Tag Archives: mobile gaming

Train2Game News Avenged Sevenfolds mobile game release date

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Avenged SevenfoldMulti-platinum hard rock superstars Avenged Sevenfold have pegged October 16, 2014 for the unholy release of their action adventure mobile game, Hail to the King: Deathbat.

Hail to the King: Deathbat is a brutal romp through the darkest depths of the underworld with an epic tale of redemption, devastating melee combat, towering boss fights, 7 hellish landscapes and classic Avenged Sevenfold cuts along with a new and original score composed by the band.

To celebrate the game’s impending release, check out this new teaser showcasing a taste of the action to come:

Hail to the King: Deathbat hits iOS and Android October 16, 2014.

Train2Game News PEACEapp competition

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PEACEappA new competition is searching for a game or app about facilitating peace or an idea for one.

The competition, PEACEapp, aims to showcase the work of developers who examine peace and promote games as venues for cultural dialogue and conflict management. PEACEapp is a joint project between UNDP, UNAOC and Build Up.

Sponsored by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the United Nations Development Programme, and Build Up, the competition will award the winning entries with $15,000 in cash prizes, an invitation to present their game at the Build Peace Conference in Cyprus, and exclusive mentoring and advising from Games for Change. The competition will consider entries at all stages of development, from prototypes to fully developed, with awards going to five games or apps—three completed works and two prototypes.

An international jury, which includes representatives from Games for Peace, the Institute for Economics and Peace, Fields of View, Games for Change, and more, will review submitted games and apps according to three values:

  • Affording users a novel experience to engage with knowledge of other groups and issues of identity
  • Creatively engaging players in a playful manner
  • Enabling connections to key social media globally, in terms of functionality, language and reach

Click here for a complete competition guidelines, and then submit your entry.

Train2Game News iPhone 6

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Apple® today announced iPhone® 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the biggest advancements in iPhone history, featuring two new models with stunning 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays, and packed with innovative technologies in an all-new dramatically thin and seamless design.

The new iPhones feature a precision unibody enclosure of anodized aluminum that conforms seamlessly with the shaped glass of the display, resulting in a completely smooth and continuous surface. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are engineered to be the thinnest ever, delivering a bigger display in a design that is still comfortable to hold and easy to use.

Packed with innovative new technologies, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus include: the Apple-designed A8 chip with second generation 64-bit desktop-class architecture for blazing fast performance and power efficiency; advanced iSight® and FaceTime® HD cameras; ultrafast wireless technologies; and Apple Pay™, an easier way to simply and securely make payments with just the touch of a finger. Both models include iOS 8, the latest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, featuring a simpler, faster and more intuitive user experience with new Messages and Photos features, QuickType™ keyboard, a new Health app, Family Sharing and iCloud Drive℠.

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the biggest advancements in iPhone history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The iPhone is the most loved smartphone in the world with the highest customer satisfaction in the industry and we are making it much better in every way. Only Apple can combine the best hardware, software and services at this unprecedented level and we think customers are going to love it.”

For the first time iPhone is available in two new sizes: iPhone 6 features a stunning 4.7-inch Retina® HD display with 1334 x 750 resolution, providing 38 percent more viewing area than iPhone 5s, while iPhone 6 Plus features an even bigger 5.5-inch Retina HD display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, providing 88 percent more viewing area and nearly three times the pixels than iPhone 5s. The Retina HD displays offer advanced technologies including higher contrast for deeper blacks and dual-domain pixels for more accurate colors at wider viewing angles.

With second generation 64-bit desktop-class architecture, the all-new A8 chip offers faster performance and is more energy efficient, delivering higher sustained performance with great battery life. With Metal™, a new graphics technology in iOS 8, developers can take performance of the A8 chip even further to bring console-class 3D games to iPhone. The A8 chip also includes a new, powerful Apple-designed image signal processor that enables advanced camera and video features.

Both models include the M8 motion coprocessor that gathers motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and the new barometer, which senses air pressure to provide relative elevation. The M8 motion coprocessor can continuously measure your motion data, even when the device is asleep, saving battery life for fitness apps that use the sensors all day. With iOS 8, motion data from M8 appears in the Health app so you can see how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed, or how far you’ve walked or run. Developers can use CoreMotion APIs that take advantage of M8 and HealthKit to create apps that help you take better care of your health and fitness.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus introduce Apple Pay, an easy way to securely pay for physical goods and services in stores or apps with just the touch of a finger. Users can pay securely and conveniently in stores by simply holding the phone near the contactless reader while keeping a finger on Touch ID™; there is no need to unlock your iPhone or launch an app. With Apple Pay, you can also make one-touch purchases within apps, without having to enter credit card or shipping information. All payment information is kept private, encrypted and stored securely in the Secure Element, a chip inside the new iPhones.

