Category Archives: Student

Train2Game news: Volition Design Director on how game designers can stand out

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Train2Game Game Designers, this is a must read blog post for you, as it contains some excellent advice on how to stand out as you try to break into the game industry.

The tips come from Volition Design Director Jameson Durall in an #altdevblogaday post titled ‘How Can Entry Level Game Designers Stand Out?’

If the name seems familiar to Train2Game blog readers, it might be because he spoke to us earlier this year about Red Faction: Armageddon, game design and getting into the industry.

Writing about what he likes to see when hiring a game designer, and as he previously told the Train2Game blog, being able to use editing tools is essential.

“While someone focusing on Game Design may not have a background in programming…scripting gameplay in an Editor like UDK or Unity is a must in my opinion.”

Of Course, Train2Game students have the opportunity to create games using UDK at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam next month.

The Volition Design Director states that experience with UDK or another engine provides evidence of not only creating ideas, but also being able to create the actual product itself.

“I want to see that they have the ability to get in and do meaningful work to create content instead of just planning gameplay and expecting others to develop it.  Show me examples of gameplay situations that you designed and created and be ready to talk about why they are fun.”

Durall added that doing this is also a great way for aspiring game designers to practice their skills.

“This skill set also helps them prototype ideas early in development and create crude gameplay spaces to help get their gameplay ideas across.” he said.

The post makes excellent reading for Train2Game Game Design students, and contains plenty of helpful information on what a top game designer wants when looking to hire someone in an entry level position.

You can read Jameson Durall’s full post ‘How can entry level game designers stand out?’ on #altdevblogaday.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the Train2Game blog has reported on a game designer suggesting that using a development kit is a great way to get into the industry.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek told the Train2Game blog that modding is a great way to get noticed in the games industry, while in an interview at Gamescom, id Software Creative Director Tim Willits also told the Train2Game blog that modding is a “great way to get into the industry”

What are your thoughts on Durall’s advice on how to get an entry level game design role? Is it something you do already? Do you believe the upcoming Train2Game Game Jam could help this?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Altdevblogaday]

Train2Game news: UK Charts – Forza 4 powers past FIFA 12 for pole position

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After a record breaking debut week, as reported by the Train2Game blog, and a very successful second week on sale, FIFA 12 has narrowly lost its place at the top of the table and slips to No.2

It’s replaced by brand new racer Forza Motorsport 4, with the Xbox 360 exclusive pipping FIFA 12 to No.1 by just 700 sales. Forza claims the title of biggest launch week ever for an Xbox 360 racing game, and is one of seven new entries in this week’s top 20.

Just Dance 3 is the second highest new entry, with the Nintendo Wii version of the latest in the popular dance series making up over 90% of sales. Id Software’s Rage drops two places to No.4, with FIFA’s main rival PES 2012 reaching no.5 in its first week.

Former No.1 Gears of War 3 drops to No.6, while Namco Bandai’s Dark Souls slips from No.3 to No.7 in its second week on sale. Long time chart topper Zumba Fitness continues to feature in the top ten, despite slipping to No.8

F1 2011 drops four places to No.9, while new entry Jonah Lomu Challenge from Alternative Software completes the top ten in its debut week.

New entries outside the top ten are Ace Combat : Assault Horizon from Namco Bandai at No.12, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record from Capcom at No.14, and Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure published by Activision at No.16.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 15th October 2011 is therefore as follows:

1. Forza Motorsport 4 (Microsoft)
2. FIFA 12 (EA)
3. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
4. Rage (Bethesda)
5. PES 2012 (Konami)
6. Gears of War 3 (Microsoft)
7. Dark Souls (Namco Bandai)
8. Zumba Fitness (505 Games)
9. F1 2011 (Codemasters)
10. Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge (Alternative Software)

The upcoming week is a big one for new releases, with Batman: Arkham City and Football Manager 2012 both hitting the shelves.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the new look top ten? Is it a well deserved No.1 and No.3 for Forza Motorsport 4 and Just Dance 3? And is it inevitable that Batman: Arkham City will soar to the top next week?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: UKIE Games Charts©, compiled by GfK Chart-Track]

Train2Game students can go to BAFTA’s Game Writers Panel for free

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Train2Game blog readers may have seen a post earlier this week about a special BAFTA game writers panel at the end of this month.

