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Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 16.01.13

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Valve logoIt is that time of week for the Train2Game mid-week round up!

Valve has announced plans to to discuss a port of Team Fortress 2 to virtual reality goggles. The first talk will be programmer Joe Ludwig’s ‘What We Learned Porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality’ and it will explore the efforts of several employees over the last year to get the game to run in virtual reality goggles. In addition, Valve’s Michael Abrash will discuss the hardware challenges that lie ahead and possible solutions for virtual and augmented reality in ‘Why Virtual Reality is Hard (And Where it Might be Going).’

Square Enix have launched a new website to tease all fans of an upcoming iOS game. More information is to be released on January 17. The site has an image of what looks like a front end menu for the game which is called, Final Fantasy: All The Bravest. You can check out the website for yourself here: http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff_atb/

Since Activision brought out Skylanders it has done very well and now Disney has seen it’s potential. They are now doing their own version with the announcement of Disney Infinity. Infinity will work in the same way as Skylanders, needing action figures and a “toy box” base to give players access to different worlds. Disney fans will recognize plenty of familiar faces, like Captain Jack Sparrow, the cast of the Incredibles, and Sully from Monsters Inc.

Surreal game creator Suda51 has revealed details of his next game, Killer is Dead. The game stars Mondo Zappa, a 35 year old American executioner that abides by a strict suit-and-tie policy and his left hand is a gun that can also transform into a drill and is used primarily to absorb an enemy’s blood for an “Adrenalin Burst” attack. The game’s antagonist is Victor, who can manipulate emotions through song. He’s appropriately styled to look like classic composer, except has a green face and glowing eyes.

Online and mobile are spearheading the game industry’s growth to a potential total valuation of $83 billion by 2016, according to new research. Conducted by Digi-Capital, the global games investment review states that online and mobile could have a revenue share of $48 billion in 2016, 55 per cent of the entire game industry. The biggest driver in mobile and tablet app revenue meanwhile will be free-to-play, which could deliver 55 per cent of revenue in the sector and account for 93 per cent of app downloads by 2016.

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 16.01.13

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DEVELOPER

Job Title Graduate Programmer
Job Category Programming
Skills Required Programming
Location Yorkshire, North West

Job Description
Are you looking to join a creative games studio? Then look no further…

My client offers a relaxed and creatively charged atmosphere where talent can flourish. They pride themselves above all on the games they create and their appreciation of the people who create them.

Due to their recent success they are looking to add to their talented team with the addition of a Graduate Programmer.

Responsible For:
– Writing, debugging and maintaining computer code, often in, but not limited to, C/C++.
– Writing code in a human-readable style, using descriptive and accurate class, function and variable names, and comments where necessary.
– Carrying out other technical aspects of a project (for example running and maintaining build processes, setting up installers, providing technical information)
– Clearly and accurately communicating progress on, and problems with, your assigned tasks, and the project in general, to your lead programmer and / or producer.
– Assisting in the production of project milestones and schedules
– Carrying out assigned tasks within the time scheduled for them as agreed with your lead programmer / producer.
– Ensuring that your work integrates well with the work of other team members, and functions correctly as a part of the whole project.

Standards of Performance:

– All work should be performed accurately and in a timely fashion
– Producing good quality human readable code as noted above.
– Being pro-active with regards to problem solving
– Communicating progress accurately
– Taking an active interest in a project so as to ensure a smooth and error free development process.
– The improvement of the quality of the content required for Team 17 software, including but not limited to iterative play testing, reporting problems and addressing any quality shortfalls as requested.

Key Skills:
– Having the ability to solve technical problems
– Having an excellent working knowledge of programming language(s), particularly C/C++
– Have the personal skills and the desire to work as part of a team
– Be able to communicate clearly especially when relating to technical issues

How to Apply
For more details please contact Mark at: mark@aswift.com or 01709 834777

QA

Job Title Quality Assurance Tester – London
Job Category QA / Localisation
Skills Required QA Tester
Location Hammersmith, London, UK & Europe

 
Job Description
Capcom, Beeline is currently seeking a motivated QA Tester to join our London studio.The successful candidate will work with the QA team and the development team to ensure high quality bug free releases of our market leading games.

 
Required Skills:
Excellent attention to details, highly analytical
Self motivated with a professional work ethic
An excellent communicator both orally and written
Excellent organisational skills
Flexible (in regard to hours of work)
Proven decision making ability under pressure
Good understanding of business software applications (Excel, Word, Outlook)Familiarity with bug tracking software
Good command of the English language
Interest in games is essential

Desired Skills:
Previous experience in gaming QA whether console or mobile phones is desirable but not essential

Applicants must be able to start ASAP and will work from our studio in Hammersmith.

