Tag Archives: Kickstarter

Train2Game News: Stillalive studios respond to scepticism

Posted on by

Son of NorFollowing the release of the video demonstrating the partnership stillalive studios have formed with Emotiv to allow players to control the gameplay mechanics with brain activity, there have been suggestions from viewers that the device and its functions are not genuine.

Today stillalive studio released a further video outlining exactly how the Emotiov EPOC devise works with Son or Nor to quash rumours of fakery and demonstrate the phenomenal function the Emotiv EPOC brings to the 3rd person action adventure PC/Mac/Linux title.

Julian Mautner, CEO of stillalive studios says in the video; “In response to our recent video about the Emotive EPOC mind control device, we got a lot of scepticism. I don’t blame [people] at all because I know how insane and fake it really sounds. So I want to show how the thing works; if you have a certain thing in your mind then the EEG data of that specific thought is stored and as soon as you think it again it will recognise it and trigger some action.” Mautner goes on to demonstrate this in the video by shooting a fireball from his characters hands by only thinking the action.

“The cool thing about the EPOC devise is it recognises more than brain activity, it also recognises facial expressions.” Maunter adds as he demonstrated this by raising the landscape by raising his eyebrows and lowers it with clenched teeth. “The other very cool thing is it can actually measure your emotions; if you are excited or if your are bored or if you’re full of anxiety, [for example] and you can use that data with Son of Nor. For instance, the sound tracks could be selected according to your current emotional state.” Mautner concludes.

The video and claims made by stillalive studios are 100% genuine and backers to the Kickstarter campaign (http://bit.ly/SonOfNor) can pledge to have the EPOC headset included in the reward package; when bidding $300 backers will get the EPOC device plus a digital copy of Son of Nor, a $530 pledge will secure backers an EPOC device plus a pysical collectors edition of Son of Nor.

If Son of Nor is successfully funded through Kickstarter, the team anticipate a release in Q2 2014.

Train2Game News: Son of Nor makes Telekinesis a reality

Posted on by

Son of NorStillalive studios, creators of upcoming game Son of Nor today announced a ground breaking partnership with the makers of Emotiv EPOC – a revolutionary personal interface for human computer interaction; a Brain Computer Interface (BCI).

The partnership will allow players to control character actions, such as telekinesis, terraforming and magic with the power of their minds.

Son of Nor, which has recently launched on Kickstarter, is the brainchild of Julian Mautner, CEO of stillalive studio and has been in production of over two years with developers from all over the globe investing their time and expertise.

The game is set in a desert world and sees players take on the role of the powerful mages fighting to pull back humanity from the brink of extinction at the hands of the Sarahul; an evil race of reptilian creatures bent on the destruction of human civilisation.

Players command unique force and magic abilities with which they must use to fight, solve puzzles and ultimately stay alive. These abilities include telekinesis, powerful magic spells and terraforming; manipulation of the game world itself.

The inclusion of the EPOC controls strengthens what is already deemed an incredible ground breaking 3rd person action adventure title and will push the boundaries of single player and multiplayer PC, Mac and Linux gaming.

The Emotiv EPOC uses a set of 14 sensors plus 2 references to tune into electric signals produced by the brain to detect the user´s thoughts, feelings and expressions in real time.

“We are so incredibly excited to have partnered with Emotiv to allow our players to be able to perform telekinesis, terraforming and magic with the power of thought. Our game is based around the characters having such powers within the game and now they can do it for real and fully immerse themselves by genuinely be given such abilities. It is phenomenal!” Mr Mautner said.

“Son of Nor´s game play integration with the Emotiv EPOC takes gaming to the next level. Based on the latest developments in neuro-technology, Emotiv has developed a revolutionary new personal interface for human computer interaction. The Emotiv EPOC is a high resolution, neuro-signal acquisition and processing wireless neuroheadset that allows users to experience the fantasy of having supernatural powers and controlling the world with your mind. Sons of Nor, through the magic of your mind, will be yours to command!” -Kim Du, Vice President of Emotiv

Backers to the Kickstarter campaign can now also pledge to have the EPOC headset included in the package; when bidding $300 backers will get the EPOC device plus a digital edition of Son of Nor, a $530 pledge will secure backers an EPOC device plus a physical collectors edition of Son of Nor. Plus as an add on, pledging $290 more than the reward you have already chosen will get you an EPOC device added to your reward.

If Son of Nor is successfully funded through Kickstarter, the team anticipate a release in Q2, 2014.

You can enjoy a video of the EPOC system being used below

You can pledge to the Kickstarter here, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalivestudios/son-of-nor-the-world-is-your-weapon

Train2Game News: Modding software on Kickstarter

Posted on by

Game Mod ComicA new Kickstarter campaign has launched which will help the average PC gamer to use Game Mods easier. This is good news for Train2Game students who like to create mods for games.

