Tag Archives: Game Development

Train2Game blog Red Faction: Armageddon Game Designer interview – part 3

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The Train2Game blog was recently lucky enough to grab a chat with Volition’s Jameson Durall, Lead Level Designer of the upcoming Red Faction: Armageddon. In a wide ranging interview that’ll be of interest to anyone on a Train2Game course, Durall discussed the impressive Geo-Mod engine, how it impacts on Game Design, what goes on behind the scenes during game development at Volition, and revealed to us his tips for getting into the games industry.

In the final part of our interview, Durall talks about how he got into the games industry, gives advice to those who want get into the industry, and discusses the importance of modding as a learning tool. Part one is already available on the Train2Game blog. Part two can also be read here.

Train2Game blog: You mentioned you’ve got ten years experience in the games industry; first of all what made you want to get into the games industry and how did you get involved in it?

Jameson Durall: When I was a kid, the moment for me where I started dreaming of making games was when I played the original Zelda on the NES.  Just getting into a world that was so alive and in depth, it was amazing for me. I never thought I could actually do it though! I assumed I’d end up doing I.T. work or something because I love computers. Then about 11 years ago I head about Full Sail, which is an entertainment college in Orlando, Florida; and they were starting up a Game Design degree programme. I went and took a look and I was sold, the thing I’ve dreamed of doing, a place that was going to give me the knowledge to do it, I was sold. After that I went through there, graduated and got my first gig in the industry and just kept going from there.

Train2Game blog: What advice would you give to people, students, who want a career as a Game Designer?

Jameson Durall: There’s a couple of things; I really feel that first of all a gaming degree is almost necessary these days. There are so many good schools out there that can provide one, and when an employer’s looking at one they’re going to want…an option of having an employee that has an education, they’re going to want to choose that person knowing that they come in with a really good foundation of knowledge.

The other thing I would say is for people who are even interested in it is to start modding. Find your favourite game, download their tools and start learning what it is to actually create content for this. That gives you real practical knowledge of how making games works, even if it’s just in a small capacity.

Train2Game blog: Are there any modding tools you’d recommend in particular?

Jameson Durall: UDK is something that’s really nice and free, and Unity, these are things that people can grab, start making some content. But the thing I suggest for people first of all is grab one of the LEGO games, like LEGO Indiana Jones, it has a full level building system built right into it. And LittleBigPlanet, those are things you can get in there, learn to play and just recreate something you experienced to see what goes into that.

Train2Game blog: Thanks for your time Jameson.

You can read part 1 of our interview here on the Train2Game blog.

Part 2 of the Red Faction: Armageddon interview is also available.

Red Faction: Armageddon is released June 10th.

Train2Game blog Red Faction: Armageddon Game Designer interview – part 2

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The Train2Game blog was recently lucky enough to grab a chat with Volition’s Jameson Durall, Lead Level Designer of the upcoming Red Faction: Armageddon. In a wide ranging interview that’ll be of interest to anyone on a Train2Game course, Durall discussed the impressive Geo-Mod engine, how it impacts on Game Design, what goes on behind the scenes during game development at Volition, and revealed to us his tips for getting into the games industry.

In the second part of this interview, Durall continues to discuss how the Geo-Mod engine influences Game Design, how it could potentially be used for modding, and the game development process at Volition. Part one is already available on the Train2Game blog.

Train2Game blog: Can you tell us a bit about the process of how creating and designing new enemies actually works?

Jameson Durall: In our case we wanted to build something to further enhance the experience of the destruction. We had humans in [Red Faction] Guerrilla and we wanted to do something where we could be a little bit more elaborate with them. One of our main goals with taking a good chunk of the game underground was we could utilise the walls and the ceilings, so we wanted to also have enemies that we could do that with as well.

And so when we’re developing each of the types of the aliens, we wanted to make sure they were able to attach themselves to the walls, and attach themselves to the ceilings, giving them different ways to come into the world. So if the player goes in and blows up everything we wanted a way to make sure we can keep refilling the battle or making it as intense as we want. So we did things like the ‘Monster Closet’ so we could bring more into the battles when we needed to.

Train2Game blog: Is the advancement in the Geo-Mod engine the reason why Red Faction: Armageddon has mostly moved underground and is no longer sandbox style as in previous game Red Faction: Guerrilla?

