Train2Game Artist Will Alexander has started a Train2Game work placement at AppCrowd. In this industry experience diary, Will details what he’s been up at the mobile and social game developer, and includes some information about the studio.
Read what he has to say about his Train2Game work placement here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.
Train2Game Art & Animation student Fee Stewart has been on a Train2Game work placement at Middlesbrough based game developer Radiation Burn. Here, you can read all of Fee’s industry placement diaries, written as she worked at Radiation Burn on Newton vs The Horde for Nintendo Wii.
Read what she has to say about her Train2Game work placement here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.
Train2Game students are launching four new development studios in 2012 as part of ‘Make Something Unreal Live,’ a competitive process designed to accelerate their careers by giving them the tools and resources needed to release games for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this spring.
The studios are Commando Kiwi, Derp Studios, Digital Mage and Indigo Jam.
The first titles released by the studios will be based on the Fighting Fantasy series of books created by Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson.
We caught up with Derp Studios’ Chris Ledger to find out how the road to Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show has gone so far. Listen via Train2Game Radio or read it here on The Train2Game Blog.
Hi Chris, how did you come up with the name of your studio?
Well, we unnamed for our first few weeks, debating what to be called, and it turned out the most common phrase we were using was ‘Derp’ because we were making stupid mistakes and saying ‘Ah derp’ we ended up as Derp Studios from that.
How have you found working with the Fighting Fantasy IP, which particular book is your game going to be based on?
It’s based on The Citadel of Chaos, which is the second book in the Fighting Fantasy franchise. It’s been great fun to work with, we’ve had numerous playthroughs of it and we’ve bought some additional books to expand our knowledge about the lore of the franchise as well.
And how are you finding getting to grips with the Unreal Engine using UDK?
I really like UDK, it’s brilliant, absolutely fantastic. We had a few teething problems at the start with the mobile functions as it’s completely different to the PC version, almost. But we were gutted about the terrain, but we’ve worked our way around it by exporting an object and re-importing it, so we’ve overcome the teething problems and it’s going quite well at the moment.
How are you finding the work compared to pressured environment at the Train2Game and Epic Game Jam?
It’s probably equally as stressful sometimes, especially because of deadlines…and even though we’ve got more time to do things, our scope is a bit bigger than what we were doing at the game jam. I suppose it’s equally as stressful, but just as enjoyable.
What deadlines have you met recently, and what progress have you made with your game?
We’ve done our pre-Alpha, so we’ve compiled a small build with most of our mechanics in, just fine-tuning that. What we’ve been doing lately is mostly getting the character models out the way. We’ve done the majority of the levels that we’re planning to have in the game, and now it’s just the character models and adding the code to them.
Tell us about the genre of game you’re working on for Make Something Unreal Live.
It’s a first person RPG. I haven’t seen anything like it on IOS devices at all, I’ve seen first person shooters, but nothing that’s first person melee and magic based, so it should be quite eye opening and interesting to see when it’s fully done.
Does the game have a bit of a Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim vibe to it then?
Yeah, we’ve obviously, often referenced Skyrim, Elder Scrolls and other famous first person melee games. We got a bit nervous at first as people might think it’s just a watered down version of Skyrim, but…they’ll love it!
And it fits in nicely with the Fighting Fantasy IP as well.
Yeah, we’ve taken extra care to fit it perfectly with the IP. Our game is in fact a sequel to The Citadel of Chaos game book.
Why is it a sequel rather than being based on the book itself?
Well, it’s based on the exact same settings, it’s just happening a week afterwards. In the game book, at the end, you kill the main bad guy, and we thought we could have a bit of a twist on it where events happen after his death, but it’s all related to him. So, it’s got a lot of twists that relate to the book.
How are you looking forward to going to The Gadget Show and making a game in that public setting?
I’m nervous and excited at the same time. Well, more excited. It’ll be great just to show off what our studio is doing. It’s eye opening for the public as well.
How can people who want to find out more about Derp Studios on Facebook and Twitter?
We’ve got a Facebook and a Twitter page. Facebook is www.facebook.com/derpstudios and Twitter is www.twitter.com/derpstudios
Great Chris, thanks for your time and good luck.
