Tag Archives: Games design

Train2Game News GameFounders Investors

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Since 2012, GameFounders has invested into 60 fresh and talented game studios from 26 countries. 
All game studios around the world can apply at gamefounders.com until November 15, 2016. The main criteria of the evaluation are the team composition, their vision and the quality of work the team can produce.

If selected, the studio will have access to over 150 gaming mentors and partners from the best studios in the world. On top of that, GameFounders will provide a seed capital of 25,000 USD  in exchange for a moderate share of equity. 

The shortlisted teams are expected to have a beta version, prototype or slice of the game and absolutely be ready to set up a business. The upcoming 3-month cycle, the seventh for GameFounders, takes off in January 2017 in the gorgeous city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The top game mentors to be working with the teams are also the ones shortlisting the final lineup.

Gamefounders’ Success Stories:

●      Bad Seed Entertainment from Italy – Raised investment from Mind the Bridge and United Ventures.

●      IMGNATION Studio from Brazil – Raised investment from US based VR accelerator Boost VC and is now one of the pioneers of VR development in Brazil.

●      Tiny Lab Productions from Lithuania – Reached 10 million downloads for their game Tiny Kids Racing

●      Bitcake Studio from Brazil – Launched their game Holodrive and grew their players from 10k to a million and recently won “Best Technology” in SBGames 2016.

●      OY Games from Malaysia – Won the Audience Choice Award at Casual Connect 2016.

Train2Game News SimBin Studios in the UK

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SimBin Studios, renowned for their racing games is back in business with a brand new UK office in the North-West of England. 
The Studio is to be headed up by industry veteran, Allan Speed and in collaboration with Sector3 Studios. The focus will be on developing cross platform titles for the current and next gen platforms, primarily in the racing genre.

‘We are extremely excited to announce the collaboration with newly formed SimBin Studios UK being headed up by Allan, his industry knowledge and talent network will provide the perfect spring board for our future strategy and let’s not forget the revival of the Simbin name which has a long, rich and successful heritage in delivering some of the best racing titles to date’ said Chris Speed, CEO of Sector3 Studios.

Sector3 Studios and Simbin Studios UK have also partnered up with racing driver Mathias Lauda to provide his expertise, insight and support for their up and coming racing projects.

Mathias Lauda is an Austrian race driver and is the son of three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda.

Sector3 Studios AB is a Swedish game developer currently working on RaceRoom Racing Experience, a F2P title available on Steam and committed to the creation of realistic championship experiences for motorsport series worldwide, including; DTM, ADAC GT Masters, and the WTCC.

For more information contact: www.simbin.com

Train2Game News NES Classic Edition

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The Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition console, anticipated to be one of the hottest gifts this holiday season, launches on Nov. 11 at a suggested retail price of only $59.99. 
The system includes 30 classic NES games like Super Mario Bros. 3, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda, plus a replica of the original NES controller that can also be used with NES Virtual Console games on the Wii or Wii U systems. And the games look sharper than ever using the included HDMI cable.

Maybe you’ve heard some of that before, but did you also know the system can be played in three different display modes? Or that games can be saved at any time using Suspend Points? Or how about the fact that all of the games’ original manuals can be viewed by scanning an on-screen QR Code with a smart device? Well, now you know! As the 1980s would say: “Tubular!”

“Be the cool dad, mom, aunt, uncle or best friend by gifting someone this holiday season with the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition,” said Doug Bowser, Nintendo of America’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “This perfectly sized stocking stuffer could produce the same level of excitement that people felt over 30 years ago when they received the original NES as kids.”

Whether you have fond NES memories or want to introduce yourself and your kids to the video games that made Nintendo a household name, you’ll love the compact and attractive console. The hub of the NES Classic Edition is the HOME Menu, which can be used to access all 30 of the classic NES games. From here, you can adjust various settings or just dive into a game and start playing. To help locate games quickly and easily, you can press the Select button to sort by title, two-player games, recently played games, number of times played, release date and publisher. 

To make sure every Goomba stomp looks as authentic as possible, all games can be played in three display modes. With the CRT filter, a scan-line effect is added to the screen to give everything that oh-so-retro look and feel. 4:3 is a sharp, clean look that adheres to the original aspect ratio used by the NES. And when playing in Pixel Perfect mode, every pixel is shown as a perfect square, providing the most accurate representation of the games as they were originally designed.

