Tag Archives: Game Development

Train2Game News: Insomnia coming to Coventry

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InsomniaOne of the UK’s biggest gaming festival will be staged in Coventry for the first time in 2014, when the Insomnia gaming festivals takes place at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena.

The Insomnia series attracts tens of thousands of gamers from across the UK to compete in the UK’s most competitive eSports tournaments and see the best games first, while millions watch events unfold online on Twitch.TV.

The first Insomnia festival at the Ricoh Arena takes place over Easter Bank Holiday weekend, Friday, April 18 to Monday, April 21 2014.

Insomnia will take over the Ricoh Arena to give visitors the chance to sample new games, watch live product demonstrations, buy the latest products and merchandise or watch the eSports tournaments unfold.

Offering the same unrivalled atmosphere as previous Insomnia events, visitors will be able to camp in their thousands across the weekend, bringing their own PCs and consoles with camping facilities and security on-hand.

Craig Fletcher, chief executive officer of Multiplay, said: “At Multiplay, we’re always looking to grow our business, and choosing a location that gives the Insomnia festivals strategic growth opportunities is of paramount importance to us, as well as our loyal community that attend our events.

He continued, “We’ve worked closely with the passionate staff at the Ricoh Arena and Coventry City Council to deliver a new home for Insomnia. “We are also delighted to be able to welcome back the Easter weekend dates which we haven’t been able to secure since Insomnia 42. “It’s incredibly exciting to be able to hold an Easter weekend extravaganza full of new content and awesome activities.

“We’re really pleased with the commitment and drive shown in bringing the UK’s largest gaming festivals to Coventry, and it’s a partnership we’re excited to move forward with in 2014.”

Jacky Isaac, Interim CEO at the Ricoh Arena, said she was thrilled one of the biggest dates in the calendar for gaming fans was being held in Coventry.

“It is the first time we will have held a gaming festival at the Ricoh Arena and this is great news for the venue and for the city,” she said.

“This is a festival for gaming in all its formats and is due to attract over 10,000 visitors from around the country.”

Tickets are available online now at www.insomniagamingfestival.com

Train2Game News: Yogscast and Humble Bundle raising money for charity

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YogscastYogscast have teamed up with Humble Bundle to raise money for several different charities this Holiday season.

People who donate $25 to this Humble Bundle will receive over $200 worth of games including; Torchlight, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Shank 2, Magicka: Wizard Wars (Early Access), Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed and Napoleon: Total War. With this Bundle not only will you receive all those games but even a couple of bits of DLC, including an exclusive Yogscast War of the Vikings Hat.

The money raised by this Humble Bundle will be used to support great charities like; Oxfam, SpecialEffect, Little People UK, GamesAid, and War Child.

Yogscast have created this video to explain what they are doing in more detail:

If you want to donate and get some great games visit https://www.humblebundle.com/yogscast

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 02.12.13

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Call of Duty GhostsAfter last week saw the addition of all the Xbox One games, this week is the addition of all the PlayStation 4 titles following its launch last week. Perhaps thanks to the launch of the PlayStation 4 Call of Duty: Ghosts has retaken the number one spot in the charts.

All formats

Week ending 16 November 2013

POS.  TITLE 

PUBLISHER

 LAST
WEEK 

1

CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS

ACTIVISION

2
 

2

 FIFA 14

EA

1
 

3

–

 BATTLEFIELD 4

EA

3
 

4

–

 KILLZONE: SHADOW FALL

SONY

–
 

5

 ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

UBISOFT

4
 

6

–

 LEGO MARVEL SUPER HEROES

WARNER BROS

–
 

7

 GRAND THEFT AUTO V

ROCKSTAR

8
 

8

NEED FOR SPEED: RIVALS

EA

13
 

9

 JUST DANCE 2014

UBISOFT

14
 

10

 BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

WARNER BROS

16
 

11

SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE

SKYLANDERS

12
 

12

MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION

MICROSOFT

11
 

13

–

 KNACK

SONY

–
 

14

–

 SUPER MARIO 3D WORLD

NINTENDO

–
 

15

FORZA MOTORSPORT 5

MICROSOFT

5
 

16

DISNEY INFINITY

DISNEY

15
 

17

LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

NINTENDO

9
 

18

DEAD RISING 3

MICROSOFT

7
 

19

–

 TOMB RAIDER

SQUARE ENIX

–
 

20

 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2014

SEGA

22
 
< previous week

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 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: Android Intel Xmas Party

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Intel SoftwareOn 3rd December, Intel Developer Zone is inviting developers to a Christmas party near London’s Liverpool Street.

