Tag Archives: Unity

Train2Game News BAFTA Young Game Designers competition

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BAFTAThe British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has today announced the call for entries for the 2015 BAFTA Young Game Designers (YGD) competition in association with Nominet Trust, which aims to inspire the UK’s game-makers of the future by giving young people the chance to design and make their own game. The winners will be named at a special awards ceremony in July. Entries are now open at www.bafta.org/ygd until Monday 1 June.

Originally launched in 2010 for 11-16 year-olds, this year the age range for the competition has been expanded to include 10-18 year-olds, divided into age-specific sub-groups. Entrants – who can be individuals or a team of up to three people – can choose to enter two creative categories: The YGD Game Concept Award, to create a concept for a new game; and the YGD Game Making Award, to make a game using freely available software. The winners will receive a host of prizes, including further development of their game with industry professionals.

Two new categories have also been added this year: The YGD Mentor Award, for an inspirational individual involved in the education of young game designers; and the YGD Hero Award, for a games industry professional who supports young game designers. The public can nominate their YGD Mentor, while the YGD Hero will be selected by BAFTA’s Games Committee.

The BAFTA YGD competition is part of a year-round programme of activity which gives young people and educators unique insights into the games industry and access to the creative minds behind some of their favourite games. Support includes: a website (www.bafta.org/ygd) where BAFTA members, award winners and nominees share their insights and advice through interviews and exclusive video content; a web series, that takes a light-hearted look behind the scenes of the games industry; a range of teaching resources that link the BAFTYA YGD competition to the national curriculum; an online ‘feedback hub’ where young people can submit ideas or questions about their entry, with the chance of gaining a personalised response from a games expert; and live workshops around the country.

Nominet Trust – the UK’s only dedicated tech for good funder – is headline partner of the initiative, working with BAFTA to develop additional schools-focussed activity addressing the under-representation of women in the games workforce. Other supporting partners of BAFTA Young Game Designers include: Bethesda Softworks, Criterion Games (an EA Studio), Google, Jagex, King, Pinewood Studios Group, SEGA, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Unity, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Abertay University supports the development of the games of the winners of the BAFTA YGD competition.

Tim Hunter, Director of Learning and Events at BAFTA, said: “The BAFTA YGD competition is a great opportunity for young people to try their hand at game design and get feedback from the creative people behind their favourite games. The games industry is one of the biggest and most dynamic entertainment industries in the world; we hope this competition inspires entrants to consider a career in games, as well as helping them better appreciate the artistry involved in making games. We can’t wait to share the winners with the industry and public at the YGD Awards ceremony in July.”

Annika Small, CEO of Nominet Trust, said: “If the UK is to retain its world-leading position in the creative industries, we need to develop a highly skilled workforce. The BAFTA Young Game Designers competition equips young people with the creative digital skills, understanding and connections that they need to become the games designers of the future. It’s exciting to see young people move from simply playing games to designing and making their own ones. Nominet Trust is proud to be supporting this vital initiative – I can’t wait to see what ideas and games entrants come up with!”

The winning games from 2014 – Tomatos Role from 16 year-old Rhianna Hawkins, from Taunton, and AlienX from 15 year-old Adam Oliver – will be on show at BAFTA’s Inside Games Arcade in advance of the British Academy Games Awards in March.

For the Terms & Conditions, and to enter the BAFTA YGD competition, go to www.bafta.org/ygd.

Train2Game News MMO Game Engine on Steam

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Neojac Entertainment, a Calgary-based game development company, today launched their Atavism game engine on Steam.

Atavism opens up the development of 3D virtual online worlds and Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) to everyone regardless of programming knowledge or artistic ability. Integrated with the Unity engine as the client, developers now have direct access to one of the highest anticipated MMORPG engines on the market.

“Atavism allows game designers to focus on making their game and to not worry about programming,” said Neojac CEO Jacques Rossouw. “In fact many of our clients have been able to have a prototype within a matter of weeks. You don’t need to have a million dollar budget any more to develop an MMO game. Our team, along with Unity, has already done most of the heavy lifting with pre-designed plugins for every system. All you need to do is setup what stats you want to use with them.”

The Atavism engine received it’s greenlight from Steam late last year. It is available for $70 and can be accessed via Steam at http://store.steampowered.com/app/335930/. You can get a discount of 15% in the first two weeks on Steam.

Many games are already in development using the engine, including Neojac’s own Neo’s Land, a high fantasy MMORPG that allows players to literally build the game world by creating their own dungeons, houses and other structures via the game’s unique building editor and through round table discussions with the development team. Early access to the game is available at www.neojac.com.

