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Train2Game News: Heavy Metal comic book game

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Eternal DescentLondon-based PLA Studios, have created a mobile game which sees Heavy Metal music and comics join together.

Eternal Descent: Heavy Metal Heroes is the brainchild of British guitarist and comic creator Llexi Leon. Llexi is the guitarist of the band Eternal Descent that the game and comics are based on.

Eternal Descent: Heavy Metal Heroes is an action-packed 3D scrolling endless brawler. Carve a path through hordes of daemonic minions and fight your way to Hell – all to a killer soundtrack. Set in a fantasy universe where lost souls lurk in every shadow and darkness veils sinister designs, heavy metal could be the key to salvation… or the gateway to destruction!

In addition to a cast of original characters, the game will feature appearances and original performances from Joe Satriani, Arch Enemy, Wayne Static, Periphery, Andrew W.K., and many more rock/metal music acts appearing through regular updates. Numerous real-world instrument brands such as ESP, Jackson and Dean Guitars have endorsed Eternal Descent: Heavy Metal Heroes, allowing the game to accurately portray cameo musicians with their signature instruments for real shred guitar action.

Eternal Descent: Heavy Metal Heroes will be available in July on iTunes for £1.99, with a series of updates and expansions planned throughout the year. Android, PC and home console versions of Eternal Descent: Heavy Metal Heroes are planned throughout 2014.

Llexi Leon is not the first person to go from music to comic book writing. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance has written a couple of comics and Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Stone Sour has also started his own series.

Llexi is the first musician to have his comic developed in to a game however and I am incredibly interested to see how this game turns out.

To find out more about the game, band or comic, visit http://www.eternaldescent.com/

Train2Game News: Over 1,600 developers attending Develop Conference

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DevelopOn Tuesday 9 July, any Train2Game students lucky enough to attend the eight annual Develop Conference in Brighton will have the chance to interact with over 1,600 developers.

The three day conference will host over 90 sessions covering the whole spectrum of games development. 120 speakers will debate the biggest issues and trends in the industry, from Neil Brown’s session on PlayStation 4, to developments in touch-screen technology, discussions about Kickstarter and funding, global markets and even a session on cyber-psychology.

Lee Schuneman, studio head at Microsoft Lift London, will open the Evolve Conference on Tuesday before Mark Cerny, president of Cerny Games, will give the Develop Conference opening keynote entitled Changing the Game: Developing into the Next Generation. In total, there are nine tracks and seven keynotes over the three days.

Outside the conference, Develop will be hosting its biggest expo yet. Attendees can meet some of the biggest names in the industry including Dolby, Microsoft, Sony Computer Entertainment, Unity, Unreal Engine and Valve, as well as discovering some of the newest talent in the Develop Conference Indie Showcase.

Centrally located within the expo, the Indie Showcase highlights ten unpublished, independently-developed games selected by a judging panel of industry experts. Delegates have the chance to get hands on with the games and vote for their favourite through the People’s Choice vote.

“With only a week to go, we’re delighted with both the quantity and high quality of content we are offering our delegates,” commented Andy Lane, managing director of Tandem Events. “We’re lucky to have some fantastic keynotes and great sessions, which will offer invaluable information for every type of developer – from the smallest indies to established studios. I’m really looking forward to welcoming everyone down to Brighton next week.”

Full information on the conference sessions and speakers together with who is exhibiting at the expo can all be found on the new mobile event app, sponsored by Microsoft, or you can find the information on www.developconference.com.

Train2Game News: Xbox360 Ultimate Game Sale!

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Xbox 360Train2Game students with an Xbox360 will be happy to hear that they have a great game sale this month!

On Xbox360 today you can pick up Borderlands 2, Assassin’s Creed 3, Far Cry 3 and Max Payne 3 for just £8.99 each which is incredible value for some of the last years biggest games. There’s a range of offers which last all week too including Bulletstorm, Crysis and the first Mass Effect.

Some of the games offered over the week are as follows:

  • Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway – £4.49
  • Far Cry Instincts: Predator – £4.49
  • Crysis – £4.49
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – £4.49
  • WWE 13 – £13.99
  • Mass Effect – £4.49
  • Prey – £2.69
  • Bulletstorm – £4.49
  • Dragon Age: Origins – £4.49
  • Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga – £14.99

This month will also see a new free game offered by Microsoft in there lead up to the launch of the Xbox One. If you are an Xbox Gold member, you can pick up XBLA tower defence game, Defence Grid: The Awakening for free instead of its normal 800msp price tag, saving yourself £6.80.

