Tag Archives: UK Games Industry

Train2Game News: Raspberry Pi comes home

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The UK designed bare bones mini computer, Raspberry Pi, is now being manufactured in a Sony factory in South Wales.

The Raspberry Pi was created to get young people and potential games developers interested in programming and computing. Its affordable price and versatility make it an excellent teaching tool.

The device was previously made in China to keep costs down. As of mid August it is now put together in the United Kingdom. The credit card sized computers now come with a “Made in the UK” stamp, located next to the power supply.

Since its launch in April the device has been highly popular and is estimated to sell over a million products by the end of this year.

Eben Upton, a co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, said “When Pete Lomas and I built the first Raspberry Pi’s for testing last year, we never dreamed it would become so popular so quickly,”

“The Raspberry Pi was built to develop young people’s skills in computer programming and electronic engineering; we had always intended and hoped that the Raspberry Pi would also be manufactured within the UK.”

“By bringing the production of a UK product back into the country alongside its development and distribution, we can help support our economy and demonstrate the capabilities the UK has in terms of technological innovation, invention, and manufacturing.”

Mike Buffham, global head of EDE at Premier Farnell, who distribute Raspberry Pi, added: “Since the Raspberry Pi was launched globally in February 2012 it has been a tremendous success story.”
“As such we have had huge interest from educational institutions in purchasing the product, innovative design engineers who are using the computer for exciting new applications and also the general public.”

Train2Game News Will Everything Everywhere 4G change gaming?

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Ofcom has approved an application by the mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere (EE) to use its existing 1800 MHz spectrum to deliver 4G services.1

Following a consultation, Ofcom has concluded that varying EE’s 1800 MHz licences now will deliver significant benefits to consumers, and that there is no material risk that those benefits will be outweighed by a distortion of competition.2 Delaying doing so would therefore be to the detriment of consumers.

The decision takes account of the forthcoming release of additional spectrum in the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands, in an auction process set to begin later this year, which will enable other operators to launch competing 4G services from next year.3

In parallel with this decision, Ofcom has now issued varied licences to EE which authorise LTE services from 11 September 2012. This means that EE can launch LTE services using its 1800 MHz spectrum at any point from that date, although the precise timing of any launch is a commercial decision for Everything Everywhere.

With no handsets available, early adopter prices likely to be HIGH will this help the gaming industry?

www,train2game.com

Train2Game Student Diaries Ezekiel Morris Week 11

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Jonny and Ben had a leaving do on Friday so went out with them for a drink.

At work we had a meeting talking about the characters and texture for the characters in our new project, commonly the characters are bill boarded. We also discussed the characters having eyes instead of no eyes which I thought that was the style we were going for so change of plan. So that will be my next task to do sketching up character eyes

Conveniently I’m getting use to using Maya  but I still prefer 3ds Max  but people do say Maya is best  for animation, if it does the job and it works for the game engine  then go for it, particularly it’s straight forward with 3ds Max but it’s still good to learn other programs as well.

The programs I’m learning are Unity and Maya and I’m getting better every time I use them. This week I’ve been animating so there’s hasn’t  be anything different from the last task, since doing this work placement I’ve learned so much,  it’s starts off complicated  for a while and then you get used to the work system, now it’s as easy as pie.

www.train2game.com

 

Train2Game Student Diaries Ben Collings 16 – 27 July

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Monday 16th July 2012 – So turns out what I was trying to do with the extra detail just wasn’t needed in the end so I was able to quickly add it into all the levels done up till now.  Just need the lead designer to implement all the changes and make sure there’s nothing wrong.  There shouldn’t be but you never know when exporting to FBX, miss one little tick box and it can all go to hell!

Unfortunately the lead designer was busy with other tasks today so to avoid me twiddling my thumbs I was moved onto the same project Rod had been moved onto the other week.

Tuesday 17th July 2012 – Spent the day drawing up concepts for scenery items, that and trying to get to grips with the visual style of the game.

Wednesday 18th July 2012  – More concepting done today, working hard towards getting a game pitch document done.  Exciting times.

