Tag Archives: Game Development

Train2Game News Club Nintendo to be discontinued

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Club NintendoAfter more than six years of delivering fun Nintendo-themed rewards to its members, Club Nintendo is preparing to shut down.

Nintendo’s loyalty-rewards program rewarded members with a variety of items, such as downloadable games, Nintendo posters or character figures in exchange for Coins that members earned by registering products or completing surveys. Club Nintendo members in the United States and Canada can earn additional Coins through the end of March, and can redeem those Coins through the end of June. Nintendo of America will be announcing a new customer loyalty program at a later date.

“We thank all Club Nintendo members for their dedication to Nintendo games and their ongoing love for our systems and characters,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We want to make this time of transition as easy as possible for our loyal Club Nintendo members, so we are going to add dozens of new rewards and downloadable games to help members clear out their Coin balances.”

Nintendo will add a number of physical reward options for members in February. Members will also be able to choose from a lineup of many downloadable games. As a gift to Club Nintendo members, the Flipnote Studio 3D software will be available to download for free in February. This software will allow users to create unique three-dimensional animations and to exchange their creations via local wireless with others who also own Flipnote Studio 3D. Users who uploaded creations to Flipnote Hatena will be able to download their personal animations from the Nintendo DSi Library menu in Flipnote Studio 3D software. Flipnote Studio 3D will be available to Club Nintendo members until June 30. The ability to create a new Club Nintendo account will end on March 31. All users who register to Club Nintendo before registration closes will be eligible to receive Flipnote Studio 3D.
For more information about Club Nintendo, visit https://club.nintendo.com. For more information on Flipnote Studio 3D, visit http://flipnotestudio3d.nintendo.com/.

Train2Game News Interview with Fee Stewart on Women in Games

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Fiona StewartFormerdroid Managing Director and former Train2Game student Fee Stewart has made a list of the top 100 women in gaming. We interviewed her about what the nomination meant to her and what it’s like being female in the UK Games Industry.

What does it mean to be included in the list of Top 100 Women In Games?

Personally I am chuffed to be amongst such great women in the industry. It feels great that there is so many women in the industry to be able to narrow it down to 100. I would now like to see the top 100 males too though now! It’s all about inclusion and diversity at the end of the day.

When going about your work, do you see yourself as one of the UK’s high flying women in Gaming?

Definitely not lol. I think I will always feel humble when looking at what others do. I love this industry with an extreme passion so have never felt that I am “Working” when doing what I love. I still feel I haven’t actually achieved anything worthy yet.

How important do you think this kind of event is to females in the Games Industry?

It’s nice to be included. It is nice to see that there are other girls in the industry and if it encourages more girls to join it then it is worth doing but at the end of the day it is equally important that everyone, male and female are made to feel inclusive into the industry.

What are some of your experiences being a Woman in Games?

I am a team player. I don’t look at me and think female, Mother of three. I look at me and see Game Dev. Most of the industry looks and me and sees Game Dev, that is the way it should be. I have had a few occasions where I have been ignored by a few of the male Game Devs who presume I am someone’s wife or girlfriend rather than a Developer myself, which has been a bit annoying.

How can women in Video Games help each other?

I don’t believe it is a case of helping each other. It is nice to meet up with other girls in the industry, sometimes as I miss girly things being with the boys all the time but if you want to be the best then be it. It doesn’t matter if you are male or female. I think it is important that everyone male or female is recognised for good work! I don’t want to be special just because of my sex.

How can people continue to support and drive females working in games?

Be inclusive, don’t assume things. That girl in the group may also be a game developer and might even be a better one than you. Before women get to the workplace teach girls at Primary level to code. Make it acceptable socially to be a girl geek and let toys be toys, not boy’s toys and girl’s toys.

What are you working on now, what do you have planned for the future?

We are getting Splemy ready for iOS and Android. I am also helping organise the next big Gamayo ( Game Makers Yorkshire ) event in April as we have over 500 members. As for the future who knows?