The iSight camera gets even better with a new sensor featuring Focus Pixels for faster autofocus, making it easier to quickly capture any moment. iPhone 6 Plus users will also benefit from optical image stabilization technology that compensates for hand shake in low light and works with iOS 8 to reduce subject motion. High-definition video on iPhone improves with faster frame rates up to 60fps for 1080p video and 240fps for slo-mo, as well as continuous autofocus, cinematic video stabilization and time-lapse video. The FaceTime HD camera now captures over 80 percent more light with a new sensor, larger f/2.2 aperture and advanced new features including burst mode and HDR video.

With faster LTE download speeds of up to 150 Mbps, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users can browse, download and stream content faster. The new iPhones also support high-quality voice calls over LTE (VoLTE) as well as Wi-Fi calling. With support for up to 20 LTE wireless bands—more than any other smartphone in the world—the new models make it easier to experience high-speed networks around the world. Both iPhones also include 802.11ac Wi-Fi with speeds up to 433 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.0.

The new iPhones come with iOS 8, the biggest release since the launch of the App Store℠, delivering a simpler, faster and more intuitive user experience and new features including QuickType keyboard, a new Health app, Family Sharing and iCloud Drive. With more than 4,000 new APIs, iOS 8 allows developers to further customize the user experience with major extensibility features and robust frameworks such as HealthKit and HomeKit. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users also have access to the revolutionary App Store, which offers more than 1.3 million apps to iPhone, iPad® and iPod touch® users in 155 countries around the world.

iPhone 6 comes in gold, silver or space gray, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model, $299 (US) for the 64GB model and, for the first time, a new 128GB model for $399 (US) with a two-year contract.⁴ iPhone 6 Plus comes in gold, silver or space gray, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $299 (US) for the 16GB model, $399 (US) for the 64GB model and $499 (US) for the new 128GB model with a two-year contract.⁴ Both models will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, additional carriers and select Apple Authorized Resellers. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK beginning on Friday, September 19, and customers can pre-order both models beginning on Friday, September 12.

Train2Game News Blizzard hire Hearthstone player

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HearthstoneA professional gamer has been hired by Blizzard to work on updates for the massively popular Hearthstone.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is the card game based on the MMO World of Warcraft. Announced at the Penny Arcade Expo in March 2013, the game entered open beta in January 2014, and was released in March 2014. Hearthstone is available on the Microsoft Windows and OS X operating systems and on iPad and Windows 8 Touch devices. iPhone and Android tablet platform releases are planned for the second half of 2014. As of March 2014, Hearthstone has more than 10 million player accounts registered worldwide.

One of those players, Ryan Materson, has now been employed by Blizzard as an associate designer and is expected to help with balancing the game for the new updates.

Materson, who is known as Realz, was the team leader of professional Hearthstone team, Mana Grind, before they disbanded. He is one of the most respected and talented professional players and this is what caught the eye of Blizzard.

On Reddit Materson said “This is a truly exciting opportunity for me, and (to rephrase from the words of someone I have long admired, who once entered a similar position) I hope my association with the continuing development of Hearthstone will serve to comfort fellow ladder grinders, competitors and players at large that ‘one of us’ is behind the scenes looking out for the interests of the play. I really can’t wait to get started”.

Train2Game News Unity Award Winners 2014

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unity-logoUnity Technologies, the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance development platform used to make creative and intelligent interactive 3D and 2D experiences, announced the winners of the 2014 Unity Awards at the 2014 Unite Conference in Seattle, WA.

Unity Technologies began the Unity Awards to honor the developers creating the best video games and interactive 3D and 2D applications using the Unity development platform. This year’s winners were chosen by a combined vote between Unity Technologies and the Unity community of developers. The winners are:

Best Student Project – The Rift: U.R.I.D.I.S. by URIDIS Team from ISART Digital
Best 3D Visual Experience – Monument Valley by ustwo
Best 2D Visual Experience – The Bridge by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild
Best Gameplay – Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment
Technical Achievement – Shader Forge by Joachim Holmér
Best VizSim Project – Minto Longbranch Visualization from NVYVE
Best Non-game Project – Art and Skin by Alexx Henry Studios
Community Choice – Monument Valley by ustwo
Golden Cube – Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment
The Unity Technologies team was the judges for the awards. In spring 2015, open nominations for the next Unity Awards will begin.