Taking place at The Shooting Star, you’ll be treated to sessions on free Android tools, a testing pod for us to try out Android apps on the x86 platform and the opportunity to rub shoulders with fellow coders.

Intel will lay on a great spread of food, soft drinks and beer to keep those energy levels up as we network, and there will be goodies galore with t-shirts, pins and other keepsakes from the evening.

As well as receiving those Christmas presents, you’ll have the chance to hear Intel application engineer Will Hansford-White give a quick talk on the free tools Intel provides for developing Android apps. Dev expert Sulamita Garcia will then give an XDK demo, giving hints and tips for easily developing in HTML5.

If anyone dropped by the Intel stand at Droidcon UK in October will remember the app test pod. Developers were able to see how their apps function on the x86 platform, which gave them a great insight into creating apps to reach a wider audience in the future. You’ll be given the chance to do the same, and you can test them out on the range of devices Intel will be bringing along. Experts will be on-hand to show you how to port current apps onto x86 as well.

To guarantee your place, please RSVP here.

So on Tuesday 3rd December, get to London Liverpool Street and make the few-minutes’ walk down Bishopsgate and turn off onto Middlesex Street. The party is in the private room downstairs!

Train2Game News: Young Justice: Legacy out today

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Young JusticeYoung Justice: Legacy for Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 is now available at retailers across Europe and Australasia.

Published by LITTLE ORBIT, the latest Action-RPG game based on one of the best-selling Comics franchise will allow younger players to embody their favourite Young Superheroes! Being Robin, Nightwing, Super Boy, Batgirl & their friends is finally possible throughout this new game and its 3 different modes: Solo, Multiplayer & Co-op!

Players will be able to master multiple combos in order to beat vile foes such as Bane, Lex Luthor and their fellow men! To make all the fans happy, Young Justice: Legacy covers two seasons from the show and stays very close to it: original voices from the anime are included in the game! The authenticity is pushed even further; the game story is written by series creators Greg Weisman and Brandon Vietti!

Young Justice: Legacy is now available across Europe and Australasia.

You can enjoy the trailer for the game below

Train2Game News: BlackBerry 10 to support Android apps

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BlackBerry logoGood news for Blackberry users. From early next year you will be able to use Android apps on BlackBerry 10.

The feature will enable developers to easily re-purpose Android “.APK” apps for BlackBerry’s QNX-based Unix operating system with no repackaging – provided that any features within the app are supported in BlackBerry 10.

The latest version of BlackBerry 10 – BlackBerry 10.2, which was rolled out in the last month – improved BlackBerry’s apps compatibility with Android up to Android version 4.2. This theoretically enables BlackBerry 10 to run any current Android app with minimal adaptation.

In a recent devblog posting, BlackBerry claimed that the next upgrade to BlackBerry 10 will offer native Android apps support, as well as support for Android apps that require Bluetooth, Google Maps’ v1 API MapView v1, the Android Share Framework and spellchecking.

The high level of apps compatibility is achievable because both operating systems are based on similar foundations – Android is based on Linux, while QNX is based on Unix. Android apps run in a Java virtual machine called Dalvik, which is open source and licensed under the Apache 2.0 licence.

BlackBerry is targeting developers in a marketing blitz. On 4 December, it will start running a series of webcasts intended to show them how easy it is to port Android apps to the BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps under BlackBerry 10.2.1.