Retro gaming is defined in part by the search for save spots and the need to enter long passwords, but in practice, those tasks can definitely be a little … um … time consuming. While all aspects of the original 30 NES games are intact, Suspend Points have been added to streamline the experience of playing them. At any point during gameplay, simply press the console’s Reset button to return to the HOME Menu and save a Suspend Point that will let you pick up right where you left off. Up to four Suspend Points can be saved per game, so you can track the progress of multiple players or file away your favorite moments. This is great news for parents, as their kids won’t be able to use the “I’ll be there when I get to the next save point!” excuse any more when dinner is ready.

In a nice touch of physical meets digital, each of the game’s original manuals can be viewed online, opening a window to the glory days of unboxing an NES game and leafing through its beautifully illustrated booklet. All you have to do now is scan a QR Code from the HOME Menu to pull up the entire manual on your smart device or access the provided website to view the manual in all its nostalgic glory on your computer.

Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition is a little more than a month away! To learn more about the system while you wait for it to launch on Nov. 11 (and to view the list of all 30 playable NES games), visit http://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic

Train2Game News VR Animation

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Limitless, Ltd. today announced a new cloud-based animation toolset that allows rapid prototyping of animated VR content inside a virtual reality world. For the first time ever, anyone working on VR content can intuitively animate characters in real time within the VR world itself – and accomplish this at least 16 times faster than with current animation software.  By making VR content faster and easier to create, developers can run more experiments and create more compelling content for VR, including games and films that involve interactive character’s.

The new animation toolset is the first-of-its-kind and does not require professional training.  Limitless CEO and Founder Tom Sanocki saw the need for great VR content, but was watching VR directors and animators spend countless hours going back and forth between computer software and the VR environment where the content lives. Putting VR content creation inside the actual VR world eliminates the time-consuming back-and-forth between the computer and the VR environment, and also allows those without professional training to become VR animators on the spot.

According to Sanocki, “We are all animators at heart – we learned at an early age by playing with our toys.  We just need to remove the barrier formed by our software so we can all create stories using the inspiration that we already have inside of us.”

“I’ve seen the future of VR animation, and Limitless is getting it right,” said Bobby Beck, CEO/Founder Artella and CEO/Founder Animation Mentor.  “They are paving the way in VR animation for both professionals and the masses.”

The animation editing tools in the Limitless Creative VR Environment are strong enough for developers to use for prototyping, yet easy enough for anyone to animate.  Using a VR headset and hand controllers in the Limitless Creative VR Environment enables rapid prototyping for newcomers that would otherwise require weeks of intensive professional training. Plus, Limitless has a tutorial character within the VR environment to help walk anyone through the animation process.  Film directors, for example, can change the way a character moves, looks or acts instantly in real time.

Professional animator Jon Collins, who has previously worked at Pixar, ILM, Blue Sky, Blizzard, and ToyTalk, currently leads UX and animation as the Creative Director at Limitless.  “As a layout tool, this dramatically increases the rate at which sequences can be assembled and iterated on in CG. What would have normally taken me an entire day to do,  I can now accomplish in less than an hour,” said Collins.

“It has always frustrated me that although I can visualize motion and timing quickly and easily, the process of replicating these movements in CG with traditional animation software is time consuming and non-intuitive,” Collins added. “With the Limitless Creative VR Environment, both of these restrictions can be overcome in a matter of hours by anyone. By connecting a person’s innate ability to move their own body in beautifully rhythmic ways directly to VR characters in real time, the process of animation becomes much more intuitive and enjoyable.”

The Limitless animation tools can be used with any VR environment and character that has been imported into this part of the Limitless Creative VR Environment platform.  In October, the company will be opening the platform and animation tools to a small group of studios and partners to make sure the company is solving the right VR problems while keeping content creation easy.

Sanocki concluded, “Right now the biggest need in VR is good content and that is largely driven by characters. Forming a deep emotional connection with the characters we care about hits the core of mainstream entertainment. Our platform solves the tricky task of creating interactive characters in VR, and now makes it easy for anyone to animate those characters in real time.”

Train2Game News Huge VR Investment

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​Another half a billion dollars was invested into virtual and augmented reality startups in the third quarter of this year, with a record $2.3 billion dollars invested in the last 12 months.
Q3 2016 saw the 9th straight quarter of investment trending upwards, as the money flowing into AR/VR is now being driven by major Sand Hill Road VCs and corporate investors. With check sizes averaging $9.3 million (or $16.4 million excluding seed deals) in the quarter, AR/VR investment is rapidly going mainstream. Details are in Digi-Capital’s new Augmented/Virtual Reality Report and Deals Database.

