Train2Game student Laurence Gee has been given a full-time job by independent studio Brain in a Jar following a successful Train2Game work placement.
Read his thank you post below, or on the Train2Game Scribd page. You can also read Laurence’s previous Train2Game student placement diaries.
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Train2Game students will be aware of the significance of the iPad and how Apple has changed the games industry.
Not only has it provided indie developers with the opportunity to release games, but bigger, more established studios are also seeing its benefits.
Telltale games are one such studio, last month seeing 30% of their revenue come from the sale of iOS titles, and now CEO Dan Connors says they’re planning to focus more resources on iPad game development.
“The tablet is super interesting to us because we believe the style of content we build is perfect for the form factor,” he told Gamasutra.
“The fact that Apple has been able to get such a powerful tablet out there with a big install base makes it the obvious place to focus.”
Telltale games available in Apple’s app store include episodic titles Back to the Future, Sam & Max, Monkey Island and Hector: Badge of Carnagae.
And the studio CEO praised Apple’s global appeal and commented that the App store is an excellent way of getting games in front of a wide audience.
“What we’re seeing is you have access to a worldwide audience. There seems to be a real proliferation of these devices across the world,” he said.
“And the app store is so easy for people to purchase from. You can get your products to market really quickly and get them in front of people really quickly. There’s a good diverse audience – which is really good for the content that we do.”
Train2Game student Georgij Cernysiov has already seen his own iPad title released through the app store, while Train2Game student team Horizon Studios released Postal Panic for iPad earlier this year.
Train2Game students have also contributed to the development of DR Studios’ Bug Wings for iPhone and iPad. All of these show that producing iPad games could potentially be a great way for Train2Game students to get their games on the market.
And as previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Apple could potentially continue to revolutionise the games industry.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Telltale’s move towards more focus on iPad development? Is it something more developers will do? Would you focus on developing games for Apple devices?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Gamasutra]
Train2Game students will no doubt be familiar with the highly successful Uncharted series for PlayStation 3.
Now, with game number three on the horizon, Naughty Dog look to be pushing towards the release of yet another technically impressive and critically acclaimed game.
And while Train2Game students may expect the Uncharted 3 to have been meticulously planned before development starts, it appears it isn’t the case.
“We start with a short description, but then we do make up a lot of it as we go along. I think that’s very important.” Uncharted 3 Lead Game Designer Richard Lemarchand told GamesIndustry.biz during an in-depth interview.
He revealed that Uncharted 3 uses a storyboarding technique similar to Toy Story and Cars creators Pixar, which doesn’t begin with a script, but animation.
“I attended a story seminar by one of the story artists at Pixar last year, and he told us that Pixar make their films in the same way: they don’t have a script when they start; they do lots of brainstorming, and they work up ideas, and they do lots of drawing, and they start to make animatics, which are like little rough-cut movies.” said Lemarchand.
The Naughty Dog game designer explained that the story evolves from this system, which is flexible enough for things to change if needed.
“So they discover the key moments of their movies that way, and over time the detailed structure of what they’re making emerges.”
“It kind of appears by them working at it and working at it. That’s good, because it means you don’t over commit to something that might be wrong, or not entertaining or interesting enough.” he said.
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.
Uncharted 3 for PlayStation 3 is set for release on 2nd November, with the Train2Game blog previously reporting that Sony believe it’ll ‘show a new level in 3D gaming’
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the production behind Uncharted 3? Are you surprised it isn’t precisely planned? And how do you go about planning to build games?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
Train2Game students will need to stand out both in ability, and as a character, in ordered to get noticed in the games industry. This could include wearing a silly hat.
That’s according to comments made by Gears of War 3 creator Cliff Bleszinski about what game developers need to do to make a name for themselves.
“It’s not always easy for the majority of them, but the best thing you can do for your career is to be an actual name as opposed to just, and I hate to say it, a gear in the machine,” he told Develop.
And the Gears of War 3 man recognises that you have to be good at what you do, but it’s also important to make yourself a little distinctive.
“First and foremost, make a great game but also have a personality. Be the guy with the hip glasses, with the one gauge earring and the gamer tattoo all the way to the sleeves with a skateboard. Stand out,” he said.
“Be a person, be a brand. Just do something so that people know who you are. Have an online presence more than ever. Understand social channels.”
Many Train2Game students will already know about Twitter, and how some can use it to aid in their success. Train2Game also has its own Twitter account.
Bleszinski use’s creator of Minecraft – a hugely popular game on the Train2Game forum – Markus ‘Notch’ Persson as an example of a developer using alternative means to make a name for themselves.
“He’s got over 300,000 followers and he has the hat. Clearly the guy gets a certain amount of the branding right, he’s got the cool nickname, he’s got the hat he wears everywhere. You spot him and know what he looks like. He’s an example like Jon Blow.” said the Epic Design Director.
The Develop interview – which Train2Game students can read here – should make interesting reading for Train2Game students, with Cliff Bleszinski also discussing development behind the Gears of War series.