The event is £5 for members of the public, but Train2Game students can book their place on 26th October FOR FREE here.

The BAFTA event is free to attend for anyone studying or working in games and could provide Train2Game students with a great chance to meet people in the industry or at least hear their thoughts on game design during the Q&A.

The game writers panel will feature game designers, Jim Swallow Ed Stern, and Rhianna Pratchett as they discuss whether  “Putting protagonists in the hands of a player kills traditional narrative concepts,” and much more.

For more information, see the original Train2Game blog post, or the official BAFTA website.

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game student advice from Trion Worlds on QA reports: write for an alien

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Train2Game Games QA Testing students should find this blog interesting, as it features some interesting advice from a Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester on how to write a great QA Report.

Trion Worlds are the developer behind MMO Rift and the upcoming strategy title End of Nations.

And in a soon to be published interview with the Train2Game blog, Karl Tars, Senior QA Tester at the Austin Studio has some great advice for Train2Game QA Testers about producing bug reports.

“Imagine you have an alien, they understand the language in some respects, but they don’t necessarily know a lot of the noun, they wouldn’t know what a fork this, they wouldn’t know what a knife is.”

“Now try and tell them how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when they don’t know what any of those things are.” Tars told the Train2Game blog.

The Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester argued that a well written, easy to follow bug report written by a QA Tester means that the developers can easily fix any issue that’s been found.

“You have to describe them being very descriptive and giving a good guide of exact steps and also including things like ‘it doesn’t work if you do this,” he said.

“So when the developer gets it they can just immediately go click, click, click, straight through your steps and ‘Oh there’s the issue, I can see it now, and now that I can see it on my machine I can fix it really easily.” Tars added.

The full interview with Trion Worlds Senior QA Tester Karl Tars, featuring an extensive insight into QA Testing and a look at upcoming title End of Nations, will be published on the Train2Game blog in the near future.

In the meantime, feel free to check out this post from earlier this week in which Valve discuss the importance of playtesting to game development.

Full details on the Train2Game Game QA Tester course are available here on the official Train2Game website.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Tars advice for writing bug reports? Will you take it on board?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: EA Sports – RPG elements have a place in sports games

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Train2Game students may have noticed RPG elements appearing in shooters, in recent years, with id Software’s RAGE being a very recent example. (See the Train2Game blog interview with RAGE Creative Director  Tim Willits here)

And while traditional RPG’s used to be a niche market, elements of the genre are appearing all over the place. EA Sports Vice-President Andrew Wilson believes that RPG elements could even invade sport simulation titles such as FIFA.

“I think it’s a part of it, certainly.” he said when asked by The Guardian if RPG is the future of sports games.

“I think the future of the sports sim is the fact that you can choose how you want to play it. That we allow you to play on any platform, at any time, at any price, anyway you want”.

Wilson emphasised the importance of choice when playing games.

“Some players are all about the manager mode. Some players want the online head-to-head. The future for us lies in not compartmentalising any of the experiences, but to build a world where players can add value to their gaming experiences however they like.”

Of course, as reported by the Train2Game blog, even without RPG elements, the latest instalment of the FIFA franchise has been incredibly successful and currently sits at the top of the charts.

But Wilson believes that the market is still very much open, with consumers much more willing to play a variety of games than they used to.

“There was a time where gamers either played sports games or they played RPGs.” said the EA Sports Vice-President.

“Now there’s a lot more crossover in the industry; there are plenty of FiFA players who are playing games such as Dragon Age as well.”

