Tag Archives: PC gaming

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 17.12.12

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This is the last game chart that Train2Game will bring you in 2012. Not a lot has changed in the run up to Christmas. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is still at number 1, Hitman Absolution has risen up the ranks from number 6 to take the number 2 slot and Forza Horizon has revved back up into the top twenty this week.

Week ending 15 December 2012

POS.  TITLE 

PUBLISHER

 LAST
WEEK 

1

– 

 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II

ACTIVISION

1

2

HITMAN ABSOLUTION

SQUARE ENIX

6

3

– 

 FIFA 13

EA SPORTS

3

4

– 

 JUST DANCE 4

UBISOFT

4

5

FAR CRY 3

UBISOFT

2

6

ASSASSIN’S CREED III

UBISOFT

5

7

– 

 HALO 4

MICROSOFT

7

8

– 

 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED

EA GAMES

8

9

– 

 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE

9

10

– 

 WWE ’13

THQ

10

11

– 

 SKYLANDERS GIANTS

SKYLANDERS

11

12

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

15

13

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013

SEGA

14

14

SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED

SEGA

16

15

MOSHI MONSTERS: MOSHLINGS THEME PARK

MIND CANDY

12

16

MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER

EA GAMES

13

17

LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE

18

18

FORZA HORIZON

MICROSOFT

–

19

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2

NINTENDO

17

20

– 

 DISHONORED

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

20

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2012 UKIE Ltd

 

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 12.12.12

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The Train2Game blog has once again been searching the internet and has found some of the biggest news from across the week.

The Rapid2D engine has gone live as of yesterday following its demonstration at the Evolve conference in London. Rapid2D is designed to help developers create apps for PC, tablet and Windows Phone 8 through the Windows 8 Marketplace. The engine uses C++ for scripting, and includes features such as physics, visual effects, sound particle systems, collision control and animated sprites. As well as the free version of Rapid2D, there will also be extra add-ons, upgrades and a pro-version available to developers.

Randy Pitchford, one of the developers behind Borderlands 2 has confirmed that there will be a new character class coming as DLC. Mr Pitchford previously said it was unlikely because of the amount of extra work the Mechromancer class took. The news was revealed after someone tweeted the developer saying “My mate says you won’t” to which Randy replied, “yes – we’re working on another character.” It’s as simple as that.

PopCap, the team behind hit casual games such as Plants v Zombies has announced that they are now working on a AAA title. The news comes following a tweet and job posting from PopCap. The game is a console game, inspired by Team Fortress 2. The job posting confirms that the game will use the Frostbite 2 engine, which is becoming more and more popular.

The final issues of PSM3 and Xbox World have gone on sale today. One of the many features in the last PSM3 magazine is a feature written by editor Dan Dawkins talking about the making of’ PSM3, office secrets, the highs and lows, how things have changed and how the future looks. Meanwhile Xbox World rounds up the biggest, loudest, saddest, funniest, most shocking moments in Xbox history and gives GTA5, arguably the biggest Xbox game of 2013, one final, epic preview.

Rovio has announced plans to release an Angry Birds feature film in the summer of 2016 and it will be in 3D so you can feel what those bad piggies go through. Despicable Me producer John Cohen has signed on as producer for the CG-animated movie, while David Maisel, former chairman of Marvel Studios and executive producer of Iron Man, will serve as executive producer. The movie will be produced and financed by Rovio outside of the studio system, allowing the Finnish company to retain full creative control of the project. Over 100 billion Angry Birds games have been downloaded since the games début in 2009.

Train2Game News: Games Industry Jobs – 11.12.12

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Train2Game has searched around to find you some of the entry level jobs in Art, Design, Development and QA.

ART

Job Title Junior Artist
Job Category Art / Animation
Skills Required Graduate Artist
Location Old Street, London, UK & Europe
Job Description Sports Interactive (SI) is the world’s leading developer of football management simulations through its Football Manager series of games, in its twentieth anniversary year. With one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry, and regular appearances at the top of the PC, PSP and App Store charts around Europe, this is a chance to join a winning team.

Position Overview
We are looking for an artist to join our graphics team in a junior role, helping with the creation and implementation of assets and graphical content in our games.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Dealing with licensing and asset creation for the game
  • Creating graphical content for the game
  • Assisting in the development of content across numerous platforms.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE  

  • Proficient with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator
  • Experience creating graphical content for games (either professionally or within a gaming community)
  • Portfolio required

DESIRABLE

  • Basic knowledge of HTML and/or XML
  • Web design experience
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Interest in football.

