre-registering, players can receive in-game gifts, participate in closed beta programs, build a social network through a player-driven guild system and receive immediate notification once their game is live.

“The best part about PreLaunch.me is that it really is a social platform for gamers and developers to work together and make everything about the game the best it can be before it launches to the wider market,” said Ken Asakura, CEO of Adways Interactive, parent company of PreLaunch.me. “Through the PreLaunch.me program, publishers can receive direct gamer feedback that is native and conversational, enabling them to update their product in an authentic way.”

Soft-launched in 2015, PreLaunch.me is the Western iteration of Yoyaku Top 10, the world’s first pre-registration platform for game developers to build an audience and engage a community before launch. This platform quickly gained widespread success and evolved into an essential ingredient for mobile game marketing. With more than one million users reached and more than one million pre-registrations per month, Yoyaku Top 10 provides a contemporary preview of PreLaunch.me’s potential success.

To download PreLaunch.me to your Android device, visit Google Play, while iOS users may visit www.PreLaunch.me via the Safari web browser.

Train2Game News adjust gets huge funding

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adjust, the leading business intelligence firm for mobile apps, has received $17M in funding from Highland Europe.

The funding round takes the company to a total of $30M raised since it was established in 2012.

Over the past three years, adjust has quickly expanded from its Berlin (DE) office to six additional cities: San Francisco (US), Istanbul (TR), Beijing (CN), Shanghai (CN), Tokyo (JP) and Sydney (AU). adjust now processes over 1 petabyte of mobile data each month and its SDK recently surpassed 1.3 billion live instances in mobile devices. The company also turned profitable in 2015, and is further demonstrating its ability to scale fast and efficiently.

This investment will further accelerate adjust’s product expansion, while strengthening its commitment to the mobile marketing industry through the prevention of fraudulent traffic, encouragement of user-friendly advertising practices and prioritization of privacy protection in mobile marketing.

Christian Henschel, CEO and Co-Founder of adjust, said: “As an independent third-party attribution solutions provider, we assume a central role in connecting app developers to ad networks, publishers and other ecosystem parties. We have now reached a critical scale where as a market leader within the ecosystem, we are uniquely positioned to drive both product innovation as well as industry standards.”

Sam Brooks, Partner at Highland Europe, added: “At Highland, we seek to invest in rapidly growing companies with global ambitions and a commitment to product excellence. We consider adjust’s technical expertise, vast device coverage and deep network integrations as industry-leading within the premium mobile measurement space, demonstrated by the business’ impressive momentum and trusted position among leading international brands. We are thrilled to partner with the adjust team.”

The investment will also enable the company to expand its offering and presence among underserved, high-potential businesses.

Henschel continued: “The growth of mobile-born companies around the globe signals a positive environment for the development of tracking solutions that provide quality data for business decision makers. As these companies become market leaders, more and more businesses will require a holistic mobile marketing tool. Our ambition is to become that essential part of their business intelligence and process data at scale, just as SAP broke out of its market scope decades ago.”

Train2Game News ZX Spectrum Android app

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Recreated ZX Spectrum – App Now Available for Android Phones & Tablets. Roadmap Announced.

To coincide with today’s release of the Android app Elite, the 1980s publisher behind the recreated device, has released information about how it’s expected to be used along with a roadmap outlining how the Recreated ZX Spectrum will be enhanced through further apps and firmware updates.

A survey of more than 275 users revealed that only 44% expected using the recreated device solely or primarily for playing ZX Spectrum games, whilst 49% placed equal or greater importance on its use as a keyboard for use with phones, tablets, Macs, PCs and connected TVs.

Further apps are currently in development for the recreated device, one for the soon to be released 4th generation Apple TV, the other for Android TV. Both of the forthcoming apps will include Chuckie Egg, Sinclair BASIC and a huge game bundle. When available, the apps will enable games and applications to be played on connected TVs using the Recreated ZX Spectrum – without the need for an intermediate device such as a phone or a tablet.

Through firmware updates additional keyboard functionality will be added in response user feedback. Several additional features have already been identified, including a simpler method of accessing CRTL functions. Updating the recreated device’s firmware couldn’t be simpler:

– connect the recreated device’s 5V DC port to a Mac / PC
– go to the published web address
– follow the on-screen instructions. It’ll only take moments.

About the Recreated ZX Spectrum http://sinclair.recreatedzxspectrum.com/ataglance1.php