Train2Game News Mobile Gaming Stats

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Mobile Phone PileOnebip by Neomobile, the global mobile payments service, has published a detailed global analysis of its partners’ customer buying behaviour in the online gaming sector.

Based on the analysis of millions of transactions across 65 countries over the course of a full year, Onebip has uncovered the spending habits of the world’s online gamers.

Gamers are increasingly choosing to pay for their online gaming experiences through the convenience of their mobile phone bill via carrier billing over the more traditional payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal. Onebip’s analysis is able to paint a picture of the spending habits of gamers around the world and the increasing growth in the adoption of mobile carrier billing.

Globally, online gamers spend an average of €4.73 per single transaction. Gamers in the UK spend nearly double this with an average transaction value of €8.94, making the UK the 3rd biggest spender in the world by transaction value.

The average spend per transaction in Switzerland tops the global list at €15.09. This is mainly due to carriers in the country offering gaming companies the option to charge much higher price points to online gamers that pay via carrier billing compared to all other countries. In fact, Onebip’s data found that there was a direct correlation between countries offering higher price points as an option and an increase in the average transaction value i.e. consumers are embracing the use of carrier billing to pay for higher priced items such as larger “bundles” of virtual currency. In bigger gaming markets compared to Switzerland such as Turkey that recently increased the price points available for payment via carrier billing, gaming companies saw an increase in revenue (gross transaction volume) and average transaction value.

In line with common industry trends, the winter holiday period is the busiest time for online gaming spend, with 11% of global spend taking place during the month of December. However, after December, gamers spend more money during the summer period than any other point in the year. The summer months of June, July and August account for 30% of global spend. In contrast April and May are the quietest months with just 4% of annual spend in each month respectively.

Looking at the UK specifically, the most gaming transactions happen in the evening from 18.00 – 23.59 (GMT/UT) with 38% of daily transactions happening during this time. Reinforcing the view that the UK prefers to game into the evening, the UK alone sees an unusual spike in activity during the hour starting at 22.00 GMT where 13% of all daily transactions take place (this is a sharp increase from the hours before and after – 21.00 and 23.00 where only 3% and 5% of daily transactions take place respectively).

While it is true that more transactions take place on Saturday than on any other day in the week, the spike is not statistically very significant, with between 1-2% more transactions on Saturday over on any other day. Clearly gamers are finding time to play all week, or at the least, they don’t feel the need to wait until the weekend to spend their money.

Train2Game News BioShock coming to iOS

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BioShockHavok, a leading provider of 3D interactive game development technology, is providing its industry-leading Havok Physics and Havok Animation Studio technology to 2K Games’ groundbreaking narrative-driven action game, BioShock, which is launching later this summer on the App Store.

Developed by Irrational Games in 2007 with Unreal Engine 3, the original BioShock made extensive use of Havok’s Animation tools, which played an instrumental part in bringing fluidity to the disfigured denizens of Rapture. The game’s liberal use of Havok Physics also brought further immersion into the game world, even becoming a powerful weapon through the use of the in-game Telekinesis Plasmid. After its release, Bioshock quickly became one of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time, garnering universal praise from press and proving to be a huge success with the gaming audience.

The 2K China team has brought this iconic gaming experience to iOS using Havok’s cross-platform toolset to achieve amazing parity between console and mobile versions, including the full dynamic gameplay and character interactions of the classic title from 2007. Seven years after its original implementation, the same robust Physics and Animation technologies ingrained in the original BioShock have seamlessly transitioned onto mobile platforms.

“It’s a true testament to the power and breadth of Havok Physics and Havok Animation Studio that these technologies have seamlessly transitioned from a AAA console title to an amazing mobile experience,” said Brian Waddle, Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Havok. “Just as BioShock redefined the scope of what a game could and should be, the 2K Games team has proven that mobile devices can go beyond simple apps and offer a wholly mature and complete gaming experience akin to those seen on high end gaming platforms.”

BioShock will be available soon via the App Store as a premium title for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Train2Game News Game Jam 2014 winner released

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Nom Nom, Nom, Nom…

Game jam winning title from Train2Game student studio 1HPLeft soon to be available on: Google Play, Windows and iOS

Touch screen title that has you avoiding getting ‘Nommed’ by other fish will soon be available to buy on all major mobile gaming platforms. ‘Nom’ really impressed at this year’s Train2Game Game Jam and was judged the best game of over twenty submissions. Judges including Jon Hare, gave it the top prize, giving the development team the impetus to get the game out there and make it available for gamers to buy.