The mainline VC and corporate world accounted for 86% of the number of investors in AR/VR startups in the third quarter. The big name financial investors included Fidelity, Intel Capital, Softbank, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Sequoia, DCM, Qualcomm Ventures, Raine, CITIC and more. The roster of corporate investors joining the fun added Amazon, Alibaba and News Corp. So while specialist AR/VR VCs drove the early investment market, growing confidence and check sizes has led to the number of mainstream investors accelerating.

Excluding Magic Leap’s massive rounds in 2014 and at the start of this year, the overall growth trend for AR/VR investment has now been upwards for over 2 years. In the context of more general concerns about tech market investment, that continued confidence on the part of serious investors that virtual, augmented and mixed reality are the fourth wave of consumer technology change is even more impressive.

As investment has continued to grow, the balance of where the money is going has become broader. While Magic Leap’s $793.5 million round was astonishing, it took less than $4 of every $10 invested into the market. VR/AR solutions/services was the next largest category, with video following close behind including NextVR’s $80 million round from heavyweights like CITIC, Netease and Softbank. Moving beyond AR head mounted displays (“HMDs”), VR HMDs still took in a respectable level of investment despite the presence of major corporate competitors like Facebook, Samsung, Sony and HTC/Valve. AR/VR peripherals, games, advertising/marketing, applications, tech and distribution startups also raised substantial amounts.

As the AR/VR market goes through the well-trodden path of hype cycle, facing reality, liftoff and maturity, the smart money is looking to the long term. VR will be big. AR will be bigger (and take longer). While exact market timing is impossible to predict (as evidenced by the unanticipated success of Pokémon Go), folks who know how early stage investment markets work are betting increasingly heavily on AR/VR’s potential.

To help foster growing AR/VR investment, Digi-Capital is holding its private quarterly Reality Check forum for AR/VR CEOs, corporate divisional heads and VC General Partners to do deals and solve industry issues in October.

Train2Game News Skyrim Music Concert

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Senbla, in association with Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, is pleased to announce that Skyrim™ in Concert, the first ever orchestral concert dedicated to the music of The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim™, will premiere at the London Palladium on 16th November.
Based on the award winning score by Jeremy Soule, Skyrim in Concert takes concert goers on a nostalgic, musical journey through the landscape of one of The Elder Scrolls’ most popular instalments. Performed live by the Winterhold Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, attendees will enjoy brand new arrangements of some of Skyrim’s most epic and moving themes, including Far Horizons, The Streets of Whiterun and the rousing main theme, Dragonborn, as well as more surprises on the night.

The concert celebrates the upcoming launch of Skyrim™ Special Edition. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios® and winner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards, Skyrim Special Edition brings the epic fantasy to life in stunning detail. The Special Edition includes the critically acclaimed game and add-ons with all-new features like remastered art and effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflections, and more.

Skyrim Special Edition releases on 28th October, 2016, on Xbox One, PlayStation® 4 computer entertainment system and PC. For more information on The Elder Scrolls and Skyrim Special Edition, visit http://www.elderscrolls.com

Tickets for the concert go on sale 10am, 4th October, with ticket prices starting from £26.50.

For more details and general ticket sales, visit http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/

Train2Game News The Button Bashers

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Pitched as the “24 Hour Party People for games” – independent feature film ‘The Button Bashers’ will combine interviews, script and improv to produce unique but respectful take on the UK gamedev scene from the 1980s.
CONFIRMED CAST AND INTERVIEWS

·         Ewen Macintosh (The Office, Little Britain)

·         Peter Harrap (Monty Mole)

·         Ron Hubbard (Sanxion, Monty on the Run, Commando)

·         Jon Hare (Sensible Software)

·         Simon Butler (Neverending Story, Highlander, Total Recall)

·         And many more below…

Bolton, Greater Manchester: The Button Bashers film is a 100-minute feature film, documenting and dramatising the UK gaming scene that appeared in the 1980s.

Starring Ewen MacIntosh (The Office, Little Britain), this will be made innovatively: part-scripted scenes, part-interview, and as a docudrama. The ‘hero’ of the film is currently known as ‘the Programmer’.

Directed by Lee Bolton, a passionate gamer, he wrote for several years on gaming website ‘Lee’s PeeknPoke’ in the 90s, as well as in various magazines about retro gaming.

The Bolton-based film and television producer/director is not only rediscovering his roots, but he is keen to ensure he perfectly captures not only “that feeling, the excitement and what it was like the game back then” – but also the gamedev scene which exploded in the 1980s.

Speaking recently on regional radio across Greater Manchester, Lee mentioned a “Channel 4 comedian – we’re not allowed to say who it is yet, but we’re in discussion with this person’s agent at the moment.”

