Tag Archives: Game Development

Train2Game news: THQ say future consoles won’t use discs

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Train2Game students who like to collect boxed games may find this a little hard to take, but the future of games consoles won’t involve discs.

That’s according to THQ CEO Brian Farrell who made the prediction during his keynote presentation at Cloud Gaming USA.

But it could be a good thing for Train2Game students, the game developers of the future, because according to Farrell the lack of a disc drive “will result in a lower cost for the hardware manufacturer, which will result in a lower cost to consumers and therefore a lower entry point, thus driving more mass market adoption.”

In addition to allowing more people to play games, the THQ CEO believes that any future consoles with no disc drive will generate more revenue for game developers.

“No physical goods cost for game makers. No inventory, no markdowns, and all the money spent by the consumer would go to the developer or publisher.” said Farrell.

Farrell also believes that cloud gaming will be beneficial for gaming communities

“Our games are always on and our players are always connected….We have the opportunity to interact with players in new ways that can be reactive to their desires, play habits, and buying habits.”

“The box, ship and done model is transitioning to: observe, measure, and modify, a games as a service model where direct consumer feedback allows the ability to operate in this always on, always connected environment.” he told Cloud Gaming USA.

Train2Game students will have the opportunity to try out cloud gaming for themselves at the upcoming Eurogamer Expo. As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, OnLive will be at the event and Train2Game students could get their hands on a free OnLive system to take home.

Of course, Train2Game will be highly visible at the Eurogamer Expo too, and are giving Train2Game students the opportunity to win an iPad 2 complete with an i OS developer account.

So Train2Game, what do you make of Farrell’s predictions? Do you think there will be consoles that don’t use discs in future? Is cloud gaming the way forward?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier interview with Ubisoft

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. While there, we spoke to three members of the Ubisoft Ghost Recon: Future Soldier team. They were Game Director Eric Couzian, Lead Game Designer Roman Campos Oriola and Associate Producer Thomas Leroux-Hugon.

In an in-depth interview with Train2Game they discuss new game design features for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, taking co-op into account during game development and adding Kinect motion controls to the game.

They also reveal how they got into the games industry and suggest how Train2Game students can follow in their footsteps.

Read the Train2Game Ghost Recon: Future Soldier interview below,  here on the Train2Game blog.

Train2Game and Epic Games to Host UK’s Biggest Game Jam

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Train2Game, has joined forces with Epic Games, developers of cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology, to host the UK’s biggest game jam from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th November 2011.

The 48-hour video game creation marathon will bring together an estimated 150 games enthusiasts at the University of Bedfordshire, where they will go head-to-head to create innovative video games using Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of the award-winning Unreal Engine 3.

The Train2Game and Epic Game Jam is open to aspiring games developers, including Train2Game students and hobbyist games developers. On Friday, November 4th, registered competitors will convene at the University of Bedfordshire’s new development lab to form teams and build games around a secret theme, which will be announced on the first evening of the event. The jam concludes on Sunday, November 6th, when three teams will be selected as winners by industry A-listers from some of the UK’s hottest development houses, as well as Epic Games.

Mike Head, marketing director at Train2Game said: “The Train2Game and Epic Game Jam is a great opportunity for students and amateur games developers to create content for their portfolio and rub shoulders with well known developers within the industry. Working with Epic Games also means that we have a unique opportunity to introduce participants to the cutting-edge UDK framework, which will allow them to really bring their games to life and showcase their talents.”

“This game jam offers a valuable creative outlet for anyone looking to make games,” said Mike Gamble, European territory manager of Epic Games. “Participants will have access to excellent tools, members of the Unreal Engine development community and industry veterans, plus there’s potential for the best games to gain additional exposure beyond the event itself.”

As well as creating cutting-edge content for their portfolio, and learning how to use the UDK, Train2Game and Epic Game Jam competitors will be eligible to win prizes for the most innovative new games developed over the weekend. Prizes will be announced closer to the event.

For further information, and to sign-up to the Train2Game and Epic Game Jam please visit http://train2game-jam2.com/, existing students can login intowww.train2game-online.com.