So Train2Game, what do you think of Bleszinski’s comments? Is it important for game developers to be distinctive to stand out above the crowd?? Would you consider wearing a funny hat to be recognised?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Develop]
Train2Game students on the Game Development course will be especially interested in this, a blog on how to become a ‘kick-ass’ gameplay coder.
It’s the latest in the #altdevblogaday series, and comes from FreeStyleGames’ Andy Bastable. It contains some excellent advice on how to become a great coder and is something that Train2Game game development students would benefit from reading!
One tip is the importance of working with the rest of the game development team, the game designers and artists, even if you don’t necessarily agree with what they want to do…
“Being an awesome gameplay coder means leaving that cynical attitude by the door. Yes, you may not like the feature you are tasked with all that much – and you may not even think it’ll work that well, but keep an open mind and you may be surprised by how it develops.”
“Work with designers and artists, and not against them. That doesn’t mean not speaking up when something is wildly unrealistic, or bound to contradict several TRCs – but it does mean being willing to try out things that don’t get all your creative juices flowing at first glance.” Writes Bastable.
Train2Game students can read the full ‘How to be a kick-ass gameplay coder’ piece at #altdevblogaday.
A previous #altdevblogaday post, mentioned here on the Train2Game blog demonstrated the importance of getting involved with Game Jams. Fortunately, next month’s Train2Game & Epic Game Jam will give some Train2Game students this opportunity.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the tips for becoming a kick-ass coder? And what tips would you give to others?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: #altdevblogaday]
Train2Game students will be aware of the importance of testing games during development, and the significance of this is already being displayed in the Battlefield 3 Open Beta.
According to the Battlefield blog, the feedback from players is providing useful information to developers DICE when it comes to improving the game.
“The amounts of people flocking to our Open Beta is fantastic! We are happy to see so many players enjoy this Open Beta, and giving us their valuable feedback on the experience on the Battlelog forums,” the blog post says.
Train2Game students can see the Battlefield 3 blog for a full rundown of the changes that have been made as a result of testing during the Open Beta, and DICE say they’ll be updating the blog with further tweaks they make as more people provide them with feedback about Battlefield 3.
The Battlefield 3 beta for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC runs through to October 10th, and Train2Game students who wish to get involved can find out how to do so here on the Train2Game blog.
It could provide Train2Game students, especially those on the QA Tester course, with experience of properly testing a game in development.
So Train2Game, are you involved with the Battlefield 3 beta? Have you spotted any bugs? How important do you think this Open Beta is to the development of the game?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Battlefield blog]
Train2Game students who go onto work on Triple-A titles will need to be ready to develop whole game franchises. At least that’s the case if id Software Creative Director Tim Willits.
“You need to make a franchise, especially for us. We’re doing everything we can to turn it into a franchise, “please let it sell so we can make another one!” he told GamesIndustry.biz.
And Willits said they needed to make sure the story was deep enough to do this from the start.
“Even from the beginning when we talked about the story and the setting, we said we need to make it rich, we need to have deep environment,”
“We have the comic books that we’ve used to support the game, we have the book we use to support the game, the iPhone – heck, the whole iPhone game was about Bash TV, which is only a ten minute experience in the overall game.” said id Software Creative Director.
He suggests that the RAGE franchise could even expand to include mobile and social games.
“So we definitely, from the get go, planned to make this a much bigger franchise, a much richer world, that allows us to have different games, and we can make more mobile games, heck, we could make a social game with Rage if we wanted to. And hopefully we can make a Rage 2. Hopefully.”
In an his in-depth interview with GI.biz, Willits handed out advice to those looking to get into the games industry: make sure you create things and finish them.
“If you want to make levels, make levels in you spare time, all the time. If you want to be an artist you always have to be drawing. If you want to be a programmer you need to make small apps. You have to have a passion to do it for free if you ever want to really get paid for it.” he said.
It’s very similar to the advice Willits gave Train2Game students about how to get into the games industry in an interview with the Train2Game blog last month.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Willits comments? Does new IP need to be considered a franchise from its inception? Or can games still be one offs?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: GI.biz]
Train2Game was at the Eurogamer Expo, and while there we sat down with gaming charity Special Effect. Special Effect is dedicated to helping young people with disabilities enjoy computer games when it may not otherwise be possible. They use their expertise and adapted technology including eye control in order to make this happen.
In the second part of our two part interview, Special Effect R&D Bill Donegan tells the Train2Game blog how they decide which games to add their tech too, what their biggest challenges are and how you can help them.
Read it below on the Train2Game blog, on the Train2Game Scribd, or listen to it via Train2Game Radio. Part 1 of the interview is available here.
How do you decide which games to build eye tech and other technology into, and do you get any help from the developers themselves?
Yeah we’ve had some really good input. For instance, last week someone we’re working with in Dublin on eye control, who before he had his accident he used to play a lot of golf and so we’ve been trying to find a way for him to play golf using the eye control system. Then this developer basically took a game that he’d already made and we asked him if could put some changes in. He basically put in these functions that allowed eye control or any other pointer input to control the game.
