Category Archives: Train2Game

Train2Game

Train2Game News: Chinese gaming giant Tencent acquires stake in Epic Games

Posted on by
Reply

Chinese gaming and internet giant Tencent has announced it’s agreed to acquire a minority stake in Epic Games producers of the Unreal Engine and games including Gears of War.

In China, Tencent runs social networks, web portals, e-commerce and MMO services, with almost 650 million users.

Epic state they will continue to operate independently, with the deal expected to go through within the next month.

“We’ve developed a huge amount of respect for the Epic team for many years now, as dedicated players of Epic’s games and as licensees of Epic’s Unreal Engine technology. Epic’s deep commitment to quality across all of its games and technologies inspires us. They’ve been raising expectations in gaming for two decades now and they’re just getting started,” said David Wallerstein, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent.

“We have a lot that we can learn from each other, and we look forward to supporting the Epic team as they embark on their next phase of gaming innovation across both emerging and familiar platforms.”

Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps welcomed the investment from Tencent.

“Tencent’s investment will empower Epic to help us do even more of what we do best, which is making great games and game technology. Their expertise in the global online gaming market is second-to-none, and the opportunity to work with them to bring richer experiences to players all over the world is irresistible,” he said.

“Epic is excited to be full steam ahead on all of its current plans for this generation of games and the next, with the support of a fantastic partner that believes in our strategy and shares our dream.”  Capps added.

Train2Game recently partnered with Epic Games for Make Something Unreal Live, a contest that saw student teams building mobile games based on the Fighting Fantasy series using the Unreal Engine.

There’s more Epic Games news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Tencent acquiring a minority stake in Epic Games?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on The Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Unknown Worlds to host Natural Selection 2 developer session at Rezzed

Posted on by
Reply

Unknown Worlds, the creators of popular Half-Life mod Natural Selection are the latest studio to be added to the developer session line up at Rezzed, the PC and indie gaming show which takes place in Brighton next month.

Natural Selection is a multiplayer mode which combined real time strategy with first person shooting, giving one player the role of Commander as they directed the team and constructed buildings from a top-down 2D viewpoint.  Natural Selection 2 is a standalone sequel scheduled for release later this year.

Unknown Worlds’ Hugh Jeremy will host the Natural Selection 2 developer session on Friday 6th July at 5pm, in which he’ll take audience questions and discuss the game. It could be a great opportunity for Train2Game students to find out more about the benefits of modding.

“Natural Selection 2 is now only months from release. Rezzed is about to get up close and personal to some xenomorph evolution,” said Jeremy

Tickets for Rezzed are available on the official website, and it’s looking to be an interesting event for Train2Game students to attend, with a variety of developer sessions including those from Introversion Software, The Creative Assembly, Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood  and Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford.

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the latest news as the show approaches.

What would you ask Unknown Worlds about Natural Selection and modding?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Epic Mickey 2 video discusses Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Posted on by
Reply

Learn about the origins of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and what Creative Director Warren Spector wants to achieve with him in Epic Mickey 2 in a new behind the scenes video from Junction Point and Disney.

Spector discusses planning the game around Oswald, how he’s a great character and how Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two can have Oswald and Mickey’s relationship develop like it hasn’t before.

The video also features Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline who discusses the history of Oswald. She shows footage of the character that’s over 80 years old and discussing how this has been used to give him certain abilities for Epic Mickey 2.

Watch Epic Mickey 2 – Meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

The Train2Game Blog recently reported how Warren Spector struggled when trying to make Deus Ex perfect.

There’s more about Epic Mickey 2 here, while be sure to stay tuned to The Train2Game Blog for developer diaries which take you behind the scenes of game development.

What are your thoughts on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his role in Epic Mickey 2? What does it say about video games in being the medium to bring it back?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or here on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Phantasy Star Online 2 open beta begins this week

Posted on by
Reply

Phantasy Star Online 2 enters open beta this week, and you can get involved.  You can sign up to take part in the beta test by downloading the game here.

Those taking part in the Phantasy Star Online 2 open beta, which begins on Thursday 21st June, will be able to reach Level 30 as the game is tested before its planned full release as a free-to-play title this summer on PC, PlayStation Vita and smartphones.

41,500 players took part in a test of SEGAs MMO last weekend producer Satoshi Sakai revealed, say Siliconera.

There’s more beta testing news, and information on how it’s useful for developers and Train2Game students, here on The Train2Game Blog.

Will you sign up to take part in the Phantasy Star Online 2 beta? Were you a fan of the original?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Unity reveal their next game engine

Posted on by
Reply

 

Unity has revealed the fourth version of their game engine, designed to boost AAA game development.

New features for Unity 4 include all-new Mecanim character animation system, DirectX 11 support, updated  mobile graphics, and the addition of Adobe Flash and Linux as new publishing platforms.

“We’ve been working on Unity 4 for a long, long time and are happy to finally be able to unveil its imminent arrival and outline its core features that will change the industry,” said Unity CEO David Helgason

“The revolutionary animation system and add-on deployments to Adobe Flash and Linux are some of the critical features introduced in Unity 4, which together maintain Unity as the strongest, fastest evolving modern games development platform available.”

“The introduction of the Mecanim suite of animation tools into Unity will completely change how developers integrate interactive animations and will result in awesome new gameplay experiences from the Unity community,” added Unity Lead Animation Developer Robert Lanciault,

“These tools will allow animators to work directly in Unity to create advanced and detailed animation blend trees and state machines for incredible and natural character animation.”

The full list of new features for Unity 4 is below.

• Shuriken particle system supports external forces, bent normals and automatic culling
• 3D texture support
• Navigation: dynamic obstacles and avoidance priority
• Major optimisations in UnityGUI performance and memory usage
• Dynamic fonts on all platforms with HTML-like markup
• Remote Unity Web Player debugging
• New Project Window workflows
• Iterative lightmap baking
• Refined component-based workflows
• Extensible inspectors for custom classes
• Improved Cubemap import pipeline
• Geometry data improvements for huge memory and performance savings
• Meshes can be constructed from non-triangle geometry – render points and lines efficiently
• Search, live preview and buy Asset Store assets from the Project Windo

There’s more on Unity here, including industry experience diaries from Train2Game students on work placement at the game engine creator.

What are your thoughts on the unveiling of Unity 4 and its new features?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford presenting developer session at Rezzed

Posted on by
Reply

Gearbox Software founder and CEO Randy Pitchford will be presenting a developer session at Rezzed, during which he’ll demonstrate Borderlands 2 and take questions from the PC and indie gaming show audience.

Borderlands 2 is one of a number of playable titles at the Brighton expo, which takes place on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th of July. Pitchford’s developer session is on the Friday and gives any Train2Game students in attendance to ask the games industry veteran questions about the industry.

Gearbox Software titles include Half-Life: Opposing Force, Borderlands, Brothers In Arms, Duke Nukem Forever and the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Tickets for Rezzed are available on the official website, and it’s looking to be an interesting event for Train2Game students to attend, with a variety of developer sessions including those from Introversion Software, The Creative Assembly and Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood 

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date with the latest news as the show approaches.

What would you ask Randy Pitchford at the developer session?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: UK Charts – FIFA 12 takes its 9th No.1

Posted on by
Reply

FIFA 12 once again sits atop the UK Charts, taking its 9th No.1 38 weeks after release.  In that time, the EA Sports title hasn’t dropped out the top five once, beating the achievements of its predecessor FIFA 11 which remained in the top five for 23 weeks.

Having held top spot for three weeks, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier settles for No.2  The Train2Game Blog recently spoke to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Creative Director Jean-Marc Geoffroy and Ubisoft Development Director Adrian Lacey, with the pair offering advice to Train2Game students on getting into the industry.

Max Payne 3 drops one to No.3, while new release Lollipop Chainsaw debuts at No.4, pushing Battlefield 3 down to No.5.

Diablo III jumps 16 places to No.6, with Game of Thrones dropping one to No.7.  Sniper Elite V2 slips three to No.8, Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games is a non-mover at No.9, with DiRT Showdown completing the top ten.

New release for PlayStation Vita, Gravity Rush, is the other new entry at No.11.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 16th June is therefore as follows:

1. FIFA 12 (EA)
2. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Ubisoft)
3. Max Payne 3 (Rockstar)
4. Lollipop Chainsaw (Warner Bros)
5. Battlefield 3 (EA)
6. Diablo III (Blizzard)
7. Game of Thrones (Koch Media)
8. Sniper Elite V2 (505 Games)
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)
10. Dirt Showdown (Codemasters)

Releases for the week ahead include LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.

What are your thoughts on FIFA 12 returning to No.1? Were you among those who picked up Lollipop Chainsaw?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum

Train2Game News: The Amazing Spider-Man developer diary discusses Manhattan as your playground

Posted on by
Reply

Get behind the scenes of The Amazing Spider-Man in a developer diary from Beenox and Activision.

In this ‘Manhattan is your playground’ developer diary Executive Producer Brent Nicholas discusses various features of this movie tie-in including web slinging navigation, combat and interacting with the environment. He also discusses the reasons why these game design elements have inserted into The Amazing Spider-Man.

Watch the Amazing Spider-Man developer diary below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

There are more developer diaries, which give you an insight into the work going into development of a variety of games, here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on The Amazing Spider-Man?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: “I really enjoy making games, it’s just fun” – Sid Meier

Posted on by
Reply

Even after 30 years in the games industry, Civilization creator and Firaxis co-founder Sid Meier still has fun making “very cool” things.

“I really enjoy making games, it’s just fun. It’s like taking a lumpy piece of clay and turning it into something very cool. Every day is part of that process. Not knowing exactly where we are going and figuring it out step by step is just a challenge. It’s almost like the “one more turn” phenomenon in Civilization.” the games industry veteran told GamesIndustry.biz, adding that the element of surprise is something he’s very fond of.

“ It’s looking to that next thing we are going to add to the game and seeing how we can just make it better. The fun for me is really not knowing from week to week what cool thing we are going to add and getting a chance to play with it and tweak it and the constant process of seeing a game grow before your eyes.” said Meier.

His enthusiasm for developing games after so long is sure to be an inspiration to Train2Game students.

Earlier this week, The Train2Game Blog reported that Meier believes the first 15 minutes are key to enjoyable game design.

Meier’s Firaxis Games are currently working on a reimagining of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and there’s more about the studio here on The Train2Game Blog.

Is the fact that Meier is still so enthusiastic about creating games after 30 years encouraging for you?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Nintendo Wii U supports free-to-play

Posted on by
Reply

Nintendo will support free-to-play games for their upcoming Wii U console. That’s what president Satoru Iwata told an audience of analysts at a Q&A session during E3, report Digital Spy.

“With respect to the Wii U system, when we began working on it, one of our goals was to have a variety of purchase options and additional e-commerce options available at its launch,” said Iwata.

“And because of that, we have prepared a Digital Rights Management system. We have designed the system from a technical standpoint to allow developers to freely take advantage of things like free to play and micro transactions.” he added.

While free-to-play has become a popular model for PC, it isn’t as popular on consoles. Ghost Recon Online, a free-to-play version of Ubisoft’s tactical shooter is one of the game’s following the model that’ll be arriving on Nintendo Wii U.

As reported by The Train2Game Blog, One analyst believes the Wii U will be the “Swiss army knife” of gaming.

There’s more about free-to-play and its benefits here on The Train2Game Blog, while be sure to keep reading for the latest news on the Nintendo Wii U.

What are your thoughts on Nintendo introducing free-to-play to their console? Will it be a success?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.