Thursday 19th July 2012 – I’ve got a four day weekend starting tomorrow so had to work extra hard to get all my components drawn up today, got it done and the pitch document went down well.

Friday 20th July & Monday 23rd July – Day off.

Tuesday 24th July – More concepting work, drawing scenery items till the cows come home it seems.

Wednesday 25th July – More concepting but not any scenery items this time, today was accessories!  Don’t think I’ve ever spent so long just doodling random items!

Thursday 26th July – Had to make some final little tweaks to the levels I’d been working on for the previous game.  Ended up taking up most of the day fixing them just lots of little tweaks, making sure things weren’t too close to each other and other similar tasks.

Friday 27th July – My final day of work experience.  It’s been a blast I’ve learnt a lot and I’ve even got my name into a couple of games!

www.train2game.com

Train2Game teams with Microsoft to set game jam world record

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The Guinness Book of World Records (for largest game jam in a single location) to be set at event organised by Microsoft and Train2Game

Luton, 01 August 2012: Microsoft Corp. will collaborate with online blended learning service Train2Game to set the world record for the largest game jam held in a single location, at the Microsoft and Train2Game Gameathon 2012.

Students on Train2Game courses will gather at the University of Bedfordshire from 14th September to 16th September 2012, forming development teams and creating Metro style videogames for Windows 8 in 48 hours. The world record will be set with a target of 301 or more participants. Representatives from The Guinness Book of World Records will adjudicate the event.

Microsoft experts will be on hand and the contestants will use Windows 8 software. Games completed during the record attempt deemed suitable for release will be available through the Windows Store. A judging process will take place with gaming industry representatives choosing a best game of the show.

“We’re teaming with Train2Game not only to set a world record, but also to support gaming development in the UK,” said John Richards, senior director, Windows Partners and Developers at Microsoft Corp.  “We’re working with the students developing for Windows 8, as they are the future of the industry.”

Myra Smallman, Course Director, Train2Game: “This is a tremendous opportunity for our students to work with one of the most respected technology companies in the world. Microsoft is a major player in the video games industry globally and being part of this relationship will be incredibly positive for Train2Game students when they look for employment in the future. The students taking part will also be world record holders, a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Train2Game Student Diaries James Bouckley EMPLOYED BY UNITY!

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Train2game student James Bouckley has been on the T2G Work Placement scheme and has now found FULL TIME EMPLOYMENT – Well Done James!!!

James picks up the story:

Week 20 w/e 20/7/12

Why leave the good news until the end, I got a full time job at Unity!

This means my diary entries will be coming to a close soon but I’ll keep anyone who reads them updated until the end.  So apart from the amazing news had a fairly good week in terms of work done too.

In the game there was a bug where if all the spawn points for the enemies were on the camera at once then it threw and exception.  I fixed this by, if all of them were on the screen at once, the enemies spawn from the one furthest from the player.

Previously we had a system where power packs needed to be put on a dispensing machine whilst you fought off enemies.  When the energy of the machine was full it would dispense items.  I’ve changed it now so that instead there are waves of enemies and the last one you kill dispenses items.  There was also a fairly major memory leak in the script that made items between you and the camera invisible which I have now fixed and also made it so that multiple things at once can become invisible.

Aside from the game Graham has asked me to write a beginners guide to asset bundles.  I finished the first draft on Friday but I am yet to hear people’s opinions on it.

To sum up: new job! YES!

www.train2game.com

Train2Game Student Diaries Jonny Robinson Diary 27 July

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This is my last diary; on average I think I must have written about 10,400 words which is stupidly crazy. With DR Studios playing such a vital role in my career path, what can I really say to my colleagues, mentors and even friends besides the stereotypical crap of thank you…To me a thank you isn’t enough, it needs to have more worth than that. As selfish as this sounds my only true way to repay their wisdom is to teach people what I know, and make successful games along the way.

