Tag Archives: Game Development

Train2Game News: PlayStation Developer Open Days

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SONY_logoSony has dated its PlayStation Developer Open Days for October 7 and 8.

The event, the first of a number of developer days planned throughout the next year, is aimed at raising awareness for developing and self-publishing on PlayStation platforms, including the PS4 and PS Vita.

The target audience for the event is new or potentially interested partners from the development community. The event is open to up to 45 developers each day, and is completely free to attend.

Speakers will include SCEE’s developer relations senior account manager Agostino Simonetta, third-party relations VP Michael Pattison and XDev director of product development Pete Smith.

Develop has teamed up with Sony as the media partner for the event, and will be making a presentation on how developers can work with the press, as well as chairing an indie Q&A.

More speakers will be confirmed in the run-up to the developer open days.

“Developing and self-publishing on PlayStation platforms has never been easier for teams of any size,” said third-party relations VP Michael Pattison.

“As part of our continued effort in this area, we are excited to be opening our doors to developers who are interested in exploring PlayStation development and what its like to work with us.”

To declare your interest and register for the event, contact DeveloperEvents@scee.net.

The open days will take place during the afternoon on October 7th and 8th at SCEE’s London office on 10 Great Marlborough Street.

Train2Game News: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag at Eurogamer

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ACIV Ace Of SpadesBe one of the first in the UK to play Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag at the Eurogamer Expo this weekend!

Get hands on with three different demos at the Ubisoft, NVIDIA and Sony stands, and pick up your free exclusive Assassin’s Creed Ace of Spades card, designed by award winning London artist Vic Lee, from stand staff after you have played* (while stocks last).

Fans who pre order Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag from the GAME stand at the Expo will also receive a limited edition artwork print, exclusively designed for Ubisoft by Vic Lee.

Mr Vic Lee – described variously as a storyteller, artist, illustrator, historian, mapper, ragamuffin and vagabond – can been discovered at www.viclee.co.uk

This is only the beginning of your Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag journey. The Ace of Spades is the key, the question is… to what?

The game will be available to play on a Sony PlayStation 4 I have been told. This seems an excellent game to test the new hardware.

Train2Game News: Valve announces SteamOS

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SteamOSValve has made the first of three big announcements this week, the first being a free to download Steam Operating System.

This is Valves next big step in bringing their services to the comfort of your front room on a nice big screen. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with the gaming experience you’ve come to love and expect from Valve.

The idea behind SteamOS is you don’t have to give up your favorite games, your online friends, and all the Steam features you love just to play on the big screen. SteamOS, running on any living room machine, will provide access to the best games and user-generated content available. At the core of the SteamOS is everything you already love about Steam.

Valve have also achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing and are now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases which should see quality of gaming increase even further.

SteamOS will be available soon as a free download for users and as a freely licensable operating system for manufacturers.

Valve’s second announcement is tomorrow at 10am PST.

Train2Game News: Ind13 Magazine Launches

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Ind13New magazine focusing on independent games development has launched.

This weekend saw the launch of a brand new video games magazine called IND13. The magazine focuses on independent games development and has been created by contributors from across the video games industry. The team have come together with the aim of creating a magazine that gives independent games development the attention it deserves.

This month’s issue of the magazine has an interview with editor-in-chief of ind13 magazine and CEO of Global Empire Soft, Richard Hoffman – James Coote, an independent games developer with his own studio and owner of Crystalline Green, gives advice about starting up as an independent – Alan Vader, a retro gamer expert goes back in time to talk about the original bedroom coders and many more interesting articles!

The magazine can be downloaded from the site www.ind13.com in PDF form. This magazine is definitely one to bookmark to make sure you never miss a copy!

