Category Archives: train 2 game

Train2Game news: Final Fantasy VII intro remade using Unreal Development Kit

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game blog readers may have seen this post last week where Square Enix said a Final Fantasy VII remake would take too long to develop.

Final Fantasy VII is a game many have called to be remade for the current generation, and it seems one enthusiast has got fed up of waiting. They’ve used the Unreal Engine to show what a Final Fantasy VII remake could potentially look like.

You can see the video at the bottom of this Train2Game blog post.

The video shows the first section of Final Fantasy VII and is played from a first person perspective. While the animation and interaction is a little on the stuff side it offers an interesting glimpse and what could be.

Unfortunately, it’s likely this fan created game will be pulled offline by Square Enix in the near future. Still it’s an impressing showing of the variety of things that can be one with Epic’s Unreal engine.

Epic Games of course were heavily involved with last month’s Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, which saw four winning teams win places to the Make Something Unreal Contest at the The Gadget Show Live next year. The winning team will talk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit for Ios.

For more information on what that means for the winners, check out our interview with Epic Games Mike Gamble.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the fan make Final Fantasy VII remake?

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

Train2Game news: PlayStation targeting ‘younger demographic’

Posted on by
Reply

PlayStation 3PlayStation will be targeting a younger audience in future, but emphasise that core gamers won’t be neglected. That’s according to SCEE CEO Jim Ryan in an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine.

“If you look back at the history on PS1, PS2 the vast majority of the business that we did on both those platforms was done at the sub £129 price points,” said Ryan, who said that many more PS3’s are still waiting tp be bought, even if a future price drop is needed for it to happen.

“Now we’ve only got to £199 in the UK a couple of month back so you can see there’s still a lot of PS3’s potentially to be sold.”

He added that Sony were looking to market the PlayStation 3 to a younger audience.

“I think you’ll see us taking the console more towards a slightly younger demographic,” said Ryan.

“More family market. The core gamer will absolutely not be neglected. There’s going to be tons of great stuff for the core gamer but from our own studio, third parties there’s some quite interesting stuff happening in a number of areas which would allow us to open up a market that we accessed pretty successfully on both PS1 and PS3 but haven’t yet got to on PS3.”

Earlier this year, the Train2Game blog reported that Ryan doesn’t believe the time is yet right for download only consoles.

So Train2Game, what do you make of the idea of PlayStation aiming for a ‘more family market’? Is it an area Sony can tap into?

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

[Source: OPM]

Train2Game news: Bioware co-founder on getting into the industry

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game students should be doing extracurricular work away from their courses in order to be in the best position to enter the games industry. That’s according to Bioware’s Dr. Greg Zeschuk, who along with co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka recently spoke to the Train2Game blog at a special BAFTA event.

Bioware, developers of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect fanchises, are currently gearing up for the release of MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“One of the most important things you need to get into the games business is actually figure out what it is you want to do, whether it’s art, or design or programming and take the courses to do that.” said Dr. Zeschuk on how to get into the games industry.

Current Train2Game students are already a step ahead there given the fact their on a Train2Game course. The Bioware co-founder added that if you also practice skills outside of formal training, you’ll be in a great position to get that first job in the games industry.

“So get the training, but also do it yourself Have fun, have a passion for it and practice outside of the formal training, and if you do those two things you’ll be in a tremendous position.” said Dr. Zeschuk.

Bioware co-founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka were speaking to the Train2Game blog as part of an interview conducted before their lecture at BAFTA. The interview, to be published shortly, sees the two former medical professionals talk about games as art, founding Bioware and similarities between working in medicine and working in the games industry.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Dr. Zeschuk’s advice? Does his focus on the importance of training give you encouragement? Are you also working on a side-project?

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

BAFTA’s public events and online resources bring you closer to the creative talent behind your favourite games, films, and TV shows. Find out more at www.bafta.org/newsletter,www.facebook.com/bafta or twitter.com/baftagames

Train2Game student diaries of Jonny Robinson 12 to 16

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game Game Designer Jonny Robinson is on a Train2Game work placement at DR Studios, these are his latest industry diaries.

Read Jonny’s latest industry experience diary here on the Train2Game blog, on the Train2Game Scribd site, or on the official Train2Game industry experiences website.

Train2Game at Eurogamer with Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game at Eurogamer with Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell

The Train2Game blog interviewed Nicholas Lovell almost exactly a year ago, read the huge feature here.

Nicholas Lovell is a former investment banker and web entrepreneur who helps games developers become publishers. He also provides strategic and online marketing advice and is a non-executive director at developer nDreams. Clients have included Atari, Channel4, Channelflip, Dynamo Games, Firefly Studios (who recently self-published MMO Stronghold Kingdoms), IPC Media, Rebellion and Square Enix. He is the author of How to Publish a Game and blogs about the business of games at http://www.gamesbrief.com.

