Tag Archives: Game Art & Animation

Train2Game & Epic Game Jam winners announced!

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UDK Train2Game blog imageThe Train2Game & Epic Game Jam is over and the winning teams are:

  • Team A (The A-Team)
  • Team B (Nova Eye)
  • Team G (Team Gandalf)

A fourth team has also been made up from individual students picked from the remaining seven participating in the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam

Each of them produced a game based around the theme of Guy Fawkes using Epic’s Unreal Engine.

These Train2Game student teams will ‘Make something Unreal Live’ at The Gadget Show Live 2012. The development teams will benefit from a six-month incubation period in which a range of senior industry veterans will nurture projects by reviewing key milestones, providing guidance and shaping scope.

During this time, talent will prepare for the final showdown at the Gadget Show Live, where more than 100,000 attendees will watch them bring to life Unreal Engine 3-powered creations in real time.

The winner of that will see their game get a full release.

Well done to the winning Train2Game & Epic Game Jam teams, and good luck preparing for ‘Make Something Unreal Live’ at the Gadget Show next year. Good luck!

And thank you to every one of the ten Train2Game student teams that took part. Stay tuned to the Train2Game blog for more reaction.

Train2Game news: Gears of War director Cliff Bleszinski wants Avatar visuals for next-gen

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Train2Game students will agree that there are some games with amazing graphics out there, but Gears of War 3 Design Director Cliff Bleszinski believes that they can get much better.

How much better is that? Well, the Epic man believes next-gen games should be able recreate the CG visuals of Avatar!

“I’m sorry, do you think graphics are good enough? No they’re not!” he told OXM.

“The Xbox 360 is great, we’ve pushed it further than we ever have with Gears of War 3, but I want Avatar in real-time and beyond, I want fully realistic CG, and are we there? Absolutely not. I think there’s absolutely room for improvement,”

But while Blesizinski – along with Train2Game students, no doubt! – wants better graphics, he admits that looks aren’t everything but they can make a gameplay experience much more impressive.

“Do graphics make gameplay? No. But when I fire up my projector back at my house, put Avatar on – it still makes your jaw drop, it’s like a giant portal to another planet. I think we still have a long way to go before we get there, and I want us to get there.”

However, the Gears of War Director added that it’s online that’ll be the most important thing for games and their developers in future.

“My money for the future of everything is on those who understand the online space the best. Because this is the world we live in, we’re always connected” he said.

The whole OXM article about what Epic wants for next-gen consoles should make interesting reading for Train2Game students.

Despite Bleszinski’s desire for games to be developed with Avatar like quality, the Train2Game blog has previously reported that he believes there’s still much more to come from current gen consoles.

And not so long ago, he gave some advice on what aspiring game developers, such as Train2Game students, should do to stand out. Read it here on the Train2Game blog.

Cliff Bleszinski is Design Director at Epic Games, and as Train2Game students will know, Epic has partnered with Train2Game for the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam which takes place on 4th, 5th and 6th of November. 

What are your thoughts on Bleszinski’s comments? Do games need Avatar like visuals? Can you see it happening?

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

[Source: OXM via Industry Gamers]

Train2Game news: Uncharted needs PS4 for next big improvements

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Train2Game students are living in time when video games look better than ever, with the Uncharted series being some of the best looking titles of the lot.

And while the upcoming Uncharted 3 is graphically improved over its predecessor, developers Naughty Dog say the jump isn’t as big as it was between Uncharted 2 and the original. They believe a next generation console is needed in order to recreate this level of improvement.

Speaking to Spong, Game Director Justin Richmond revealed that changes to the Uncharted’s engine have been tweaks rather than massive upgrades.

“Uncharted 3 isn’t just an incremental update – we did change lots and lots of things – but graphically speaking, it’s not going to have the same gap, it was never going to happen.” he said.

And the Uncharted 3 Game Director believes we won’t see another huge jump on the PlayStation 3, hinting that we’ll only see a similar boost when Sony release a next-generation console.

“The way we made it, how much of the PS3’s power we were using… that huge gap that you saw between Uncharted 1 and 2 is the kind of thing that really only happens once per generation. We pushed it really hard.” said Richmond.

Train2Game students may be interested to find out that Naughty Dog only managed to make improvements to Uncharted 3 by re-writing the engine, and it’s something they’d prefer to do only once per console cycle.

“Uncharted 2 to 3 is still a jump, but it’s a narrower jump. And going forward, it depends on what we do. There are always ways to improve stuff, always ways we can pull out more stops… like changing optimisations, changing streaming animations, getting more polygons on screen, progressive mesh,” Richmond said.