Several other game studios are already using the Atavism engine with successful results. “We’ve used other multiplayer engines made for Unity, but nothing compared to Atavism,” said Terrence Thompson, CEO of Space Dwarves Entertainment and the creators of Bionic Marine Commander Online. “Atavism provides an ease of use and level of support that is excellent. We’ve taken our game much further in the four months using Atavism than we have in years using the other engines.” Early access for the game is available at http://bionicmarinecommand.com.

Atavism also provides support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets. You can learn more about Atavism at www.atavismonline.com.

Train2Game News Free Assassin’s Creed Unity DLC

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Today, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings is now available, free of charge, for all Assassin’s Creed Unity players on Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC, and will be released tomorrow January 14th on PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system in the UK.

After the events of Assassin’s Creed Unity, Arno’s quest for redemption leads him to the town of Saint-Denis, then known as Franciade. There he is sent on a mission that will take him to the depths of the city, an intricate network of catacombs and deep caves that hold the remains and best-kept secrets of past French kings.

To uncover the dark mysteries that lie beneath the Basilica, Arno is equipped with a lantern to guide his way and will gain access to the Guillotine Gun, a powerful weapon made for both long-range destruction and deadly close-quarter combat.

In Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings, players will encounter familiar faces including Napoleon and the Marquis de Sade, as well as a new enemy faction, the Raiders, merciless foes desecrating the catacombs. Players will also be able to embark on additional side quests including new Murder Mysteries, enigmas, and co-operative missions, where players can join forces for a heist mission and a special Brotherhood mission.

Both single-player and cooperative modes enable players to unlock new weapons, gear, and outfits that carry over between Assassin’s Creed Unity and Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings.

Ubisoft promised it would give out Dead Kings for free to anyone who bought Unity, as a way of apologising for the game’s bug filled launch.

Train2Game News Unity UI update

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Unity Technologies has released version 4.6 of its popular game engine, which introduces a brand new user interface system.

The tech allows developers to create their own UI within the editor. They can also check out the source code for the UI system, which lets devs “build a UI module that will work as a drop-in replacement for the bundled UI system”, according to the official blog.

“The release cycle has indeed been long,” the company wrote, “but we’ve taken the time needed to work with you to test the UI system and incorporate your feedback to ship a UI system that we’re really proud of.”

Unity 4.6 also adds x86 support for Android, opening the options of FAT, x86 or ARMv7 as a build target so devs can export for x86 Android devices such as Google’s new Nexus player.

Train2Game News Unity Sound Plugins

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unity-logoAstound Holdings is proud to announce its new suite of gaming plugins are now available on the Unity Asset Store for game developers.

The highly immersive AstoundSound 3D spatial audio technology software core powers the plugins with two solutions made available: AstoundSound 3D RTI and AstoundSound Expander available for Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, and Linux platforms. The plugins provide superior 3D audio spatialization for all types of games (2D and 3D) including VR, First Person Shooters, Third Person, and more.

The 3D audio technology powering AstoundSound goes far beyond Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) which are based only on the anatomy of the ear and skull or traditional dummy head recording devices. The unique psychoacoustic approach used for AstoundSound is based on how the actual human brain perceives sounds, called Brain-Response Transfer Functions (BRTFs). Where conventional HRTFs work only with headphones, BRTFs allow for the most immersive and natural 3D spatial audio experience with headphones AND speakers.

AstoundSound 3D RTI brings true 3D audio spatialization to any sound emitting object. AstoundSound 3D RTI processes any mono source in real-time during gameplay and creates a stereo output spherical sound field experience. For more information about the AstoundSound 3D RTI for Unity plugin please visit the AstoundSound 3D RTI product page on the Unity Asset Store:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/24064

AstoundSound Expander greatly enhances pre-mixed stereo background music and ambience tracks to produce an incredibly immersive stereo experience. The AstoundSound Expander plugin can also be used to significantly enhance the master stereo audio output for 2D games. For more information about the AstoundSound Expander for Unity plugin please visit the AstoundSound Expander product page in the Unity Asset Store:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/24658

“After enormous demand from game developers worldwide, we are excited to launch our 3D game audio plugins for Unity” said Jerry Mahabub, CEO of Astound Holdings. “AstoundSound has established itself as the leading 3D positional audio technology for the top professional game audio engines. We are very pleased to bring our AstoundSound technology to the indie game development community.”

With AstoundSound, game developers can dramatically enhance their games’ audio soundscape allowing players to hear sound coming from all directions, including height and depth perception. This enables game players to improve their game reaction times and response to enemies/threats by knowing where critical sound cues are coming from during gameplay.

For more information on current and upcoming AstoundSound gaming products visit: www.astoundgaming.com

Train2Game News UK Top 20 Games – 17.11.14

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Call of Duty Advanced WarfighterA wave of new big name games has just been released but none were enough to knock Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare from the top spot. Assassin’s Creed Unity sneaks in to number two and Halo: The Master Chief Collection fights its way to third. The new LEGO Batman game has swooped in to fifth with the other Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue in sixth. Finally Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 heads to eighth in the table with the new World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor, battling its way to number nine.