More information from http://www.train2game.com

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Jason Kingsley CEO and Creative Director Rebellion

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Jason Kingsley CEO and Creative Director Rebellion

Together with younger brother Chris, Jason Kingsley formed Oxford-based developer Rebellion in 1991. Their first published title was Alien Vs. Predator on the Atari Jaguar, in 1995. They gained wider acclaim in the late 90’s with the PC game Aliens Vs. Predator. Following that, Jason bought famed UK comic publisher 2000 AD, gaining access to hundreds of intellectual properties, including Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Halo Jones.

The first fruits of the deal came with 2003’s PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC game Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death, while Rogue Trooper, released in 2006 for the same platforms, has been its most successful comic-to-game transition. Rebellion’s development headcount grew considerably with the purchase of Eidos’ Core Design, and Empire Interactive’s Strangelite in 2006, and Ignition’s Awesome Developments in spring 2007.

The Kingsley brothers also set up book publisher Abbadon, currently dormant film production company Fearnort and have a controlling share in Oxford-based motion capture studio Audio Motion. More recently Jason has again enjoyed exceptional success with Fox and Sega with the release of the new Aliens V Predators. In March of this year Jason announced the creation of a social division within rebellion responsible for creating games for Facebook and other social media outlets.

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game at EuroGamer with Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games

Duncan Ross CTO Genuine Games has12 years of industry experience and 9 published titles, as well as having been involved in around 10 others.

Genuine Games Ltd was incorporated in 1998. Working to deliver innovative mass appeal gaming with a passion and desire to entertain, the industry veterans are the most genuine in the business.

There headquarters are based in the scenic Scottish Highlands (Scotland has the highest proportion of game developers per head of population of any country in the world) offering us a wide range of talent.

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam Interview: Nick Stones, leader of winning team ‘Nova Eye’

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game Game Designer Nick Stones was part of ‘Nova Eye’ one of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams that’ll be heading to ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show. Train2Game caught up with him right after the winners were revealed to find out how it felt to win, how the game jam went, and if he’d recommend taking part in one.

Read the interview her, the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.

 Nova Eye are one of four winning teams at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam with the opportunity to Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show Live next year, what does that mean to you?

It’s such a fantastic opportunity and we’re definitely going to make every effort to make 100% of that. I’m over the moon at the moment. I came here, this is my first game jam, I didn’t know what to expect and it’s gone all in our favour. I was delivered a great team and I’ve been able to manage that very well and it’s shown and that’s it at the end of the day. I’m really excited to know that we’ve done our job and it’s gone well. I’m very anxious to know what we can do now for the future.

Was it difficult to contain your excitement when the winners were announced?

Since we’ve been doing this for 48 hours I was quite fine, but overall I was still shocked because I’d only just done my presentation to the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam judges. That was a gruelling experience in itself because I was quite nervous so it’s all still going through my head really.

How big an opportunity for you do you think it is for you to go to The Gadget Show Live and potentially walk away with a fully licensed UDK development kit?

We’ve been given this opportunity, we can put this on our CVs, this is a landmark for us. Everyone who has participated in the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, we can always say we have won a game jam and there’s nothing that can change that. Overall, it’s amazing and I’m really happy to know that this is possible.

 Tell us a bit about the game Nova Eye has produced here at the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, based on the theme of Guy Fawkes.

Our Guy Fawkes theme was quite wacky. We basically wanted to break the fourth wall. Our game was about Guy Fawkes and his production levels for Bonfire night. Fireworks weren’t selling, they were being outsold by Halloween and Christmas. So basically, Guy Fawkes is attempting to make sure that Christmas is knocked out of the sale so his markets would increase. What he ends up doing is going to the North Pole and using his custom rocket launcher that shoots fireworks to blow up anything that’s in Santa’s workshop.  That idea is completely crazy, I know that but it’s worked and I think it’s very refreshing.

How did you come up with that idea?

It was actually just a spur of the moment thing. We were talking about how Halloween and Bonfire night, and somebody just went ‘It’s crazy to see all this Christmas stuff before Halloween’ and it went from there. What if, thinking of it from a market side, Guy Fawkes is angry about that and he wants to change it. So there it was, it was a catalyst out of nothing really, just a spur of the moment thought that happened through socialising. So, don’t think you have to go out of the way to make these fantastic ideas, they can come from anything.

So you’d recommend taking part in a Train2Game Game Jam to others?

Yes, I would definitely recommend it. The experience that you get is unlike anything else. You get thrown in at the deep end but it’s not as bad as it sounds. You get to work with some fantastic people, don’t feel unconfident in your own skills, believe in yourself, make sure you’re happy with yourself to come down. Everyone didn’t know what they were doing so don’t worry about it, just come down and get in the moment really! That’s all I can say, get in the moment.

