Train2Game at Eurogamer with Train2Game Student Laurence Gee
Train2Game Student Laurence Gee started on work placement with Brain In A Jar and from there was offered and accepted a position in that company.
For more information: http://www.train2game.com
Train2Game and Epic’s Game Jam was a huge success last weekend, and now Epic Games European Territory Manager Mike Gamble has posted about it on the Unreal Insider blog
Gamble’s post not only gives some great publicity to Train2Game, especially the winning game jam teams, but also offers some insider information about how difficult it was to judge the games made using UDK.
Read about the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam on the Unreal Insider blog here.
The Unreal Insider blog also promises to post future updates about the winning teams as they work their way towards Make Something Unreal Live at The Gadget Show Live next year.
There’s still plenty of reaction to come from the TrainGame & Epic Game Jam, stay tuned to the Train2Game blog and Train2Game Audioboo for plenty of interviews, including one with Mike Gamble himself.
For more information, see the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam official website.
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Train2Game at EuroGamer with Neil Parmer CEO of BlueGFX
Neil Parmer is currently the CEO of BlueGFX based in Guildford. Blue GFX continues to win awards with Autodesk and remains a Gold Partner for Northern Europe, Media & Entertainment. BlueGFX focused their business in games, design visualisation, film/TV, broadcast and educational industries. Worldwide manufacturers of both software and hardware, constantly evaluating and researching the ideal tools in the market that will give their customers competitive advantage, and future proof all investments made.
For more information: http://www.train2game.com
Train2Game at EuroGamer with Jonathan Neweth, Partner from Tenshi Ventures
Jonathan is a founding partner at Tenshi Ventures. He has been growing and leading businesses in the games and technology sectors since 1989. This has included game developer Kuju Entertainment, an IPO on the AIM market, several trade sales of businesses and various fund raising exercises. Operationally, Jonathan drove Kuju’s business development expertise for many years, acquiring in-depth knowledge of marketing and brand development in the creative sector.
For more information: http://www.train2game.com
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 Elspeth Lawson GameHorizon Project Manager Codeworks
Ms Lawson manages the day to day running of a business network for computer games companies, general account/membership management and building strong client relationships. She has also been the Conference producer for the GameHorizon Conference held at the Sage Gateshead for 350 International delegates. And very much involved with Train2Game Work Placements.
Train2Game & Epic Games gave Train2Game student teams the opportunity to win one of four places at The Gadget Show Live 2012 and compete for the chance to walk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit.
Train2Game course leader Tony Bickley organised the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, and we spoke to him just after the event closed. He tells us how he feels it all went, the meaning of the prize for Train2Game students, and what it meant to have Epic on board.
Read the interview here, on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site.
We’re here at the end of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, how has it all gone?
Fantastic, a little tiring, but absolutely fantastic. We’ have about 160 people turn up for the Game Jam, the team sizes were 10 teams of 10 and it’s been a pretty good event, I’m very proud of what the students have managed to achieve and even more proud of their dedication and passion driving through.
Tell us what the winners here have won in going onto The Gadget Show Live
We’re putting forward four teams of finalists moving through to The Gadget Show Live. The final prize at The Gadget Show Live is going to be the iOS version of Unreal Engine, as well as personal development plans and tutoring going forward. We believe this’ll put them in very good stead to increase their employability, as well as setting them off to producing their own titles in future.
So it’s a massive opportunity for these Train2Game students?
Absolutely. The most important thing for people trying to get into the industry at the moment is not just proof of understanding but rather proof of ability. With this level of support they’ll be able to work as a solid team on a product, working on one of the best engines in the world. With the tutoring as they go forward, this will really, really enhance their skillsets.
As you say, UDK is one of the best engines in the world, what does it mean for Train2Game to have Epic on board with this?
Fantastic. With the support that Epic have given us in terms of tutorage and support staff, as well as co-sponsoring The Gadget Show with us, it’s absolutely brilliant and has been really, really, appreciated by the students.
How difficult was it to pick out winners from the fantastic games on offer by Train2Game students?
Very tough actually, very, very tough. I’ve been very proud of the students as they’ve come into this, we’re only just moving into using UDK within the teaching materials of Train2Game, so the students, up until a couple of months ago, were not very experienced on it. They’ve had to bring their skill sets up very, very quickly and then on Friday night we assigned the teams for them so there weren’t even pre-formed teams, they’ve had to understand the team dynamics and then work with the UDK engine and they’ve created some fantastic products. The standards were very, very high, we looked for creative input, we looked for graphics, we looked for variations, we looked for innovation, creativity, and it was of a very high standard. 48 hours is not a lot of time and it’s even less time if you want to try and work with an engine of that magnitude. The work that they produced was great.