Please send applications with your CV to jobs@capcom.com

ART

Job Title 2D Artist for Smartphone Games – London
Job Category Art / Animation
Skills Required 2D / Concept / Texture Artist
Location Hammersmith, London, UK & Europe

 
Job Description
Capcom, Beeline is currently seeking a talented 2D graphic designer and animator to join our London studio. The successful candidate will work with the Lead Graphic Designer and Producer to design, create and animate graphical content for freemium social games.

Required Skills:
Ability to design appealing and original 2D game content.
Highly skilled in 2D animation.
High proficiency with Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (or similar software).
Experience with isometric perspective.

Desired Skills
Adobe/Macromedia Flash.
Previous experience with graphics for mobile devices.
Previous experience working with a game development team or similar.
Audio experience; proficient with audio editing software.
3D modelling/animation skills: Maya or Blender.

Profile
High creativity and attention to detail.
Strong background in sketching, drawing and illustration.
Ability to work within a schedule.
Genuine passion for the video games industry, design and animation.
Team player with strong social and communication skills.
Willing to learn, cooperate with the developers and open to feedback.
Good English language skills.

Applicants must be able to start ASAP and will work from our studio in Hammersmith.

Please send applications with your portfolio to jobs@capcom.com

DESIGN

Job Category: Games and Level Design, Graduate, Web Development
Area: South East, East Midlands
Location: Chipston-on-Stour, CV36 4BA

GRADUATE OPPORTUNITIES AT GAZOOB
Entry-Level Game and App Developer

Description
We are looking for two full-time developers, designers, and programmers with an interest in game, web or app development. If successful you will join our small team working at the Gazoob offices in Shipston-on-Stour. This is a flexible role which will involve varied tasks and the ability to learn new skills while working. This will give any graduate the perfect opportunity to start building apps, games, websites as well as a job for themselves at a growing company.

About Us
Gazoob is a UK developer and publisher of education and young person friendly digital apps, eBooks and games. Based in the small town of Shipston-on-Stour we provide non-contentious and reliable content for young people from age five upwards. We want to provide a resource where parents can be sure of getting access to content that doesn’t contain anything inappropriate, is educationally sound or just plain fun. We’ve built a team of experts in their field to develop the best products as well as continually looking for new and exciting content to add to our portfolio.

About You
• You may have an interest in game design and experience using engines such as Unity,
• You might be a keen web or graphic designer with skills in Photoshop and Dreamweaver,
• Or you may have experience building professional quality mobile applications.
• You must be confident, enthusiastic, and a positive thinker.
• You will be able to see any job through to completion independently.
• You will have a degree level qualification in any field.
• You will have good time management and communication skills.
• You must be able to travel to the offices in Shipston-on-Stour on a daily basis.
Salary and working hours are negotiable.
We are not looking to work with agencies to fill these vacancies.

To apply
Please submit a full covering letter with supporting material, and CV to:
ed.harmer@gazoob.com

Train2Game News: PS4 and Xbox720 likely to be announced before E3

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PS and XboxTrain2Game has discovered that Microsoft and Sony may reveal their next generation of consoles prior to E3 which takes place in June.

Rumours published in the February edition of Game Informer suggests that both companies are working on a press conference that is to be held near the time of the Game Developers Conference in March.

Sources have confirmed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 systems will be revealed before E3, though specific dates or events have not been finalised.

“We hear that both Sony and Microsoft are targeting special Apple-style press conferences to unveil their platforms near the Game Developers Conference in late March,” reads the Game Informer report.

“E3 in June may be the industry’s biggest event, but both companies want to give their systems their own limelight,” the piece adds.

Analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird Equity Research also suggested that the PS4 price and Xbox 720 price could be £225 to £275 if the prices are equal to the American predictions.

“Our checks suggest that next-generation console hardware will be largely built from ‘off the shelf’ high-end PC components, along with hybrid physical/digital distribution models, enhanced voice controls and motion sensing (Kinect integration with every Xbox), and broad multi-media capabilities,” Sebastian added.

“The cost of production and retail price points should be lower than prior console launches.”

Sebastian also estimated that the Xbox 720 release date is expected for November, while the PlayStation 4 release date may be later than November due to “early production issues”.

Train2Game News: Dust 514 Open Beta for PS3

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Dust 514CCP Games are doing an open beta on January 22 for their up coming game Dust 514. This is a great opportunity for Train2Game QA Testers to practice what they have learned.

CCP Games have announced that it will merge the servers for its space management simulator EVE Online and Dust 514, the PS3 shooter set in the same universe. By uniting both games, the way has been paved for Dust 514 to head into open beta.

The game is a PS3 exclusive so providing you have one you can download the game and enter the Beta which launches on January 22 for free.

Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP said in a press release “The launch of the Dust 514 open beta is another step towards our long-term vision for CCP and EVE. But this is just the beginning.  As we have done with EVE Online, in the coming weeks, and for years to come, we will continually improve upon and add to the Dust 514 experience, as well as add deeper integration between the two games and their communities”

There are no character resets planned, so anyone currently participating in the closed beta will be able to continue right as rain. In fact, those who’ve played at least one match before January 22nd will receive a 100,000 skill point bonus to take into the open beta.

CCP are very proud of the fact that this is the first integrated gameplay experience between two games that are not only of a different genre, but also exist on different platforms. Order an aerial bombardment on a PS3 game of Dust 514 and an EVE Online player might marshall the power of his PC to deliver the deadly barrage.

This is a very exciting and interesting new step in gaming. How well they do could see further platform crossing in the future.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 14.01.13

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fifa13It has been a quiet week for the UK Top 20. The top 5 are all the same with FIFA 13 still in the number one slot. The only new addition this week is Anarchy Reigns from SEGA.
POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 1
2 – FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 2
3 – CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 3
4 – HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX 4
5 – NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 5
6 JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 7
7 HALO 4 MICROSOFT 6
8 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 13
9 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 10
10 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 9
11 – ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 11
12 WWE ’13 THQ 14
13 SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED SEGA 12
14 FORZA HORIZON MICROSOFT 8
15 – DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 15
16 ANARCHY REIGNS SEGA –
17 – SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 17
18 MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER EA GAMES 16
19 FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 MICROSOFT 18
20 – LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 20

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect 2013 Charity run

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specialeffect-runGaming charity SpecialEffect are gathering members of the UK games industry to enter the British 10K charity run, and inviting Train2Game students to join in.

The charity run will take place in London on 14 July so there is plenty of time to get in shape for the event if you are looking for a worthy goal to help shift those extra Christmas pounds!

SpecialEffect is facing growing demand for participants as this really event gets bigger and bigger, as such we would LOVE to beat the 75 runners it had in 2012 and get 100 participants taking over the streets of London! If you also wanted to make this event even more fun then do feel free to dress up as your favourite Video Game character to sprint through London in. You’ll be running with lots of representatives from the UK’s gaming industry and it’s a great chance to meet new people while taking part in a very positive event.

By committing to the event, all runners are asked for the registration price of £50 and to aim to raise £200 through sponsorship.

SpecialEffect is a very worthy cause to raise money for. Their goal is to help disabled people play video games through the development of specially made technology that make playing games easier for those who are less able or being treated for severe illnesses.

To find out more and to register for the event visit https://www.eventelephant.com/ee/events/pages/summary.htm?siteurl=specialeffect2013

You can enjoy the video of last years 10K run below

Train2Game News: A round up of tech from CES

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The Consumers Electronics Show is coming to a close and Train2Game are bringing you the news of some of the most interesting technology to come out of the show.

Steam BoxValves media named Steam Box was finally confirmed at the show after much speculation through 2012.  Valve has invested in computer manufacture Xi3 who will be developing a special customised PC designed to bring Steam to the living room.

The box, codenamed Piston, will offer up to 1TB of internal storage and the ability to upgrade components like the RAM and CPU in the future, a spokesperson told Polygon. Valve will also be making its own Steam Box in-house, and they’ll be a few more from other PC manufacturers too.

It is currently rumored to have 4-8 GB of DDR3 RAM and a quad-core 64-bit, x86-based 32nm processor running at up to 3.2GHz with 4MB of Level2 Cache.

Asus Transformer AiOA new tablet from Asus was announced at the show but this is a tablet with a difference.

The Asus Transformer AiO is a standard tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) from an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor but you can take it home and connect it to its stand and it becomes a desktop PC running Windows 8 running on a Core i3 processor and Nvidia GT 730M GPU.

The trick is the stand, which has its own array of USB ports and a built-in 1TB hard disk. The tablet itself has 16GB flash memory.

RAZER GROUP EDGE GAMING TABLETAnother exciting tablet that was announced this year was the Razer Edge which is optimised for gaming.

The Razer Edge is a Windows 8 tablet, but a ferociously powerful one with the sort of tech you would expect to find in a gaming laptop. The standard model has a Core i5 processor, an NVidia GT640M LE GPU, 4GB of RAM and a 64GB solid state drive, while the Edge Pro has a Core i7 processor instead, 8GB of RAM and either a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive.

The tablet can also be plugged into a Gamepad Controller, which comes complete with two Wii Nunchuk-style handles featuring two analogue sticks, a D-Pad and a variety of face buttons.

