Train2Game News Slammed wrestling

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Choice of Games announced today that their text-based pro-wrestling RPG, “SLAMMED!” is now available on Steam.

The game is entirely text-based-without graphics or sound effects-and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

SLAMMED! is a 250,000-word interactive professional-wrestling novel by Paolo Chikiamco, where your choices determine how the story proceeds. The game is entirely text-based-without graphics or sound effects-but driven by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

In SLAMMED!, you’ve always dreamed of becoming pro wrestling’s biggest star…but the wrestler’s world is fraught with hardship and betrayal, in and out of the ring. Become a powerhouse, a technician, a high-flier, or focus on your promo skills. There’s more than one road to success.

But none of those roads will be easy. This is a world where your biggest fans are your harshest critics; where the front office is more dangerous than the squared circle; where friends can become enemies with a single heel turn; where, sometimes, the only way to win is to lose, spectacularly.

This is professional wrestling. And you’re about to change it, forever.

“Paolo Chikiamco has written an epic,” said Dan Fabulich, co-founder of Choice of Games. “His story conveys love for professional wrestling in a way that even non-fans can appreciate. In pro wrestling, even if the outcomes are scripted, the athletics-and the risks-are real. No one has complete control of what happens, and that’s where wrestling’s mystique lies. Someone might get really angry and turn a scripted match into an unscripted ‘shoot.’ Somebody might get hurt. SLAMMED! is about the blurred lines between reality and ‘kayfabe,’ the industry term for portraying scripted matches as genuine.”

There’s never been a professional wrestling game like this, a game where the outcome of your final match, your choice of opponent, and your relationships affect the ending. When’s the last time you played a pro-wrestling RPG with a “kayfabe” stat?-or where your trash-talking “promo” ability is as important as your core strength and wrestling technique?

                • Enjoy a 250,000-word personal tale of friendship, competition, and revenge.
                • Develop not only your physical abilities, but a favored wrestling style.
                • Become a heroic face, or a villainous heel-or even turn heel.
                • Turn a scripted match into a real fight-and vice versa.
                • Decide when to keep kayfabe, and when to break it.
                • Play as male or female, gay or straight.

It’s available for 26% off during launch week and can be obtained in the following link

http://store.steampowered.com/app/343370/

Train2Game News Free Developer Event in London

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Amazon will be hosting an event for indie developers in London next week, offering a mixture of free drinks and info on developing for Amazon platforms.

The ‘free happy hour’ will be held at Loading Bar, located in Dalston, London on the evening of Monday, January 12th.

Attending will be Amazon Developer Evangelist Jesse Freeman, who is looking to meet indie developers and share information on how they can get their games onto Kindle devices, Fire TV and Amazon App Store. He is also footing the bill for the drinks all night!

Devs are invited to show off demos of their game – although you’re also welcome to keep your secrets, if it’s just info you’re after. There will also be giveaways on the night.

All you need to be eligible is have a game or something in development that you’d be tempted to port over to the Amazon Fire platform.

The event kicks off at 7pm at the bar with details at http://loadingonline.co.uk/

Train2Game News Yogscast 2014 Christmas Charity

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Yogscast, the UK’s most watched family of YouTube channels announces today that its latest Christmas drive has raised $1,104,882.09 – just over £725,000 – for a mixture of international charities.

The incredible haul for the ‘Yogscast Jingle Jam’ beats last year’s total and brings the overall amount raised to over $2.6m since the Christmas events began in 2011.

Talent from across the Yogscast family of YouTube channels – plus some special guests – appeared on Twitch.tv every night during December playing games, taking on challenges and having fun.

The money will be shared between five charities: Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders/MSF, Fauna & Flora International, Special Effect, and End Polio Now.

Those who donated more than $25 got an amazing bundle of games and in-game items, including Thomas Was Alone, Magicka and Call of Juarez – delivered digitally via Humble Bundle and kindly supplied by generous game developers.

Those who gave more than $5 were able to leave messages for the livestreamers and received a unique accessory item in Team Fortress 2.

The month of donations clocked in at a total of $930,097 – with the other $175,000 being raised by the Yogscast directly, through a mixture of initiatives including the Christmas song ‘Does Santa Claus Visit Zombie Pig-men Kids in the Nether in Minecraft (At Christmas Time)?’ and from limited edition Christmas jumpers.

Yogscast co-founder Lewis Brindley said, “It blows our mind every year just how incredibly generous people are – I want to thank each and every person who donated to make the Jingle Jam so successful.”

“Once again we’ve had fantastic support from the UK and international video games industry supplying the games and items,” said Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin.

“We also have to thank the Yogscast family and other YouTubers who gave up their nights throughout December to broadcast live and raise so much money,” Turpin added.

Train2Game News Steam Dev Tools Sale

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Steam’s big Autumn sale includes a number of deals for its library of game development tools.

Those interested in the recently release App Game Kit 2 can pick it up at 33 per cent off for £50.91. 2D game animation software Spriter is also available at 50 per cent off for £22.49, while Mixamo’s character creation toolset Fuse is currently discounted by 55 per cent and costs £34.19.