But I’m going to say it anyway thank you, thank you and thank you for helping me gain respect in being happy at work. I used to hate all of my previous jobs with a passion as I always felt like an outcast in the group, the dreamer, the lad who lived in his head and a guy who ranted on Youtube. If it wasn’t for any of those things, I wouldn’t be here today. I left school with terrible grades but this didn’t stop me one bit, I retook all of my modules, did online learning in my spare time whilst working full-time. I have slapped haters in the face with hard work and persevered with pure determination to make it into the game industry

Since being here I have attended Develop twice, once as a representative of Train2Game/DRS and the other was with Epic Games. I have won 48 hour game jams; I was the leader of the winning team of the Make Something Unreal Live 2012 winning the Unreal 3 licence. I have also got my name on at least 4 games and I have done it all with a smile on my face. Now do I think it will be easy out there in the cold and harsh world without DRS holding my hand; of course not but that hasn’t stopped me before and it won’t stop me now!

What would my advice be to anyone trying to make it into the game industry, just don’t ever stop dreaming and working hard to make your dream a reality and of course join Train2Game 🙂

So, with this being my final DR Studios diary I want to say to anyone who has followed my year long journey into the game industry, thank you and I will catch you on the flip side.

Here is my Portfolio www.jonnyrobinson.co.uk

and my Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ironcore1

if you want to keep in touch or just ask for some advice!

This is Jonny saying goodbye just for now

www.train2game.com

Train2Game Student Diaries Ezekiel Morris weeks 9 and 10

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Ezekiel Morris week 9

Working on a new project so it has been a busy week, we have till Wednesday to get this pitch document done in time so my task was to finish  off  five characters  in 3 days.

I ending up having to stay late with the guys who were collaborating on the project,  we discuss  about the art style to go forward, lucky enough  in my spare time  I  have done quick thumb nails sketches  at weekend then the guy at studio can decide which thumb nails are we going with.

So the first part was easy now  the next part was to  get  some feedback, the guys were loving the characters, I was copying the same art style from the original concept that rod had drawn.

Rod  is in charge of  art style  for this project, he’s shown me some tips  in Photoshop that can be handy to use to speed up my workflow, Anyway I was burning these characters so fast  if there  needs to be any changes I can then  go back to them later.

Staying late working till 10:00 but some Chinese food takeway on the side it’s all good baby.

 

Ezekiel Morris week 10

Previously this week I have been renaming layers in Photoshop. Didn’t get the chance to rename the layers as the art assets for this pitch document has to be done in the week .

The pitch document is finished and the next step is the production stage. My schedules were to create more characters and begin animating them, that would be my job and for the other artist  doing asset building etc.

So as I‘m the character artist on the project the scenario is this ,animate the characters using  Maya, separate  the character’s body parts  in Photoshop then go into 3d max open the PSD or Targa file and  then apply the texture on plane mesh using the cut tool to cut out the shapes.

Now I might have to learn Maya considering I haven’t had any experience in Maya before  so I’m working closely with Matty  who has an understanding on how to use Maya. Using Maya is not that bad, it’s just like using 3d max in  a way but the setup is a bit different just show me the tools and I will know what to do, alternatively unity 3d doesn’t support some of export settings when exporting  from 3d max, looks like maya is the way to go bro.

www.train2game.com

Train2Game Student Diaries Matty Wyett Simmonds weeks 33 to 35

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Week 33

So as My Sea Park is now out and getting updates constantly with upped level caps and more items to get, we have been working on a new project, similar in a few ways but completely different in many. It will definitely be an interesting process, as we aren’t using the same game engine anymore, which means none of the Sea Park stuff is reusable! I’m sure the T2G students will enjoy this when it’s out in the open.

I’ve been kept busy with setting up a pipeline and making things workable, it’s been a hard process but the payoff seems worth it.

Not long left for two of the students here, as they will be leaving soon, making us down by one designer and one artist. The new artist has started recently though (staff not student) and he’s been great so far, learning a lot from him already! And it’s nice to have a definite person in charge of art now, as it’s giving us some direction that has been needed for a very long time. He’s worked at a few other studios that vary in work flow, giving insight into how other studios work differently to each other, which is interesting.

Week 34

Another week passed now, and last Friday we had some interesting news from Clive which basically meant we were in crunch for this week! That’s not too bad though, crunch time for me means staying late, listening to music on the sound system and getting free pizza/curry. It’s hard work but lots of fun, especially with mine and Craig’s DR play list that we setup on Spotify, anyone can join in and vote for songs to be played next, so we had a few students logging in and choosing what we listened to during crunch and it was a lot of fun!