All formats

Week ending 15 November 2014

POS.  TITLE  PUBLISHER  LAST
WEEK 
1 – CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE ACTIVISION 1
2 ASSASSIN’S CREED: UNITY UBISOFT –
3 HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION MICROSOFT –
4 FIFA 15 EA SPORTS 2
5 LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE –
6 ASSASSIN’S CREED: ROGUE UBISOFT –
7 MINECRAFT: PLAYSTATION EDITION SONY COMPUTER ENT. 6
8 PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2015 KONAMI –
9 WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WARLORDS OF DRAENOR BLIZZARD –
10 DESTINY ACTIVISION 5
11 SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM SKYLANDERS 7
12 MINECRAFT: XBOX EDITION MICROSOFT 10
13 DISNEY INFINITY 2.0 DISNEY INFINITY 12
14 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2015 SEGA 3
15 ALIEN: ISOLATION SEGA 4
16 – ASSASSIN’S CREED IV: BLACK FLAG UBISOFT 16
17 FORZA HORIZON 2 MICROSOFT 11
18 SUNSET OVERDRIVE MICROSOFT 8
19 – TOMODACHI LIFE NINTENDO 19
20 WWE 2K15 2K SPORTS 13
< previous week
Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2014 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 Great British Winter Game Jam

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Great British Winter Game JamLondon games studio Space Ape Games, have announced the Great British Winter Game Jam.

Held on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2014, the Game Jam is a team-based event taking place at Space Ape’s studio’s in Soho Square, London. The competition is open to anyone, and teams of up to 5 participants can enter via http://tgbwgj.eventbrite.com. There are a maximum of 50 tickets up for grabs, which means that 10 teams can get through to the weekend session.

Space Ape Games are very excited to confirm the judging panel for the Jam, industry veterans David Gardner OBE and Miles Jacobson OBE, along with award winning scriptwriter Rhianna Pratchett. The theme for the Game Jam will be revealed on the first day of the competition, and judging will take place on the afternoon of Sunday 30th November.

The winning team will take home Unity 5 Pro licenses for each member of the team, with additional prizes being announced over the coming weeks. More importantly, everyone that takes part will get to spend time with the judges and have their games showcased to the London Indie community. Teams will need to bring their own equipment such as laptops, mobile devices and phones.

London is host to an impressive game dev community. Space Ape is pleased to bring them together for a weekend of fun, collaboration and healthy competition in the spirit of previous Game Jams such as The Great British Summer Game Jam earlier this year
For more information about The Great British Winter Game Jam, check out the Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/GBWGameJam. Information about Space Ape Games as well as career opportunities at the studio are available at www.spaceapegames.com

Train2Game News Unity asset store expected to reach 1mil

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Unity Technologies is proud to announce that the company’s Asset Store is expected to exceed one million users by the end of the year and celebrates its fourth birthday with the Birthday Bonanza Madness Sale.

Today, it offers more than 15,000 content packages and apps – available from nearly 3,800 creators – to developers, delivering exciting content packages for 2D and 3D models, plus other tools and services such as animation, audio, editor extensions, shaders, scripting, textures, and materials.

Unity’s Asset Store is a marketplace designed to give all developers the opportunity to compete in today’s crowded gaming market by increasing quality and lowering costs. It launched in November 2010 and has continued to be a unique, robust resource that offers content, tools, and services like no other engine. Unity estimates that the Asset Store ecosystem, empowering Unity developers to create games and apps with a more efficient and effective production process, saves developers six million workdays over a 12-month period, which roughly equals a savings of $1.4 billion.

The Unity Asset Store was instrumental in empowering Nicolas Liatti to create Stealth, a new mobile game. “Thanks to the Asset Store, I was able to single-handedly develop my first mobile game, Stealth, which offers players a high-quality production value that can compete with larger studios that have multi-million dollar production budgets,” said Liatti. “The content, technology, and tools that Unity has available in its marketplace have made it possible for me to offer unique experiences in the game, which surpass the stealth-based gameplay that have come before it.”

The Unity Asset Store offers a huge array of production ready assets like environment art and Hollywood -quality music and sound effects, as well as cutting-edge technology i ncluding editor extensions and sop h i sticated  shaders. Developers come to Unity first to help them make huge strides forward in their projects. With the Asset Store, Unity is enabling innovative workflows to emerge, attracting avid users like Richard Garriott’s Portalarium and Brian Fargo’s inXile Entertainment to the system. Unity’s extensibility empowers developers to create tools and utilities to extend the functionality of the editor itself and roll their own tools and features into Unity. As a result, developers can easily resell their products in the Asset Store, which makes it a fertile ground for game-enhancing technology, tools, and content.