Other tools on sale include the Axis Game Factory Pro and Premium, texturing tools Substance Designer and the Substance Indie Pack, 3D modelling application Silo 2, RPG Maker and game engine Leadwerks, plus a number of others.

Offers end on December 2nd.

You can find the full list of software on Steam here.

Train2Game News Warframe support Movember

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In honor of the Movember Foundation’s annual Movember campaign, Digital Extremes, creator of the AAA Free-to-Play title, Warframe is calling on its players (“Tenno”) to set a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title by encouraging players to display their facial hair in-game for a good cause on Friday, November 14th between 3pm and 4pm EST.

Earlier this month Warframe released a variety of virtual mustaches players could equip in-game.  As new Movember donation levels were met on the official site – www.warframe.com/movember – a new in-game mustache was released.  To get players in the spirit, this video shows off the in-game ‘staches in full swank.

Now, to further raise awareness for men’s health, Warframe will set the world record for The Largest Gathering of People Wearing False Mustaches Simultaneously in a Video Game.

Warframe is asking its players worldwide across PC, PS4 and Xbox One to gather online wearing their virtual mustaches, Friday, November 14th from 3pm – 4pm EST to help set the world record.  The record setting hour will also be aired live on the Warframe Twitch channel at www.twitch.tv/warframe for all to see and participate in the hair raising festivities.

“Our Tenno have already shown strong support through their contributions and the variety of Movember activities they’ve participated in so far,” said Meridith Braun, VP, Publishing at Digital Extremes. “Setting a Guinness World Record as part of our continued awareness efforts takes it to a whole new level and we hope it pays off by shining a big spotlight on a great cause.”

To ensure the record is officially reached by Guinness World Record rules and standards, Digital Extremes is turning to an impartial third party, Michael Katchabaw, an Associate Professor at the University of Western Ontario specializing in computer science for games, to track the record setting statistics.  In addition, members of the Warframe gaming community will help establish proof of the feat by sending in screenshots of their mustached Warframes and teammates as they join in the record attempt.

The Movember Foundation is the leading global organization committed to changing the face of men’s health.  Once signed up on Movember.com, men, also known as Mo Bros, grow a mustache for the 30 days of November, raising awareness and funds for men’s health programs as friends and family donate to their efforts. Since 2003, the Movember community has raised over $574 million and funded over 800 programs in 21 countries.

Warframe is a free-to-play fast-action PvE action game available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that is often described as MMO-Lite.  Squads of four players band together to advance their characters and battle the oppressive forces throughout the Solar System.  Introduced to the game as newly awoken Tenno warriors, players are thrust into a universe at war and armed with ancient exo-skeletal technology only they can operate. These Warframes bring unimaginable power and skill to the Tenno and provide players with unique offensive and defensive powers to explore and master.

Train2Game News Mobile Chatter

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Fresvii, the one-stop platform service for smartphone game developers, today announced Open Beta for APPSTEROID, a Mobile Game Cloud Platform.

APPSTEROID features Chatter, the first in game mobile voice chat, providing mobile developers a feature never before available for mobile games. Chatter allows players on iOS and Android devices to talk with each other while playing a game together, and developers can integrate the voice chat feature seamlessly using Fresvii’s APPSTEROID platform.

“We are excited to introduce the ability for in game chat for mobile gaming. No other platform provides the breadth of community features. APPSTEROID encourages player loyalty which helps mobile developers acquire and retain players,” said Hiro Nakagawa, CEO of Fresvii.

Fresvii also announced that the company has raised $1.8 million funding led by Nissay Capital Co., Ltd. a VC firm based in Japan and other angel investors.

The APPSTEROID Open Beta introduces new features in addition to Chatter:

In-Game Texting: Developers can easily integrate in-game texting into their mobile games.  Players can text to friends while playing their mobile game.

Leaderboards: Quickly integrate Leaderboards that display across both iOS and Android devices. Developers can change the Leaderboards user interface to match their games’ aesthetics.

Matchmaking: APPSTEROID will automatically find opponents across both iOS and Android devices. Developers can setup and define filtering conditions to create the ideal matchmaking systems for their games. The initial release supports turn-based games with up to 16 players.

APPSTEROID services range from community management, game forums, social network integration, and push notifications.  Developers can integrate these features easily via the SDKs, which are specifically designed for developers to add components as needed. The APPSTEROID SDK is cross-platform and supports Unity, Android, and iOS.

Fresvii already has game developers creating games using the APPSTEROID platform:

“APPSTEROID’s suite of game community tools lets me bypass the costly process of building social network infrastructure and focus on great game play instead,” said Chris Pruett, CEO of Robot Invader, a game development studio based in the Silicon Valley.

“Developers can easily wrap other APPSTEROID community features around Chatter such as forums, group and friend management,” said Sherman Luong, Chief Strategist at GameCo, a game development studio based in Newport Beach, CA.