You can apply HERE.

DEVELOPER

Job Title Games Programmer – iOS / Android
Job Category Programming
Skills Required AI / Artificial Intelligence, Tools, Gameplay, Mobile / iOS / Android, Graphics / Engine, Core Technology, UI / Front End, Graduate Programmer
Location Brighton
Job Description Boss Alien are a growing company working on exciting projects with small team sizes. We need programmers who are happy to work in whatever area is required of them – this could change on a daily basis!

We are looking for smart, energetic, friendly people to join us!

Required:

  • 2.1 degree in Maths, Physics, Computer Science or related, or equivalent industry experience
  • Excellent knowledge of C# or C++
  • Excellent knowledge of algorithms and data structures
  • Experience of creating games on desktop or mobile platforms
  • Desire to make great games
  • Great communication skills (verbal and written)
  • Happy to work as part of a team
  • Demonstrable love for some area of game technology
  • A passion for playing games and solving problems
  • Flexible and keen to learn new skills

Great to have:

  • Knowledge of two or more other programming languages (for example Java, Python, PHP, Clojure)
  • 1 or more years of games industry experience
  • 1 or more shipped titles on console, desktop or mobile platforms
  • Strong knowledge of console, desktop and mobile architectures
  • Knowledge of asynchronous engineering techniques
  • Experience of Unity, Unreal or XNA
  • SQL
  • Experience using digital content creation tools (for example Max, Maya, Photoshop)

    Find out more about us at www.bossalien.com

    Junior / Graduate Programmers with relevant demos and a positive attitude are encouraged to apply!

DESIGN

Job Title MMO Game Designer – Celtic Heroes – Groundbreaking MMORPG !
Job Category Game Design
Skills Required Games Designer, Level Designer, Graduate Game Designer
Location Glasgow
Job Description The team behind ‘Celtic Heroes’ are looking for a creative MMO Game Designer to join their team.

As MMO Game Designer you will have the responsibility of designing and evolving the very experiences our players engage in. You must have massive passion in the MMORPG genre and fully understand the successful game mechanics and quest design that equally challenges and rewards the player.

You must be a creative thinker with the ability to rationalise your ideas into practical game play experiences. You must be a strong communicator at ease working within a development team. A strong portfolio of game design examples in the same genre of ‘Celtic Heroes’ is a MUST!

If you have the skills, qualifications, experience and a passion for playing our kind of games, we would love to hear from you. To APPLY direct online simply follow this link http://bit.ly/joinourclan

Set in an exciting medieval Celtic world of combat, magic and mythology, ‘Celtic Heroes’ is a fully 3D MMORPG available for iPhone, iPod and iPad. Play as a customisable warrior, mage, rogue, ranger or druid. Gain powerful new weapons, armour and items as you explore the vast world of castles, dungeons and outdoor environments. Battle fearsome enemies and complete heroic quests!

NOTE: Must be able to demonstrate eligibility and VALID WORKING VISA to work in the United Kingdom and be willing to relocate / commute to the Glasgow area

QA

Job Title Games Tester
Job Category QA / Localisation
Skills Required QA Tester
Location UK & Europe
Job Description Position Overview:

The Games Tester position is a responsible job; reporting bugs and providing quality feedback for our titles in development. These fixed term contracts are for our established Total Warteam, testing our project currently in development.

  • Test games in development for  software bugs
  • Enter bugs clearly and accurately into our bug database
  • Verify and recreate bugs as required
  • Report additional balancing, design and accessibility problems
  • Specific support and general roles available

Essential

  • A clear understanding of QA process
  • A keen enthusiasm for gaming
  • Good communication and  reporting skills
  • Driven and flexible approach

Desirable

  • A clear understanding of QA process
  • A keen enthusiasm for gaming
  • Good communication and  reporting skills
  • Driven and flexible approach
  • Experience of testing one full shipped title
  • A good  understanding of Strategy games (Total War)
  • Games industry related degree (e.g. audio, art, design, etc.) or expertise in a specific  game area is an asset (e.g. audio, technical, PC hardware, design or scripting etc.)
  • Fluent in one or more of the following languages: French, German, Italian or Spanish
  • Strong technical knowledge/skills (e.g. programming, scripting)

You will need to be available to start by December 2012.
PLEASE ENSURE A COVERING LETTER IS INCLUDED WITH YOUR CV APPLICATION

 

You can apply HERE.