And the team will have to go through the process of designing a game with the genre you’ve picked out for The Gadget Show live. Tell us about the genre, and what your initial thoughts on it are.

We were given Action Adventure.  Our game that we won with was an Action Adventure so it’s something we can already work with depending on the construction of the brief. But since we’ve already done Action Adventure I feel that our confidence level is just that little bit higher than anyone elses’ because we’ve already got something that we’ve worked with already and have previous experience with. I’m over the moon with it. It’s got broad environments so I can work with it and I know my team will be able to do just as well.

 

For more information go to www.train2game.com

 

Train2Game at EuroGamer 2011 with Charles Cecil MBE Managing Director of Revolution Software

Posted on by
Reply

Train2Game at EuroGamer 2011 with Charles Cecil MBE Managing Director of Revolution Software

Charles Cecil MBE has worked in the interactive entertainment industry for 25 years. He is currently Managing Director of Revolution Software which has released such hits as Beneath a Steel Sky and the Broken Sword series. Mr. Cecil is on the advisory panel of the Edinburgh Interactive Entertainment Festival, and Develop Conference and regularly talks at events and to mainstream press about creative and commercial aspects of the video games industry. He is also a co-founder and remains a Director of Game Republic, an alliance of game developers, and is a Board member of Screen Yorkshire, a regional agency that supports film, television and interactive entertainment in Yorkshire. In 2006, Mr. Cecil was awarded the status of ‘industry legend’ by Develop, Europe’s leading development magazine

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam interview: The A-Team’s Jonny Robinson on winning

Posted on by
1

Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.  

Train2Game Game Designer Jonny Robinson is one of ‘The A-Team’ one of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams that’ll be heading to ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show. Train2Game caught up with him to find out how it felt to win, how the game jam went, and if he’d recommend taking part in one.

Read the interview here, on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.

Congratulations Jonny, your team, the A-Team are one of the winners of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, how does that make you feel?

I just love it when a plan comes together. [Laughs] As crazy as that seems I’m over the moon. I was saying to the team there’s a good chance we’re not going to win, but I said to every single one that we’re going to have as much fun as possible, we’re going to get along and we’re going to make friends. Don’t aim to win, aim to have as much fun as possible was my advice.

What does it mean to you to go onto The Gadget Show Live, to Make Something Unreal Live, and have the chance of walking away with a UDK development kit?

Nervous, maybe? I remember speaking to you earlier about this, saying I didn’t want to win because I was so petrified that there was a chance that I might win, there’s such pressure on you. Obviously as a team, the team felt the pressure in the 48 hours. But My God, you don’t realise that absolutely everyone who went to the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, the amount of pressure there was. Believe it or not our game actually broke an hour before it was going to be shown to the judges, and the team bundled together and managed to build it again which is amazing.

The pressure of going to The Gadget Show Live is amazing, it’s a real win and I’m glad not for me, but the team, they’ve really earned it. I’ve not really put any visual input into the actual UDK engine but more direction for them and they’ve gone with it and it’s worked so…win! And congratulations to The A-Team, not just me but everyone, they all deserved it.

Tell us a bit about your Guy Fawkes themed game

Believe it or not it took us 4 hours to decide on a theme for the game. The team wasn’t really getting along together because 10 people into one idea isn’t really a good idea in itself. The thing to be a good game designer is to take everybody’s opinion into account to make a game everybody wants to make and not just that one person. I’m not a power hungry person so I don’t really say ‘I want to make a game about me, or what I want’ I say ‘I want to make a game that’ll make you feel happy.’

This is a game we’ve all had input on and I said ‘We’ve got this vision, lets drive it’ And everybody’s been fantastic, the team are dead proud of themselves and I’m happy for them more than me if anything.

And they’ll need to go through the process of thinking of a game again with the genre you’ve picked for The Gadget Show Live. Tell us about the genre and your initial thoughts on it.

I kind of messed up the announcement at the presentation! I said ‘3 R D’ kind of announcing how tired I am. I meant 3rd person and I wish I’d cottoned on sooner! With 3rd Person Action I feel more confident a lot more than any of the others actually. I know FPS is the general given with the UDK engine. UDK I know, I’ve watched tonnes of tutorials. I want to give a shout out to two guys from 3D Buzz and The New Boston. These guys have really helped me, I spent hours learning their tutorials. I’ve learned the UDK engine within the space of 4 months. That’s a lot of hard work, I’ve been doing 3 hours of work a day to learn the engine, so yeah, it showed!

Despite your tiredness, you’ve enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to others?

Oh definitely. We got to this point where we had the pessimistic and the optimistic. I was kind of the optimistic, trying to push people forward. There were a few team members who were negative but that just balanced it out. All together we’ve made a great game development team. I’d recommend anybody going to a Game Jam, especially a Train2Game Game Jam.

Thanks for your time Jonny, and best of luck.

Thanks very much.