Train2Game News UK Top 20 Games – 19.01.14

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Grand Theft Auto V A bit of a shuffle around in the top twenty this week but most have stayed the same. Grand Theft Auto V is number one for a second week running.

All formats

Week ending 17 January 2015

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 1
2 FIFA 15 EA SPORTS 3
3 CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE ACTIVISION 2
4 – FAR CRY 4 UBISOFT 4
5 MINECRAFT: XBOX EDITION MICROSOFT 8
6 THE CREW UBISOFT 5
7 – MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 7
8 ASSASSIN’S CREED: UNITY UBISOFT 6
9 – DESTINY ACTIVISION 9
10 LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 13
11 – ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG UBISOFT 11
12 WATCH DOGS UBISOFT –
13 JUST DANCE 2015 UBISOFT 15
14 DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION EA GAMES 19
15 SUPER SMASH BROS. NINTENDO 18
16 ASSASSIN’S CREED: ROGUE UBISOFT 20
17 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2015 SEGA –
18 MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 10
19 FORZA HORIZON 2 MICROSOFT 15
20 ALIEN: ISOLATION SEGA –
< 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 15th Game Developers Choice Award Nominees

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GDC AwardsOrganizers have revealed the finalists for the 15th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the leading peer-based video game event celebrating the industry’s top games and developers.

Winners in all categories will be honored at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, taking place on Wednesday, March 4th, 2015 at 6:30pm at the San Francisco Moscone Center during the 2015 Game Developers Conference alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards.

Leading the pack with five nominations is Monolith Productions’ acclaimed open-world action game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – receiving nods for Game of the Year, Innovation, Best Design, Best Narrative and Best Technology. Following close behind are Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation and Destiny from Bungie, each of which were nominated for multiple awards across categories like Best Audio and Best Technology, and also nominated for the 2014 Game of the Year.

Mirroring years past, titles from smaller teams have once again received strong recognition, with nominations or honorable mentions in nine of the 10 categories. Polish independent studio The Astronauts was nominated across four categories for its work producing the atmospheric first-person mystery game The Vanishing of Ethan Carter: the Innovation Award, Best Debut, Best Narrative and Best Audio. Several other games of similar scope garnered multiple category nominations, including 11 bit studios’ This War of Mine, Inkle Studios’ 80 Days and Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight.
Nintendo also showed strongly in the Choice Awards nominations across both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. The latest iteration of the publisher’s flagship fighting game franchise, Super Smash Bros for 3DS picked up a nomination for the Best Handheld Game of the year, while the acclaimed puzzle-platformer Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is up for a Best Design award. The Nintendo-published, Platinum Games-developed Wii U character action game Bayonetta 2 was also nominated for multiple awards, including Game of the Year and Best Visual Art.

Additional titles with multiple nominations included Blizzard’s free-to-play digital card game Hearthstone (three nominations), Bungie’s ambitious online first-person shooter Destiny (three nominations) and Yacht Club Games’ love letter to NES platformers Shovel Knight (two nominations),

The 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards are freely open to any video game that was initially released and made publicly available to customers during the 2014 calendar year, irrespective of platform or delivery medium. Both finalists and winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, comprised of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.

The complete list of nominees, including honorable mentions, for the 15th annual Game Developers Choice Awards is in the pdf below

Choice Developers Nominees

The Game Developers Choice Awards also gives out three Special Awards yearly: the Pioneer, Ambassador and Lifetime Achievement awards, all of which will be announced in the near future. The Audience Award for the Choice Awards – open to all finalists for this year – will also return and will open for online voting in February.

For more information about the 15th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com.

Train2Game News UK Top 20 Games – 12.01.14

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GTA VThe second chart of the week and no new games have entered this week but we do have an old favourite at number one. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V has retaken the number one spot pushing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare down to number two.

All formats

Week ending 10 January 2015

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR 2
2 CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE ACTIVISION 1
3 – FIFA 15 EA SPORTS 3
4 – FAR CRY 4 UBISOFT 4
5 THE CREW UBISOFT 6
6 ASSASSIN’S CREED: UNITY UBISOFT 5
7 MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 11
8 MINECRAFT: XBOX EDITION MICROSOFT 10
9 DESTINY ACTIVISION 7
10 MIDDLE EARTH: SHADOW OF MORDOR WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 13
11 ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG UBISOFT 19
12 DRIVECLUB SONY COMPUTER ENT. 9
13 LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 12
14 THE EVIL WITHIN BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 15
15 FORZA HORIZON 2 MICROSOFT 14
16 HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION MICROSOFT 18
17 WWE 2K15 2K SPORTS 8
18 SUPER SMASH BROS. NINTENDO 20
19 DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION EA GAMES 18
20 ASSASSIN’S CREED: ROGUE UBISOFT 19
< 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 Sounds of Peasants Revolt

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SyrinscapeSyrinscape, developer of the app that creates custom, movie-like soundscapes, effects, and music for the tabletop gaming experience, today opens the worldwide call for game fans to contribute their own sounds to be included in the forthcoming Peasants Revolt SoundSet.

Syrinscape developer and Dicestormers co-host Benjamin Loomes asks fans to submit their own self-recorded sounds, including wooden crashes, shattering glass, screams, yells, group chanting, and other sounds players associate with the “peasants revolt” theme. Everyone who contributes a sound will receive the final Peasants Revolt SoundSet for free, as well as a name credit on the product page.

The sounds can be recorded via smart phone, a handheld recorder, or professional studio, and submitted directly to Loomes via email, via Facebook, or a file sharing service, such as Dropbox. Additional details on how and what to submit can be found on Syrinscape.com.

In celebration of the launch of Syrinscape’s SoundSet Creator later this month, Loomes will use the revolutionary new app to build a community-sourced Peasants Revolt SoundSet from the fan-submitted sounds. The process of turning the random sounds into a rich and engaging SoundSet will be documented via a series of YouTube videos, to serve as tutorials for players wanting to create their own environments.

The SoundSet Creator is an easy to use sound toolset, which gives the user the power to create and customize fantastic sound environments to be used in their tabletop games, and is slated for a January 28, 2015 release.

Syrinscape SoundPacks and SoundSets add a new dimension to the gaming table. In addition to creating the officially licensed SoundPacks for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Syrinscape creates general-purpose fantasy and sci-fi themed sounds that bring the soundtrack of gameplay to life.

The Syrinscape Fantasy and Sci-Fi Players are free to download, including two free SoundSets, and are compatible with a wide range of devices, including PC, Mac, Android Tablets, and iPads. For more information, the free download, or to subscribe, visit syrinscape.com.

Train2Game News Open Platform VR Gaming

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osvr-logoA group of industry leaders, alongside with Razer, a leader in connected devices and software for gamers, and Sensics, a leader in high-performance VR, today announced the Open-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem, a new standard in VR gaming to push the VR gaming experience forward.

Razer will support the venture with the OSVR Hacker Dev Kit, a virtual reality device and open-source software that enables programming for any variety of VR technology.

OSVR provides both hardware and software support at every level of virtual reality gaming. Starting with some of the most popular game engines, including Unity and Unreal Engine 4, OSVR also works with device plugins from hardware market leaders like Bosch and Razer and the latest from Sixense and LeapMotion. Moreover, OSVR is designed to support all VR devices, including the Oculus DK 2 and Vrvana’s Totem headset.

Engineering teams from all over the world developed a standardized interface for virtual reality gaming. The open platform will allow third parties to design and build their own apps and hardware across any operating systems, including Windows, Android and Linux.

“Gaming is moving towards the virtual reality platform and this poses huge benefits and challenges to gamers at every level,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “OSVR brings game developers, gamers and hardware manufacturers together to solve those challenges and make virtual reality gaming a reality for the masses.”

Says Sensics CEO Yuval Boger: “OSVR’s open-platform approach accelerates innovation and provides consumers the freedom of choosing the best combination of hardware and software components. We are excited to partner with Razer and other industry leaders to build OSVR together.”

In line with the OSVR vision, the OSVR Hacker Dev Kit hardware design is both affordable and open source to encourage developers to take advantage of the program. To make software development even easier, the OSVR HDK includes high-quality, low-distortion optics that practically eliminate the need for color and distortion correction, thus minimizing the amount of additional development work required for OSVR compared to other VR devices. Anyone can download 3D files and create their own set of VR-Glasses. For more information on how that works, visit www.osvr.com.

“The OGA is committed to an open ecosystem for the gaming industry, and is pleased to support the efforts of the OSVR,” said Drew Johnston, president of the Open Gaming Alliance. “A free, open source VR development solution supporting multiple headset manufacturers, diverse game engines, and multiple platforms is exactly what game developers and publishers need to accelerate VR gaming adoption.”

Train2Game News Xbox One CPU Increase

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Xbox OneAs I am sure you are all well aware some irritating people hacked Xbox Live and PSN however some good has come from it.

Whilst the Xbox One was being hacked a number of development tools to be used by game studios were revealed, including Microsoft’s generous gift to developers – the use of an extra CPU core.

There are eight in total within the Xbox One’s case, two of which have so far been reserved for running the background operating system. Now Microsoft has opened up the use of 50 to 80% of the seventh CPU, meaning that games will run faster and smoother.

The use of this seventh CPU will necessitate the ditching of Kinect – custom, game-specific voice commands, the infrared and depth sensors won’t work. Even worse, basic console commands – “Xbox Go Home”, “Xbox Go To…” will snatch back 50% of the CPU usage.

Microsoft have recognised the flaws and limitations of their seventh CPU in the documentation that goes alongside the development tools, and they are aiming to fix it at some point in the future.

Train2Game News Far Cry 4 Review

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Far Cry 4The lovely people at Ubisoft sent me over Far Cry 4 to review and it has taken me this long to get round to writing the review!

This game is huge! I ended up with a 74.9% completion and it took me about 34 hours to get there. I did the very minimum to get the achievements and it still took me a long time to get through it. However this being said it doesn’t feel repetitive.

I didn’t get the pleasure of playing through Far Cry 3 my self but I did see my flatmate play through it. From what I could gather the story is more in depth and interesting in the third game but the antagonist Pagan Min is an excellent character and amused me throughout the game.

The game is breath taking to look at and just travelling around the land of Kyrat is a pleasure in its self. The scenery is stunning and the map has many ways to get around which brings me on to my next point.

There are many additional features in this game compared to Far Cry 3. The addition of the Buzzers are helpful, they are one man flying vehicles and one of the most helpful things I found was being able to throw bait in to a base and watch as a wild animal tears across leaving you with one maybe two to take out.

Over all I would say this is just a larger feature filled version of Far Cry 3 with less of a story to go with it.

Train2Game News Motivation by Muir Halleron

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Muir HalleronIt is, once again, that wonderful time of the year.
A time of peace, giving, and holiday cheer
when you hang up the stockings, put on your cap,
then eat loads of food ’til you take a long nap.

The children are happy, with all of their toys
whilst the adults wear earplugs because of the noise.
Your schedule is hectic, your waistline is tragic
with all the food arriving as if by magic.

Some alone time is highly improbable,
As for your coursework, well, it’s impossible
to get anything done this time of year.
Put it aside and be of good cheer.

After the hustle and bustle is done
you can sit yourself down and continue the fun
of modules and TMAs,
and lessons plans on dreary days.

Getting back into things may seem a chore,
but plough on through despite the bore
of sitting and reading, not getting much done.
Try to remember the past battles you’ve won.

The challenges you’ve faced, the pits you’ve hurdled,
while staring at the screen until your sight curdled.
Remember the feeling when completing a task
that you had thought was too much to ask?

Hold on to that hope, that joyful soul stirring,
the feeling of pride and know that you’re winning.
You’re one step closer than you’ve ever been,
So open that book and let the games begin!