Category Archives: Parent

Train2Game News: Disney’s outside the box idea

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Roger A. Iger has said that Disney may be going in to developing their own console. Disney has had trouble utilising the internet to date and this could be the next step.

Their new product is an ambitious and unannounced gaming initiative that is code-named Toy Box which has been described as a game console with extensive mobile and other online applications in which various Pixar and Disney characters will interact with each other for the first time.

Recently detailed was The Walt Disney Company’s struggles as it pertains to mastering the internet. The company’s online components, as well as their gaming and mobile divisions, have posted 15 consecutive quarters of losses.

The company as a whole is doing very well with ventures such as earlier this summer with the big screen phenomena that was The Avengers, which earned over 1.5 billion dollars for Marvel Studios, which is now owned by Walt Disney Pictures.

Its inability to make much headway on the internet and with games however is becoming hard to ignore and given how the importance of such outlets will only increase as time goes on, now might be time for Disney to do something particularly drastic or bold.

There are several other initiatives now under-way, to help turn the online tide. One idea includes another massive redesign of Disney.com, their third in five years.

Given Disney’s long time ties with Pixar, which is also connected to Apple who certainly have aspirations of their own, we could see the rise of an under dog in the next generation.

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Case – Reece

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Reece is 9 years old and has Cerebral Palsy. He is crazy about football, but has struggled to play with his Dad at games like FIFA using a standard controller.

We met Reece at a SpecialEffectRoadShow in Coventry where he tried out a controller which enabled him to play independently with his Dad.

Reece and his father visited the GamesRoom in April during the Easter holidays to try out some different Xbox360 controller set-ups, specifically looking at ways he could play football games. Standard controllers are too small for Reece to as he finds it hard to control his fine movements. We tried out controllers with larger joysticks he could grip more easily and larger buttons he could press more accurately.

Reece is currently borrowing a larger controller through the SpecialEffect Loan Library which enables him to have greater control over the players’ movement, kicking, tackling etc. Reece and his Dad visited the GamesRoom again mid-June to try out a more customised layout and that looks like the route we’ll take. We’re going to order some equipment to lend to him. Reece and his Dad will return to our GamesRoom for us to tweak the set-up and look at accessing other games.

 
Don’t forget you can help SpecialEffectby simply watching the video below and sharing it out. We can get this video to 25,000 by December 25.

 

 

Train2Game News: Dan Gent on BBC Radio

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A teenager from Alferton who is paralysed from the shoulders down after a car accident is now fulfilling his dream to be a games designer. 17 year old Daniel Gent has been Tetraplegic for nearly 3 years but with a lot of determination and the help of voice recognition technology he is following a distance learning programme through Train2Game and is already making his own games.

BBC Radio Derby’s Emma Wotts went to meet Daniel and he told her how difficult life was after the accident.

Daniel: My thoughts in my head for the first 6 months weren’t that great. I wasn’t myself, I didn’t know what my future was. It was hard to decide after my accident. I could feel more now than I could before but at the time I didn’t really see a future. Breaking my neck in three places made me think it would be impossible. Meeting people with similar injuries and how they carried on and how they were getting on with their life made me want to push towards something and carry on with my family. Not living off the Government but supply, supporting and giving my family what they need.

 

Emma: What do you think that turning point was? What was that moment when you thought, I need to do something?

Daniel: It was more when I was first introduced to my daughter at the time when my partner was pregnant I didn’t really see a future, I couldn’t see myself as being a father. I didn’t really want her to have a Dad that was, as I am paralysed from the neck down. When I first met her it kinda changed everything, I wanted to be the dad that every dad wants to be.

 

Emma: And hopefully now you will be able to earn money or be able to provide for your family. How important is this to you?

Daniel: It’s going to change a lot of things, I get quite a lot of depression and feeling down but when these things happen such as the game jam when I went to that it changes a lot of your perspectives on life and it just made me want to carry on doing what I am doing. I just see it as a dream working with certain people such as Microsoft and meeting the people I did. It never would of happened without Train2Game.

 

Emma: How do you feel now about the future?

Daniel: Now I see it being a lot brighter and a lot more doors are opening from all wider areas, it’s going to change a lot of things. I can see my future well worth staying around for. I can just say it has given me a reason to carry on.

 

Emma: What would you say to anyone else who has been through what you have who thought they wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything in the future. Someone who’s really down about their life as you did just 3 years ago. What would you say to them?

Daniel: Whether you are disabled or if you suffer from depression you are going to go through a lot of doors and sometimes it isn’t going to be what you want but you will find that right door and everything is going to open up and you’ll see the future is a lot different. It’s not going to come to you naturally. You aren’t going to wake up in the morning and it’s going to be there. You’ve got to go out there and grab it as you can. I would say volunteering for anything you can just to get yourself motivated and take your mind off things. I found that a lot more useful, being active and going out more. If you are inside then that is where it is mostly going to depress you. Life is not going to be easy but you can make it easy.

Broadcast on BBC Radio Derby 18 October 2012 – audio available via http://audioboo.fm/train2game

www.train2game.com

 

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect Case: Craig & James

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Craig

Craig’s father Paul contacted us after seeing one of our videos for a one-handed controller set-up we created online. He wrote “Hi, my son Rifleman Craig Wood lost both his legs and left hand and nose in Afghanistan and I have just seen the “XCM Re-mapper” plus “Saitek Aviator Joystick” in use. Is there any way the lad could try one before buying one?”.