We’ve been listening to the feedback from our audience and they say they want more compelling experiences in their sports games.” Wilson added.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Wilson’s comments? Are RPG elements beginning to feature in more games? Do they need to be in sports titles?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: The Guardian]

Train2Game students can question Uncharted 3 devs this weekend

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Train2Game students have the chance to question Uncharted 3 developers Naughty Dog and get their hands on the game at an exclusive event in London this Saturday.

The Naughty Dog team behind the Uncharted series will be hosting a developer session featuring a live walkthrough of the Desert Village section of the game.

It’s likely to give any Train2Game students who attend a great insight into the development of Uncharted 3 and what goes on behind the scenes at Naughty Dog.

Attendees will also get the chance to sample Uncharted 3’s single player campaign for the first time ever in the UK.

The Uncharted 3 developer session, a FREE event hosted by PlayStation Access, takes place this Saturday 15th October from 15:00-18:00 at The Union, 50 Greek Street, London, W1D 4EQ.

The venue will  apparently be transformed into the Pelican Inn in the upcoming Uncharted 3. There’s no need to register in advanced.

For more details about the Uncharted 3 developer session, Train2Game students should see the Facebook event page.

Earlier this month, the Train2Game reported that Uncharted 3’s lead designer said they made a lot of the game up as they went along!

Train2Game students can also check out this post that looks behind the scenes at Naughty Dog. Perhaps it’ll inspire someone to ask the Naughty Dog team a great question!

Uncharted 3 is released for PlayStation 3 next month.

So Train2Game, will you attend the Uncharted 3 developer session? What would you ask? And are you looking forward to the game?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Gabe Newell – Apple will make consoles ‘disappear’

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Train2Game students will be well aware of the impact Apple has had on the games industry, but they won’t stop with mobiles, they’ll make a move for the home console market too.

That’s according to Valve co-founder Gabe Newell, who made the comments to The Seattle Times.

“I suspect Apple will launch a living-room product that redefines people’s expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear,” he said.

Newell’s comments echo those of owner of cloud gaming service Gaikai Dave Perry, who as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, believes the main threat to traditional consoles is actually Apple.

Newell however was critical of Apple, and other gaming platforms, accusing them of being too closed and stifling innovation.

I’m worried that the things that traditionally have been the source of a lot of innovation are going,” he said.

“There’s going to be an attempt to close those off so somebody will say, ‘I’m tired of competing with Google, I’m tired of competing with Facebook, I’ll apply a console model and exclude the competitors I don’t like from my world.’

“I consider Apple to be very closed,” Newell added

“Let’s say you have a book business and you are charging 5 to 7 percent gross margins. You can’t exist in an Apple world because they want 30 percent and they don’t care that you only have 7 percent to play with.” he said.

Valve are currently working on CS:GO, and you can find out more about its development in an interview with writer Chet Faliszek here on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, is Apple a threat to consoles? And what do you make of Newell’s comments about closed systems?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Seattle Times via Industry Gamers]

Train2Game news: League of Legends Game Director on Game Design – don’t be ‘too awesome’

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Train2Game Game Designers should definitely be interested in this; League of Legends design director Tom Cadwell has been discussing the common pitfalls of game design.

“Even though we know how to do good design, we still make mistakes a lot, you can set up processes that facilitate good decisions,” he said at his GDC Online talk in Texas.

“Once you know what the right behaviours are, it’s very possible to coach your peers or subordinates. Some of these pitfalls are human flaws, and it is possible that some people don’t manage those flaws well enough even though they’re great designers.”

Cadwell discussed something Train2Game Game Designers may be particularly interested, that is the concept that an idea is ‘too awesome’ to cut from a game and how this can damage development.

“We probably shouldn’t do it, but man, it’s too awesome,” is a dangerous thought said the League of Legends Game Director.

“Now you have a problem because you’re bending over backwards to do this thing that doesn’t fit.”