The Button Bashers is currently in pre-production with programmers, designers and gamers all wanting to be interviewed. Filming will take place from October 2016 to February 2017.

Following a first round of crowdfunding on IndieGoGo, the film is currently looking for just £5,000 to kickstart the production next month, having already secured funding from local gamer-supportive businesses in Manchester. You can discover the Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1388231403/the-button-bashers

The Kickstarter campaign reads: “This one’s for the whizz kids, the buyouts, the money… the magazines and the fascinating, creative world that started a brand new industry. Nothing like it would ever be the same again.”

“We will also cover some of the US influence on the UK, with a segment exploring the meteoric rise of the arcades, and how licences went over creativity towards the end of the 1980s.

THE BUTTON BASHERS is a fun look back the Computers, Games and People – filmed with the ultimate respect.”

Drama cast (more TBC):

·         Ewen MacIntosh

Doc/interview cast (more TBC):

·         Peter Harrap (Monty Mole)

·         Jon Ritman (Head Over Heels, Batman)

·         John Gibson (Denton Designs)

·         Ron Hubbard (Sanxion, Monty on the Run, Commando)

·         Jon Hare (Sensible Software)

·         Simon Butler (Neverending Story, Highlander, Total Recall)

·         Philip and Andrew Oliver (Dizzy)

·         Roger Kean (Newsfield)

·         Oliver Frey (Newsfield)

·         Gary Penn (Zzap! DMA Design- GTA)

Film is due for full completion June 2017, with BluRay, DVD and small-cinematic release expected afterwards.

Train2Game News British eSports Association needs feedback

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The British eSports Association is calling for any final feedback to be submitted before its consultation periods ends on September 30th.
Over the past three months the British eSports Association has been gathering feedback from the UK eSports sector to ensure it fully represents the interests of individuals, players, teams, game publishers and broadcasters alike. With one week to go, the association are inviting any additional feedback to be submitted by Friday September 30th.

Set up to promote grassroots eSports in Britain, they want to know what you’d like to see from them, what challenges you face within eSports and what can be done to grow competitive gaming in the UK. Everyone is welcome to send in ideas.

Whether you’re a player, fan, someone from the eSports or games industry or anyone else, they’d like to hear from you.

Please email your thoughts and ideas to info@britishesports.org or complete our online survey by September 30th 2016.

The next announcement covering their plans is expected to be made in early October. You can also visit the website at www.britishesports.org . 

Train2Game News Student working with indie studio

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Train2Game Student Tabi Polson (Fitsy) is working with an indie studio on its first game: Rocket Rumble
Studio Small Jelly is a new London based studio which is working on Rocket Rumble. The independent studio is using Train2Game student Tabi Poulson to provide insight into the current market and research the potential audience for the game.

Rocket Rumble is a multi-player turn based card game set on rocket propelled ships. It’s a game with a hard-core mechanic at its heart which caters for the casual audience. Players can drop in and play games for minutes at a time but still get there hard-core gaming fix. The artwork was created to be accessible while also being on trend. 

A great deal of passion has gone into the game. During testing the team often find themselves’ enjoying the game rather than testing its limits. The Small Jelly team are passionate games makers and hope the success of the game will let them create titles long into the future. The team plan to get Rocket Rumble into Beta at the end of the year.

The Small Jelly team spoke of Tabi’s contribution and how important it is as an Indie to have support. Resourcing as an indie is a challenge, but by working together they have overcome these challenges. Keeping control of the product and working with a great team has been the reward.

Train2Game students can help going into the future by joining the Beta and reaching out to the team to support. 

An a full interview with the studio founders is below

What’s your history in the games industry and job history?

Ben: I started my career in the games industry in Vancouver Canada about 10 years ago. I’ve worked on everything from PC RTS to educational games for kids.

Vicky: I spent about half my career as AI programmer for PC and console, then later moved to mobile where I’ve mostly had lead roles.

Where does the name come from?

Small Jelly is really just our surnames Vicky Smalley and Ben Geliher. Vicky’s is easy to see but mine comes from a mispronunciation of my name that kinda stuck as the nickname ‘Jellyhair’.

What are you currently working on?

We’re making our first game, Rocket Rumble. It’s a multiplayer CCG set in space. It’s a bit like Hearthstone meets FTL.

How did you come up with the concept?

Both of us are gamers and have been all our lives. We’re at that point in life where we don’t have as much time to play games as we used to but we still want the same thrill of playing hardcore games. 

Most casual games just aren’t exciting to play for gamers and hardcore games tend to need much more time commitment. We wanted to create games that scratched both itches – thrilling to play but easy to pick up and play in a 10 minute session.

The art is outstanding; can you tell us more about how it came together?

