Tag Archives: Microsoft

Train2Game News: Rapid2D winner to be announced tomorrow!

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Rapid2DRapid2D £10,000 app development competition winner to be announced on www.rti.fm tomorrow Friday 4th April at 3.00pm GM

The competition to find the cream of app developers finishes tomorrow, when international radio station RTI FM will announce the winner of the Rapid2D Windows 8 development competition. The winner of the competition is set to receive life changing prizes of £10,000 to spend as they wish and the kudos of boasting they have won this world recognised competition.

In this huge competition developers were not only challenged to design great apps but also to produce quality and quantity, with each entry to the competition boosting their chances of walking away the winner. The competition which has been running for around two months and open to any studio or individual developing Windows 8 apps. Rapid2D have received over 300 entries of top calibre apps, entrants will be nervously biting their nails with the winner announced tomorrow.

Tune in to listen at www.rti.fm

Train2Game News: PlayStation 4 UK release date and price announced

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PS4 ControllerExciting news for all Train2Game students who are looking forward to Sony’s PlayStation 4. The UK release date and price has been announced.

The Sun news paper announced that the next gen console will be released later this year in October, this follows what Sony said when they announced the console last month.

Even better news is the price. The Sony PS4 will cost you £300. This is much cheaper than when the PS3 was released in 2007, costing £425. This new cheaper price makes it a much more viable option for most gamers and, in my opinion, there should be close competition with the next gen Xbox.

The cheaper price for the new Sony console is probably due to Android consoles like the Ouya and Game Stick being released for £99. The next gen consoles will also have the mobile and free-to-play markets to compete with so I can see a lot of surprises being pulled out from Sony and Microsoft.

The PlayStation 4 console it’s self still hasn’t been seen by public eyes. A good guess would be that both the next generation Xbox and the PlayStation 4 will be revealed at E3 in June in an attempt to compete with one another further.

Train2Game News: Young Peoples Views on game age ratings

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Baseline Team and MembersChimpact, a newly released Windows game which has a PEGI 3 rating, taken to Bromley youth group to hear their perspective in the on-going debate: Which video games are suitable for children?

Videogames are often in the news for all the wrong reasons, with claims games containing inappropriate content are getting into the hands of children and people accrediting acts of anti-social behaviour to things they have experienced in games, but is this the full story?

Read the document below to find out more about what the youth themselves think.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/133793700/Young-People-Give-Their-Views-on-Games

Train2Game News: Injustice: Gods Among us final contestants announced

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BatmanWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment reveal the two iconic characters headed to the ultimate finals of the Injustice Battle Arena. The semi-final rounds kicked off last week, advancing legendary powerhouse characters to the final showdown.

The speed and agility of The Flash was pitted against quick-witted skill and gadgetry of Batman, while in the second match-up, Green Lantern harnessed the power of his ring against Superman himself, a clear fan favourite throughout the Battle Arena.

The thousands of fan votes have been tabulated, and the victors have been chosen.
Fighting their way through four weeks of preliminaries, the quarter-final and semi-final rounds, to now face off in the Finals – the Battle Arena will come down to a final match between Batman and Superman, kicking off April 8th.

You can view the videos of the contenders below that ultimately sealed their fates.

In addition, the demo for Injustice: Gods Among Us will be released on Xbox360 and PlayStation 3 on April 3. The Injustice: Gods Among Us demo features Batman, Wonder Woman and Lex Luthor – three playable characters pulled from the game’s robust DC Comics roster.  Set in the Gotham City arena, fans can get a taste of the included characters’ unique super powers and individual move-sets as they destroy elements of the world and fight through the multi-tiered arena.

Train2Game News: Accountant makes game using Excel

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Arena.XlsmA young accountant from Canada has created a game using just Microsoft Excel. This shows that anyone can make a game with the right knowledge and imagination.

The game was created using Macros which are designed to make using the programme easier in an accountants every day job. Chartered accountant Cary Walkin built the game during the spare time he had while studying for an MBA in Toronto.

The game, called Arena.Xlsm, is a turn-based fantasy game in which players fight monsters and gather loot to make their character more powerful. Much of Arena is regenerated every time the game is played to lend variety to the way it is completed.