Fresvii also provides a robust platform for 3D avatar automation called Frenbee that allows developers to create avatars easily with Unity.

The Open Beta Release is free and now available for mobile game developers to download at  http://www.fresvii.com.

Train2Game News Insomnia 52

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Multiplay, organiser of the UK’s biggest gaming festival, is thrilled to announce the attendance of some of the most popular streamers, YouTube personalities, and online gaming broadcasters at its biggest ever Insomnia event.

After a successful debut at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena with last Easter’s Insomnia51, Multiplay is gearing up for an expanded summer gaming festival. Headline sponsors for Insomnia52 include Scan, HyerX and Iiayma.

This upcoming event introduces the Festival Arena, which will take place in the stadium, with a huge marquee taking over the pitch with an array of new features including the biggest stage yet. YouTube continues its dominance as the hottest form of video entertainment, with Insomnia52 featuring a brand new YouTuber Live Zone featuring Lets Plays, and a wide variety of interactive stage content from a roster of high profile personalities.

Insomnia52 will feature special guests such as Syndicate of TheSyndicateProject, who will also be launching his exclusive clothing brand in the UK for the very first time at the show. There will also be opportunities to meet Syndicate and your chance to win an exclusive one hour gaming lock-in session on the Razer Gamer Bus, where a handful of lucky winners will get to play alongside the YouTube star. Other currently confirmed special guests include Ali-A, SIVHD, Keyori, the Noxcrew, AshleyMarieeGaming and members from the Mindcrack Minecraft server, with more huge announcements to follow in the coming weeks.

As the biggest ever Insomnia Gaming Festival, this summer’s event will be solidifying the gaming festival feel with live music. Headlining the Main Festival stage on the Friday Night of the event will be Zane Lowe. The internationally renowned DJ and remix artist will be mixing up a DJ set of epic proportions. Other great live acts will feature across the weekend including sets from contestants of BBC’s The Voice, with the full line-up being announced shortly.

“When we first started Insomnia all those years ago we had these far-off dreams for where we’d like the event to one day be, and reality has finally caught up,” said Craig Fletcher, Founder & CEO of Multiplay. “This is our 52nd event, and we all feel incredibly proud to have helped Insomnia grow into the unique gaming festival experience it is today, in no small part thanks to our fantastic community. I’m already looking forward to watching Zane from the front row!”

Multiplay is set to grow the Insomnia Gaming Festival throughout 2014, delivering unrivalled gaming entertainment to tens of thousands of fans. Insomnia52 will deliver more competitive gaming tournaments, LAN-based gaming, new title showcases, panel talks, more interactive activities, and more exhibitors and sponsors than ever before this August bank holiday weekend.

For more information on Insomnia52 and to purchase tickets visit http://insomniagamingfestival.com. More announcements will be made in the coming weeks.

Train2Game News: Eurogamer Developer Sessions

EurogamerGamer Network announced what is being referred to as the best ever developer sessions line-up for Eurogamer Expo 2013.

This year features presentations by the studios making Watch_Dogs, Killzone: Shadow Fall, The Witcher 3 and many more blockbuster titles.

Each developer session brings visitors face to face with top game makers, who will showcase new details of their projects in development, and for the first time ever, every single session will be streamed live at http://youtube.com/eurogamer.

Microsoft’s Phil Harrison kicks off the schedule on Thursday 26th September at 12pm with an exclusive Xbox One presentation, followed by Turn 10’s Dan Greenawalt showing Forza Motorsport 5 and Guerrilla Games demoing Killzone: Shadow Fall later in the day.

Highlights on Friday include David Cage presenting Beyond: Two Souls, Techland introducing next-gen open-world zombie title Dying Light and an exclusive look at the next-generation version of FIFA 14.

Things only get better at the weekend as CD Projekt RED shows The Witcher 3, Ubisoft Montreal presents the hugely anticipated Watch_Dogs, WB Montreal talks Batman: Arkham Origins, and Eidos Montreal showcases Thief.

This year’s schedule also features more indie games than ever, including a trio of PlayStation 4 titles: Resogun from Housemarque, Wasteland Kings from Vlambeer and Velocity 2X from FuturLab. Peter Molyneux also returns to the Eurogamer Expo stage to talk about Project Godus.

The full session schedule can be found at http://www.eurogamerexpo.com/whats-on/schedule

Each session will last around 35 minutes and in addition to hundreds of seats in the main auditorium, this year organisers have introduced an overflow area where attendees can watch the sessions in comfort, recharge phones and meet friends.

Eurogamer Expo 2013 (#EGX) takes place at Earls Court, London, from Thursday 26th to Sunday 29th September. Tickets have now completely sold out, with over 70,000 gamers expected to attend.

Train2Game Designer Student Jon’s Video Diary

Part 1 of Train2Game Games Designer student Jon’s video diary
It’s been a dream of his to get a career in the games industry, ever since he was visited by a Careers Advisor at school who asked him what he wants to do with his life and he said all he wants to do his make computer games.
For more information http://is.gd/bAApW