Tag Archives: Game Design

Train2Game News: MechWarrior Online developer diary talks four pillars of game design

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Learn about development of MechWarrior Online, the first title in the series for over a decade, in a brand new developer diary from Piranha Games.

The video sees Piranha Games President Russ Bullock discussing the four key game design pillars of the upcoming free-to-play mech combat MMO. They are mech warfare, information warfare, role warfare and community warfare.

Bullock also talks about Bringing MechWarrior up to date and introducing an online element to a series which originally appeared in 1989. MechWarrior Online is scheduled for release on PC later this year.

Watch the developer diary below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

There are more developer diaries, giving an insight into development of a wide variety of games, here on The Train2Game Blog.

Were you a fan of the original MechWarrior series? What are your thoughts on MechWarrior Online?

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

Train2Game News: Ron Gilbert on game design “For me, it almost always starts with the world”

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Game design begins with building a world before adding characters and then a story. At least that’s the case for Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island co-creator Ron Gilbert.

“For me, it almost always starts with the world.” he told The Guardian in an interview about The Cave, the adventure game he’s developing with Tim Schafer’s Double Fine Productions.

“Maniac Mansion is really all about that mansion, that was the genesis of it. The Secret of Monkey Island all started for me because I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney – I wanted to live in that world.”

“It’s the same thing with The Cave; it started with the setting and the characters kind of get built up from that – I think, okay, now I have the world, who would live there? Who would want to adventure in that place?” Gilbert continued, before going into a little bit about game design in adventure games.

“So the characters come about, then the story starts to form, and very quickly after that I start to figure out the major puzzle beats – because in an adventure game it’s the puzzles that drive the narrative forward.”

“ I start with that over-arching narrative then, I go, ‘okay, I need a big puzzle here, another one here, and one there’, and I start building backwards from all those big puzzles to all the little ones that lead up to them.” he added.

Ron Gilbert’s The Cave involves taking three of seven adventures into a cave, battling monsters, solving puzzles and stealing loot. It’s scheduled for release by SEGA on PC, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network early next year.

There’s more from Ron Gilbert here on The Train2Game Blog in this video where he discusses game design with Tim Schafer

What are your thoughts on game design? Does the world form the base of the games you’re building?

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

Train2Game News: World of Warplanes developer diary discusses game design

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Get behind the scenes of World of Warplanes in a brand new developer diary from Wargaming.net.

The video features producers Tatiana Zelenkevich and Anton Sitnikau, along with creative manager Eugene Smozhevsky discussing development of the upcoming free-to-play aerial combat MMO.

Subjects they talk about include changes to game design during development, brainstorming ideas how the main game type ‘superiority’ works and the importance of including a good training mode. The game is currently in closed beta.

Watch the World of Warplanes developer diary below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

World of Warplanes is set to be released later this year.

There are more developer diaries, giving an insight into development of a wide variety of games, here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on World of Warplanes? Are you taking part in the closed beta?

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

Train2Game News: Metro: Last Light will cure “shooter fatigue” with a “story driven single player experience”

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Metro: Last Light aims to stand-out from other shooters by its campaign not being a training mode for multiplayer, but a story driven experience, which can stand alongside the likes of BioShock. That’s according to the games’ global brand manager Mark Madsen in a recent interview.

“We see shooter fatigue as a multifaceted phenomenon right now, and I think what we’re speaking of is the dilution of the single player campaign.” he told Shadowlocked when asked to explain what publisher THQ referred to as shooter fatigue.

“The single player campaign in the FPS genre is being relegated to more of a shooting gallery – or even a training mode – for multi-player. We’re definitely not that; we’re intently focused on delivering a vividly memorable, story driven single player experience”

Madsen added that its game design means Metro: Last Light can stand alongside BioShock and Dead Space.

“If you’re tired of the same old post-apocalyptic, run and gun type of shooter; if you’re tired of looking for something completely different, Metro is an atmospheric breath of fresh air.”

“It will stand proudly alongside the likes of BioShock, Borderlands, and Dead Space, and it’s going to be something we’ll be talking about for years to come…” he said.

The Metro Last Light brand manager recently offered Train2Game students advice on getting into the industry, which you can see here on The Train2Game Blog.

For more on Metro: Last Light, read our interview with Metro: Last Light producer John Block at Gamescom.  The game is scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2013.

What are your thoughts on Metro: Last Light and its focus on single player?

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

Train2Game News: My Sea Park, a new mobile game with heavy Train2Game student input released worldwide

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My Sea Park is a brand new mobile game that’s received heavy input from Train2Game students on work placement at DR Studios and its available worldwide for iPhone and Ipad now.

Seven students worked on the iOS game, with Train2Game game designer Craig Moore serving as design lead.