In the game, players take on a series of increasingly tough enemies in an arena drawn using only the basic characters and punctuation marks available in Excel. Defeating enemies such as anacondas, black widow spiders and hyenas bestows fame points. As a player builds up fame points they go up levels and get points to spend to boost the fighting abilities of their character.

The story framing the game is presented to the player in a series of letters. The ending for each game is chosen randomly from four potential conclusions.

Mr Walkin said “It took about four months to create the game which has about 2,000 possible enemies, eight tough encounters with bosses and lots of different items players can gather to boost their fighting or defensive abilities.”

The game is designed to work with Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013. It does not work on Mac versions of the spreadsheet program.

You can download the game here http://carywalkin.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/arena-xlsm-released/

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 29.03.13

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Pokemon It is the end of the week so it is time for the Train2Game games industry news round up!

In exciting news for Pokémon video game players across Europe, The Pokémon Company International announced the long-awaited dates and locations for the Pokémon European Video Game Championships. The English competition will be held in Birmingham on June 2. Players will battle for the chance to earn a Travel Award to the 2013 Pokémon World Championships in Vancouver, Canada, this August. Visit www.pokemon.co.uk for more information.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today announced Infinite Crisis, an all-new multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game developed by Turbine, the award winning studio behind free-to-play online games including The Lord of the Rings Online. Infinite Crisis is a free-to-play game that features a deep roster of DC Comics characters and is scheduled for release in 2013 for the PC.

In further news from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, they announced two of its biggest mobile games, Batman: Arkham City Lockdown and Scribblenauts Remix, are coming to Android, exclusively in the Amazon Appstore for Android. Expanded to and completely optimized for the Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD offers gamers with new ways to connect to their favorite franchises.

Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network have started their Spring Sales. Xbox Live’s sale runs from March 26 – April 2, and includes such titles as Dead Rising 2, Walking Dead, LA Noire, Max Payne 3, Resident Evil 6 and some of their movie offerings. The PSN kicked off its spring sale yesterday and it is running until April 9. In addition to the sale, it’s going to have a number of limited time offers, the first of which is Killzone HD, available till the April 29. Some of its games up for sale are Rayman 3 and Trine 2.

Electronic Arts, Sega, Sony, Codemasters and more have pledged support for the first Game QA & Localisation forum, taking place June 25-26 in London. The event will focus on best practices for test plans, QA budgeting and strategy with a mix of keynotes, sessions, panels and workgroups. Paradox, Outplay, Ganz, Plarium and Abertay University are also involved with the event. Full details can be found at the official site.

Train2Game News: Train2Game student releasing Boomba!

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Boomba LogoTrain2Game Student, Fee Stewart, has been working with Radiation Burn LTD to create a new exciting game called, Boomba!

In the game you get to play as punks, rockers, emos, soldiers, cops and many more characters in an exciting and enjoyable turn based strategy game that is based described as Angry Birds meets Worms.

This turn based physics shooter is completely unique and plays like no other. There are over 50 different teams to choose from, with more to follow. Aimed at aged 7+ casual to medium game players, this title really is open to everyone. The accuracy of your shooting is combined with a range of exciting weaponry to be victorious; use chainsaw missiles, boxing glove bazookas and metal anvils to defeat your opponents.

Boomba

Boomba will be available on: Nintendo 3DS, iOS, Windows 8 and Windows Phone, Kindle, Blackberry, Andoid, PC and Mac next month.

RadiationBurn Ltd. strives to provide fun and original IP for your enjoyment. The studio, founded in Middlesbrough 2010, creates fun and original titles of all sizes. The company was founded through winning the Microsoft Dream.Build.Play Challenge, Old Spice competition. A worldwide competition in which RadiationBurn Ltd. were voted winners, by a panel of judges and the gaming public.

Fee joined the company in October 2011 after finishing a Train2Game student placement at the company.

When asked her opinion of the game she said “Boomba! is something I thought I would be doing only once. It soon became a daily habit to both create the game and play it!”

You can find out more about the game by going to www.boombagame.com

Train2Game News: Phil Cross of Microsoft talks to Train2Game Student Studios

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Phil CrossEarlier this month ,Phil Cross, audience marketing manager of Microsoft, held the first of a series of mentoring sessions with Train2Game student studios.