The game will be available until July 15 when a different game will be free to download.

Offers will change every day in the sale over the next week so make sure you keep checking back to see what is on offer, you could pick up that game you’ve been wanting for a low, low price.

Train2Game News: SpecialEffect needs the help of Train2Game students with Steam initiative

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Team Fortress 2 SpecialEffectSpecialEffect is asking for the help of Train2Game students who use Valve’s Steam system! The charity who provide video gaming equipment to people with disabilities need your votes.

A few select artists from the Steam community have created SpecialEffect themed items for the game Team Fortress 2 and with your votes they can be in game this summer! The items that have been designer are: a viewfinder, cabinet and belt pack. 99% of the profits from these items will go to help disabled players enjoy games to the best of their abilities thanks to the work done by SpecialEffect.

This idea is the brainchild of James Schall, SEGA’s Director of Digital Distribution.

“Demand for SpecialEffect‘s help is rocketing,” said James. “And I’m excited about the potential of these generous artwork donations to kickstart a big-hearted response from the TF2 community to help meet that demand.”

“It’s a fantastic gesture,” said charity CEO Mick Donegan. “Gamers get what we’re trying to do, and to get that support from artists within the community is a real endorsement of our work.”

“We need £750k this year to give people a fighting chance through specialised games control equipment. We’re bringing this technology directly into the homes and hospitals of the people who need it most, and transforming the lives of people with the most severe disabilities through cutting-edge equipment like eye control and brain control.”

You can vote for the items to be in Team Fortress 2 by going to the link below:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=156361911

You can also find the items from within Steam itself by selecting Workshops from the Community menu. Hit the link in the grey text below the main ‘Create, Discover…’ heading, and on the next page type ‘special effect’ in the search box (note the space between the two words!). Then hit the Rate button.

If you would like to check out the pages of the artists who created the items for SpecialEffect you can view them in the links below:

Psyke

Svdl

*ﾟ✲*｡✧*☆Twilight Sparkle☆*✧｡*✲ﾟ*

void~

Train2Game News: UK Top 20 Games – 01.07.13

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The Last Of UsSony and Naughty Dog’s PS3 exclusive The Last Of Us remains at number one for a third consecutive week and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 edition of Minecraft debuts at number two. There area further 3 new entries within the Top 10 this week: debuting at number five is EA’s ‘The Sims 3: Island Paradise’, the 10th PC Expansion Pack in the series and the second this year, after ‘The Sims 3: University Life’ back in week ten.  Right behind and new at number six is Activision/Blizzard’s Marvel Comics ‘Deadpool’ for 360/PS3 (No one tell Deadpool he isn’t number one!) and completing the new releases is Sega’s ‘Company of Heroes 2’ on PC, new at number ten

All formats

Week ending 29 June 2013

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – THE LAST OF US SONY COMPUTER ENT. 1
2 MINECRAFT: XBOX 360 EDITION MICROSOFT –
3 ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW LEAF NINTENDO 2
4 FIFA 13 EA SPORTS 3
5 THE SIMS 3: ISLAND PARADISE EA GAMES –
6 DEADPOOL ACTIVISION –
7 TOMB RAIDER SQUARE ENIX 4
8 CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II ACTIVISION 6
9 – ASSASSIN’S CREED III XBOX 360 CLASSICS 9
10 COMPANY OF HEROES 2 SEGA –
11 INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 8
12 FAR CRY 3 UBISOFT 7
13 LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE 12
14 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED EA GAMES 18
15 LUIGI’S MANSION 2 NINTENDO 11
16 THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM – LEGENDARY BETHESDA SOFTWORKS 13
17 GRID 2 CODEMASTERS 10
18 DEAD ISLAND: RIPTIDE DEEP SILVER 14
19 ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES SEGA –
20 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV XBOX 360 CLASSICS 16
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2013 UKIE Ltd

These charts cannot be reproduced either in print or online without obtaining permission from Ukie. If you wish to reproduce the charts in print or online, please contact david.smith@ukie.org.uk for the appropriate license.

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Domm Young

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Domm YoungI got the pleasure of talking to Domm Young who is Icey Montys new developer. You can hear how Domm started coding and how he got involved with Icey Monty.

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1475212-train2game-radio-talks-to-student-domm-young

Or read the transcript below:

Hi I’m Domm Young, I live in Portsmouth and I’m on the Developer course with Train2Game.

Hiya Domm, how you doing mate?

I’m not bad thank you. Yourself?

I’m alright cheers bud. So tell me a bit about yourself then?