My Sea Park lets players explore their creativity by building the biggest and best marine-themed amusement park in the world. The following Train2Game students also aided in development of My Sea Park, using skills learned on the developer, designer and art and animation courses.

Ben Collings – Art
Ezekiel Morris – Art
Jonny Robinson – Design
Matty Wyett-Simmonds – Art
Rudi Will – Design
Tim Woods – Programming

With more than 50 different attractions available, My Sea Park allows players to maintain and fill their parks with wonderful sea animals, rides, restaurants and other special items to entertain their guests.

In addition, My Sea Park allows players to completely customize their sea attractions with an abundance of decorations, cute animals and shows.

Watch the trailer below, here on The Train2Game Blog.

Like it? Then support fellow Train2Game students by downloading My Sea Park from the App Store now!

There’s more on My Sea Park here on The Train2Game Blog, while keep reading for the latest industry experience diaries from Train2Game students on placement at DR Studios.

As usual, leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Valve teaching with portals in education initiative for schools

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Valve will be giving away Portal 2 for free in its Teach with Portals initiative to help the teaching of physics and critical thinking in schools.

“The buzz surrounding the new role video games are playing in education, we had to throw our hat in the ring. Today, innovative educators are finding ways to incorporate Portal™ and Portal 2 into their classrooms—helping teach physics and critical-thinking skills. It’s eye-opening to see how video games can be used in amazing and unexpected ways to help educate our next generation.” reads a statement from Valve on www.learnwithportals.com/

“Using interactive tools like the Puzzle Maker to draw students in makes physics, math, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool and fun, which gets us one step closer to our goal – engaged, thoughtful kids!” add Valve

Students will also be able to design their own levels using the Portal 2 perpetual testing initiative level creator.

Watch the learn with portals education initiative in action in the video below, with Valve demonstrating Portal 2 to high school students.

There’s more Portal 2 news here on The Train2Game Blog, while you can keep reading for the latest from Valve.

What are your thoughts on the learn with portals iniative? How else can games be an educational tool?

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

Train2Game News: Project Zomboid team to host “How (Not) To Make A Game” developer session at Rezzed

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Project Zomboid developer The Indie Stone are the latest addition to the developer sessions at PC and indie gaming show Rezzed, and they’re talk is likely to be very interesting for anyone on a Train2Game course.

The session, titled “How (Not) To Make A Game” will see The Indie Stone team discuss the first year of development of their zombie survivalist title, paying attention to what could be seen as common sense.

The team learned valuable lessons about backing up information when the laptops they were using to develop Project Zomboid were stolen.

Chris Simpson, Marina Siu-Chong, Andy Hodgetts and Will Porter will present the developer session on Friday 6th July at the Brighton expo.

“We’re in the final build-up to our 0.2.0 release, so it seemed a perfect opportunity to chart the ridiculous journey we’ve been on for the past year or so,” said Will Porter. “Our public test builds have gone down a storm, so the time seemed right.”

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.

Not only that, but everyone who buys a ticket for Rezzed gets a free DOTA 2 beta key.

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

What are your thoughts on the latest addition to Rezzed?

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

Train2Game News: Games have become easier says Cliff Bleszinski

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Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski believes current generation games have become too easy, with developers more focused on appealing to as many people as possible over a challenge.

“It feels like in this current console generation that we’ve taken a lot of steps to grow the audience and what I think’s happened is that the games have become more linear and easier, so it feels like a lot of quick-time-events,” Bleszinski told X360A.

The Epic Games design director – who helped mentor Train2Game student teams during Train2Game and Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal Live contest at The Gadget Show – pointed to Demon Souls and Dark Souls being what he wants.

“The more I play games like that the more I turned off to them and just want to get back to systems interacting with systems, and get back to a game that, you know, when was the last time a game really challenged you and asked something of you, right? There’s a reason why Demon Souls and Dark Souls have taken off lately. It’s because they really require you actually try.” he said.

Bleszinski says the upcoming Gears of War: Judgement will be challenging and allow freedom.

“Casual mode will still be casual, whatever, if you just want to see graphics and you don’t want to die, but every other mode will be hard in this game and you will die,” he said.

“When I played this in 4-player co-op… I mean, I’ve been playing Gears since the beginning of the course and I really have to hunker down and focus, and if my buddies aren’t reviving me, and we aren’t working as a team, you’re going to die, and it’s okay to die a few times in a game to try some different strategies, the S3 respawn system provides unique challenges.” the Epic Games designer added.

There’s more from Cliff Bleszinski here on The Train2Game Blog, while you can get the latest news from Epic Games here.

What are your thoughts on Bleszinski’s comments? Do you believe game developers have made games easier in order to reach a bigger audience?

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

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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

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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.