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 23.09.13

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GTA VGrand Theft Auto V, unsurprisingly, makes a stunning debut at the top of the Chart this week, breaking all records to become the fastest selling game ever.  With just five days on sale it has become the twenty fourth biggest selling title of all time in the UK.  It has sold more in its first week than the launch weeks of all other GTA titles combined and It’s launch week is 2.4 times greater than that of GTA IV and betters previous best Call of Duty: Black Ops by almost two hundred and fifty thousand units.  It might feel like GTA V was the only new release this week with 89% of all sales being for just that one title, but Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 debuts at number two, while further down the chart at number twenty is Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning. Aliens: Colonial Marines has made a return to the charts this week as well thanks to more retailer-promotion.

All formats

Week ending 21 September 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 GRAND THEFT AUTO V ROCKSTAR –
2 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2014 KONAMI –
3 THE LAST OF US SONY COMPUTER ENT. –
4 SAINTS ROW IV DEEP SILVER 1
5 TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: BLACKLIST UBISOFT 4
6 – MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT 6
7 DIABLO III BLIZZARD 3
8 DISNEY INFINITY DISNEY INFINITY 5
9 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES SEGA –
10 KINGDOM HEARTS HD 1.5 REMIX SQUARE ENIX 2
11 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 8
12 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 19
13 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV XBOX 360 CLASSICS 20
14 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 9
15 MAX PAYNE 3 ROCKSTAR 12
16 RAYMAN LEGENDS UBISOFT 13
17 – NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 17
18 FARMING SIMULATOR 2013 FOCUS HOME INTERACTIVE –
19 PAYDAY 2 505 GAMES 7
20 HARVEST MOON 3D: A NEW BEGINNING PQUBE –
< 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: SpecialEffect Item in Team Fortress 2

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Virtual ViewfinderSpecialEffect today announced that the first of their three premium in-game items for Team Fortress 2 has been released in the in-game store through Valve’s Steam Workshop platform.

The item, called The Virtual Viewfinder, produced as a result of their initiative with SEGA Europe Ltd., is available for purchase for £2.99 in the Mann Co. Store, where SEGA’s proceeds of each sale will go direct to the charity.

Mark Saville, Communications Officer at SpecialEffect, said “This is a huge day for us in terms of how the gaming community is able to support our work helping people with disabilities to play video games. It’s the first in-game donation stream that we’ve had, and we’re excited that gamers now have such a direct and engaging way of helping.”

James Schall, Director of Digital Distribution at SEGA Europe, said, “We’ve been blown away by the support from the community. The wonderful comments across the web supporting what we’ve done are incredibly humbling for the team and now gamers can directly support SpecialEffect and get their hands on some great items in one go.”

He added, “I’m a proud ambassador of SpecialEffect and a huge fan of the way they use technology to enrich the lives of those with disabilities. We enjoy a fruitful and collaborative relationship with Valve based on mutual respect; it’s great to be able to use this relationship to drive awareness and revenue for this fantastic charity.”

Players can purchase the item at:

http://store.teamfortress.com/itemdetails/170966833

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 20.09.13

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Andrew WilsonIt’s the end of the week so it is time for the industry news round up.

Electronic Arts’ exhaustive search for a new CEO led it to promote from within after all. The publisher today announced that executive VP of EA Sports Andrew Wilson is now the company’s CEO, replacing the seat left vacant by John Riccitiello’s resignation in March. EA executive chairman (and a former CEO of the company himself) Larry Probst will stay on as executive chairman for an undetermined length of time in order to assist Wilson with the transition to his new role.

Shinji Mikami, the father of survival horror, is back to direct The Evil Within, a game embodying the meaning of pure survival horror. Highly-crafted environments, horrifying anxiety, and an intricate story weave together to create an immersive world that will bring players to the height of tension. The Evil Within is in development for the Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC and is slated for release in 2014. A new trailer has been released for the game. If you are over eighteen and aren’t of a nervous disposition you can watch the trailer here, http://youtu.be/Z4WqOQTxisM

Blue Manchu is happy to announce that Card Hunter is finally available for all to play at www.cardhunter.com. Created in collaboration with legendary Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield, Card Hunter is Irrational Games co-founder Jonathan Chey’s first game since BioShock. Its unique mix of card collecting, board gaming and fantasy role-playing is set to reinvigorate the collectible card gaming scene. Card Hunter is a free to play game.