Jameson Durall: One of the things we found with Guerrilla was that the restrictions of building such a destructible area meant that we had to have a lot of space in between each of those encounters. So one of the things with going underground allowed us to do was, we’re not having to draw these vast distances so we can really intensify areas with a lot more destruction. So we wanted to make sure; one, that we got a more dense destruction area, plus we wanted to make sure the player didn’t have to wait as long in between them and we’ve accomplished that goal.

We were handed a fantastic technology for this game, and the Geo-Mod is truly remarkable; so for us it was making sure ‘what could we do on top of that, how could we integrate it a little more in the gameplay’ and not have to worry about having these gaps and what we could do to make sure it was more action packed, and let the player do what they want to do more which is blow things up.

Train2Game blog: Can you see the Geo-Mod engine or something like it being used in other games aside from Red Faction? Or even for modding purposes in future?

Jameson Durall: I think that’s totally possible. There’s a lot of interesting applications for something like that; just think of a quick Xbox LIVE game that you could make which is a fully destructible cartoon style world. The technology itself could transfer to anything that you want to do, it’s a fully physics based destructible world.

Train2Game blog: How does the Game Design team come up with the story and characters? Is it very much a team based effort? Or do individual designers work on individual parts?

Jameson Durall: It’s definitely a team based thing. Certain things will come in when we want to accomplish ‘X goal’ and then we’ll work together to figure out what we can mould around it to make sure that we accomplish that goal. Even the levels themselves have to be built around certain particular story points that we want to make sure we achieve.

So for us there’s a whole lot of each designer working together with our creative director and working with the writing department making sure everyone’s on the same page, that we focus on the key points we have to achieve and then how do we build the rest of the game around that.

You can read part 1 of our interview here on the Train2Game blog.

 

In Part 3 of the Train2Game blog interview with Red Faction: Armageddon Lead Level Designer Jameson Durall, he tells us how he got into the games industry, offers advice to budding Game Designers and discusses the benefits of modding.  Red Faction: Armageddon is released June 10th. 

Train2Game Student Robin Chanon – Industry Experience Diary No.1

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The first of a new feature, Train2Game student Robin Channon writes about his experiences a Train2Game student work placement. Robin was on placement at DR Studios. You read can it here on the Train2Game blog, or on the official Train2Game website. 

UDK passes 800,000 downloads: A reminder to Train2Game students about the benefits of modding

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The Train2Game blog has long held the belief that modding is a fantastic way for those on Train2Game courses to improve their skills. Not only that but it can potentially offer a way of getting your work out to a theoretically unlimited number of people.

That’s what happened with some Team Fortress 2 community modders who’ve not only seen their work introduced as in-game items, but as the Train2Game blog has previously reported, they’ve made money from them.

The free version of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 development kit (UDK) is one example of a modding tool that’s now been installed over 800,000 times since its launch. That’s what Epic Vice President Mark Rein told Gamasutra.

UDK is available to anyone – including those on Train2Game courses – for free.  A developer that wants to use it for commercial use; that is to use it to develop then sell a game having to pay $99 to enter into a revenue share model. If the game is successful and makes more than $50,000, Epic will take a 25% cut of revenue after that point.

It might sound like a lot but we’re sure that any Train2Game student who went onto produce a UDK powered game that made $50,000 would be more than happy to give something back to Epic!

UDK come highly recommended by game developers, including Volition’s Jameson Durall. In part three of our interview with the Red Faction: Armageddon Lead Level Designer – to be published later this week – he recommends UDK in particular as a good modding tool.

Part 1 of the interview is already available on the Train2Game blog.

Other prominent PC game modding tools include Valve’s Source SDK – which is as the Train2Game blog reported is being made ‘less painful’ to use – while a Starcraft II also provides modding tools. The Train2Game blog previously revealed that one Starcraft II modders work was so impressive, it brought about attention from game development studios.

It all points towards modding being something useful for Train2Game students!  And with UDK free to download, there’s no reason fro budding game developers not to give it a whirl.

Have you considered modding? Will you try out UDK? Or perhaps you’ve modded already and if so, what have you produced?

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

[Source: Gamasutra via Develop]

Train2Game blog Red Faction: Armageddon Game Designer interview – part 1

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Red Faction Armageddon Train2Game blog image 01

The Train2Game blog was recently fortunate enough to grab a chat with Volition’s Jameson Durall, Lead Level Designer of the upcoming Red Faction: Armageddon. In a wide ranging interview that’ll be of interest to anyone on a Train2Game course, Durall discussed the impressive Geo-Mod engine, how it impacts on Game Design, what goes on behind the scenes during game development at Volition, and revealed to us his tips for getting into the games industry.