It’s not just a case of being able to control a mouse, if you can play with a mouse it doesn’t necessarily mean you can play with eye control, there’s lots of small subtitles. So basically it involves a lot of testing of games and looking at games seeing what might work and then testing it. Or if there’s something like racing games where in general the genre doesn’t use curser controls as input method, we’re trying to think of ways that we could use that and then play the game.
If any indie developers had a game they wanted to allow this technology to be involved with, would you be happy for them to come to Special Effect?
Yes, we offer a free service of helping developers if they want to put our features in. We don’t say ‘You have to put these features n,’ we’re quite happy to look at someone’s game and make some recommendations, and if they feel it’s viable to do that and put them in then we’ll advise them on how they might want to do that. They do that by meeting us in person, or through email.
And what’s been your biggest challenge adding this tech to your projects?
The one that eludes us slightly and what we’re going to test this bit of software with is first person shooters. Because obviously there’s a large amount of controls just to use a cursor movement for. So that’s the next big thing on the agenda because obviously lots of people want to be able to play that type of game, like Call of Duty, Battlefield. So using one control input such as a cursor to do about twenty different things, that’s the next thing we’re going to look at long term.
And how can developers help you to do that?
Lots of people we work with have different ways of controlling a computer and different abilities, but there are things that can be put into every sort of game that would help a larger amount of people that we work with, be able to play it.
Quite standard features like, for example, lots of people have heard about putting remapping functions into games. Obviously it opens up games for someone who wouldn’t be able to play ordinarily because they use a specialist controller; they can’t reach a certain button so they need to put it to one they can reach. Being able to do that in the game can be the different between being able to play that game and not.
So some things like eye control is obviously a difficult thing to do, but there are certain things like being able to turn off the cursor control in a first person shooter will obviously allow us to move the cursor and do other functions. It’s quite a hard thing to explain but there are things that if we had discussions with them we’d be able to work on I’m sure.
If people want to get involved with helping Special Effect, how do they go about it?
We’ve just launched a Facebook fan page for Special Effect and by liking it you instantly become a ‘Gamer For Good’ and that basically says ‘I support what Special Effect is doing,’ helping people to play video games. From there they can contact us and find out what they can do to help.
There are special edition Special Effect t-shirts on sale here at Eurogamer can you tell us about those?
Yes. So, Insert Coin who did the logo for our Gamers For Good Facebook page and they’re selling them on their stand. (The Special Effect t-shirts are also available from Insert Coin Tees website.)
They’re really nice guys basically, they’ve been really supportive of us from the start, and all the profits from the t-shirts are coming straight to us which is lovely. We’ve had no outlay from them so everything we get from the t-shirts is profit for us. It supports the work that we do basically, we’re privately funded, we don’t get government funding, all of our work is supported via donations so it all goes to helping the work we do.
If you know someone who might benefit from the work we do, get in touch: info@specialeffect.org.uk
Thanks for your time
For more information about Special Effect, www.SpecialEffect.org.uk
Train2Game students may be aware that many MMO titles are switching to a free-to-play model, one wherein revenue is made by microtransactions rather than monthly subscription fees.
However, while many games in the genre are going free-to-play, the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic – scheduled for release in December – is going to stick to the traditional pay monthly model.
And while many developers are switching to free-to-play, SWTOR developers Bioware believe that gamers will always be willing to pay a subscription fee for a quality product.
“I think there will always be a place for premium content at a premium price and that’s one of the differences,” Bioware co-founder Greg Zeschuk told Industry Gamers.
“Free to play is very much about trial, about ‘Hey, I don’t know what this is, I don’t have confidence that it’s any good, but I’m willing to take a look at it,’ versus ‘I know this is good, from a trusted source, and it’s the biggest license in the world.’ So it’s a different value proposition,” he said.
Fellow Bioware co-founder Ray Muzyka believes that increased competition from free-to-play titles is good for the games industry.
“There’s more competition for entertainment dollars now than ever before from social and play for free, and all sorts of entertainment, which I think is actually really healthy from an entertainment industry perspective”
However, he agrees with Zeschuk in that the subscription model will remain popular, but the games have to be worth it.
“But I agree with Greg that there’s a space for a certain number of premium products that are subscription based or whatever the premium pricing model is. But they have to merit it, they have to earn that from a consumer trust perspective and delivering and exceeding expectations.” said Muzyka.
Of course, he believes that Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of these games.
“I think The Old Republic is definitely in that triple-A premium category. That’s the feedback reading from the players and data testing.”
Earlier this week, the Train2Game blog reported on the importance of playtesting in the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
For an in-depth look at the development of SWTOR, read the Train2Game interview with Associate Lead Game Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi
So Train2Game, do you believe the subscription model for MMO still has a future ahead of it? Or will free-to-play titles become the dominant force?
Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
[Source: Industry Gamers]
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.
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