The game is beautiful in its simplicity and completely addictive game play. The characters are designed to have instant personality and help to immerse players in a wonderfully playful environment. Much like popular titles currently available, the game drops the player straight into play and challenges the player to hit a high score in never-ending gameplay.

Controlling a fish with a finger using touch screen technology, players pull and push a character around the screen, eating to get bigger and collect points, while avoiding other fish looking to take a bite out of them. The longer you stay alive, the higher your score will be. But beware you will get bigger and more Nom fishes will arrive on screen to take a bite out of you as your score gets higher. Pick up power ups to improve your survive-ability while whizzing your finger around the screen to avoid your attackers.

The team have promised more updates to come and lots more additions to keep improving this wonderfully playable title.

Train2Game News Train2Game Student Studio game going big

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Deuxality1000 Doors, 6000 downloads. Successfull release of quiz game equals more features for fans

Indie Quiz game from Train2Game student studio reaches thousands of downloads in first few weeks of its release. To celebrate the successful release with fans, the team have added a new feature where players can submit questions to be included in the game

An ingenius and addictive title from a two man studio is taking the games market by storm. 1000 doors: The Quiz, developed by a student studio from Train2Game, has had huge success reaching this massive milestone of downloads and shows no signs of its success dwindling. To celebrate 5,000 downloads, the game got a new feature which allows the player to create and submit their own questions. The game currently consists of 1,016 separate general knowledge questions with more being submitted all the time by users and the developers at DeuXality Games.

In 1000 Doors: The Quiz, play takes place in a room with four doors and a key floating in the middle. Players tap the key and are presented with a question, four potential answers then appear above the doors. The player has to pick the right answer to move into the next room, if they choose the wrong door they lose one of their five lives. The player can swipe the screen to look around the room, they then have fifteen seconds to make a selection and choose their door. If when the player moves through a door it fades to white then they are safe, if it goes to red they lose a life. As the player gets more questions wrong the room starts to degrade, as they pick correct answers the decor improves. When a player loses all their lives they are greeted with a brick wall stating game over and told how many doors they succesfully navigated.

Both the developers of 1000 Doors: The Quiz, are members of distance blended learning service: Train2Game, an educational body which offers bespoke distance learning courses in games development. The gameswas released on June 26, 2014 on WindowsPhone and Android (with a July 18, 2014 iOS release) As of 23/07/14 the game has been download over 6,000 times on three main platforms: WindowsPhone: 2,700 approx, Android: 1,000 approx and iOS: 2,400 approx. The team have further features planned for the future, including: Facebook integration, HighScore Sharing, Hidden/Discoverable items, Trophies, In game hints/ability to purchase hints, Ability to have players own device stored music play in the background, More categories and Language selection.

To find out more visit the official website: http://www.games.deuxality.com/DeuXality_Games/, go to www.train2game.com or alternatively download the game for free at theses links: iOS, Android and Windows Phone

Train2Game News Xeno Quest Beta

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XenoQuestNGames, a leading online games publisher, is today thrilled to announce that the open beta for fantasy MMORPG, Xeno Quest, will be launching for Android and iOS gamers on July 30th and July 31st respectively.

The lands of Xeno Quest are brought to life by the powerful Unity 3D Engine, combining fine artwork with advanced technology to create a fluid, fully 3D mobile gameplay experience. Players will develop powerful Knights to utilize in turn-based combat, forge unique equipment and collect vast bounties of treasure as they team up with friends on special daily quests – or fight them for glory! Who will become the ‘Son of Destiny’ and use their power to change the fate of the world?

The Xeno Quest alpha test closed July 18th, following 18 days of successful stress testing. Thousands of would-be warriors joined the alpha adventure and NGames is now working through player submitted bug reports and suggestions ahead of the anticipated open beta launch.

“We cannot wait to open the gates of Xeno Quest to more players,” says an excited Tracy Wang, NGames PR Manager. “The alpha community had a lot of fun and did a brilliant job of tracking down bugs and making gameplay suggestions. We’re putting as many in place as possible for the beta launch on July 30th!”

The Xeno Quest open beta is scheduled to launch for Android on the Google Play Store on July 30th. iPhone and iPad gamers can join the fantasy adventure through the App Store on July 31st.

Warriors who helped shape the Xeno Quest adventure during the alpha phase will be rewarded with special gifts when the beta launches, including Firecrush – a powerful mythical beast assistant exclusive to alpha testers.

Open beta testers will have the opportunity to submit bug reports and gameplay suggestions ahead of Xeno Quest’s full launch this Summer.

Follow Xeno Quest and learn more about the exciting new game on the official Facebook page now: http://www.facebook.com/XenoQuest

Official site: http://xq.game321.com/