Thank you.
Keep up to date with the latest news from Make Something Unreal Live here on The Train2Game Blog.
Train2Game Game Designer Chris Robinson has started a Train2Game work placement at AppCrowd. In this industry experience diary, Chris details what he’s been up at the mobile and social game developer, and includes some information about the studio.
Read what he has to say about his Train2Game work placement here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.
Train2Game students based near Nottingham can an insight into the development of Dear Esther, as creator Dan Pinchbeck is set to offer a behind the scenes look at his work at GameCityNights later this month.
As recently reported by The Train2Game Blog, experimental indie title Dear Esther sold 50,000 copies through Steam in its first week on sale. It started out life as a mod for Half-Life 2.
Thechineseroom founder will cover of areas, including storytelling in games and turning a mod into a full-release, which will surely be useful for Train2Game students who can get to the GameCityNights event.
“I’ll cover the studio’s humble beginnings as a mod team working as part of a research project based at the University of Portsmouth and the philosophy behind the studio’s work, and how this led to this year’s cult indie hit, Dear Esther.” said Pinchbeck.
“I’m also excited to introduce the studio’s two current projects: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, an open-world purestory game that takes Dear Esther’s explorations of storytelling and gameplay to a new level; and the recently announced Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, a sequel to Frictional Games’ indie horror classic.”
“Along the way, I’ll take in the relationship between academia and the games industry; managing an indie start-up; how to turn an experimental mod into a successful commercial release; and the central design principles of thechineseroom.
“Expect fear, despair, guilt, loss, death, emptiness and some insight into how you can make games fun even without the gameplay.” he concluded.
The GameCityNights event takes place in Nottingham at 18:00 on 29th March. For more information, and to buy a £4 ticket, visit GameCityNights website.
There’s more about Dear Esther here on The Train2Game Blog.
So Train2Game, will you be attending GameCityNights? And what are your thoughts on Dear Esther?
Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Train2Game student Matty Wyett-Simmonds is on a Train2Game work placement at DR Studios. In his latest industry experience diaries, he details what he’s been up at the Milton Keynes based game developer and talks a bit about being part of Make Something Unreal Live team Derp Studios.
Read what Matty has to say about his Train2Game work placement here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.
Read previous updates from Matty here on The Train2Game Blog.
Train2Game Game Designer Craig Moore is on a Train2Game work placement at DR Studios. In his latest industry experience diaries, he details what he’s been up at the Milton Keynes based game developer, including feeling the pressure of deadlines.
Read what Craig has to say about his Train2Game work placement here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game Scribd page.
Craig’s previous Train2Game industry experience diaries are here on The Train2Game Blog.
Train2Game students have the chance to become a part of Uncharted 3 and experience Naughty Dog’s impressive in-game motion capture techniques first-hand thanks to a competition from Sony.
The Uncharted Audition gives you the chance to become a new multiplayer character for Uncharted 3, meet the Naughty Dog team and experience the motion capture techniques used to build the Sony game series.
To enter, you’ll need to submit a video audition that shows of your heroic abilities, with ten finalists competing at an event in L.A, the winner of which will become an Uncharted 3 character.
The competition launches on the Sony Facebook Page on Friday 9th March with entries open through to Sunday 18th March.
More for information check out the video presented by Nathan Drake himself below.
You can find out more about the motion-capture techniques used to create Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception here on The Train2Game Blog.
So Train2Game, are you as good as Nathan Drake? Will you enter this unique competition?
Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on The Train2Game forum.
Train2Game students are launching four new development studios in 2012 as part of ‘Make Something Unreal Live,’ a competitive process designed to accelerate their careers by giving them the tools and resources needed to release games for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this spring.
The studios are Commando Kiwi, Derp Studios, Digital Mage and Indigo Jam.
The first titles released by the studios will be based on the Fighting Fantasy series of books created by Ian Livingston and Steve Jackson.
We caught up with Digital Mage’s Craig Moore to find out how the road to Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show has gone so far. Listen via Train2Game Radio or read it here on The Train2Game Blog.