But he said that even if they know the feature doesn’t work, game designers won’t want to say so in order to avoid being ‘that guy’

“Now you’re all excited… And you don’t want to be the guy who’s being a buzzkill” said Cadwell

In order to prevent this from happening, he suggests “decisions are reviewed by peers or supervisors who are not interested parties, who weren’t at the kick-off.”

Cadwell added that if something costs a lot to do, is it really worth it?

“Structure process to assess cost to risk — it takes six times the engineering resources. Is it worth it?” he added.

The talk provides interesting reading for Train2Game Game Designers, with excerpts available on Gamasutra.

Reports of GDC Online have provided Train2Game students of all disciplines with a lot of fascinating information. Just yesterday the Train2Game blog revealed what Valve had to say about the importance of testing games.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Cadwell’s comments? Do you agree that things can be ‘too awesome’ to go in a game? Have you experienced it when producing games?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamasutra]

Train2Game news: Valve on playtesting

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Train2Game students, especially the QA Testers, will be aware of the importance of testing games in development.

In an interview with the Train2Game blog last month, Valve’s Chet Faliszek revealed that testingto be an important part Counter-Strike: Global Offensive development. Now other leading Valve developers have given further insight into how testing works at the studio.

Gamasutra report that speaking at GDC Online in Texas, Valve writer Erik Wolpaw said they take it very seriously. They start testing internally during game’s early development before bringing in testers from outside the studio.

“We definitely do playtest. We’ll ask people after they play to recount the story to us and gauge their comprehension of their experience…” he said.

Of course, Valve fans among the Train2Game community will know the developer like to put humour in their games. However, Wolpaw added that testing this aspect of game design can be difficult.

“Comedy stuff is tougher [to evaluate] because it’s more subjective and it’s really hard to gauge peoples’ reaction,” he said.

“Pretty much no one that played Portal 2 cracked a smile, but testers still said the game was funny. It’s hard to tell if a joke is failing or not.” Walpaw added.

Nonetheless, the testing process is useful to Valve and they’re happy to make changes if something isn’t working.

“We fail all the time, we just don’t advertise it too much,” said studio writer Marc Laidlaw.

Excerpts of the GDC Online Valve Q&A session can be found on Gamasutra and it should make interesting reading for Train2Game students, especially those on the Game Design course.

Of course, Valve aren’t the only game developers who value playtesting, with the Train2Game blog recently reporting that Bioware see it as a key part of developing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Flower and Journey developers Thatgamecompany have also stated that testing is a crucial part of the game design process.

Find out more about the Train2Game QA Tester course here!

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the testing process at Valve? How important is it to get both an internal and external opinion on games in development?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Gamasutra]

Train2Game news: BAFTA Game Writers Panel 26th October (Updated)

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Train2Game Game Designers in the London area won’t want to miss out on the BAFTA Games Writers Panel later this month.

A panel of game writers will discuss ‘Players vs Characters’ and the idea that “Putting protagonists in the hands of a player kills traditional narrative concepts”

Speaking on The BAFTA Game Writers Panel are:

Jim Swallow (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Killzone 2, Star Trek: Invasion)
Ed Stern (Brink)
Rhianna Pratchett (Mirror’s Edge, the Overlord series, Heavenly Sword)

The panel will be chaired by Andrew S Walsh who has experience as a writer and director on over 50 games including Prince of Persia, Harry Potter, and Medieval II: Total War.

They’ll also examine how ‘killers, combatants and characters doomed to die a thousand times can still play the hero’.  In addition to this they’ll discuss what games can take from television and films to make characters more engaging.

The event will take place at BAFTA in Central London at 7:00p.m. Wednesday 26th October. Interested Train2Game students can purchase a ticket for £5.

UPDATED: Train2Game students can attend the BAFTA Game Writers Panel for free, find out how here.

For more information, see the event page on the official BAFTA website.

The Train2Game blog published excerpts of an interview with Brink Writer Ed Stern earlier this year.

So Train2Game, will you attend the event? And what are your thoughts on the idea that putting protagonists in the hands of a player kills traditional narrative concepts

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: BAFTA]