During the week I have been working closely with Rod, the new artist, to make the art style work and to produce a lot of content that could be used quickly. The other student artist Ezekiel has been working on character art, while I was working on building art. There’s not much else I can say really without giving too much away, so I shall leave it at that, as I have to be off early this Friday because I have to go to a christening and graduation over the weekend (Obviously not for the same person).

Matty Wyett Simmonds week 35

This week I have had a few days off for the events which I mentioned in the last diary, so I started this week on Wednesday and got straight back into it, there is not too much to say about this week since being off for half of it! We had a meeting on the Wednesday that I got back and everything has basically been the same since I was away (as you would expect from two days off). I have just been starting off where I left off on Friday.

This week however is an unusual week, as today (this Friday) is the last day of two of the students, Ben and Johnny (Johnny as in Ironcore on the forums) Ben has been here a good few months now and Johnny has been here even longer. It’s a shame to see them leave, although when ben leaves I get an entire desk to myself at home but that’s beside the point.

I wish both of them good luck and I hope they both grab another job in industry quickly, too long out of the loop may leave you out of the loop permanently and I hope that doesn’t happen to them, they’ve both worked hard and have done well to stay here longer than their original contracts, so they must have been doing something right.

www.train2game.com

Train2Game Student Diaries Craig Moore Weeks 34 to 36

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Week 34

We are now pretty much in full swing with the next title.

The beginning of the week was fairly run of the mill, building up concepts and fleshing out documentation. Having a much larger art resource available this time around I am having to prepare a lot further in advance. It is no longer the case where I can simply do a quick sketch for Matty just as its needed and we run from that.

A little bit of a change of pace but it is all for the want of a better process.

As the week went on there was a pretty big surprise that has really kicked things in to gear, a massive opportunity that we have to take with both hands. While it is going to be a lot of work over the next few days it’s going to push the project in to overdrive and really get some work done.

So for the next few days I am going to be putting some heavy hours into collating a document as well as doing some concrete UI concepts to help push the project forwards, and we shall see what we have at the end!

See you on the other side….

Craig

 Week 35

Well that was busy!

After clocking up close to 40 hours work in 3 days we managed to get the work done and I think we were all incredibly pleased with the result. It was a great experience to come together with 3 artists to build a really impressive and important document. It’s been a fantastic learning experience for us all in both regards of creating such a high profile document, and working to a very tight deadline.

I would like to say we did a great job, worked well together and produced a great piece of work.

And now it feels like we are properly in full swing, documenting mechanics and processes. Collating everything that we have spoken about internally over the last few weeks and making sure it is all somewhere and exists so that it doesn’t get forgotten.

We are on an incredibly tight schedule for this next game, hopefully we can deliver. My big worry is simply not having enough time, I want this next title to be so much bigger and better than My Sea Park I have learnt so much, we all have, and with the right time we can certainly do it! Unfortunately, as always, time is money so we will just have to see how we get on I suppose and hope for the best.

I couldn’t ask to be working with a better group of people though, so I will keep my faith.

Craig

Week 36

After the hectic push of last week it’s been nice to get back to a relatively normal pace. It is officially “on” though so we have a lot of work to do in a comparatively short space of time, essentially making the next game in half the time we did for My Sea Park; puts a lot of pressure on us all as a team.

However the ground work is there, we need to be incredibly clever going forward so that we don’t waste any time and that we take advantage of every possible outlet we can.

It is a sad day today; Jonny and Ben are finishing their placements. It’s been fantastic working with them especially Jonny whom I have had the pleasure of working with for quite some time now and he has become a very good friend of mine. Thankfully he will be staying in the area so we will surely be keeping in contact and I will keep a close eye on his movements as he surely finds himself some amazing role in the games industry! He deserves it for working so hard.

So tonight we are going out to celebrate, it’s fantastic to work with such a nice group of people who I can enjoy at both work and in a social environment.

What’s it they say, work hard, play hard?

Craig

www.train2game.com