Train2Game News: Valve gaming PC in the works

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Valve LogoAfter some research Train2Game has found that Valve Software are working on their own proprietary hardware, optimised for gaming.

The recently released Steam Big Picture mode was a first step in this process. The next step is incorporating Linux and making all of that work towards developing a PC package of their own. That means a ready-made PC that comes with Steam and can be hooked up to your television set.

Gabe Newell has shed some more light on his company’s plans. Newell said “I think in general that most customers and most developers are going to find that the PC is a better environment for them because they won’t have to split the world into thinking about ‘why are my friends in the living room, why are my video sources in the living room different from everyone else?’ So in a sense we hopefully are going to unify those environments.

“Certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment. If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that’s what some people are really going to want for their living rooms.

“We’ll do it but we also think other people will as well.”

This last sentence indicates that Mr Newell believes this may be the next big move in the games industry. A move like this could truly revitalise living room gaming.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 10.12.12

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Only one new entry breached the top 20 this week and that was Sonic & All Star Racing Transformed which came in at number 16. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 is still sitting high at the number 1 slot. The biggest change this week is that THQ’s WWE ’13 rose from 15 up to number 10.

Week ending 8 December 2012

POS.  TITLE 

PUBLISHER

 LAST
WEEK 

1

– 

 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II

ACTIVISION

1

2

– 

 FAR CRY 3

UBISOFT

2

3

– 

 FIFA 13

EA SPORTS

3

4

JUST DANCE 4

UBISOFT

6

5

– 

 ASSASSIN’S CREED III

UBISOFT

5

6

HITMAN ABSOLUTION

SQUARE ENIX

4

7

HALO 4

MICROSOFT

8

8

NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED

EA GAMES

10

9

LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE

7

10

WWE ’13

THQ

15

11

SKYLANDERS GIANTS

SKYLANDERS

9

12

MOSHI MONSTERS: MOSHLINGS THEME PARK

MIND CANDY

16

13

MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER

EA GAMES

18

14

FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013

SEGA

13

15

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

–

16

SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED

SEGA

–

17

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2

NINTENDO

19

18

LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE

–

19

F1 2012

CODEMASTERS

–

20

DISHONORED

BETHESDA SOFTWORKS

12

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2012 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game News: Trailers from the Video Game Awards

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VGAThe Video Game Awards were held over the weekend and a number of new trailers were shown for some of the big games coming next year. The Train2Game blog has rounded them all up for you here.

The first one is for the new South Park game, The Stick of Truth. This game looks stunning and it is going to make a lot of South Park fans very happy. It looks so like an episode it is hard to see where the cut scenes end and the game play begins.

This trailer is obviously 18+. Do Not Watch if easily offended.

Next up is the trailer from Tomb Raider: Survivor. This game is again stunning to look at and looks to be action packed and innovative in it’s adventure. You get to see Lara Croft grow up from a girl fresh out of school to the Archaeologist we are familiar with. I haven’t played many Tomb Raider games personally but I am looking forward to this one, even more so following this trailer.

Finally it was revealed last night that a sequel is coming for one of the most brutally difficutly games their has been in recent years. Dark Souls 2 is coming and it is going to be as ruthless as ever

Train2Game News: Mid-week round up – 06.12.12

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The Train2Game team has searched around and found some of the exciting news from this week.

343 Industries, who recently released Halo 4, have said that they are in early stages of developing a new Halo. Frank O’Connor, the franchise development director for Halo, said that “a lot of people at 343 are already prototyping ideas and software and art for future Halo products”. Many within the 343 Industries studio are still working on post launch content for Halo 4.

Sega has revealed a new partnership with Games Workshop which will see Total War developer Creative Assembly making multiple titles set in the Warhammer fantasy universe. Creative Assembly studio director Tim Heaton said: “With this year being our 25th anniversary, it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner. The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers.”

Sony Pictures Consumer Products has teamed up with Capcom-owned developer Beeline Interactive to produce an Android and iOS Ghostbusters game, targeting an ‘early 2013’ release. The new Ghostbusters will be a ‘freemium’ title based on the popular eighties movies. The players will play the role of “a fledgling Ghostbuster. Who ya gunna call?