For many asset creators, the Asset Store has become a primary source of income. “The Asset Store and community have made the continued development of Shader Forge possible to the point where I’ve now been working on it full time for about a year,” said Joachim Holmér, creator of Shader Forge. “It’s absolutely amazing to see what people create with a tool of your own making and watch how an actively helpful community forms around it. You rarely have a chance to add an extra tool in an application and you rarely have the chance to distribute it to so many people.”

“We envisioned the Asset Store as a democratic marketplace that would give developers, especially indies, a way to acquire high quality assets and technology cheaply while also providing a way to make some extra money on the side,” said David Helgason, Founder and EVP, Unity Technologies. “Because Unity is used by so many developers, inside and outside of gaming, around the world, the Asset Store has become a big part of the success the Unity developer community. It’s saving developers time and resources, providing access to assets and tools that would otherwise have been out of reach, and has created incredible new streams of revenue for many. We are very proud of what it’s turned into just four years after launch.”

Train2Game News The Cinema Suite

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unity-logoCinema Suite (www.cinema-suite.com) today announced a special limited-time bundle price on The Cinema Suite, a high quality cinematic toolkit for the Unity Game Engine (www.unity3D.com).

The Cinema Suite bundles four editor tools – Cinema Director, Cinema Mo Cap, Cinema Pro Cams and Cinema Themes – that can deliver outstanding visuals for professionals and amateurs alike easily and affordably. The Cinema Suite is available for a special introductory price of $100 through the end of November.

“Cinematic tools were one of the most requested features at Unity Unite this summer,” said Dan Gamsby, co-founder and CTO at Cinema Suite. “We have an easy to use collection of tools that streamline the process for creating quality video content within Unity, whether you want to create cutscenes and promotional video content for your game, or need a full-featured pre-visualization tool for your film project.”

Cinema Director, a tightly integrated, fully-featured timeline editor, saves users days and even weeks of work. Users can easily sequence in-game events for their Unity project and create captivating cutscenes in a fraction of the time that it would take by writing manual scripts or programming. Setting up camera shots, controlling events, adding multi-track audio and transitions make these projects come to life in much less time.

Cinematography in Unity has never been easier. An industry-standard lens tool kit, Cinema Pro Cams lets users create cinematics in Unity using cameras that act just how they would in the real world. Select film lens size, aperture, aspect-ratio, stereoscopic 3D settings and more, all accurate to industry standards. Cinema Director and Cinema Pro Cams can be used together as a very powerful real-time previz tool in Unity, leveraging Unity’s real-time graphics rendering engine.

Users looking for a way to quickly create their own animations can use a Microsoft Kinect with Cinema Mo Cap, the first motion capture solution native to the Unity environment. Users can quickly put their project in motion, by capturing animations from the comfort of their studio or home. Simple animations can now be achieved without laborious manual key-framing, or renting a professional Mo-Cap studio at a huge expense. Models are automatically rigged and generated inside the Unity project, and are 100% compatible with Unity’s animation system.

Finally, users can fine-tune the overall atmosphere of their project with Cinema Themes, a vast collection of Look Up Textures (LUTs) for Unity Pro. Scenes can be made to look dark and horrific, happy and bright, or even out of this world in minutes. Users can choose from over 50 themes to help find that perfect mood.

Train2Game News Former CEO of EA takes over at Unity

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unity-logoUnity Technologies announced today that Co-founder David Helgason has stepped back from his role as CEO and welcomed John Riccitiello, former CEO of Electronic Arts, into the position. Helgason will continue at Unity as Executive Vice President in charge of strategy and communications.

John Riccitiello steps into the role of CEO of Unity Technologies having served on the Board of Directors from November 2013. Previous to his work with Unity, Riccitiello served as the CEO of Electronic Arts and co-founded investment firm Elevation Partners. He has also served as advisor to, and invested in, several startups including Oculus VR and Synertainment.

“I’m so proud of everything Unity accomplished in the last decade but now it’s time to look forward to an excellent future. Our mission is an important one, so I’m incredibly happy that John has agreed to lend his formidable experience to the role of CEO at Unity,” said David Helgason. “We’ve had the chance to work together over the last year-and-a-bit and come to recognize how similar our views are on the importance of the democratization of development to a thriving developer ecosystem and healthy games industry. We’re in great hands.”

“Unity has been a hugely positive force in the games industry for years. Now it’s my incredible fortune to have the opportunity to help guide Unity going forward.” said John Riccitiello. “Unity is more than a great engine or packages of services, it’s an amazing and diverse community of developers, many of which are changing the way we think about game design and production. Unity’s mission – to democratize development – is an important one that I’m very happy to help drive forward.”