Train2Game news: ‘Digital revolution’ encourages creativity say Ninja Theory

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Train2Game students will be aware that when compared to the traditional retail model, digital distribution provides game developers with a better opportunity to get their titles out there.

Not only does the digital business model knock down the wall of needing a publisher, it also arguably allows developers to take more risks when developing the games. Both of these could potentially be advantageous to Train2Game students.

Indeed, as reported by the Train2Game blog, indie developer Mode 7 Games believes the Steam digital distribution service is ‘essential’ for indie developers.

And in a recent interview, Ninja Theory  Creative chief, Tameem Antoniades also praised digital distribution model, stating it’s good for creativity in the games industry.

“There’s always an opportunity between projects to explore things, a lot of team members are hobbyists, they create their own iPhone games and things like that so I can see us kind of taking a punt with that. It can’t come soon enough” Antoniades told GamesIndustry.biz

For more on iPhone development, see the recent Train2Game interview with indie studio Hogrocket. They recently released their first game for the platform, Tiny Wings.

The Ninja Theory Chief Designer suggested that the traditional retail model is on the way out, and that it’s a positive thing for game developers.

“The whole digital revolution is happening now and it can’t come soon enough. The model we’re under, the big retail model, is creaking” he said,  before arguing that need for games to be successful at retail in its current is stifling creativity because consumers don’t want to spend large amounts of money on an unknown entity.

“It’s such an opportunity for fun creative games to reach a target audience, there’s this stranglehold that the AAA retail model has which I think is just crushing innovation and access to creative content.”

“If you’re paying that much for a game, you don’t want to take chances. You want everything to be there, all the feature sets. You want it to be a known experience, guaranteed fun. That’s not healthy.”

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Ninja Theory’s original IP Enslaved: Odyssey to the West failed to be particularly successful at retail, with publisher Namco Bandai suggesting poor release timing was to blame.

Even if Enslaved wasn’t very successful, Train2Game students would do well to read about the Enslaved Developer Session with Ninja Theory’s Tameem Antoniades at last years’ Eurogamer Expo. Expect more insight into how game developers operate as Train2Game will be reporting from the 2011 expo later this month

What are your thoughts on the comments from Antonides? Do you agree that digital distribution encourages creativity? Would an all digital model be good for the industry?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: GI.biz]

Train2Game interview with Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Jason Vandenberghe

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. While there, we spoke with Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Jason Vandenberghe.

In an in-depth interview, he discussed what his role involves, the game design process behind an open world title, creating believable characters and much more.

He also reveals how he got into the games industry and gives Train2Game students advice on how to follow in his footsteps.

Read the interview below here on the Train2Game blog, or listen via Train2Game Radio.

Far Cry 3 Narrative Director: Using actors and performance capture improves game design

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The use of actors and performance capture is the future of game design. That’s according to Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Jason Vandenberghe, who argues that it improves games making characters more believable, something he believes the industry needs to do more of.

It could be a technology that Train2Game students could use in their future careers.

“I think we’ve been putting up with poor performances and poor writing for too long in the industry” Vandenberghe told Train2Game in a soon to be published interview.

“There’s a lot of people who’ve kind of accepted that it’s just a game so you don’t need to have a good story or don’t need to have good believable characters. Why not? We should have good, believable, strong characters every time.”

The Far Cry 3 Narrative Director believes that as the performance capture technology becomes more readily available, more game developers should take advantage of it.

“We have examples of that, there have been great characters in gaming and we should continue with that, we should expect that” said Vandenberghe.

“I believe that now that the technology for performance capture is becoming more and more available, and we’re learning more about it, I expect the quality bar to rise and I hope you guys (gamers) should be demanding better characters out of your games.”

“What I’m trying to do with this game is raise the audiences’ expectations” he added.

Stay tuned to the Train2Game blog for the full interview with Far Cry 3 Narrative Director Jason Vandenberghe. The title from Ubisoft is set for release next year.

Other games that use motion capture include L.A. Noire and its impressive facial animations, and the Uncharted series which takes input of actors very seriously.

And last month the Train2Game blog reported that Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will also use motion technology.

