Tag Archives: Square Enix

Train2Game News: Sleeping Dogs art director on getting into the industry

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http://www.sleepingdogs.net/news/Meet-the-Team-Josh-Lee

Sleeping Dogs art director Josh Lee recently featured in a United Front Games ‘meet the team’ interview and offered his take on getting into the industry, revealing he started in fine art.

“I’m kind of old school. There are a lot of schools now that didn’t exist at the time that offer these opportunities… I was born and raised in Montreal, I studied painting and drawing at Concordia in Fine Arts.”  said Lee.

“From there, I was trying to figure out how to make a living, and I ended up moving into the Film Animation department. Subsequently, I worked in traditional animation for a number of years doing frame-by-frame animation. At the time, over 15 years ago, you could feel a shift in the industry.” he continued, adding that adding 3D skills was an important element in getting into games.

“Things were moving more digitally, so I started taking 3D courses to balance my traditional arts background with more CG tools. After a few years working in traditional animation, I ended up in a CG house in Montreal called 4-elements that was affiliated with Softimage.”

“We did trailers for games, special effects, CG for commercials, any number of things a small startup would do. That was my first exposure to the production side of games. When that company closed temporarily, I had an opportunity at EA.” Lee added.

It’s an interview that’s sure to be interesting to Train2Game students, as Lee discusses what his role as art director involves, life at United Front, and of course, Sleeping Dogs. Read it here.

Be sure to keep reading The Train2Game Blog for advice from professionals about getting into the industry, while we’ll also keep you up to date with the latest Sleeping Dogs news.

What are your thoughts on Lee’s route into the industry?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: United Front on the vast research behind Sleeping Dogs

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Game designers researching Sleeping Dogs at United Front Games have done so by taking newspaper cuttings, looking at films and taking 40,000 reference photos of Hong Kong.

“We took 35,000 to 40,000 reference photos and hour upon hour of video footage, but it’s not a street for street depiction. It was important for us to capture the essence of city. Lots of the landmarks are there, many of the names are similar yet, first and foremost, we wanted to make that space fun to navigate around.”  Executive producer Stephen van der Mescht told PlayStation Blog.

The United Front Games man went on to discuss how important it is for them to show the life of an undercover cop to Sleeping Dogs players.

“Well, the plot was built from scratch but we were heavily influenced by a lot of references. Look at movies like The Departed and Donnie Brasco – they both had an element of truth in them, which came from the stories they discovered by talking to people who were actually in those situations.” he continued.

“The important thing for us to get across was that dual world of a cop pretending to be a gangster, and the stresses that come with that, of having to live this lie.” van der Mescht continued, adding that while the plot of Sleeping Dogs, it’s influenced by a lot of their research.

“In terms of specifics, we referenced a lot of Triad crimes using newspaper cuttings. The game follows this guy becoming more intertwined with this world and we see his morality line get blurred. So yes, there are direct references to stories we discovered from the research we did.” said the executive producer.

Read the full interview, Sleeping Dogs And Telling Stories Through Games over at the PlayStation Blog. It’s likely to be interesting reading for anyone on a Train2Game course, especially game designers.

There’s more about Sleeping Dogs here on The Train2Game Blog, while you can also keep reading for the latest news from its publisher, Square Enix, here.

What are your thoughts on the research United Front are putting into Sleeping Dogs?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Square Enix show off next-gen Final Fantasy tech demo

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Square Enix has used E3 to show off a tech demo of what will be powering their games on next-gen consoles, and it’s really quite impressive.

Agni’s Philosophy, the Final Fantasy real time tech demo gives us a glimpse at what Square Enix are developing behind the scenes with Luminous Studios.

“The Luminous Studio game engine aims to bring about greater productivity within game production teams, while simultaneously offering an environment to create games of fantastic quality,” said a statement from Square Enix.

“Furthermore, the Luminous Studio game engine is planned to support game consoles, PC, smartphones, and the web, encapsulating the many platforms of the next generation of quality”

Watch the Final Fantasy tech demo from Square Enix below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

There’s more Square Enix news here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Agni’s Philosophy tech demo? Does it make you more excited for next-gen consoles?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Play Sleeping Dogs and meet its producer at Square Enix on Thursday

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Train2Game students can get hands on with Sleeping Dogs and take part in a roundtable discussion with United Front Games producer Dan Sochan at a special event on Thursday 24th May.

Sleeping Dogs is an open world crime title in which you play an undercover Hong Kong cop. It was formerly known as True Crime: Hong Kong.