UK celebrity, chat show host and film critic Jonathan Ross has opened a new game development studio named Hotsauce Interactive, based in Candem, North London. The outfit is part of Ross’ TV production company Hotsauce, and has already released its debut game, Cacha Cacha Aliens for iOS. It is understood that Hotsauce Interactive is staffed by a number of experienced developers and the studio may look into releasing games on hand-held and console in the future.

Customers of Valve’s Steam digital distribution service can now play their PC games on a TV. The much anticipated Big Picture mode has been in beta for some time, but has only now seen public release. Big Picture is designed to be compatible with gamepads, but also supports the use of a Mouse and Keyboard. To celebrate, Valve has placed over thirty “controller-friendly” games on sale.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 made $1 billion a day quicker than Modern Warfare 3, Activision has announced. That’s $1 billion in worldwide retail sales in 15 days since launch, based on Chart-Track and internal figures. Modern Warfare 3 took 16 days to cross the $1 billion mark. For comparison, James Cameron’s Avatar made $1 billion in 17 days. Since launch, more than 150 million hours have been logged online playing the game on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Kickstarter’s United Kingdom operation has reached £2,069,164 in pledges since its launch late in October. 45,799 backers contributed to the £2 million, with 30 projects having successfully ended their funding drive out of 407 launched. Of those backers, 39 percent came from the UK.

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 – 3.12.11

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Far Cry 3 enters the charts at number 2 this week not able to topple Call Of Duty from its throne. The other new entries this week are Wii U titles. Nintendoland, the Wii U’s mini game compilation comes in at number 11 where as the more adult, survival horror, Zombi U shuffles in to the charts at 17.

Week ending 1 December 2012

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 –  CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 1
2 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT –
3 –  FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 3
4 HITMAN ABSOLUTION SQUARE ENIX 2
5 ASSASSIN’S CREED III UBISOFT 4
6 JUST DANCE 4 UBISOFT 7
7 LEGO THE LORD OF THE RINGS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 6
8 HALO 4 MICROSOFT 5
9 SKYLANDERS GIANTS SKYLANDERS 8
10 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 9
11 NINTENDO LAND NINTENDO –
12 DISHONORED BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 10
13 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2013 SEGA 15
14 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. U NINTENDO –
15 WWE ’13 THQ 11
16 MOSHI MONSTERS: MOSHLINGS THEME PARK MIND CANDY 12
17 ZOMBI U UBISOFT –
18 –  MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER EA GAMES 18
19 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 NINTENDO 16
20 FORZA HORIZON MICROSOFT –

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2012 UKIE Ltd

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Amy Methven

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Amy MethvenTrain2Game radio spoke to Amy Methven today about what inspires her art and how she got involved with Road Hog Game studios.

You can listen to part 1 here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1087762-train2game-student-amy-methven-on-train2game-student-radio-part-1

And part 2 here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1087758-train2game-student-amy-methven-on-train2game-student-radio-part-2

or read the transcript below

My name is Amy Methven, I live in Elgin, Scotland and I’m doing the Art & Animation course.

Hi Amy, What’s your story? What are the past experiences that have shaped your life and made you who you are now?

Well all the way through High School, the only thing I really enjoyed doing was drawing and I would get in to all sorts of trouble for doodling and I only ever enjoyed doing art at school, it was the only thing I was ever really good at. It was all I thought about, the first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing I thought about before I went to bed. Just enjoying playing Video Games and various movies just inspired me to sit and draw my favourite characters. As I grew older I developed more of a passion for it and started to research the people who actually created these characters that inspired me and being very passionate about wanting to create things. Whether it’s through traditional painting or building sculptures is what I am all about really.

So what are some of the artist that inspire you to get into the Video Game industry?

There are a lot of concept artist that I love but the actual artists that got me in to the Video Games industry wasn’t actually anything to do with Video Games to be honest with you. I love surrealism, like Salvador Dali and all that kind of stuff. Looking at that kind of stuff and obviously because Salvador Dali did a little bit of animation as well, looking at the stuff and seeing it brought to life, that inspires me. Just being able to characterize and any form of animation and being able to interact with it through Video Games really inspires me.

So I know you are also working as part of a studio, with other Train2Game students, how did that studio form?