So Train2Game, is Vandenberg right? Is performance capture and the user of actors the future of the industry? Will it help game designers produce better games?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game students should take the opportunity to game jam, here’s why…

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Train2Game recently announced that a second 48 hour Game Jam  will take place in early November, with full details  about it available to Train2Game students on the Train2Game forum.

Game Jams are an excellent way for any game developer to test their skills, and in an interesting #altdevblogpostaday article, PixoFactor’s Adam Rademacher explains why Game Jams are “best practice” for game developers.

He argues that Game Jams are a great place to improve your abilities thanks to the focused nature of the 48 hour development period.

“The entire weekend you’re thinking about game development” wrote Rademacher.  “Thinking about how to program new features, or how to speed up your art production.  Even if you don’t finish the game on time, it’s not hard to see how it can improve your skills”

“Even if you only learn to write one new function, or one new shader, you’ve improved upon your skillset, and now you have a (hopefully) cool prototype to continue building on.”

Rademacher adds that Game Jams are an excellent opportunity to develop prototypes of games, a practice that’s common in the industry. Indeed, an interview with the Train2Game blog earlier this year, Mediatonic Director Paul Croft revealed that they’re a good way of coming up with new games.

It’s also suggested that Game Jams are a great way of practicing creativity, and in an environment where if the idea doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter.

“It’s easy to set out on a project with all intention to create something innovative and new, then be completely distraught when it’s no fun, or unreasonable to try to finish, or just not as innovative as you thought it would be.  But that’s cool.  Because you’ve only spent a weekend on it.”

The #altdevblogaday piece is a great way for game developers to try out new technology, and learn cool new stuff. This is exactly what Train2Game students will have the opportunity to do at the second official Train2Game Game Jam, in which the Unreal Development Kit will be used to make games! It’s an engine that many Train2Game students won’t have used before.

The importance of Game Jams piece is available in full to read on #altdevblogaday. While full details about the Train2Game Game Jam are on the Train2Game forum.

What are your thoughts on the benefit of Game Jams?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: Altdevblogaday] 

Train2Game interview with Hogrocket co-founder Ben Ward

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Hogrocket is a micro-studio founded by three former employees of Bizarre Creations and they’ve just released their first game for iPhone, Tiny Invaders.

 Train2Game recently caught up with Hogrocket co-founder Ben Ward to discuss switching from Triple-A to indie, indie development, and releasing games for the iPhone.

Ben also revealed how he got into the games industry and gave advice on how Train2Game students can attempt to follow in his footsteps. Read the interview below, or listen to it via Train2Game Radio. 

 

Train2Game competition: Codebox #1 – calling all coders!

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Here it is the first of the new Train2Game monthly competitions – this month is the turn of the coders. We will need you to go to Student World to read the Terms and Conditions, they can be found in the ‘classroom section’.

All the information you need to enter is on the Competition thread on the Train2Game forum.

When submitting your entry you must confirm in the body of the email that you have read, understood and accept these Terms and Conditions.

Send your answers in to codeboxcompetition@drstudios.co.uk.
Closing date for entries is Monday, September 12th. We will announce the winners the following week.

The prize: The awesome Asus nVIDIA 3D GeForce GTX 560 TI DirectCu II TOP Graphics Card (1GB) worth nearly £200.00!

AND two runners up will also each receive a pair of tickets to the Eurogamer.

Due to the nature of floating point values, the exact result will be impossible to store in a double, so the winner will be the Search() function which comes the closest. In the event of identical results, the speed of the Search() function will be taken into account. In the event of identical speeds, the result will be drawn out of a hat. The decision of the judges will be final.

Good luck!


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Train2Game interview with UFC Undisputed 3 Producer Neven Dravinski

			
						

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Train2Game was at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany from 17th August to 21st August. While there, we spoke with UFC Undisputed 3 Producer Neven Dravinski.


In an in-depth interview, he discussed what his role as producer involves, the game design process, the art & animation techniques used to model fighters, and much more.


Dravinski also reveals how he got into the games industry and gives advice on what Train2Game students should do to follow in his footsteps. Read the full interview below, or listen to it via Train2Game Radio.


Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.