“But I don’t think you’ll ever see that same jump again, at least on a PlayStation 3. There was just so much power left over in the PS3 when we made Uncharted 1, that we figured out how to use and really took it to town when developing Uncharted 2.” the Uncharted 3 Game Director concluded.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, the Uncharted 3 have a something of a “make it up as we go along” thing when it comes to game design.

Meanwhile, Train2Game students interested in how Uncharted 3’s script is written and performed should check out this behind the scenes look on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Richmond’s comments? Do you believe a new console is needed in order to make another leap forward? Does that leap need to be made?

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

[Source: Spong]

Train2Game news: The making of a Team Fortress 2 hat

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Train2Game Art & Animation students should find this interesting; a post on the Team Fortress 2 blog reveals the step by step process of building a hat.

For those unfamiliar with Team Fortress 2, players can customise their characters with hats and other accessories. And as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, many community created hats have made it into Team Fortress 2, with the creators earning money from the sales!

But anyway, The Making of a Skull Hat details the creation process from just a concept, to modelling, to adding a polygon mesh and texturing. It makes an interesting read for Train2Game Art & Animation students.

Valve are extremely open to community contributions in Team Fortress 2, and have keenly supported modders over the years, with many joining the development studio.

Indeed, speaking to the Train2Game blog last month, Valve’s Chet Faliszek told us that modding is a really good way to get into the games industry.

“It’s a really good way for someone to get noticed because it shows that you’re able” he said.

“Normally modders have to work as a team and that’s important, and they also have to be able to finish something and that’s really important. So those two things together are a really good way to demonstrate that you’re ready to work in the industry.”

So Train2Game, what do you think about the process behind making a Team Fortress 2 hat? Would you consider making a submission?

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

[Source: Team Fortress 2 blog]

Train2Game news: Games will match film visuals within a decade say Epic

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Train2Game students could end up working on games with Hollywood quality graphics in the next ten years. That’s at least if predictions made by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeny come true.

Epic Games are of course on board for the Train2Game & Epic Game Jam in November.

I really see two major milestones coming up for games in the very long-term future.” Sweeny told IGN UK.

“Number one is achieving movie quality graphics and movie quality pixels on the screen, which mean no flicker in the visuals, no popping artefacts, no bulky character outlines on the screen at all.”

“I see that actually occurring over the next ten years” he said.

And the Epic Games founder believes that computers just need the extra power that will come over the next few years in order to achieve this.

“We just haven’t been able to do it because we don’t have enough terra flops or petta flops of computer power to make it so.”

“I expect over the next ten years we’ll a real revolution in that area as we make up this missing gap between where we are today and everything movies are doing” said Sweeny.

“I expect I’ll be actively programming at the time we’ve achieved full movie-quality graphics because that’s really just a matter of brute force computing power and clever algorithm. We know exactly how to do that” he added.

Train2Game students can get a taste of what games could look like in Epic’s impressive Samaritan tech demo produced using Unreal Engine 3, as seen here on the Train2Game blog.

The Epic games founder suggested that Unreal Engine 4 for next-gen consoles will “probably launch around 2014”

The other major milestone according to Sweeny is creating proper human characters with emotions in games, and this could be improved over the next ten years, although not to the same extent as graphics.

“Simulation of gameplay characters, artificial intelligence, character dialogue and all of these other things aren’t really problems of brute force computing,” said the Epic co-founder.

“They require increasingly sophisticated algorithms and simulation of human intelligence. I have no idea when those problems will be solved. I’m quite sure they won’t be solved in the next ten years.

“They may not even be solved in my lifetime, but those are all problems that require understanding how the human brain works and trying to simulate that with varying degrees of accuracy”

“We’ve seen very, very little progress in these areas over the past few decades so it leaves me very sceptical about our prospects for breakthroughs in the immediate future.” Sweeny concluded.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Sweeny’s comments? Will we see film quality visuals in the next ten years? And do you think games will ever properly crack artificial intelligence?

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

[Source: IGN UK via Develop]

Train2Game student insight behind the scenes of Borderland 2’s art direction

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Train2Game forum users, at least a significant number of them loved Borderlands. Train2Game Art & Animation students enjoyed its cell shaded art style in particular.

Now, with sequel confirmed last month, Borderlands 2 Art Director Jeramy Cooke has been discussing… art direction with Gamasutra. In particular, he’s keen to point out that Borderlands 2 will not only be a lot more colourful, but how the art style will be an integral part of the game.

“I wanted it to have a richer, larger world” said Cooke. “I felt like we were stuck in the desert a lot, and it got monotonous. It felt like you were seeing the same enemies too often. I mean, that’s my personal experience. And we really wanted to just widen that and give you this sense of a huge space, which is why you can see the other maps from the maps you’re in.

The Borderlands 2 Art Director then described how if the player could see something in the distance, they should be able to travel across the map and see it up close.

“You look over there, and you see this dam off in the distance, and you know “Oh, that’s where I was,” and vice-versa when you’re on top of the dam and you look down into zone 1 and see all of the ice spread out. It’s about that sort of large-scale, large-scope experience” Cooke said.

It’s a view echoed by Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Jason Vandenberghe in last month’s interview with the Train2Game blog.

“Borderlands is not a rail shooter, it’s not a corridor shooter” the Borderlands 2 Art Director continued.

“We want you to explore and have fun and go where you want and do what you want. The world’s job is to be enticing, to convince you to go out there and find cool stuff, to dig around in the corner and find cool loot or a miniboss you didn’t know who was there or whatever.”

So Train2Game, how important do you believe art style can be in making a game fun to play? What are your thoughts on Borderlands 2? Can it improve on the original?

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

[Source: Gamasutra]

Train2Game and Epic Games to Host UK’s Biggest Game Jam

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Train2Game, has joined forces with Epic Games, developers of cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology, to host the UK’s biggest game jam from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th November 2011.

The 48-hour video game creation marathon will bring together an estimated 150 games enthusiasts at the University of Bedfordshire, where they will go head-to-head to create innovative video games using Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3.

The Train2Game and Epic Game Jam is open to aspiring games developers, including Train2Game students and hobbyist games developers. On Friday, November 4th, registered competitors will convene at the University of Bedfordshire’s new development lab to form teams and build games around a secret theme, which will be announced on the first evening of the event. The jam concludes on Sunday, November 6th, when three teams will be selected as winners by industry A-listers from some of the UK’s hottest development houses, as well as Epic Games.

Mike Head, marketing director at Train2Game said: “The Train2Game and Epic Game Jam is a great opportunity for students and amateur games developers to create content for their portfolio and rub shoulders with well known developers within the industry. Working with Epic Games also means that we have a unique opportunity to introduce participants to the cutting-edge UDK framework, which will allow them to really bring their games to life and showcase their talents.”

“This game jam offers a valuable creative outlet for anyone looking to make games,” said Mike Gamble, European territory manager of Epic Games. “Participants will have access to excellent tools, members of the Unreal Engine development community and industry veterans, plus there’s potential for the best games to gain additional exposure beyond the event itself.”

As well as creating cutting-edge content for their portfolio, and learning how to use the UDK, Train2Game and Epic Game Jam competitors will be eligible to win prizes for the most innovative new games developed over the weekend. Prizes will be announced closer to the event.

For further information, and to sign-up to the Train2Game and Epic Game Jam please visit http://train2game-jam2.com/, existing students can login intowww.train2game-online.com.

Train2Game at Gamescom: Interview with F1 2011 Chief Game Designer Steve Hood

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. While there, we spoke with F1 2011 Chief Game Designer Steve Hood of Codemasters in a wide ranging interview.

Subjects included new Game Design features, how building for multiplayer differs to single player, adapting to the sports new rules and F1 2011’s art.

Hood revealed how he started in the games industry and gave Train2Game students advice on how to get in. Read the full interview below, or listen to it on Train2Game Radio.  Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game at Gamescom: Interview with Star Wars: The Old Republic Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. We caught up with Star Wars: The Old Republic Associate Lead Game Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi to discuss a variety of subjects.

These include, tailoring game design for an MMO, keeping the narrative in check with the Star Wars universe, the importance of community testing and the reasons behind PvP sport Huttball.

Lusinchi also revealed how he started in the games industry and gave Train2Game students advice on how to get in. Read the full interview below, or listen to it on Train2Game Radio. Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game at Gamescom: Interview with The Witcher 2 Environment Artist Marek Ziemak

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. In this interview, we caught up with The Witcher 2 Environment Artist Marek Zeimak to talk about new features in The Witcher 2 version 2.0 and the Xbox 360 release. Zeimak also revealed how he started in the games industry and gave Train2Game students advice on how to get in. Read the full interview below, or listen to it on Train2Game Radio. Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.