The free Sleeping Dogs community day takes place at the Square Enix headquarters in Wimbledon, South West London, with the opportunity to book a place in one of three timeslots that range from late afternoon to early evening.

Not only will it be great to see an upcoming game before everyone else, but the expertise of Sleeping Dogs producer Dan Sochan could be useful to any Train2Game students that manage to speak with him.

There are full details on how to book your place at the Sleeping Dogs community day on the Square Enix Blog.

Will you be attempting to go to this event? What are your thoughts on the upcoming Sleeping Dogs?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Trainn2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Tomb Raider delayed until 2013 to allow extra development time

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Tomb Raider reboot Train2Game blog image

Train2Game News listed Tomb Raider, the series reboot from Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix, as one of the most anticipated games of 2011. Obviously, it didn’t appear in 2011, and in fact, won’t be released until the first quarter of 2013.

The announcement came on the Eidos forum

“When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.” said Crystal Dynamics studio head Darrell Gallagher

The reason behind the delay, much like that of Bioshock Infinite’s, is to allow the development team more time to take the best game possible.

“Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.” Gallagher continued.

“We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.” he concluded.

There’s more Tomb Raider news on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Tomb Raider delay? Disappointed you won’t get to play it this year, or relieved you won’t be playing something that’s been rushed?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game news: Final Fantasy VII intro remade using Unreal Development Kit

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Train2Game blog readers may have seen this post last week where Square Enix said a Final Fantasy VII remake would take too long to develop.

Final Fantasy VII is a game many have called to be remade for the current generation, and it seems one enthusiast has got fed up of waiting. They’ve used the Unreal Engine to show what a Final Fantasy VII remake could potentially look like.

You can see the video at the bottom of this Train2Game blog post.

The video shows the first section of Final Fantasy VII and is played from a first person perspective. While the animation and interaction is a little on the stuff side it offers an interesting glimpse and what could be.

Unfortunately, it’s likely this fan created game will be pulled offline by Square Enix in the near future. Still it’s an impressing showing of the variety of things that can be one with Epic’s Unreal engine.

Epic Games of course were heavily involved with last month’s Train2Game & Epic Game Jam, which saw four winning teams win places to the Make Something Unreal Contest at the The Gadget Show Live next year. The winning team will talk away with a fully licence Unreal Development Kit for Ios.

For more information on what that means for the winners, check out our interview with Epic Games Mike Gamble.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the fan make Final Fantasy VII remake?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum

Train2Game news: Square on Final Fantasy VII remake – it’d take too long to develop

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Train2Game forum users regularly post in the ‘If you could remake any game…’ thread, sharing which classic titles they’d like to see remade.  Final Fantasy VII is a title that keeps popping up in the discussion, and there are many out there who wish to see the classic PlayStation RPG remade.

Square have never really given a definitive answer fan requests for Final Fantasy VII to be remade, but in an interview with OXM, Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase said remaking the older titles in the series would take too long and cost too much. Meanwhile, Kitase also states that making Final Fantasy XIII-2 in a relatively short space of time is possible because its technology is so similar to Final Fantasy XIII.

“In the transition between XIII to XIII-2, it was quite easy because obviously we kept all the data and the engine – we had just finished using them so it was almost like they hadn’t gone cold. The technology was already warm and ready to use, so it was quite good.” Kitase told OXM.

Also within the team, we still had a feel for the game, it was still new to us, still lingering with us, so we were ready to move on to the sequel.” he added

Kitase says that it’d be a challenge to work on a past Final Fantasy title not only because it’d need a huge graphic overhaul, but also because the game worlds were bigger.

“But if we were to take one of the past Final Fantasy titles and make a sequel to it, I think that would be a lot more challenging because when they were on PlayStation and PlayStation 2 their actual game volume was a lot bigger, kind of.” said the Final Fantasy XIII producer.

“Graphically they weren’t as advanced as they are now, but there were lots of towns and worlds and cities and whatever.” he continued.

“So if we were to recreate the same kind of game – sequel or not – with the same volume, but give it a much higher level of graphical quality, it would us take three times, four times, even ten times longer to make such a game. So making a sequel for an old game would be a lot more challenging.” Kitase concluded.

As previously reported by the Train2Game blog, Final Fantasy XIII-2 was announced earlier this year and marks only the send direct sequel in the series. It’s scheduled for release on 3rd February 2012.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on Kitase’s comments about not being able to remake older Final Fantasy titles? Does the acknowledgement that older game worlds were bigger suggest style over substance with current gen Final Fantasy titles?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: OXM]

Final Fantasy XIII-2 announced

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Final Fantasy XIII-2 Train2Game blog image

Here’s something that Train2Game students may not have expected; Square Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy XIII-2 is in development.