While the BlackBerry apps store, BlackBerry World, currently claims some 130,000 apps, the majority of them are Android apps that have been ported with minimal bespoke changes.

The upgrades to BlackBerry 10 ought to encourage more developers to offer their apps on BlackBerry as well and it means Train2Game developers who create for the Android market have just had their market increased.

Train2Game News: GallantCloud Blog – Week 11

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Gallant Cloud Train2Game – GallantCloud Blog
By Richard Hoffman

Microsoft Accelerator
Week 11

This week we had another good Pitching doctor session to refine our pitch for the demo day. With a few weeks left for the Demo day it is just hard to believe that the time in the Microsoft Accelerator program is almost up and amazing how much progress we are making every week with our game. Everyone we show our game seems to be quite excited and there is always more suggestions and positive feedback to expand the game itself.

I am still studying monetization strategies in games and got stuck in Candy Crush Level 23 for a few days. It is just me or does it seem that the same level is becoming easier over time? Interesting game mechanics for sure! I also start playing League of Legends and Clash Of Clans as they are other successful game it seems.

Clash of Clans reminds me a bit of the Browser game Travian I played around 7 years ago. It just shows that most games are not original really, but have better artwork than another game in the past and are now available on mobile devices.

We came up with some ideas how to implement a few strategies to our game. It is all coming together.

One highlight was the UX (User Experience) Workshop where we learnt more about retention and analytics in general which can also be applied to games. This is very important and useful for our game for sure.

On the business side we are finalizing our Business Plan at the moment and adding the financial figures. Not very exciting stuff compared to creating a game.

It is a lot of work to complete all the tasks and aspects of a game studio and to keep all team members in the loop.

Finally we had a great creative brainstorming session with our mentor again. It is really great to see how he enjoys playing our game and giving positive and constructive feedback to make our game better.

It is unbelievable how much value a mentor and advisers bring to the table and accelerate learning and how to apply it.

That’s all for now. Will keep you up to date about the next weeks.

Train2Game News: Young Modder fulfils his Destiny

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Alexander J. VelickyA young modder spent a year developing his mod for Skyrim just so that Bethesda would notice him and his hard work has paid off. He now has a job… at Bungie!

19 year-old burgeoning game developer, Alexander J. Velicky, created a mod for Skyrim called Falskaar that took him a year to develop. There’s over 25 hours of new gameplay to be found in Falskaar, with an entirely new land roughly a third the size of Skyrim’s Tamriel, new characters, dozens of new quests, new voice acting and even an original soundtrack.

Thanks to all his hard work and commitment he is now an associate designer for the people who bought you the Halo franchise, Bungie.

In a post on the Elder Scrolls forum, Velicky thanked the community for their support of his mods over the years.

“Modding has been 90% of my life for over four years now, and all throughout you were there to support me,” he said.

“From the bottom of my heart I want to thank every person who ever provided feedback on a mod, support, help, or something as simple as a ‘cant wait!’ or ‘great job.’ Every single one of you made this possible. From driving me to work throughout development, to providing astounding amounts of feedback and support to help learn and improve after releases. I owe it to all of you.

He also encourage fellow aspiring developers to chase their dreams: “Never be afraid to try”.

“I set my sights on a professional design job pretty early, I lowered my head, charged forward, and rarely looked back. Of course, I ensured what I was doing had a reasonable chance for success from time to time. But the most surprising of all, is who I’ve ended up with. I applied to many companies, and Bungie was in my, “Huge company that will completely ignore me.” category.

“Well, they didn’t and look what it got me. Bungie is an awesome company with an amazing team, and I’m very lucky that they’ve decided to give me a chance! Never be afraid to try. I spent the time it took to apply and the rewards are proving to be greater than I could have possible imagined.”

Alexander is an inspiration to all those wanting to get in to the games industry. He worked incredibly hard and is now most likely going to be working on the highly anticipated Sci-Fi adventure, Destiny.

A huge congratulations Alexander!