I came out of college when I was 19. I’ve always wanted to be a Developer. I worked on a lot of stuff during my college time. I did Visual Basic to start with, it’s not the language I had in mind but it’s the only one they taught there at the time. From then onwards I’ve just been doing jobs that I didn’t really want to do and in my own time I’ve just been working on my own thing, but about a year ago or so I decided to join the Train2Game course because I needed a little bit more structure and discipline in my learning and that’s basically what’s brought me to here, really.

What started off your want for coding and stuff like that?

It was basically all down to the fact that when I was younger and playing games and stuff, I always thought it would be cool to implement my own things and I always had an imaginative way of thinking. So when it come to the PC I started playing a game called Vice City at the time, I’m sure everyone knows that!

Indeed.

There was stuff you could do by changing some of the scripts like replacing some of the models in the game but you could also add predefined scripts that were already done, you could put them in to the game and see how they worked. I thought that was pretty cool. From then onwards it was just basically researching and seeing how that all worked.

So were you doing a lot of Game Mods and stuff like that during your college years?

A little bit. When I started learning Visual Basic I thought, I’m going to be learning Visual Basic through the three years I’m at college I might as well get comfortable with using that. Obviously it got constraints when it comes to making games like the fact you can’t, you know, it misses an API basically. I was playing around with that and making little games on screen. When I left college, I started learning C++ as a full time thing and then obviously I found out that the Train2Game course also teaches C++ so it works out really well.

Now you’re with Train2Game you said you were working on other projects. What are you working on now?

I joined a company called Icey Monty. I found Nick on the Train2Game forum and then through Nick I met John. Within that company we do a lot of client work, primarily, that’s mainly our focus. We put our clients first and then we work on our own thing during the evenings or at weekends. Most of the time it’s just ideas we throw about, we get together in a call, we write a few documents and then we see if we can implement it and then if it actually works out, we’ll go ahead and do it. If it seems like it’s going to be boring or it’s not going to work out we decide not to bother with it any more. We’ve got a few projects we are playing around with it at the moment, one being a sort of racing game where you start off and you’ve got to see how far you can get whilst being obstructed by various types of Zombies, it’s just an idea we are throwing out there but at the moment it’s all in the works.

Yeah. So is it a few time job for you now working with Icey Monty?

It is now, yeah. I worked in retail, prior and then I got the chance to join Icey Monty, doing something I really like doing and no one would turn that down.

That’s gotta be a bit of a relief hasn’t it!

Yeah exactly. I’ve been working in jobs I hate for most of my life, since I left college. I’ve worked in stuff like Warehouses and Call Centers and Retail and all that sort of stuff. As soon as I heard Icey Monty were interviewing, I inquired more about it and managed to get hooked up with an interview, that’s where I met John, and it happened straight away. He asked within a couple of days if I wanted to start and I handed in my notice at work.

Excellent. So what was it you think they liked about you so much then?

It was more the drive. I didn’t care how much it was more the fact I wanted to do what I like doing and that’s all I really cared about. As soon as Nick told me they were looking for someone to be a developer for them, he told me what they were using like Unity and C# and stuff. Straight away I started getting straight on to it, started learning Unity, obviously told him about it and both of them were quite shocked about the drive that I had. So I think that played a big part in the reason why I got the job.

Excellent so with this full time job then you can pay the bills alright then?

Yeah, it’s fine. I am happy as long as I can make ends meet and do what I love doing really.

You sound like you’ve got a real love of all things code.

Yeah, that’s right, yeah. Like I said, it’s the only thing I ever wanted to do and I’m sure it’s the only thing I’ll ever want to do.

Excellent. So what are your ambitions to move on to or go forward to in the future?

Icey Monty is my first ever game industry job, working with programmers full time so I hope to stick with those guys. Working with John and Nick is really laid back, you couldn’t ask for a better set of managers to be honest with you.

Excellent! So I think that’s all we’ve got time for today Domm. So thank you very much for your time.

Not a problem at all. Thanks for having me!

My pleasure.

Train2Game News: roll7 are hiring!!

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OlliOlliroll7 are hiring and Train2Game Students have first opportunity at the positions available.

roll7 are a small indie games developer in New Cross, London. They have previously worked on titles such as the upcoming skate game for PS Vita – OlliOlli, Mobile Adventure game – Get to the exit and Focus Pocus – which was developed to help change the behavior of some seven to thirteen year olds.

They are doing testing of one of their upcoming Indie titles and they need Testers ASAP!

– Testers are needed for individual slots of 4 hours

– Testers need to be gamers and ideally own a PS Vita

– Testers need to be able to get to our offices in New Cross

– Testing will be in the form of a game play though, no repetitive gaming or bug searching!