The session was recorded by Train2Game radio and you can listen to the podcast here: http://www.spreaker.com/user/train2game/train2game_radio_phil_cross_of_microsoft

You can read the transcript for the mentoring session below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/130135616/Phil-Cross-Mentors-Train2Game-Students

 

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 08.03.13

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UE4It’s the end of the week so it is time for another Train2Game News round up.

Epic announced earlier this week that the Unreal Engine 4 is available for PlayStation 4. In addition to showcasing the new Unreal Engine 4 “Elemental” demo running live and in real time on PlayStation 4 at the PlayStation Meeting 2013, Epic is providing the resources PlayStation 4 developers need to harness the full power of its Unreal Engine 4 technology and realize all facets of their creativity using Epic’s revolutionary new toolset now and in the future.

Multiplay, a leading provider of community gaming, game server hosting, events management and broadcast services, is pleased to announce Insomnia 48. Taking place on 22nd-25th March at the Telford International Centre, i48 pits 1,000 of the best gamers against each other to compete for prize funds of up to £10,000 per tournament. The event will give UK gamers their first hands on experience with Injustice: Gods Among Us. Find out more about the event by going to http://iseries.multiplay.co.uk/

High Moon studio and Marvel have released a new trailer for the upcoming game featuring every bodies favourite “Merc with a mouth”, Deadpool. If you know the insane Marvel character, you will know what to expect. If you don’t know him, prepare for a shock! If you are over 18, you can watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCBD7NPhCQ&feature=player_embedded

Sony Computer Entertainment UK MD Fergal Gara announced that PlayStation VITA sales absolutely exploded over the holiday period. When asked how he rated the handheld’s performance in its first year on the market, the executive said: “Vita really, really responded as we went into Christmas. We had a pre-Christmas lull where sales were quite low. But that absolutely exploded 20-fold from that low-point into the peak of Christmas. That’s very encouraging and shows that with the right promotion and software we can light that fire.” Mr Gara also admitted that the system’s software release schedule currently appears light, but promised: “It looks bare in terms of what we have announced. The cupboard won’t be bare.”

Finally Eidos Montreal have confirmed they are working on a reboot of Thief. The game is scheduled for a 2014 release and will be coming to PC and Next Gen consoles. The official blurb for the game is “Series hero Garrett returns to the Gothic, industrial metropolis known simply as the City to steal any and everything that will make him richer. Unfortunately, the City is broiling with social tension as it is ravaged by a plague and lorded over by a political tyrant known as the Baron. In order to survive his adventures, Garrett will have to pay attention to his environment and make use of the many possible paths through each of the game’s levels.” Sound familiar?

Train2Game Student Radio Featured Programmes

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T2G RadioTrain2Game student radio has gone LIVE! This service will play all the best Train2Game interviews around on a loop so you never miss anything good.

The schedule for the interviews the service plays is as follows:

Phil Cross Audience Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK Mentors Train2Game Students: Phil answers questions from students and explains how Train2Game students can gain many areas of on-going support free from Microsoft.

On BBC Oxford Mike Gamble from Epic advises Parents: Mike shares how parents can help youngsters wanting a career in the gaming industry.

BBC Radio Derby talks to Train2Game Student Daniel Gent: An inspirational interview with Daniel who following a car accident is now Quadriplegic, Daniel says if he can do a Train2Game course anyone can.

On Juice FM Mike Gamble from Epic advises Parents: Mike gives further advice to parents and would be students.

Steve Lindsay from the Princes’ Trust: shares how Train2Game often mirrors the aims of the Princes’ Trust with young people.

Train2Game Student Amy Methven from Scotland: explains how she has already started working with a student studio group.

Train2Game Student Dan Rutter explains: how Train2Game has given him the skills to become a published games studio and start his own games company with his wife.

Train2game student Gareth Brook shares: how an ex-Army communication technician has now joined a games studio.

Train2Game Student Neil Gorman details:how he has already gained work from Microsoft and further his Train2Game course has inspired him to now take a Masters Degree in games. Neil said of the course and the Train2game academic team “it’s been great, it’s been fantastic”.

Ken Gains from City and Guilds shares: how Train2Game works with City and Guilds.

Tune in via Train2Game Student Radio or more information via www.train2game.com