Olympus Games announced the launch of a new Kickstarter campaign to help fund the development of its upcoming mod management platform, GMOD. Built on powerful new technology, GMOD streamlines the modding experience for hardcore and casual PC gamers, delivering an intuitive platform where mods “just work”. Leveraging this simple and flexible interface, the GMOD team aims to open up the world of modding to mainstream gamers everywhere.

Supporters can learn more about GMOD or help fund the project at the official Kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gmod/gmod-0

“Modding has always been a very important part of PC gaming, but there’s a reason why it has failed to reach mainstream gamers – it’s rarely a simple process,” said Skylar Kreisher, CEO of Olympus Games. “Our goal is to make mods so easy to find, play and share, that anyone can become part of the modding community. It’s time for a new generation to re-discover their favorite games with innovative modded content.”

The GMOD client is a mod management platform that’s designed to enable gamers to use mods faster, safer and easier than ever before. Users can quickly install new mods with its drag-and-drop interface, enable and disable mods with just one click, and most importantly, never deal with unzipping, directory-diving, copy-paste-overwrite or mod-based re-installs ever again.

GMOD is pushing the modding scene forward by building a holistic solution where players can use mods from any source or community, discover and share new mods with friends and promote the hard working mod developers that make it all possible. It’s a robust platform that, with fan support, will continue to thrive and improve, eventually incorporate everyone’s favorite games and mods.

For more information about GMOD and Olympic Games:

Visit Kickstarter: http://kck.st/Y0oLhC

Join the Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/gmodsocial

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GMod

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/gmod

Train2Game News: International studios game on Kickstarter

Posted on by

Son of NorStillalive studios is a young independent game development studio who have members all over the world.

They first got together in early 2010 in Innsbruck, Austria as a team of 3. Over time, the team grew due to the ambitious nature of the Son Of Nor project and new members from Switzerland, Germany, Finland, Italy, US, and Ecuador joined the international distributed team of game developers. The core focus of stillalive studios team is to make innovative indie core-games for PC, Mac and Linux with special and unique game mechanics.

Since their small beginnings they have moved on and now have a game on Kickstarter.

The Son of Nor Kickstarter campaign started on 30th April and will run for 30 days and hopes to pique the interest and backing of gamers everywhere to raise the $150k needed to launch this game into the market.

Son of Nor is a 3rd person action adventure game set in a desert world where human kind is on the brink of extinction at the hands of the Sarahul; an evil race of reptilian creatures bent on the destruction of human civilization. Players become humanity’s last hope for survival in an epic struggle to hold back the Sarahul hordes and change the destiny of the entire planet.

In Son of Nor, players command unique force abilities with which they must fight, solve puzzles and ultimately stay alive. These abilities include telekinesis, powerful magic spells and terraforming; manipulation of the game world itself.

Julian Mautner, founder of stillalive studios, said “If you have a specific goal, it will be the player’s choice of how to achieve it. Players can also choose to play in single player mode or enlist their friends to help them. As gamers ourselves we know the co-op in a game is so important and we have had the most amount of fun developing these elements and know, from feedback so far, our backers and gamers alike will find this very appealing.”

The studio released a new video today detailing multiplayer and co-op game elements for their debut title

Co-op is a key motivating factor in the game. Special level sections, in-game rewards and some puzzles will only be achievable and solvable with the help of companions, when playing through the campaign in multiplayer mode.

You can view the trailer for the multiplayer mode below:

A story like this one shows that no matter where you are or what your situation you can make games and get to a successful level. There is nothing stopping you achieving your dream.

To pledge support please visit the Kickstarter page at: http://bit.ly/SonOfNor

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 26.04.13

Posted on by

THQ logoIt is the end of the week which means it is time for the Train2Game industry news round up!

Nordic Games announced earlier this week that it was one of the successful bidders in THQ´s auction process, which ended on April 15. Nordic Games will acquire more than 150 intellectual properties for a purchasing price of USD 4.9 million spanned across PC, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony platforms. The company has acquired the rights to Darksiders, Red Faction, MX vs. ATV, Titan Quest, Supreme Commander, Frontlines, Stuntman, Juiced, Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans and much more. I look forward to seeing what the developer does with their new products.

Annelid aficionados Mastertronic announced Worms Revolution Collection, the latest in anarchic action, will explode into stores on May 3rd for Xbox 360. Worms Revolution Collection, contains the latest OTT outing in the best-selling turn-based series, plus all three DLC packs and, as an added bonus, Worms 2 Armageddon and all five DLC packs all wrapped up in a mystery crate and sealed with a loving poke! You can enjoy the trailer, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPNMoUFw3_0&feature=youtu.be

Another game collection. You will be able to experience the complete Skyrim collection with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition, arriving in retail stores throughout Europe and Australia on June 7, 2013. The Legendary Edition will be available on Xbox 360 and PS3 for £39.99. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition includes the original critically-acclaimed game, official add-ons – Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn – and added features like combat cameras, mounted combat, Legendary difficulty mode for hardcore players, and Legendary skills – enabling you to master every perk and level up your skills infinitely.