The announcement was made during Square Enix’s 1st Production Department Premier event in Japan by Director of Final Fantasy XIII – and the new sequel – Motomu Toriyama. A short trailer showed protagonist Lightning battling with an unknown character with purple hair. It’ll be available online in a few days.

The announcement marks Square Enix’s second attempt at developing a direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game.  The only previous direct follow up to any game in the series long running history was Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is scheduled for release in Japan before the end of this year and will reach Europe “next winter”

If any Train2Game students can read Japanese, they can check out the official Square Enix website for Final Fantasy XIII-2 here. The rest of us may have to wait a little longer for more information.

During the same press conference, Square Enix also announced upcoming Final Fantasy Agito XIII for the PSP has been renamed ‘Final Fantasy Type-0’. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy Versus XIII still looks like it’ll be a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

Update: the first screenshot has also arrived, which you can see courtesy of Famitsu below.

Train2Game blog Final Fantasy XII-2 screenshot

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the newly announced Final Fantasy XIII-2? Did you enjoy the original? If so are you excited about Final Fantasy XIII-2? Or did you feel let down by Final Fantasy XIII last year?

As usual, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

[Source: CVG]

Update: the first screenshot has also arrived, which you can see courtesey of Famitsu below.

Square Enix reveal Tomb Raider series reboot

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GameInformer Lara Croft

Train2Game students will recognise her as one of the most iconic characters in gaming, but Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series are getting a reboot.

Square Enix has announced that the new game will simply be known as Tomb Raider – Yes, that’s the same title as the original that some Train2Game students will remember playing in 1996 – and it’ll be produced by game development studio Crystal Dynamics.

Game Informer has exclusively revealed the ‘young and inexperienced’ Lara Croft’s new look on its latest cover. The magazine has also revealed a snippet of what Train2Game students can expect from the Tomb Raider reboot:

“In our world-exclusive cover story, we uncover a brand-new Lara Croft. Rebooting the Tomb Raider franchise through an origin story wasn’t so much a choice as an act of necessity, according to Crystal Dynamics. Drastic measures were needed. To build an entirely fresh Lara – a culturally relevant hero worth of the attention that once came so effortlessly – they must break her first. In this new adventure – simply titled Tomb Raider – a younger and inexperienced Lara Croft must endure both physical and emotional trauma to survive.”

“Forget everything you knew about Tomb Raider,” said Crystal Dynamics studio head, Darrell Gallagher.

“This is an origins story that creates Lara Croft and takes her on a character defining journey like no other.”

As of yet there’s no information about what gaming platforms the Tomb Raider reboot will be on or any news about a potential release date.  However, Train2Game students will be able to get more details in the January edition of Game Informer which is out on December 11th.

So Train2Game, what do you think about Lara Croft’s new look and the concept behind the series reboot? Is Tomb Raider still relevant? And if you could use the skills you’re developing with Train2Game to help reboot one game series, which would it be?

Let us know here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Square Enix show even struggling developers can become hugely successful

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Square Enix must be a very happy publisher. Why? Only because their sales increased by 41.7% in the fiscal year ending in March 2010 compared to 2008-2009. The Japanese giant’s sales total for the 12 month period came to £1.5 billion, or 192.3 billion yen if you think that sounds more impressive.

Of course, the release of Final Fantasy XIII – the first game in the series for current generation of consoles – was a huge boost for Square Enix as millions of copies have been sold worldwide and it’s still performing strongly in the charts. The companies’ acquisition of British publisher Eidos last year also means that Square Enix will have taken a slice of the profits from the hugely successful Batman: Arkham Asylum along with a number of other titles.

So, 2009-2010 was a highly successful year for Square Enix, who with the Final Fantasy series have a history of well selling, successful games. However, things weren’t always so rosy for Square – as the developer was known before the merger with Enix in 2003.

Back in 1987 Square was still a small developer and despite some moderate success with previous titles, the company was flirting with bankruptcy.  They thought the game they had in production would be their last, so they called it Final Fantasy. Fortunately for Square this ‘Final’ Fantasy was a massive it and went onto spawn one of the biggest franchises in gaming – big enough to help contribute to making £1.5 billion!

Train2Game students can definitely take something from this tale. After all, the games industry can be a tough environment to forge a career in – just travel back in time and ask someone from Square Enix circa 1987! But perseverance is the key, keep pushing and keep doing the right things and it’s possible to overcome even the most daunting barriers. Do you think you can help produce the next massive franchise? Does your current project have that potential? Let us know.