AND YES YOU GET PAID!!!

This would serve as a great addition to the CV for anyone looking to get into the games industry.

Slots are open from July 3 until Mid-August and are set at 10-2 / 2-6 / 6-10

Simon Bennett, who works in production at roll7 said that good work on these titles could lead to even more opportunities for the right person.

If you want to take part, please contact simon@roll7.co.uk

Train2Game News: Train2Game Radio talks to Tarnya Smith

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Tarnya SmithI got the pleasure of talking to Train2Game student, Tarnya Smith, who already has a years experience in the games industry after leaving university and she now works at Distinctive Games who have just released the popular Rugby Nations ’13. You can find out what she has worked on and how she got to where she is now in the interview.

You can listen to the interview here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/1473120-train2game-student-radio-talks-to-tarnya-smith

Or read the transcript below

My name’s Tarnya Smith, I live in Sheffield and I’m doing the Designer course.

Hiya Tarnya, how you doing?

I’m good thank you, how are you?

I’m alright thank you very muchly. So tell me a bit about yourself then?

I started off playing games when I was a kid, with my brother, that’s how I got in to it. I did creative kind of stuff through university and things like that and when I finished university last year I was given the chance to work as a tester for Sega in London, so I kinda took that with both hands and that’s where it started really. Then I got the opportunity to come up to Sheffield, up here, to work for Sumo, which was doing the Sonic game at the time and I got a job here at Distinctive, as a tester as well, and I moved up here permanently because I was living in London at the time.

You’ve had quite a wealth of experience already then?

Yeah, I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had a years experience straight off the bat, which is quite hard to come by but I work hard so I think that shows and I’ve always wanted to do, creative stuff. I didn’t really want to go back to university because I didn’t really enjoy it the first time around and I’ve always wanted to be a games designer so I thought I would do the Train2Game thing and see how that went.

Did you finish your university course then or did you just think that’s enough once you got the job opportunities?

No I finished, I finished back in May, but the testing job came straight up. I got given that at the end of July so I went straight into that after university.

Is that one you applied for or did they come and seek you out?

No, I know quite a lot of friends who work there and I never really thought about it before but then they started taking on a big bunch of testers so I went for it and got the job.

Very nice. What Sonic game was it you worked on?

Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed.

Oh was it? I do like that game, it is fun!

Well I’m glad because we worked hard on it! Yeah I really enjoyed working on it, it was great fun and I still play it from time to time.

Excellent. It does certainly have replayability a lot.

Oh god yeah!

So, you said you’re at Distinctive Games now. What are you working on there?

We’ve just completed the Rugby Nations ’13 that’s just come out. At the minute I’m just working on patches for old games that need updating for the new iOS and so on, but there are some projects coming out in the future that obviously, I can’t talk about but there good, I’m enjoying it.

Excellent, so are you a fan of Rugby then or is that just something you ended up working on anyway?

I was actually a big fan. I used to live near Twickenham, so I used to go to Twickenham Stadium when I got the chance but I’m not really a big fan of Sports all round but it’s fine!

Just what ever you can get your hands on really?

Yeah pretty much, it’s all good!

Are you a tester at Distinctive now?

Yeah, I’m a tester, yeah.

So do you think they’ll be an opportunity for you to move up to a designer instead soon?

Well I hope so, at some point.

Is that the main aim? I assume

Well, I’m quite happy to be a tester for a while, it’s not that it’s a problem but obviously my aim long term is to be a designer somewhere. So if I can get in here that’ll be awesome but you know, where ever life takes you.

You seem very relaxed with it all

Yeah, I just think I’m really lucky to get into something I’m really passionate about so I am just enjoying whatever I can get out of it, I’m not going to start stressing that I’m not getting the job I want straight away because that never happens.

That is a very good attitude to have

Yeah, so I am enjoying it and I am just going to try and enjoy it for as long as possible.

Excellent. So it sounds like you’ve had quite a good life already then!

I just think, the last year or so, I’ve been quite lucky and I’ve got to know some people that know people. It’s who you are that opens paths for you. I’ve been in the community a few years now and you do get to know people.

Perfect, well I think that’s all we’ve got time for today

Awesome.

So thanks very much for talking to us!

You’re very welcome!

Train2Game News: Deadpool launches

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DeadpoolThe brand new Deadpool game launches tomorrow in the UK and this is what the Maniac, Merc with a Mouth had to say about it.