What next now for the winning teams with the four different genres of games they have to produce?
Apart from going home and sleeping, I will be contacting them with the start of a six month productivity plan for them where they can be milestoned with what they should be looking to learn, and improved the skillsets that they’ve learned here [At the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam] in the last 48 hours, and then starting to prepare them for what they’ll need to do at The Gadget Show Live. It’s going to be 4 days of live development at The Gadget Show, where they finalise a new product using the UDK engine and help present that to the world.
Anything else you’d like to add about this Train2Game & Epic Game Jam?
It’s been a fantastic experience, it’s been very tiring, we’ve all made new friends here, certainly learned a lot and it actually makes me very proud to help train the next generation of computer game developers.
And has it been so successful there will be more Train2Game Game Jams in future?
Absolutely! One of the things one of the students asked me on the way out, even though his eyes were closing, was ‘When is the next game jam?’ Well, give me week to sleep and recover and then we’ll start planning it. We certainly intend to do another one, we certainly intend to make it bigger and better than this one.
Great, thanks for your time
Thanks very much.
For more information go to www.train2game.com
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 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 Craig Moore was part of ‘Team Gandalf’ 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 here,on the Train2Game Scribd page, or listen on the Train2Game Audioboo site. Leave your comments here on the blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Congratulations Craig, Team Gandalf are one of the winners of the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, as team leader, how do you feel?
A bit dumbstruck but absolutely over the moon! We had such a fantastic team, they did such an amazing job. It almost felt as if it was going too well, we’ve had a brilliant weekend, just brilliant.
And what does it mean to you to be one of the four teams going to The Gadget Show Live to Make Something Unreal Live next year?
It’s a fantastic opportunity, we couldn’t have asked for anything better. It’s such a hard thing to get into, but this should really help us get into careers and with everything really.
Tell us a bit about your Guy Fawkes themed game
What we were aiming for was almost a Medieval Portal style game and we had a fantasy theme with puzzle rooms. Basically, you’re the guy who dobbed in the whole Gunpowder plot scheme and you’re being chased by the ghost of Guy Fawkes and it’s very psychological, we went for dark rooms and an almost horror like game.
So how did your team find the whole Train2Game & Epic Game Jam experience?
A lot of learning went on, we had such a range of skills in our team. You could tell as we were getting towards the end of the jam the levels were getting better, our knowledge was getting much, much better and it was just flowing really well and we felt like such a good team together.
And how did you deal with the tiredness that took place during the game jam, because 48 hours is obviously a long time to work. It was an experience, right?
Oh, complete experience! Thankfully because it was going so well people were just planning out their time and jobs we had between us and just sleeping when they needed to. It just went really, really well.
And how are you looking forward to making a game over the coming months for The Gadget Show Live?
This is the dream for all of us, it’s working towards the main goal, the main prize, that’s going to be the driving force for everyone. It’s going to be a hard six months but should be a fantastic time as well.
And what would it mean to you if you won the big prize, the fully licensed UDK iOS development kit.
I couldn’t even explain what that’d mean to me, it’d just be incredible. It’s obviously the dream and it’s because of Train2Game that we’ve managed to get there. We’re going to go for it and it should be a really good fight.
Overall then, would you recommend taking part in a Game Jam to anyone else?
Without a doubt, if you’ve got the opportunity, go for it, go to a game jam. It’s an amazing chance not only to get a feel for making games, but also being in a team, working with people you don’t necessarily know, it’s a brilliant personality building opportunity as well.
Going into a game jam you’ve just got to keep a level head, try not to be too enthusiastic, within the engine you’re using, work out what you can and can’t do, work out with your team what their skills are and just plan.
Thanks for your time
For more information go to www.train2game.com
Train2Game at EuroGamer with Dave Hawes Lead Programmer at Eutechnyx
Dave has worked in the games industry for many years and worked in many different areas on previous and current generation consoles, He currently manage projects, advise on recruitment and architect new parts of the Eutechnyx engine. Hawes spoke at GDC 2008 on intergrating stackless python into a modern multi-platform console engine.
In 2009 Hawes had an article published in game developer magazine on the same topic.
The Train2Game Blog 