As this is a complicated piece of equipment to set up, we visited Craig at his home in Doncaster to show him how to configure it to his own requirements. He took to using the controller straight away. Craig has the controller on loan through our Loan Library.

A week after our visit, we asked Paul how Craig was getting on with it. “Yes, going good, never off it!”.

James

We were contacted by James via email requesting help with accessing his Xbox 360. “Hi, I am an injured soldier in the British Army and due to my injury, I have lost the use of my left hand now. I just want to play the games I play with the efficiency I used to be able to with two hands.”

We set James up with the controllers he was interested in trying, to enable him to try each one and see which helped him play to the standard he hoped for.

“I am writing back to say I have been using the controller since it arrived and I find it really useful.”

Do remember to keep sharing SpecialEffect’s video around and try and get them to reach their goal of 25,000 views by Christmas day!

 

Train2Game News: Jonny Robinson’s Blog

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Train2Game Student Jonny Robinson has been writing his own blog. He talks about his experiences on being a fledgling games designer. He covers subject such as his time at DR Studios and his work with Commando Kiwi, the winning team of the Make Something Unreal Live at the Gadget Show Live earlier this year.

You can read Jonny’s blog below:

http://ironcore1.wordpress.com/

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 10.5.12

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The OnLive console is not dead according to CEO Charles Jablonski and UK general manager Bruce Grove. The new plan is all about forming partnerships to provide OnLive’s service, instead of relying on PCs and its own console.

The Volus race has come to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer with the new DLC, The Retaliation Pack. The comic relief character has been put in to the online game play to show the ever expanding war according to BioWare’s Chris Schanche. The new pack also sees the return of The Collectors to battle against.

Earlier this week it was announced that Windows 8 will primarily use real world currency over Microsoft points. This had the games world speculating that the Xbox Live Arcade was going to start phasing out MS points. Microsoft have announced this is not the case. XBLA will still use the previous points system.

Rovio and LucasArts have teamed up in an interesting combination to create Angry Birds Star Wars. The game will see the birds dressed as the main Star Wars protagonists and the pigs are going to be dressed as Storm Troopers and Darth Vader. The levels will be famous Star Wars locations such as Hoth and Tattooine. The game is being released November 8 for iOS.

IGN have brought their application to Xbox in the UK. The app is already available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the USA. The app offers content, shows and access to its pro-gaming league.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook has now surpassed one billion users. Since Facebook’s formation in 2004, it has seen more than 140 billion friend connections made, 219 billion photos uploaded, and 1.13 trillion likes. Facebook’s director of developer products said around a quarter of its active user base, about 230 million people, play games on the site in a month. He also noted that Facebook has more than 130 apps.

A one-man company, Cryptic Sea, has created a game called A New Zero. The game has no animation and only uses physics for any movement in the first person shooter. In addition, visuals are also procedurally generated, chopping Zero’s total size below a single megabyte. You can download the game from Cryptic Sea’s website.

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect case: Ben

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SpecialEffect do amazing work.

Their caring work helps people with disablities play games and interact with their friends in an enjoyable way.

Following the challenge put out by SpecialEffect a few days ago, I got in contact with them to tell them what amazing work they are doing. They responded by sending me some of their cases which I would like to share with you.

The first is about a young man named Ben. The study can be read below:

CASE STUDY – BEN DECEMBER 2011

If you would like to watch the video and help SpecialEffect reach their goal of 25,000 views by December 25, you can do so here:

 

Train2Game News: Students featured in local papers

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Train2Game Students Dan Hawkins, Richard Scott-Jones and Jason Teefey have been featured in their local papers. The students talk about their time at the World record breaking Game Jam.

You can read the articles in the links below:

Games Sudbury Mercury September 2012

Redhill games industry student

The Surrey Comet September 2012

Train2Game News: Against all the odds brave Oliver soldiers on to bridge the age gap

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Oliver Smith only has one lung, half a heart and is 7 foot 3 but like Master Chief from Halo, against all odds he is out to help the world.

Oliver, 19, has a plan to get young people interacting with the elderly through the medium of video games.

His idea is to get the older generation playing games and using instant messaging services like Skype. This way they can stay in contact and have common interests with their young relatives.

Oliver said “I wanted to do something to help elderly people communicate with young members of their families

“It just seemed a good idea, youngsters spend a lot of time gaming and their grandparents can become isolated because of health reasons and end up in homes. If they know how to use computers and things like Skype it can bring families together.”

He has always found video games have helped him through life. They were always there to cheer him up in some of his darker moments. He is now a student of Train2Game on the QA course and most recently took part in the world record winning Game Jam. He joined the course so he has a chance to be a part of the industry that has helped him.

Unconventional Oliver is not what you would think of when you imagine someone who helps the elderly however. He is what is known as, a Goth.

Talking about his lifestyle he said “I love the statement being a Goth makes and I’m what you’d call ‘steam punk’ – but a lot of people, particularly older folk, are a bit prejudice when they see the way I dress in leather and eyeliner, with my coat held together with safety pins.

“I’ve always been a bit of a rebel and I know my parents were afraid I might go that far off the rails with drink, loud music and late nights that I might never come back.

“I was born with heart and respiratory problems which nearly killed me me when I was younger… I think that made me feel a bit alienated and after all I’m seven feet three inches tall and look different.

“I guess I fitted into the Goth world pretty easily after all that.”

He contacted Exeter council with his idea and they happily helped Oliver by putting his business on there website.

Good luck with everything you do Oliver!

Train2Game News: Students talking about the Game Jam

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This is a video of students talking about Train2Game and the Game Jam from the weekend!