Mission accomplished! I, Deadpool, have created the ultimate Deadpool video game masterpiece! I call it…wait for it…DEADPOOL! It’s pretty much the greatest thing I’ve made (besides my ill-fated root beer float hot tub incident of ’93) and is available now in popular retail establishments and most major chimichangerias (like a taqueria…but with chimichangas!) across the UK. Oh yeah, and those video gamey and comics guys at High Moon Studios, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc and Marvel Entertainment kind of helped, too.

“I’ll never forget the day I threatened convinced Peter Della Penna, the head of High Moon Studios, to make a kick-ass, third-person comic book video game with extreme combat and bikini-exploding action, starring me,” said Deadpool, Big Chief and Head Honcho of Things & Stuff regarding DEADPOOL at High Moon Studios. “Peter looked me lovingly in the eyes and said in return, ‘Deadpool, I’ll do whatever you want; just please stop filling up my kitchen with pancakes!’ It was that first moment where I really felt like Peter and I had a connection – an understanding that has stuck with me to this very day. Coincidentally, his family dog stuck with me too, you know…for leverage.”

Fans can rest assured that the first order of business while making DEADPOOL was purchasing a life-size replica statue of me for High Moon Studios, so that my outstanding team of talented, dedicated nerd types could gaze endlessly at it in order to make the digital me look as good as real-life me. I also instructed them in the art of building a fast, fluid combat system that mixes all my upgradable bang-bangs with my mad kung-fu-chop saki skills and mutant abilities, so the Deadpool in DEADPOOL (i.e. that’s me…heh…), is a one-stop wrecking machine, perfect for stealth and balls-out explosive frontal assaults alike.  Forget walking away from explosions in slow motion – I jump right into them to see how hot they are…REGENERATIVE HEALING FACTOR, baby!

I also filled a windowless room with terrifying spiders and locked…er…hired veteran Deadpool writer Daniel Way and provided him with really, just a stupid amount of spiders a “package” to convince him to pen a script that would befit Marvel’s most lovable character’s debut as a leading man. DEADPOOL is the rare game that plays with you while you play with it, delivering a $#!t ton (it’s just a better system of measurement, people – I can’t stress that enough) of fourth-wall-eviscerating humour voiced brilliantly by yours truly, doing a bang-up imitation of what it would be like if a young up-and-comer I discovered named Nolan North were trying to sound like me (Got that?…).

I am currently available and accepting dating offers – please send full-body shots. In other news, my DEADPOOL video game is also now available for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and on Windows PC. If you’re not into hard, packaged goods, the digital me is also available for digital download (Did you think I wouldn’t diversify my distribution network?  In this economy? Newbs!) on the PlayStation Network for the PS3 and Steam. I will also be available later this summer on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360. And of course, I…DEADPOOL, am rated PEGI 18! Because if there’s one word that describes Deadpool, it’s “mature.” Want more information? Well, let your fingers inappropriately caress your keyboard over to www.DeadpoolGame.com, or follow along at www.facebook.com/RealDeadpool or on Twitter @RealDeadpool.

You can enjoy my AMAZING trailer, lovingly crafted by yours truly, below!

Train2Game News: Cat Forsyth makes her mark on Big Brother

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Cat ForsythOn Big Brother tonight you will get to see the artistic skills of Train2Game student, Cat Forsyth, who has helped turned people into Zombies for the show.

This series of Big Brother started almost two weeks ago and this week has seen the house mates in quarantine for the weekly shopping task.

If the house-mates thought the morning wake up alarm they normally get was bad, they sure were in for a shock as this morning they had zombies banging on the bedroom windows.

They were hastily gathered in the living room and played an emergency news bulletin showing  the virus wreaking havoc on the Big Brother studios, before green smoke poured from the ceiling indicating the virus had hit the House.

With only six gas masks between them they had to decide who would get one and they chose Hazel, Charlie, Wolfy, Joe, Daley and Callum. The rest became infected and were sent to quarantine (the large task room).

In order to return to the House those in quarantine must be cured through ‘treatments’ or remain until the end of the task. Those who are virus free need to cure them so they can help in the task and earn luxury shopping items.

The quarantined house-mates will only be fed liquid food, be sprayed down by the other house-mates from time to time and have to crawl through a tunnel if they want a cigarette break.

The “Zombies” make up was applied by Train2Game Art & Animation student, Cat Forsyth and the company she works for, Silent Studios. She has been using her Art skills to make these people very “Un-life” like and utterly terrifying, you can enjoy Cat’s handy work below.

Cat Zombie BBBe sure to tune in to Big Brother tonight on Channel 5 at 10pm to see the horrific action unfold!