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 26.11.13

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FIFA 14This weeks charts see the addition of the Xbox One games. Thanks to many of the Xbox One bundles coming with FIFA 14, the football game has taken the number one spot away from Call of Duty: Ghosts.

All formats

Week ending 16 November 2013

POS.  TITLE 

FORMAT

 LAST
WEEK 

1

FIFA 14

XB360

3
 

2

 CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS

XB360

1
 

3

BATTLEFIELD 4

XB360

4
 

4

–

 ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG

XB360

4
 

5

FORZA MOTORSPORT 5

XB1

–
 

6

LEGO MARVEL SUPER HEROES

XB360

2
 

7

DEAD RISING 3

XB1

–
 

8

GRAND THEFT AUTO V

XB360

6
 

9

LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

3DS

–
 

10

RYSE: SON OF ROME

XB1

–
 

11

MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION

XB360

7
 

12

SKYLANDERS SWAP FORCE

WII

8
 

13

–

 NEED FOR SPEED: RIVALS

XB1

–
 

14

JUST DANCE 2014

WII

11
 

15

DISNEY INFINITY

XB360

13
 

16

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS

XB360

9
 

17

WWE 2K14

XB360

12
 

18

PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE AZRAN LEGACYLEGO

3DS

10
 

19

TOMB RAIDER

XB360

17
 

20

 POKEMON X

3DS

16
 
< previous week

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 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: Train2Game Radio revisits Muir Halleron

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Muir HalleronWe spoke to Muir a while ago when he had not long started the Train2Game course and now we have revisited him. Muir told us all about the work he does now with 22Cans forums.

You can listen to the interview here: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1755384-train2game-student-muir-halleron-talks-to-t2g-radio-again

Or read the transcript below:

Hello I’m Muir Halleron, I’m taking the Train2Game developer course and I’m from Widnes.

Hiya Muir, how you doing?

I’m just fine thanks

Excellent! So what have you been up to since we last spoke?

Oh, loads of things! Since we last spoke; I’ve been to Eurogamer, I started making my own game but it’s very slow going. It’s basically an extreme in my spare time thing. I am also the forum moderators for not only Train2Game but also 22Cans on their steam forums.

Excellent. How did that come about?

Oh I backed GODUS on Kickstarter last December, became active in the forums and through that the community manager, Sam Van Tilburgh, approached me to become a moderator.

Excellent. So have you been enjoying it?

Yeah it’s fun! It can be a bit stressful at times and hectic, especially right after an update of the game, but yeah, I’m really enjoying it!

Very nice and do you get to hear some industry secrets that we’re not allowed to or anything?

Oh not really! I do get a bit of background information just pertaining to my moderator duties.

So have you always been a fan of 22Cans and Peter Molyneux?

I like Peter Molyneux’s Fable series. My first game of his that I actually played was Black & White, sadly I didn’t actually finish that game!

The important question is though, were you a good god or were you a bad god?

I was actually middle of the line!

Oh yeah? Tried to please everyone?

Yeah, straddle that fence!

So have you been finding that all this forum moderation will help you in the future with your career?

I’m hoping so yeah. It’s allowed me to see how things in the industry works a little bit and I’ve got a little bit of contact with a few of the devs on different social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Steam. They’ve been really nice and they answer questions that I have pertaining to the industry.

Excellent, that’s nice. Do you think you’ll perhaps get a job with them as well now that you’ve got contact with them?

That would be nice but they’re a little bit too far south for my tastes.

Oh yeah I forgot you live fairly north. So finally, what are you hoping for the future then?

Well in the future, I’m actually looking to relocate to Leeds because right now I live up near Liverpool but I’m wanting to move to Leeds because my boyfriends live there and with my Son being closer to my boyfriends would mean a bit more support with him so that I could actually get a job and not have to worry about being home to meet him after school.

Yeah that certainly would help a lot wouldn’t it.

Yeah. It’s my hope that once I move to Leeds and get settled in I’ll be able to get a job placement in a company over there.

Excellent well I wish you all the luck with that

Thank you

And I will talk to you again soon Muir!

Alright, thanks Mark.