Jasper Smith, CEO of PlayJam, the company behind the highly anticipated micro games console – GameStick, confirmed a Global on-sale release date for the device of Tuesday 29th October 2013. Retailers GameStop, GAME, and Amazon will partner for the launch with additional outlets in Canada, Europe and the Middle East receiving stock prior to the end of year Holiday season. The console, which broke onto the games scene in January of this year following a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, has moved from paper to production in just 9 months.

Game Lab Social, a vibrant co-working space for creatives, is pleased to announce the opening of a new studio space in Leamington Spa designed to foster creativity, collaboration and knowledge sharing. As the vision of industry veterans Ollie Clarke and Steve Stopps and supported by Warwick District Council, Game Lab Social will open a space to work with local talent in specifically created workshops, on-site training and access to marketing, pitching and monetization expertise. Game Lab Social will also work to talent match, combining developer skills to create new development teams with the business infrastructure in place to support burgeoning talent, including graphic design, accounting and legal services.

Train2Game News: Nintendo legend Hiroshi Yamauchi passes away

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Hiroshi YamauchiIt’s with a heavy heart I report the death of Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi at the age of eighty five.

Mr Yamauchi ran the firm for 53 years, and was its second-largest shareholder at the time of his death. In that time, he took what was a small-time collectable trading card company and built it into one of the most recognisable and successful video games brands today.

Mr Yamauchi took over at Nintendo after his grandfather suffered a stroke. He utilised the work of legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who had made Donkey Kong, as a way of breaking into the US arcade game market. Mr Miyamoto’s later work was pivotal in the success of Nintendo’s home entertainment systems, titles such as Super Mario, Legend of Zelda and Starfox became commercial smashes and household names.

Mr Yamauchi, one of Japan’s richest men, also used to own the Seattle Mariners major league baseball club before selling it in 2004 to Nintendo’s US-based operation.

The company confirmed the news in an emailed statement. A spokesman said the firm was in mourning over the loss of the former Nintendo president Mr Hiroshi Yamauchi, who sadly passed away this morning. He died of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan and a funeral will take place on Sunday.

Mr Yamauchi is responsible for shaping the games industry in to what it is today and we thank him for all he did.

Train2Game News: Derp Studios in The Radio Magazine

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RadMag MS AdvertTrain2Game Student Studio, Derp Studios, has been featured in The Radio Magazine. The Radio Magazine is the only Radio magazine left in print.

Derp Studios is a studio primarily based in Cheltenham Gloucestershire, and they have been working on a project recently to bring small radio stations on to Windows 8 devices. The first radio app that was developed was for RTI which is Eric Wiltshers very own station.

Eric used his own connections in the radio world and mentioned it to The Radio Magazine who loved the idea so much that they have done a two page spread on the story. The Radio Magazine is then shipped out to every major and minor radio station around the country.

Derp Studios has also been heavily supported by Microsoft themselves as they saw this as an incredible opportunity for their Windows 8 platform and have given the team an incredible amount of help.

You can read the magazine at the following link from page 18: www.theradiomagazine.co.uk

Train2Game would like to wish Derp Studios a massive congratulations and good luck for the future.

You can find out more about Derp at their website: www.derpstudios.com

Train2Game News: Train2Game Friend Fee Stewart requires more staff at Formerdroid

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FormerdroidFormerdroid are hiring!

Train2Game friend Fee Stewart announced: We are currently looking for a Unity programmer (javascript) to work in Huddersfield.

The position would suit a highly motivated person who has extensive knowledge of Unity and wishes to grow with this BAFTA nominated, highly progressive team making original IP.

Knowledge of Windows 8 phone would be advantageous.

Single accommodation can be arranged if necessary for relocation.

Please send your CV to fee@formerdroid[DOT]com

Closing date 27/09/13