Xperia ZSony Xperia Z was the smart phone announcement to look at for gamers. It’s only 7mm thin, has a 1080p 5-inch screen and is packing a beast of a quad-core Qualcomm processor with 2GB of RAM.

According to Sony, the Xperia Z is the most powerful phone it’s ever made and the first it’s had a strong say in since it took over manufacturing from Ericsson, and it also claims that while it’s running Android 4.1 instead of 4.2, its own “skin” is very minimal and it should be easy to upgrade the OS in the future.

It is set to be an incredibly powerful phone with a good battery life thanks to Sony’s new technology that apparently draws very little power while in sleep mode.

Train2Game News: Nintendo open to the idea of Free-to-play

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Satoru IwataCompany President, Satoru Iwata has revealed Nintendo is open to the idea of using a free-to-play business model for new franchises.

Nintendo’s leader pledged that he won’t add free-to-play or micro-transaction elements to existing series such as Mario or Pokémon, during an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

“We, as an industry, can now do distribution by digital means as well as micro-transactions, and the ways to obtain money through supporting entertainment have increased.

“I have no intention of denying charged games or the free-to-play model. If we were to talk about if Nintendo were to do that, however, I do not have much inclination to do that with Nintendo’s established well-known products.

“We will not have a proverbial door to full enjoyment that can only be unlocked via payment. However, this is separate from, say, having something where because there are people who want more stages to play in Mario games, we will create new courses for those people and charge for them.”

This all changes for new game franchises, though. Iwata said that for fresh ideas he is open to the idea of other methods of payment.

“For new titles with no established base, if, in the process of development, we found it to suit the free-to-play model, we might follow that route, or we might do something like ‘cheap-to-play'” he explained.

“Our sales methods have been freed up and I have no desire to extinguish that freedom. If we were to release something like that, it is not a betrayal but the birth of an interesting idea through our new found freedom, that’s all. I am not talking about changing how we sell Mario or Pokémon.”

It seems that Nintendo have seen how powerful Free-to-play can be but most certainly doesn’t want to risk their well established franchises on the new business plan.

Train2Game News: Microsoft unveils new in your face technology

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IllumiroomLast year Train2Game brought you the news that Microsoft were working on a new technology to use your room as a screen for gaming. Today it was revealed they have reached that goal.

The idea of the technology is to project the bits of the game you don’t see on your TV, the periphery, onto the walls and furniture of your living room.

A small Microsoft Research team of four are credited with creating what is known as Illumiroom, and it is still only a proof-of-concept design. IllumiRoom pairs Kinect for Windows with a projector to achieve its results. The proof was shown by video at CES in Las Vegas.

“Our system uses the appearance and the geometry of the room (captured by Kinect) to adapt the projected visuals in real-time without any need to custom pre-process the graphics,” the MS Research team explained.

The video captured IllumiRoom running live rather than added it via special effects in post-production to give viewers their first taste. The videos show the cityscapes of shooters sprawl beyond the television. It shows bullets, sparks and fires spill out into the room giving a beautiful feeling of total immersion. My favourite part was seeing snowflakes cascading down the walls.

More detailed details are scheduled at the CHI 2013 event held in Paris on April 27.

You can enjoy the video below:

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 09.01.13

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Xerneas and YvetalThe first news in this weeks Train2Game Mid-Week round up is a follow up to the Pokémon news from yesterday. The two legendary creatures that are briefly seen in the trailer have been named. They are Xerneas and Yveltal.

Video games had the highest total amount pledged out of all other categories on Kickstarter last year.  561,574 backers made 1.3 pledges totaling $83 million. Out of 2,796 video game projects launched, 911 were funded. Video games had almost double the amount of pledges than Films, the second most successful category. They make up nearly a quarter of Kickstarter’s total backers and total money pledged.

Valve have given the first glimpses of  what could be, the media named Steam Box. Code-named “Piston”, the system is still in a development stage and Xi3Coporation states the system will be “optimized for computer game play on large HD televisions”. The specifications have not been released yet, but will be built on Xi3′s Modular Computer chassis which is grapefruit sized, and will support both Steam and their recently released Big Picture mode.

Following the demise of City Of Heroes last year, Missing Worlds Media have decided to create a new superhero MMO, currently named Project Phoenix. Their aim is to build a Superhero game from the ground up and take what was successful from past games and build on it with new technology. If you are missing the super being you created, this could be one to keep an eye on.

Microsoft have sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. The figure represents cumulative sales of Windows 8 including upgrades and sales to original equipment manufacturers for licensing. Windows 8 sales are following a similar trajectory to that seen with Windows 7, according to Windows chief marketing and financial officer Tami Reller. Microsoft also said that over 100 million apps were downloaded from the Windows Store in the two months following the digital distribution platform’s launch with Windows 8 and Windows RT. There are now more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT.