Category Archives: www.train2game-news.co.uk

Train2Game News Coding with Star Wars

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Code.org unveiled a Star Wars-themed computer science tutorial featuring Princess Leia, C-3PO and R2-D2 as well as Rey and BB-8 from the upcoming film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The online lesson kicks off the third-annual global  Hour of Code campaign, in honor of Computer Science Education Week, December 7-13, 2015.

Thanks to Disney and Star Wars, students will learn to write code that allows them to create fun challenges and games using Star Wars characters. Participants will join forces with Rey to guide BB-8 through a space mission, then team up with Princess Leia to build their own game featuring R2-D2 or C-3PO. Students will also be able to play their completed games on smartphones and share them with friends and family through a unique link.

“For generations, Star Wars has sparked kids’ curiosity and imagination, and we hope the appeal of characters like Princess Leia and Rey will help fuel greater participation in science and math, especially among girls, around the world,” said Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. “Computer science has helped shape our legacy and changed the way movies are made, which is why programs like the Hour of Code are so important to us.”

This is the second year Disney has worked with Code.org on a coding tutorial featuring Disney characters. Last year’s tutorial — which President Obama participated in at the White House for the Hour of Code last December — has been completed more than 13 million times and tapped Anna and Elsa from Walt Disney Animation Studio’s blockbuster film “Frozen.” More than 100 million students across 180 countries have tried an Hour of Code tutorial, including one in three students in US schools, according to Code.org estimates.

Code.org’s new “Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code” lesson for the Hour of Code 2015 aims to nurture creativity and teach logic and problem solving through basic computer programming. There are two versions of the introductory tutorial: one introduces users to the coding language JavaScript for the first time in a Code.org lesson, and lets them create a game in their Internet browser using Code.org’s unique blocks-to-text programming environment.

For beginner and younger students, a tablet-friendly drag-and-drop version will be available in the next few weeks. The tutorial will also be translated into more than 40 languages. The tutorial is supported by Star Wars: Force for Change, a philanthropic initiative that harnesses the strength of Star Wars and its global fandom to empower people to come together to make a positive impact on the world around them.

In addition to the lesson, role models and technologists, including Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, Rachel Rose, a Senior R&D engineer working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Charita Carter, Senior Creative Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering, have provided short video lectures to help students through the one-hour activity.

“Millions of us have been transported to a galaxy far, far away thanks to the creativity of the team behind Star Wars. Every one of us, especially young boys and girls, should also have the chance to learn how to power our own creativity with computer science,” said Hadi Partovi, co-founder and CEO of Code.org. “Code.org is honored to have the support of Disney and Star Wars on the Hour of Code, making it possible for students everywhere to experience firsthand how this foundational field opens new doors and can be a lot of fun, too.”

“Disney is driven by storytelling and technology—and we know that kids introduced to computer science today will become the innovators and storytellers of tomorrow,” said Jimmy Pitaro, co-Chairman, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. “We are honored to be working with Code.org again this year to introduce millions of students to coding, which is becoming one of the most important languages of their generation.”

In addition to partnering with Code.org to make the “Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code” tutorial available for free in more than 180 countries, The Walt Disney Company is donating $100,000 to support Code.org’s efforts to bring computer science education to after-school programs throughout the United States. One lucky classroom will win the grand prize – a trip to San Francisco, Calif. for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes “Making of Star Wars” experience with the visual effects team who worked on Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The grand prize is courtesy of  ILMxLAB, a new laboratory for immersive entertainment, combining the talents of Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound. Sphero, a company that participated in the 2014 Disney Accelerator, will also be gifting programmable  BB-8 TM droids to 100 participating classrooms. HP Inc has also donated Star Wars TM Special Edition Notebook devices to 10 participating teachers. And during Computer Science Education Week in December, Disney will host an Hour of Code event for local students at their Los Angeles office, and Disney VoluntEARS will support Hour of Code events around the world.

The “Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code” tutorial is the newest addition to Code.org’s online learning platform,  Code Studio, which offers a suite of self-guided computer science activities and courses for students to learn the fundamentals of computer science, starting as early as kindergarten.

At a time when the majority of K-12 schools don’t offer computer science, more than 5 million students have enrolled on Code Studio since its 2014 launch, including 10 percent of all K-8 students in the United States. Additionally, 43 percent of Code Studio students are girls, and 37 percent are black or Hispanic.

This reach is substantial, considering  women hold only 23% of computing jobs, just  18% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science are awarded to women, and only  22% of high school AP Computer Science exam takers are girls. Furthermore, only  18% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science are awarded to blacks and Latinos and, at the high school level,  9% of AP Computer Science exam takers are Hispanic, and just 4% are black.

Beyond the Hour of Code, Code.org has partnered with Disney on “Infinity Play Lab,” an environment where students code stories or games starring Disney Infinity versions of Anna and Elsa from “Frozen,” Hiro and Baymax from “Big Hero 6” and Rapunzel of “Tangled.” Code.org has also released Hour of Code tutorials with artwork from Rovio’s Angry Birds, PopCap Games’ Plants vs. Zombies and the acorn-crazed squirrel Scrat from the Twentieth Century Fox animated series “Ice Age.”

Try a preview of the “Star Wars: Building a Galaxy with Code” tutorial now on Code Studio (http://Code.org/starwars). The experience will also be available on Disney.com soon.

And sign up to participate in this year’s Hour of Code event:  http://HourOfCode.com

Train2Game News Rumpus Animation hit Kickstarter goal

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Studio with working Train2Game student get last minute surge of investment to reach target

Train2Game student Leah Panigada and her team successfully raise funding for comedy point-and-click sequel Bertram Fiddle. Rumpus Animation is based in Bristol and Leah is a full time employee at the company alongside studying with Train2Game. The Kickstarter went down to the wire, achieving its £25,000 target with one day to spare, the total now sits at over £28,000.

Train2Game spoke to Leah to find out more about her studies, Rumpus Animation and what’s next now the Kickstarter is complete.

Leah Panigada, Rumpus Animation and Train2Game: ‘I am currently a Train2Game student. I have been for a year and a half. It can be quite difficult as I am currently on the design course. I’m a 2D digital artist so find the 3D things quite different to what I’m used to! I most defiantly feel my experience with Train2Game has been positive. Although it’s a struggle to learn a new art form I feel like it’s all worth knowing. The Train2Game courses are very thorough and are very good at keeping you up to date on the latest changes to the industry. I’m the only person on my team at work that is studying Train2Game although my best friend is also taking a Train2Game course. She is taking the coding side and we hope to make some small app games in the future.’

‘Rumpus animation is owned by Joe Wood and Seb Burnett. They founded it in 2011 and have been creating animation for the BBC, CBBC, GOOGLE JAPAN, AARDMAN, as well as plenty of one off projects from loads of different clients. About two years ago Seb and Joe decided to pitch Bertram Fiddle as a point and click adventure game. Safe to say that the whole studio is VERY excited to make the turn from an animation company to a game and animation company!’

‘The Bristol development scene is thriving! The Bristol Games Hub is a community of gamers, game developers and game publishers all under one roof! They really support each other and have regular meet ups for other game developers in the area. It’s refreshing to see so many unique and interesting new games and ideas being made. Link to their site is here: http://bristolgameshub.com/’

‘Our team is actually very young. Our producer, Elise Townsend  – Who is newest on our team is the youngest at 22. Dan Emmerson and I are 23 to 24. Seb and Joe are in their 30s. I was only just starting work experience with Rumpus when Bertram Fiddle one was starting up but they still accepted me as part of the team. I was still learning loads about animation and how to set animation up for games. Now I’m a full time member of the studio and the second game is going to start soon! So yes I have been here while the first game was released. Let’s hope it’s the same for the second!

‘Bertram Fiddle 2: A Bleaker Predicklement is the sequel to our first game. In this new adventure Bertram Finds himself framed for a murdering he did not commit. We plan to make this game Puzzlier, Punnier and more perplexing than ever! It’s a story-based comedy point and click adventure game set in Victorian London. We are planning to put a lot of weird new characters in this one inspired by Victorian Novels, HammerHorror and Lovecraft. Episode 1 was featured on the app store and received ‘The Best Narrative’ award from Tokyo indie fest, 2015.’

‘There’s some great humour in there. Seb is the creator and writer of all the jokes and story in the game. The bizarreness of it really makes it fun to work on everyday! You never know if you’ll be designing a werewolf or animating a Fish-man! I think it’s a great game for kids but also brilliant for the more mature audience. In a sense we have drawn inspiration from many different places! Like Gavin the Cyclops from Mythology, – Count Fulchmuckle – who has red eyes and a taste for ‘exotic’ things. We also have Lady Ravisham from Charles Dickens – Great expectations, and Geoff the murderer from any old school murder Mystery!’

‘I feel that the first games was received really well. Nearly all the feedback we got was positive and complimented the humour and look of the game. Some people felt that the puzzles weren’t difficult enough which is something we really want to work on with the second game. Other than that, it’s great to see that people can understand what Bertram Fiddle is about and that his character is pretty human. Although I feel like people warmed up to Gavin more than Bertram. ‘

‘We’ve been working a lot on our Kickstarter and trying to catch as much attention as possible. Our short videos and gifs have been a blast for us and the fans! As for the sequel, it’s got a storyline, a bunch of awesome new characters, Concept-art, Fan-art, puzzle ideas and backgrounds ready to go! We also have a production blog for Kickstarter backers were you’ll be able to keep up to date with our processes. I really can’t wait to start on it! Dan and I have been given a lot more freedom when it comes to creating the puzzles, designing/ animating characters and story.’

‘The support for the second game has been overwhelming! Seb acting even weirder than normal and has had very little sleep. The Kickstarter was incredible, there were some really cool prizes up for grabs. Some of my faves were the ‘MEMBERSHIP TO THE ADVENTURER’S CLUB reward you will get this fantastic 8 inch, book-shaped tin, printed to look like a, er, book, so you can hide all your secret Adventuring bits and bobs away. There’s a really cool art book coming out that will have some awesome work from many a talented artist’s such as Warwick Johnson Cadwell and Violaine Briat. If you’ve been keeping up with twitter you’ll know who! We’ve also given backers the opportunity to be a character in the game! I’m very Jealous of that one!’

‘It feels great and exciting that we successfully completed our Kickstarter but also a bit strange because the constant hype from 30 days is now over. Although now we are all running around and finishing all of our other projects so that we can fully concentrate on the game. It’s going to be really REALLY busy! We are such a small team that there is never not something to do! To all the people who supported us, it’s just been so overwhelming, exciting, nerve wrecking and stressful, haha, – don’t think we’ll be making another Kickstarter for a while! – but just the biggest of Thankyou’s to those who supported us and I hope that you enjoy playing our game as much as we will enjoy making it.’

The Kickstarter has now successfully finished. It’s a superb game and with a Train2Game student involved, it would be great if the community could continue to support Leah. If you are interested in learning more, find all the information you need at the links below.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/763843992/bertram-fiddle-a-victorian-animated-adventure-game?ref=nav_search
Bertram Website: http://www.bertramfiddle.com/

Train2Game, bringing City & Guilds to the Games Industry
Train2Game is a proud supporter of www.plasisgamesportal.com and www.gamatier.com

Train2Game News Virtual Reality foresight

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A new report has been published by Transparency Market Research, titled  ” Virtual Reality in Gaming Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2013 – 2019 ” .

TMR, a market intelligence company based in the U.S., states that the global virtual reality in gaming market was estimated at US$466.6 million in 2012 and is anticipated to reachUS$5,839.9 million in 2019, expanding at a 39.2 % CAGR from 2013 to 2019. According to this report, the market for virtual reality in gaming is fuelled by numerous factors such as continuous advancements in gaming technologies, namely 3D effects, motion tracking, and user interactive graphics.

The increase in disposable income is also a key factor augmenting the market, as with rising disposable incomes, individuals are inclined towards new innovative reality games and entertainment solutions to entertain themselves. However, the soaring costs of these entertainment sources are amongst the major factors impeding the growth of the market. Nonetheless, cost-effective devices with gesture control and economical sensors for motion tracking are projected to be introduced in the market in the near future, which will stimulate the growth of this market.

On the basis of component, the virtual reality in gaming market is segmented into two components, namely software components and hardware components. Among these two components, in 2012, the software segment was the biggest segment, representing a revenue share of 53.5% in the overall market for virtual reality in gaming.This segment is expected to retain its dominance in the market throughout the forecast horizon owing to consistent advancements in virtual reality technology. The hardware segment is predicted to experience exponential growth in the forecast horizon owing to the utilization of virtual reality products, namely hand gloves, head mounted displays (HMDs), and glasses.

On the basis of type of gaming console from various manufacturers, the virtual reality in gaming market is segmented into Apple Mac, personal computers, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PlayStation. Amongst these, Sony PlayStation dominated the global market for virtual reality gaming consoles owing to its powerful brand equity in the mobile phone industry, gaming industry, and other consumer electronics.

On the basis of geography, the market for virtual reality in gaming is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World (RoW). In 2012, North America dominated the global market, accounting for a revenue share of 37.0% owing to the existence of prominent companies such as Take Two Interactive and Electronic Arts Inc. After North America, Europe emerged as the second biggest market and held a revenue share of 31.9%. Nonetheless, Asia Pacific is predicted to exhibit enormous development in the market during the forecast period owing to rising numbers of online gamers along with presence of the topmost gaming manufacturers in this region.Sony Corporation, Electronic Arts Inc., Linden Lab Inc., and Nintendo Company Limited are the dominant companies in the virtual reality in gaming market.

Train2Game News UK Top 20 Games – 09.11.15

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cod_blackops3Call of Duty Black Ops 3 has knocked Halo 5 off the top spot with Halo hitting number four. The only other new game to enter the charts this week is the newest edition to the Need for Speed series which hits number three.

All formats
Week ending 7 November 2015

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS III ACTIVISION –
2 FIFA 16 EA SPORTS 3
3 NEED FOR SPEED EA GAMES –
4 HALO 5: GUARDIANS MICROSOFT 1
5 ASSASSIN’S CREED: SYNDICATE UBISOFT 2
6 MINECRAFT: STORY MODE TELLTALE GAMES 5
7 WWE 2K16 2K 4
8 GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 6
9 – LEGO DIMENSIONS LEGO DIMENSIONS 9
10 CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS ACTIVISION 15
11 LEGO JURASSIC WORLD WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 10
12 UNCHARTED: THE NATHAN DRAKE COLLECTION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 7
13 WATCH DOGS UBISOFT 8
14 MARIO KART 7 NINTENDO –
15 DESTINY: THE TAKEN KING ACTIVISION 12
16 GUITAR HERO LIVE ACTIVISION 11
17 FORZA MOTORSPORT 6 MICROSOFT 13
18 SKYLANDERS SUPERCHARGERS SKYLANDERS 14
19 MINECRAFT: XBOX EDITION MICROSOFT 16
20 MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 18
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2015 UKIE Ltd

These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News time2win stress test

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Tournament platform time2win starts into its announced stresstest on November 9th, 2015.

In this open testphase of the platform, 41.000 euros will be distributed as prize money and gaming equipment worth over 10.000 euros will be raffled! Registrations are now open on time2win.eu. “You are able to play for prizes of up to 200 € in about 60 Tournaments with 16 to 32 participating Teams”, says CEO Christopher Young. “But even the last place will be rewarded for their participation in our stresstest. We want all players to experience, how to play and win on time2win.”

Besides time2win-tournaments, with prizemoney set by time2win and its partners, other modes like challenges and buy-in-tournaments will be usable on the platform as well. “We know, that players don’t just want to participate in our own tournaments, but also try and test the other features we offer. The starting capital for our money features can be won in our time2win tournaments”, comments COO Björn Ruessel.

Platform development will be ongoing until official release during the next months. “We strive to elevate eSports onto a new level”, says Björn Rüssel. “Competitive eSports including prizemoney should be accessible to everybody. Everybody deserves a realistic chance to win prizes!”

time2win plans not only online tournaments but also offline events as well, with more games joining the mix, like CS:GO or RocketLeague.

Besides existing partners, known brands like TeamSpeak cooperate with time2win. The company even sponsors own tournaments during the stresstest. Furthermore Avira, Mionix, Slightly Mad Studios – producer of “Project CARS”, energydrink-company Tantrum, Clans.de and Musterbrand joined as partners. More information can be found in this three minute long video, describing existing and planned features for time2win.

Train2Game News Kudan AR Unity Support

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Kudan, the Augmented Reality software provider, release a version of their AR Engine that unlocks the potential for over 4.5 million Unity® developers to integrate professional Augmented Reality into their games and apps.

The Kudan AR SDK has solved some of the biggest challenges with Augmented Reality today. Until now apps have generally been reliant upon expensive data connections, a problem that Kudan neatly avoids with the ability to store assets and recognize hundreds of images locally on the device. 3D content can be highly realistic, with multi-million polygon models and HD videos.

Next-generation features of the Kudan AR SDK include the ability for developers to add occlusion to real world objects, adding depth and interactivity to a scene.

The SDK also offers a capability to position AR content on any surface. Known as Markerless Tracking, this is a new type of AR that doesn’t require a trigger image or location, allowing for AR anywhere, anytime.

The magic of the augmented reality can now be easily added to new or existing Unity® projects. Unity® customers include Cartoon Network, Coca-Cola, Disney, Electronic Arts, LEGO, Microsoft, NASA, Nexon, Nickelodeon, Square, Ubisoft and Warner Bros.

Kudan CTO, John Williams says, “The Unity plugin is another milestone in the development of our engine and represents an important step towards the continued growth of our developer ecosystem. We’re committed to providing the millions of Unity developers a professional solution with which to enable AR in their games and apps.”

Unity® is the game developer’s software of choice in every major market in the world. An overwhelming majority of the top-grossing 3D mobile games made with third-party tools are created using Unity Technologies’ engine.

The fully featured Kudan AR Engine is a relative newcomer onto the scene, arriving at a time of great disruption in the AR software provider landscape. With Apple Inc.’s buyout of Metaio and Qualcomm’s sale of the Vuforia platform, developers have been faced with some difficult choices.

The lightweight Kudan AR Engine Unity Package is available to download, for free, at the Kudan Website:
https://www.kudan.eu/downloads/kudan-ar-unity-package/

Train2Game News GameBlast 16

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Gamer’s charity SpecialEffect today announced GameBlast16, the UK’s biggest gaming marathon weekend. People of all ages are invited to play video game marathons or hold gaming-related events to help people with disabilities benefit from the fun and inclusion of video games.

The charity is calling for teams of friends, family members or work colleagues to sign up to undertake their own sponsored video game marathons or gaming-related events anytime during the weekend of 26-28 February 2016.

“It’s the best reason to game ever. Gamers can enjoy doing what they love best and level the playing field for people with disabilities at the same time,” said Mick Donegan, the charity’s Founder and CEO.

“People like Ceyda (LINK), who’s always wanted to join in with her friends and family, but her cerebral palsy meant that she couldn’t use a standard controller. The funds raised through GameBlast16 will help us change the lives of many more people like Ceyda through the gift of gaming fun and inclusivity.”

GameBlast is the charity’s biggest annual gaming event. Over £120,000 was raised through GameBlast15 last February, and SpecialEffect are aiming to reach a target of £150,000 in 2016.

Teams and individuals can sign up for Gameblast16 at
http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/gameblast

Train2Game News Rumpus Animation needs your support

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Rumpus Animation needs your support to Kickstart Bertram Fiddle sequel

Train2Game student Leah Panigada and her team looking to raise funding for comedy point-and-click title

Rumpus Animation, a Bristol based animation company are currently funding the second part of their 2D comedy point and click adventure game called The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle.

Train2Game’s Leah works at Rumpus Animation creating 2D digital art/ animations and games in Bristol. Rumpus created the first game of Bertram Fiddle about a year ago – Seb Burnett – Creator and Director/ Illustrator, Joe Wood -Lead Animator/ Lead Editor, Leah Panigada- Storyboards Animator/ designer, Dan Emmerson – Technical Artist and programmer, Ellise – has recently joined the team for the second game, as Producer.

Bertram Fiddle, the world’s self-proclaimed leading Victorian explorator, is back in Episode 2: A Bleaker Predicklement! Once more Bertram and Gavin, his trusty man servant, find themselves in a bit of a pickle. Geoff the Murderer, the elusive serial killer who has evaded capture by the top detectives, is still on the run and Bertram must continue to wander the murky and mysterious streets of Victorian London to hunt him down and reveal his true identity.

But in this second episode Bertram has been framed for a murder that he did not commit and must now struggle to clear his name to be able to continue with the mystery that goes much deeper than he expected, and really does leave him in a Bleaker Predicklement.
The game, inspired by point and click games such as Monkey Island and following in the comedy footsteps of Day of the Tentacle, The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle is set to be available on PC, Mac, iOS and Android.

The Kickstarter has a few days to go and we still have quite a way to go to reach our goal. It’s a superb game and with a Train2Game student involved, it would be great if the community could support. Find all the information you need at the links below.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/763843992/bertram-fiddle-a-victorian-animated-adventure-game?ref=nav_search
Bertram Website: http://www.bertramfiddle.com/

Train2Game, bringing City & Guilds to the Games Industry
Train2Game is a proud supporter of www.plasisgamesportal.com and www.gamatier.com

Train2Game News Open Gaming Alliance battling cheating

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The Open Gaming Alliance (OGA), a non-profit association focused on the games industry business, today announced Nexosis, the start-up providing a machine learning solution to detect and combat cheating in games, as the latest company to become a Corporate Member.

Nexosis joins other industry leaders such as Intel, Dell/Alienware, Logitech, Razer, Unity, Webroot, Lenovo and the recently announced Ubisoft in supporting the OGA’s efforts to provide leadership and opportunities; and encourage growth and diversity within the games business ecosystem.

Utilizing state-of-the art machine learning to combat cheating is less invasive, achieves higher detection rates and requires lower administrative costs than traditional signature-based anti-cheat systems. Nexosis enables software developers to easily leverage such machine learning solutions for new or existing applications.

“Games today are big business representing big dollars, which attracts more innovative ways to try to game the system,” said Ryan Sevey, CEO and co-founder of Nexosis. “Joining the OGA enables us to work with the best game publishers and studios to combat this threat while providing developers with improved anti-cheating solutions.”   

As the leading organization focused on the business of the games industry, The Open Gaming Alliance provides an array of resources to its members, ranging from research and best-practice guidance; to marketing support and networking with some of the industry’s premier middleware and hardware providers, and publishers. Founded in 2008, the organization has evolved to cover multiple platforms and operating systems; maintaining its primary goals of strengthening and promoting the community around all game platforms while providing a unified voice.

“In this era of virtual goods and micro-transactions, in-game marketplaces and esports, it becomes increasingly challenging to anticipate and detect intrusion,” said Drew Johnston, OGA president. “Nexosis is forward-thinking in its approach to security, and offers our members great insight into the latest big data and machine learning solutions that can potential cut costs and increase player satisfaction.”

Train2Game News UKIE planning for industry growth

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The Blueprint for Growth report, commissioned by Ukie, sets out recommendations that will grow the UK games industry by £1bn by 2020

A new report, commissioned by games trade body Ukie, launches at a high-level Parliament event today. The Blueprint for Growth report sets out a series of recommendations for the decision makers in UK parliament that will see the industry grow by an estimated £1bn by 2020. The report can be read in full here.

The independent report, conducted by Olsberg SPI on behalf on the trade body, is based on a series of consultations with over 40 stakeholders from across industry and government. It also includes a literature review of over 60 reports, evaluations, and policy proposal documents, relating to both the UK and the global games industry.

The Blueprint tracks the evolution of the UK games industry since the 1980s, demonstrating the fast-evolving business models unique to the sector, and the perfect blend of British creativity and innovations in technology used by games businesses that have helped the UK become one of the most successful games exporters in the world.

The report also identifies a number of market failures that the sector faces which threaten the global competitiveness and standing of the UK games industry, as well as its potential to spill over and transfer knowledge, skills and innovation to other creative digital sectors. It follows with a series of recommendations that will collectively lead to the UK games sector contributing another £1bn annually to the British economy.

These recommendations include:

1. UK and EU funding to fully and equitably recognise the contribution of games, ensuring effective support alongside other creative industries
2. Support regional growth, FDI and exports across the UK
3. Grow, attract and retain the best talent
4. Create the best tax environment and digital marketplace to do business worldwide
5. Promote games-as-culture and celebrate cutting-edge UK innovation

Each of these key recommendations is cemented with realistic actions that parliament members can take to ensure that the recommendations are satisfied. The fulfilling of these recommendations, the report states, will create more economic return in the games industry and create an environment that allows start-up games businesses to flourish.

The Blueprint for Growth Report will be officially launched at Ukie’s Annual Westminster Reception on Tuesday 03 November. The evening reception will be the culmination of the trade body’s first Westminster Video Games Industry Day, where leading names in the UK games industry will visit Parliament for a day of activity designed to showcase successes of the industry, and lobby and educate MPs to the needs of the sector. Minister of State for Culture and Digital Economy Ed Vaizey will deliver a keynote speech at the event to an audience of MPs, Ukie members and key stakeholders.

Other key figures from the report include:

    21 million people play games in the UK
    The UK’s games market is currently worth £3.944bn
    44% of UK games players are female; 22% are aged 45-64
    There are 1,900 games companies in the UK
    There are twelve established clusters throughout the UK, from Dundee to Leamington Spa to Bristol, and six further areas with critical mass
    95% of games companies are SMEs with clear potential for growth

Dr Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie, said “The UK Games industry blends the best of British creativity with leading technology, creating successful games exported around the world. It’s great to see this report unequivocally recognise this and show that games is now one of the UK’s major creative sectors, a source of economic growth and a mainstream part of British culture.

Government already recognises that the games sector can help meet their ambitions for increasing prosperity in the regions and doubling UK exports and the report outlines how this can be achieved. This can only be achieved by working in partnership with industry, looking globally but acting locally to maximise the potential of the UK sector in a digitally connected global marketplace.”

Chris White, MP for Warwick and Leamington, and Chair of APPG for Video Games, said, “The Blueprint for Growth report raises a number of important questions when considering support for the games sector in the UK in the years ahead.  As Chair of the APPG on Video Games, and the MP for an area with a rapidly expanding games industry, I know just how important it is to support the sector.

I hope that the Government will take note of the findings of the report and that we can all work together to ensure that the UK games industry grows on the world stage, taking as much of the projected 7.9% annual growth rate in global revenues as possible.”

Noirin Carmody, COO and owner of Revolution Software, and Chair of the Ukie Board, said, “This Blueprint for Growth report highlights the fantastic successes of our innovative and fast-moving sector, and outlines how the Government can act to help our industry continue to grow and flourish. The recommended interventions will help the sector grow and create the perfect environment for the UK to become the world’s leading destination for games development.”

Andrew Barnes, Associate Director of Olsberg SPI, said, “This report represents a comprehensive overview of the state of the UK games industry, and highlights the tremendous growth of the sector over the last few years.  In conducting this report, the consultancy Olsberg SPI interviewed stakeholders across industry and the public sector, undertaking an independent evaluation of their perspectives together with researching a broad range of other data. We look forward to seeing where the UK games industry will be by 2020 if the recommendations set out in this report are followed.”