In the first part of this interview, he talks about his role at Volition, how the Geo-Mod engine works, and how it impacts on Game Design in Red Faction: Armageddon. More about Game Design is available in part two, while in part three Durall speaks about getting into the games industry.

Train2Game blog: What does your role of Lead Level Designer with Red Faction: Armageddon mean? What have you contributed to the development of the game?

Jameson Durall: Well, I have a group of level designers and work together with those guys to make sure that we’re building the kind of environments we need for the most action packed, destructive areas that also help tell the story that we’re trying to tell in the game. So there’s a whole lot of working closely with them, trying to direct the areas in a way that fulfils those goals and make sure that we make the best levels possible.

Train2Game blog: The levels are based on the Geo-Mod engine; can you tell us how that works?

Jameson Durall: [Laughs] A smarter man than we would have to tell you exactly how it works! But simply the basics are that every building is built around a shard system. It has a state, and when it takes damage it breaks into smaller pieces. It’s a full physics engine, and so it takes real weight and stress, so anything we build in the game we have to be very realistic about how it’s constructed because anything on top is forcing weight down on to the stuff below. It gets a little more difficult when you want to make tall buildings, or things that look certain ways because you have to make sure you have real foundation at the bottom to hold the weight of the things you’re trying to do.

Train2Game blog: How does this affect the design of the levels and the story of Red Faction: Armageddon as a whole?

Jamson Durall: I’ve been designing levels for over ten years, and I’ve never had a challenge quite like this. You think about traditional shooters where a lot of enemies will come out from behind walls or they’ll open doors and the thing that we have to always consider is that the player could destroy the entire area before certain things start to happen. So we always had to think of each level as a mini-sandbox, where it’s like ‘Ok the player can do so many different things, so lets build each little encounter in a way that they have a lot more options plus we account for whatever they might do.’

It also forced us to do some things like come up with enemy types that now can actually come in through the walls; so we developed the ‘Monster Closet’ system so enemies can come in that way. And then things like the Wraith, it can literally appear anywhere, so we don’t have to worry about including visibility for things like that.

In part two of the Train2Game blog interview with Red Faction: Armageddon Lead Level Designer Jameson Durall, he tells us more about the Geo-Mod engine and how it impacts on every aspect of Game Design. Red Faction: Armageddon is released June 10th. 

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

Bioware admit Dragon Age II faults following community feedback. How important is listening to fans Train2Game?

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Bioware Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw has responded to reactions from fans about Dragon Age II’s controversial new Game Design mechanics.  (You can remind yourself of how Bioware said the Game Design of Dragon Age II was ‘more welcoming’ here on the Train2Game blog)

The game itself proved popular on the Train2Game Forum, but Bioware were inundated with comments on the Bioware forum that voiced concerns that Dragon Age II when compared to the original, Dragon Age: Origins. (A title that the Train2Game blog previously laid great praise on, especially when it came to Game Design)

Laidlaw has recognised concerns of Bioware forum users and insists that there are aspects of Dragon Age 2 that must be improved upon in future games in the series.

“I am absolutely aware of the concerns voiced here. Issues like level re-use, the implementation of wave combat, concerns about the narrative and significance of choice and so on have all been not only noted, but examined, inspected and even aided me (and many, many others on the team) in formulating future plans.” he said. “Further, I’m not only aware of the concerns, but I agree that there are aspects of DA II that not only can but must be improved in future installments. And that is precisely our intent.”

Laidlaw also added the reasons why Bioware made such a drastic change from Dragon Age: Origins with Dragon Age II “I am very proud of what the team accomplished with Dragon Age II. I know many are advocating a “it wasn’t broke, why did you try to fix it?” stance, and I absolutely understand why. From my perspective, as someone looking to the future and the DA franchise, I think that DA II moved us into a space that has more potential.

“The story events of DA II have fundamentally altered the political and power landscape of Thedas, in a way that’s open to intrigue, drama and sweeping conflict in the future, and evolves a world that, while still very much involving the Grey Wardens and Darkspawn, is about more than just that one struggle.”