Independent developer Wired Productions has confirmed plans to bring popular music creation software eJay to the touchscreen generation – despite not reaching its initial Kickstarter campaign target. As the campaign closed this morning, over £50,000 had been pledged – short of the hoped £150,000, but enough support to make Wired Productions more determined than ever to revive the program which inspired a generation of DJs. “It has been a hell of a ride,” explains Leo Zullo, managing director, Wired Productions, “but ultimately we fell short of our initial target. That said, it’s been an invaluable process. We’ve learnt loads about what the community wants and feel able to continue our journey towards a revived eJay with renewed confidence.

Finally, a bit of news for you Bat-fans, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and TT Games announced the release of LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, available now on the App Store. Delivering action-adventure gameplay to touchscreen devices, this latest caper is based on LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, the game which released to critical acclaim in June 2012 and was one of the best-selling videogames of the year.

Train2Game News: Word slinging game Spellirium

Posted on by

SpelliriumUntold Entertainment introduces Spellirium, a trashpunk comedy adventure with monsters, mystics, and linguistic spellslingers.

In a future when reading and writing have been outlawed, Brother Todd of the Runekeepers and a motley crew of characters must journey across the devastated landscape, bringing peace and order to a ruined civilization. But outlandish legends thrive on oral tradition, and Todd uncovers a painful truth written in the margins of his life’s story.

Untold is setting its sights on older players with Spellirium’s darkly comic approach to themes of betrayal, individualism, and privilege. The company hopes Spellirium will please venerable adventure fans who remember a time before pointing and clicking, when entire worlds were explored through text parser commands. Puzzlers who delight in crosswords, Scrabble, Boggle, and logic challenges will find something to love in Spellirium.

Using word-based spellcasting to battle monsters and shadowy overlords, Spellirium is an adventure for clever players. More than just manipulating letters to form words, players must utilize palindromes, synonyms, color combos, rhymes, and more. One monster, for example, can only be defeated through onomatopoeia (CRASH, BANG, BOOM). A certain achievement sees players building semordnilaps – words that spell valid, entirely different words when read backwards (ROOM <-> MOOR). A mindless word-search this most definitely is not.

Pre-order customers immediately receive an alpha download of the game, which includes the prologue and two of three acts. The “kickENDER campaign,” as called by Untold Entertainment founder, Ryan Henson Crieghton, will be used to fund further development, including the implementation of the final act, voice-overs, and sound effects.

Rewards for financial backers at various tiers include voicing a character in the game, designing a creature, and branding a word in the Spellirium Dictionary; a collectible list of 50,000 words that can be used to buy items and craft power-ups. The Reserve-A-Word tier is already proving popular with players, who have reserved a bizarre list of words including SLUG, LIZARD, MOIST, BARF, MOMMY, SAMURAI and SAUSAGE.

In one of the support tiers you also get access to the UGAGS game logic and a “God Panel” so you can tweak and play around with the game as much as you want or just see the coding that went in to how the game works. This should be very helpful to any Train2Game developers.

This sounds like an interesting new take on an old system that was used in the likes of the text based adventure, ZORK.

You can watch the trailer below

You can pre-order Spellirium, support them and find out more at www.spellirium.com

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 12.04.13

Posted on by

Dishonored Knife of DunwallIt is the end of the week which means its time for the Train2Game news round up. There are many trailers for you this week!

Arkane studios has just released a new gameplay trailer for Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall, the second add-on pack for Arkane Studios’ critically-acclaimed first-person action game. In The Knife of Dunwall you take on the role of Daud, the legendary assassin who killed the Empress, and access his weapons, gadgets, allies and supernatural abilities. After assassinating the Empress, and forever changing the fate of Dunwall, you embark on a search for redemption. You can enjoy the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHV4R3cseVE

Independent developers and wannabe videogame musicians will be able to quickly and easily create authentic chiptunes when eJay Pure hits iOS and Android later this year –with your help. The 1,000 strong sample pack will mark the first time the eJay series has catered for this booming genre – and illustrates the breadth that Wired Productions is bringing to the core eJay experience. You can support the release of eJay by giving to their Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wiredproductions/ejay-pure

Pokémon X and Pokémon Y launches worldwide in October. Today, the mysteries of the newest Pokémon titles continue to grow with the unveiling of a Pokémon that is strangely familiar to Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo! What is this new Pokémon? How will you encounter it in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y? When will you know more? So many questions! You can see this new Pokémon in the following video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-k1E83_nnU