Well basically it started when I joined Train2Game, I started to put my artwork on to the forums and added a link to my online portfolio, just to let other students see what I was up to and then, through that I got various people messaging me to just chat about art in general and then I got a message from Gareth Brook asking if I would be interested in joining his team and I said yes, for definite. So that was quite out of the blue only been doing the course for 2 months and I am already involved in an up and coming studio, it’s just brilliant.

Did you get more offers from people other than Gareth or was it just Gareth that offered you?

It was just Gareth, the other people that got in touch were just other students who were just getting to know each other through the forums. But yeah he was the only one who got in touch with me about working together.

Tell me about the project you are working on at the minute with the studio?

The studio is called Road Hog and at the moment we have currently just started work on our first project and we are getting through it quite quickly actually. It’s called Little Green Dude or LGD and its basically based on the Video Game, Pong, from the 1970’s but with a modern twist on it and that is what this studio is aiming to do. Take retro gaming and modernise them. It’s going really well, I’m really enjoying it.

Why do you think you’ve taken the retro thing and taken it to the modern thing? Is that something you have all been passionate about?

We are really passionate gamers anyway but retro gaming is definitely my background, I played a lot of retro games. We had an Atari system so the very first game I played was one of the very first games ever released which was Pong but I did also play games like Pacman and Space Invaders and all that. That’s where it all started so it is really good to take those games and modernise them for both casual gamers and hardcore gamers.

What are you aiming to release Little Green Dude on? What Platform are you aiming for?

It’s aimed for Android and PC as well.

Yeah, is it going for a Windows 8 release?

Yeah.

Are you going to enter in to the competition that Windows are doing, do you know?

Yeah we are doing that, yeah, for definite.

What is the most dramatic or exciting thing you have done in your life?

Probably joining the Train2Game course! Before that I went to art school for 5 years studying contemporary, fine art. I am passionate about both traditional and digital stuff it wasn’t quite what I wanted to do with my life, just exhibiting art work in galleries and things like that, I really wanted to work in the gaming industry or film industry doing concept art and things like that. So I have to say up to this point, joining the Train2Game course is probably the biggest thing to happen, for the art side anyway.

What is your greatest ambition, where do you want to go with your career?

I want to go as far as I can. I want to just keep creating things for the industry and just have an outlet for my art work because for such a long time I didn’t really have a proper outlet. With various jobs that I’ve had it was quite boring jobs that had nothing to do with art, house keeping and cleaning and things like that. My life in general is to make sure I have some sort of outlet for my art work, I don’t really want to settle. So I just really want to go as far as I can with this. Just to see where it takes me really.

Is there any studio in particular that you would love to work for?

Well I have just started working with Road Hog so I would like to keep working with them for as long as I can!

Finally, where can people keep up to date with Road Hog Game news? Have you got a Facebook site?

Yeah we have a Facebook page set up, it’s: www.Facebook.com/RoadHogGames we will be uploading all sorts of updates on to that shortly.

Thank you very much for your time Amy, its been great!

No problem, thanks very much.

Train2Game student studios including FormerDroid and Global Empire Soft sign up to Microsoft BizSpark

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As part of Train2Game’s on-going support for students, indie studios which include Train2Game students are taking advantage of Train2Game’s connection to Microsoft BizSpark to receive free software and support from Microsoft’s small business support network.

With Train2Game is an official partner on the BizSpark network, the Train2Game PR team are available to support and advise on signing up with to the program. It’s free to join, though studios are required to register as a company and have their own website. The scheme gives students access to an array of software which can affectively let them publish games as professional studios.

Fiona Stewart, Train2Game student and Managing Director, FormerDroid said: “Working with BizSpark is a great chance to receive the latest Microsoft software and support from a network of skilled technical experts. FormerDroid are already developing with the platform and we’d encourage Train2Game student studios to do the same.”

Richard Hoffmann, Train2Game student and CEO,Global Empire Soft, said: “It’s tremendous to have the support of Microsoft behind us as we look to release titles onto Windows 8 Mobile, its support will be invaluable. Thanks Train2Game for making it happen for GlobalEmpire Soft!”

Jan Telensky, Train2Game, said: “At Train2Game our main aim is to get our students into the games industry. With our friends at Microsoft, our students can now start their own professional studios with help from the fast track system in place to gain acceptance to BizSpark. This relationship enables the new generation of entrepreneurial studios to kick start their way into the gaming industry – which is a testament to the efforts of the entire Train2Game team!”

For more information about signing up with BizSpark contact the Train2Game PR team via:

harry@swanpr.co.uk