“Hawke’s story was a departure from the usual tale, and in crafting it and the game around it we learned a lot. Some from what worked, but even more from what didn’t. Such is always the way. I hope that in the future we’ll be able to discuss how we’re addressing your concerns and even solicit feedback from you on future plans in the process, but for now, I hope a simple thank you will suffice.” He concluded.

It provides a potentially interesting lesson to Train2Game students in listening to fan feedback when developing games.  For more on why Bioware decided to take Dragon Age II in the direction they did, see extracts of an interview with Mike Laidlaw on Game Design here on the Train2Game blog.

So Train2Game, how important do you believe it to be for developers to listen to fans? Is it something you look forward to in your future career? Have you already responded to feedback when producing games?

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

[Souce: Bioware Forum via CVG]

Train2Game Radio interview with Game Development student Mike Connell – text version

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Yesterday, the Train2Game blog published an audio interview with Train2Game Game Development student Mike Connell. Now the interview is available in text, and you can read it right here on the Train2Game blog.

As usual, leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Ubisoft want next-gen consoles ‘sooner rather than later’

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Earlier this year, the Train2Game blog reported that job listings suggested that Microsoft was looking to start work on their next console.

Now, while there’s still no information at all about anything called an Xbox 720 – as much as those on Train2Game courses want news! – Ubisoft want the next generation of games consoles to come ‘sooner rather than later’

“I’ll leave that up to Microsoft and Sony to say for certain.” Said Ubisoft UK boss Rob Cooper when asked by MCV when Sony and Microsoft may reveal the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720.

“But I’d echo something Yves said earlier this year: there have been tons of technological advances since the last round of consoles was released, and we’d love to see those advances included in new consoles sooner rather than later.” He said

“That’s because the sooner we have the next generation of consoles to build on, the sooner we can leverage those advances to create the next generation of video games.

“The peripherals and the updates to the existing generation have been great, but it’s typically new consoles that really spark innovation from publishers and the demand from customers.” The Ubisoft publishing boss added.

In March, the Train2Game blog gave you a taste of what the next-gen might look like thanks to the Unreal Engine ‘Samaritain’ demo. Any Train2Game student interested in the future of gaming (That’s all of you) should have a look.

So Train2Game, do you think we’ll see the next generation of consoles in the next few years? Are they needed to spark innovation? Or is there enough excitement in the games industry right now?

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

[Source: MCV)

Train2Game Radio interview with Game Development student Mike Connell

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In the newest Train2Game Radio interview, we speak to Game Development student Mike Connell.

He tells us how the ZX 81 first got him into gaming, why he chose to study programming with Train2Game and gives us some information about Postal Panic, a Train2Game student  made game that’s going to be released on the iTunes app store in the near future! (Mike is part of the Train2Game Christmas competition winners Horizon studios)

Listen to the interview here on the Train2Game Audioboo.

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

A must read for Train2Game students: Nintendo ‘Godfather’ Shigeru Miyamoto on the role of a Game Designer

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Train2Game Game Designers should strive to make their work as unique as possible. That’s the lesson to take away from comments made by the father of Super Mario and Donkey Kong in a recent interview.

“In the past, game design was all about which game was the best on the hardware that was available,” Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto told The Guardian.

“That still holds true in the current world, but for the Game Designer, it’s important to understand the overall system.

Plus, it’s important to understand all the mechanisms in games, otherwise the movement or the gameplay would not be right. If that is good, then it will be evaluated as a good game.”

The Nintendo legend believes Game Designers should be unique; it’s likely that those on the Train2Game Game Design course do believe that they have unique ideas to bring to the industry.

“But games nowadays are at a higher level, and the devices are higher-technology, so generally speaking, people can [and should] make good games.

Nowadays, it’s really important that the designer should be unique, and that their individuality should show through in the production itself.”

Continuing on from this, Miyamoto added that a Game Designer should never do something just because it’s popular.

“It’s costly if you do something because other people are doing it, but the focus should be: ‘Because people are not doing it, we’ll go this way.’ Uniqueness is important.

Finance-wise, you can put more budget in, but your energy has to be focused on something, otherwise it won’t work. For me, if you tell me, ‘I’ve seen this before,’ or ‘I’ve done this before,’ that’s challenging.”

Earlier this month, the Train2Game blog reported that Shigeru Miyamoto wants to teach when he retires.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Miyamoto’s comments about Game Design? How useful is it for you that one of the most iconic people in the industry has said what he thinks the ideal designer should be?

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

 [Source: The Guardian]