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment released an all-new trailer for the upcoming DC Comics fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us – set to launch next week on 19th April – which focuses on the Green Lantern’s role within the game’s story and his struggle to defeat his ultimate foe. A sworn intergalactic defender of the innocent, within the story of Injustice: Gods Among Us, Hal Jordan is forced to clash with a carbon copy of himself. As he summarizes in the trailer, “My oath says that no evil shall escape my sight. So what happens when that evil is me?” You can enjoy the footage of GL here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6jrq2I8OKc

Having just released the amusingly fun BattleBlock Theater, The Behemoth revealed that they’re already working on their fourth game creatively titled Game 4. The studio are also talking about whether or not they would make sequels to any of their games such as Castle Crashers. While there are no details regarding Game 4, Behemoth expressed interest in making fighting and MOBA games. They also have “no problem” making another game similar to CC if “we feel we can make a beat-em-up that’ll take the genre somewhere else,” said Behemoth’s co-founder and art director Dan Paladin.

Train2Game News: Ouya developers respond to negativity

Posted on by

OUYA ConsoleThe upcoming Android console, the Ouya, has received some negative reviews recently. The console developers commented on the negativity.

Backers of the Ouya Kickstarter started to receive early versions of the console last month. Since then, a handful of negative reviews have appeared online claiming that it isn’t ready for retail.

In a statement sent to Games Industry International, Ouya said the console sent out was not a review unit, and therefore “not ready for review.” The units were sent out for a “preview period” to test, in order for Ouya to make improvements based on feedback before the product’s official retail launch.

The early shipping was also an opportunity for supporters of the Kickstarter campaign to get their hands on the hardware.

An Ouya representative explained that “we will be making Ouya review units available in early to mid-May so that you are able to review the more complete consumer experience and prepare your coverage in time for the June 4th retail launch.”

Ouya stressed that the company “has sent no review units out to press. Any reviews you have seen online are a result from individuals who received early backer units from supporting our Kickstarter.”

Ouya is already working on several updates, including external storage support, more payment options and a simpler game install process.

I, personally, have been looking forward to what the Ouya has to offer and how it will fair in the games market but this has made me think that this is an entirely new endeavours by a fairly small company.

Will the Android console be able to compete in today’s console market against the seasoned veterans with its cheap price tag or will it fall flat and be a forgotten adventure?

Train2Game News: Double Fine Kickstarter game named

Posted on by

Broken AgeFor any Train2Game student who backed Double Fine, the impressively funded Kickstarter game by Double Fine now has an official title. The world also got its first look at the game.

Late last year a Kickstarter campaign by Tim Schafers company, Double Fine, brought attention to the funding service when it reached its goal of $400,000 in mere hours. The campaign went on to raise $3.3 million, astounding everyone.

The game that was funded, previously known as Double Fine Adventure, has been named as Broken Age. It is a point and click adventure which follows the stories of a young girl and boy leading parallel lives.

The game’s website explains “The girl has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster, but she decides to fight back.

“Meanwhile, a boy on a spaceship is living a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world. Adventures ensue.”

The company announced the game at the PAX event in America last weekend.

New backers can still submit funds via Double Fine’s website, with $30 gaining access to the final game via Steam, a video documentary series, PC and Mac beta access and more.

You can enjoy the trailer and the first look at the game below:

Train2Game News: Audio editing Kickstarter

Posted on by

eJayThere is a new interesting Kickstarter to support for an audio editing kit that you can use on your mobile phone.

This Kickstarter project is a perfect example of how Kickstarter can be utilised to get your project out to the masses and offer special rewards to those who invest. If you are thinking of using Kickstarter to fund your own game this is certainly a good template to work from.

The software, eJay Pure, is being developed by Wired Productions and it will be free for everyone to download and create your music, using preloaded samples. You can be a DJ from your own mobile.

You will get the full eJay experience from the first moment. If you enjoy what you create, you will be able to further your experience by purchasing additional features and buying many thousands of samples which will be constantly created.

eJay Pure is being developed from the ground up for touch screens so that the user interface is intuitive and the experience is fast and seamless.

Wired have been working on eJay Pure for 9 months, and have completed pre-production, technology tests, R&D, and have even started making some of the cutting edge samples that defined the eJay experience.

The reason the company has chosen Kickstarter is because they have spent months working on this project and are now moving to the final push.

The software could also be very helpful to Train2Game students who are looking to making music for their own games whilst on the move. This can be done on the train with headphones giving you more time to work on getting the core mechanics of the game when at a PC.

If you are thinking of using Kickstarter to fund your game then get in touch with the Train2Game PR Team through the Train2Game forum. You will be advised the best way to display your game on Kickstarter to get the most from the service.

If you want to find out more about this project and support the Kickstarter go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wiredproductions/ejay-pure