It’s mainly the work of our outstanding Art Director Graham Denny! I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for space games and they’ve been having resurgence recently but we knew we wanted to do space in a way that was fun and more accessible than the gunmetal greys and blacks you tend to get. When Graham came on board he got it straight away. 

It’s a unique idea; would you say there’s a lot of passion in this game?

There’s a ton of passion in this game; you can’t work in the games industry without it. It helps that we all actually find the game really fun. Sometimes that can cause problems though. When we’re supposed to be testing a new build people are actually just trying to beat each other rather than properly test it.

What’s next for the game in its lifecycle?

We are still in development at the moment but we’re working towards a closed beta at the end of the year. It’s a multiplayer game so we want to get people playing it as soon as possible so we can learn what to do.

What have been the challenges in being an indie?

A lot of the business side of things is difficult. Bigger companies have a lot of specialist departments to sort out every little thing but as an indie you kinda just have to jump in and do it yourself. Everyone’s been great chipping in where they can to bridge the gaps.

What are the rewards?

Working on a game where you are in control is highly motivating. The team is also a big plus. Working with people that are not only amazingly talented but also great fun to work with. 

How has Fitsy been helping out?

Fitsy has been amazing in helping us with market research and she’s going to help us going forward figuring out what players want from the game as we develop it. 

What are your ambitions for the game?

Our hope is that it is successful enough that we can keep making games. We’re in this because we love what we do for a living and we hope we can create a business that can keep us doing what we love.

How can Train2Game students help you out?

Follow us on Twitter, read our dev blog at smalljelly.com and get involved with the game. As I mentioned, we want to release as early as we can and build a community who can help us make the game better as we build it so if any of your readers are interested in the closed beta then they should get in touch at hello@smalljelly.com.

Website: Smalljelly.com

Twitter @smalljellygames

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Train2Game News Big numbers at EGX 2016

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Over 75,000 gamers attended EGX at Birmingham’s NEC to take part in the biggest and the best gaming show in the UK.
Hosted in partnership with Virgin Media, the show boasted over 200 playable games, the largest showcase of indie games in the world and a host of global first-play exclusives including Bethesda’s Dishonored 2 and Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee.

UK hands-on exclusives included the recently unveiled PlayStation 4 Pro and blockbuster games such as Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Gears of War 4, Titanfall 2, Battlefield 1, Final Fantasy XV, Horizon: Zero Dawn and more – all playable and pre-release. EGX is now securely established as the most important date in the UK calendar for developers to exhibit their latest games and for gamers to experience them for the first time.

EGX has also grown as a place to reveal new games and features, with this year’s show hosting announcements of the next titles from Square Enix Collective and Failbetter Games, and Shovel Knight’s appearance in Yooka-Laylee. Popular elements of the show included multiple eSports stages and tournaments such as the GFinity $100,000 Counter-Strike: GO invitational and the UK’s only Premier Event on the Capcom Pro Tour, as well as the UK Preliminaries for the European Cosplay Gathering.

The show’s official retail partner Amazon offered ultra-fast delivery via Prime Now to the show floor, ensuring that gaming fans could instantly purchase and pre-order games and hardware more conveniently than ever before.

“We’re delighted with the feedback from attendees who loved the introduction of Scan & Buy on the Amazon app for a convenient way to buy and pre-order games and hardware across this leading gaming event“ said Russell Jones, Video Games & Software Category Leader, Amazon.co.uk. 

“This was the first time we have offered Amazon Prime customers delivery of products via Prime Now direct to any event, and the service which enabled attendees to order games and consoles was very well received.”

It was not just consumers that turned up in huge numbers as media attendance reached record levels. Hundreds of journalists from all sectors of the media were present and the event attracted national coverage from mainstream outlets such as BBC News, Newsbeat and Newsround, The Mirror and the Sunday Times. Hundreds of influencers including YouTube superstars Syndicate, The Yogscast and Outside Xbox were also in attendance to meet and greet thousands of their delighted fans.

Rupert Loman, CEO of EGX’s parent company Gamer Network added, “EGX 2016 was our biggest and best show yet. I’d like to say thank you to all of our partners, sponsors and exhibitors for helping create another outstanding experience for UK gamers – and of course I must thank the community for making the event so special. Next year will be the 10th anniversary for EGX and we are already planning to mark that milestone with something even more spectacular”.

The next EGX event is EGX Rezzed, taking place at Tobacco Dock in London from March 30th to April 1st 2017. Irrational Games founder Ken Levine has already been announced as the keynote speaker, and tickets are now on sale at www.egx.net/rezzed.