Hi Craig. Why did you decide to call your Make Something Unreal Live game development team Digital Mage?
Well, originally we were called Team Gandalf, and because we’re using the visage of a mage and everything like that, it just seemed a bit close to the bone in regards to licensing. So, we decided to change to something that was equally wizardy and call ourselves Digital Mage, which actually came about because we found a random name generator online and it happened that upon us. It kind of felt like fate.
And I guess it works well with the Fighting Fantasy IP you’re working on, can you tell us which book in particular your game is based on?
We’re working on Armies of Death.
And what genre is your game going to be?
Luckily for us, we’re making a strategy game, and we’re hoping to do something quite fun and interesting with it within what we can do with the engine itself.
How have you found using UDK on IOS and how are you finding making a strategy game out of it.
In all honesty we’re working against the grain, it feels at the moment. It’s a lot of hard work but hopefully it should be good when we get it all up and running, we’ve managed to make some quite nice headway with it and we’ve got some really good stuff and it’s looking promising. We should be able to deliver the game we want to deliver at the end of it, the game we set out to deliver when we first started planning it all out.
What’s going to make your game different?
There are a lot of strategy games in general out there – tower defence is a huge genre on IOS devices – but one on the Unreal Engine is a completely different story, that’s a bit of a rare beast.
What particular element of strategy are you going for in particular?
We’re doing what we like to call ‘Tower Offence’ where we’re changing the game upsidedown on its head and you’re no longer places all the towers, you’re doing the attacking.
How have you found the transition from being Team Gandalf at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, to being Digital Mage, a fully operative game development studio?
It’s a lot of hard work, we have to spend a lot of hours in the evening just communicating things that could be done very easily in face to face situations. But it’s slowly coming together as a lot of people in the team who’d never worked in teams before are getting the hang of it now and it’s all kind of slowly falling into place which is really good. It’s a credit to the team themselves who are coming together nicely and it’s working well.
What targets have you met recently that you’re particularly proud of?
As sad as it sounds, about 1 a.m. last night he had a massive breakthrough. We managed to get all of our units appearing in the game and with little animations. It was kind of a real nice penny drop moment where we thought we could actually do this, and come up with something that potentially could be really cool.
And you’re looking forward to many more of those moments on the road to Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show?
Yeah, hopefully! Fingers crossed we should have lots of more of those and they should just get better and better with each turn.
And how much are you looking forward to the event itself, working on the game in front of potentially a large audience in Birmingham?
It should be fantastic. The size of the crew and the crowd don’t really phase me in any way, it’ll be really nice just to have the team together in one place after all this learning experience building up to it, but having all that power and working knowledge in just one place again will be a really, really nice feeling and it should help us mould even better as a team.
For those who want to find out more about Digital Mage, what are your online contact details for Facebook and Twitter?
They can look for us on Facebook, just search for Digital Mage, we should show up with a little black icon. And on Twitter we’re @DigitalMage.
Great, thanks for time Craig and good luck.
Keep up to date with the latest news from Make Something Unreal Live here on The Train2Game Blog.
Train2Game Blog readers may have seen last month’s post about FPS mech combat title Hawken accepting signups for a closed beta.
The Hawken trailer however, was a little dated, but now Adhesive Games have released a new video featuring more gameplay footage. Watch it below right here on The Train2Game Blog.
Hawken is scheduled for release on 12th December 2012, and will be free-to-play. There aren’t details about when the closed beta will take place yet, but those interested in taking part can register to do so on the Hawken website.
Beta testing is an excellent way for Train2Game students, especially those on the Games QA Tester course to practice their bug hunting skills. Not only that, but in an interview with the Train2Game blog, Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester Karl Tars said that beta testing is potentially a way to get into the industry.
And in a recent interview with The Train2Game Blog, Brawl Busters developers Rock Hippo told us that beta testing is “crucial” to the game development process.
For more on beta testing, how it’s useful for Train2Game students, and opportunities to get involved with it, see the Train2Game blog.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the new video? Will you be applying for a place in the closed beta?
Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
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