Tag Archives: Video Games

Always look on the bright side of life

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One publisher thought he'd be better as a monkey...

You’re no doubt studying the Train2Game Games Designer, Games Developer or Games & Animator course because you have a creative vision. You have an idea for an awesome game that you want to develop, publish and show the world.

It might be difficult to ‘sell’ your idea to a publisher, but that hasn’t stopped developers in the past, including those of Bejeweled – one of the most popular games of all time. The casual title has sold over 50 million copies since it was launched by PopCap ten years ago. The game has won countless awards and is available on PCs, iPhones and Facebook with 200 million games being played everyday.

However, things weren’t always so rosy as PopCap’s Dave Bishop told an audience at The Develop Conference yesterday.  The industry veteran revealed that when the first build of the game was completed in 2000, a variety of publishers turned down the opportunity to buy Bejeweled for just $60,000. Given the success of the title in the decade since then, a few of them probably that regret that decision!

Bejeweled isn’t the only game that had trouble finding a publisher: Hello Games programmer Sean Murray also spoke at Develop yesterday and revealed that they struggled to find a publisher for Joe Danger. The game was eventually released through the PlayStation network selling 50,000 copies in its first week and was well received by critics. It therefore seems reasonable that Murray extracted some revenge on these unnamed publishers, and some of the reasons they had for declining Joe Danger had the Develop attendees laughing:

“Name me one popular game with motorbikes?”

”Collecting giant coins feels unrealistic to me”

”I can see this working as a Facebook app”

”We want games that are less about fun right now”

”We love the theme, but with a different game”

”We believe the iPhone will be largely unsupported”

”Can Joe be a monkey? We like Monkeys”

They verge on the ridiculous don’t they? A popular game with motorbikes, how about Road Rash or Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost & Damned!? Collecting giant coins seems to have worked for Mario over the years and whoever thought games weren’t supposed to be fun eh?

So, what message can Train2Game students take from the ballads of Bejeweled and Joe Danger?  Well first of all it’s that you should never give up, as Bejeweled shows that even one of the most successful games of all time struggled to begin with. Secondly, these games show that you can’t always rely on a publisher to give you the support you think your game deserves. However, thanks to the wonders of the internet it’s now easier than ever to get your independent production out there with Steam, the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live all providing outlets for indie developers.

So, what do you think about the comments made at Develop yesterday? Do you think you’ll try to rely on a publisher, or will you take the self publishing route? As usual, leave your comments here or on the Train2Game forum.

A useful podcast for Train2Game students

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As I was on my way into the Train2Game office this morning, I was partaking in two usual activities – doing my very best not to get run over and  listening to the latest gaming news podcasts in order to write relevant and interesting blogs for you Train2Game Games Designer, Games Developer and Games Art & Animation students.

This morning, I was listening to the GameSpot UK podcast which this week is especially relevant to Train2Game students? Why? Because it features video game script writer and narrative designer Rhianna Pratchett. She’s a veteran of writing scripts for games which include Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword, and the Overlord series.

In the GameSpot UK podcast she talks about writing dialogue and narrative for games, incorporating humour and how she broke into the field of Games Design.

So, Train2Game students, I highly recommend that you listen to this weeks GamesSpot UK podcast if you want a useful incite into the industry. Rhianna starts talking about Games Design about 25 minutes into the programme.

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

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar Part Seven

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In Part 7 of the 2nd Train2Game Webinar the panel wraps up by discussing if jobs exist for a specific skill and a certain football match…

Key quotes

Pete Hickman – “You need a broader portfolio of work to really make yourself attractive to an employer”

Carsten Maple on specialising on a specific type of skill – “Don’t be so narrow…When your starting, off you’ve got to have a bit more that you can offer and say I’ve got these skills because they’ll be offering you junior roles when you start out”

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar Part Six

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In Part 6 of the 2nd Train2Game Webinar the panel discuss if there is a definite, lucrative market for small non-AAA indie titles and if having no formal qualification will affect your employment prospects after finishing a Train2Game course?

Key quotes include:

Tony Bickley on the importance of good English when pitching your ideas –  “If a pitch or a presentation comes in with text speak, it’s not going to get very much air time, if they can’t speak they can’t communicate.”

Pete Hickman on the importance of good communication when pitching your ideas – “I think if the standard of written English isn’t very good in the presentation, quite often presentations go to an acquisition or an A&R person and he, or she, will to demonstrate those to the board or the senior management of the company and they won’t take them seriously. It’s a terrible thing to say, you might be the most creative person in the world but unless you can communicate your ideas effectively and clearly, it’s very difficult to break into a company.”

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar Part Five

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In Part 5 of the 2nd Train2Game Webinar, the panel continue to discuss about the merits of tarting off on your own… The panel also address how you can get your name out in the industry, why paid internship is the best way to get experience and how transferable the skills Train2Game teaches you are in other industries?

Key quotes include

Pete Hickman on the advantages independent developers have – “It’s all being driven by a strong e-distribution business. We’ve got Xbox Live, PSN, we’ve got the Nintendo equivalent, we’ve also got Steam on PC and Macintosh, which provides a great platform for people to distribute their independent games and hopefully that continues.”

Tony Bickley on preparing for the UK video games job market – “Be the best you can, stick out beyond the crowd, don’t be despondent…Think “the better I am, the higher my skill sets are, I’m going to be in the best place to get the job”

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar Part Four

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In Part 4 of the 2nd Train2Game Webinar the panel continue to discuss the Art and Animation course, mainly about when it will be benchmarked and also answer live questions on how strong the job market is for Train2Game graduates and if the opportunity to start on your own as an ‘Indie’ is better now than ever before.

Key quotes include…
Carsten Maple on the UK video game job market “I say to all of my students now, you gotta show that you’re worth it…There are jobs for those who can really make a difference”

Carsten Maple on why the UK video games industry needs tax relief – “I think it’s something they [Conservative Government] should do…For a whole number of reasons, not least of all that the significance of the UK games industry that it has been before is slipping backwards in terms of its relative success and I think it’s something that needs to be addressed because more companies are moving abroad because it’s a lower risk. If you’ve got to spend less money developing a game, than that’s a lower risk and unfortunately we’ve seen that move away and unless we act quickly and, I know it’s difficult, but we’ve got to keep petitioning the government to say “look we need this because once you lose it it’s very difficult to get it back”

Tony Bickley on why it’s not all doom and gloom for the UK video games industry lacking tax breaks – “This is probably one of the best times over the last 5-6 years for the smaller studios and the start-ups. You’re not looking for that half-million, three-quarters of a million pound investment to develop for the PlayStation 2 with £20,000 development kit, etc. You’ve got the three, four or five man development teams so there is a lot of opportunity for people entering the industry to join the smaller indie studios”

You can leave your thoughts about the Train2Game webinar on the Train2Game forum.

The PC – The ideal platform for Train2Game students?

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Dragon Age: proof of a popular PC game

My spiffing Train2Game colleague Gabe recently published a blog about PC gaming, and as what could be described as a ‘hardcore’ PC gamer myself, it got me thinking.

Gabe’s blog came following remarks from Bioware that the PC “is made for gaming” which seemed rather obvious to me. It should of course be obvious to anyone who’s played a Bioware Role Playing Game, be it Mass Effect or Dragon Age: Origins.

When it comes to these RPG’s, it’s the PC that’s king, and in an interview with CVG, Bioware designer and writing director Daniel Erickson says the numbers speak for themselves.

“Every two or three years we hear the announcement of fantasy being dead, PC gaming being dead and RPGs being dead, and yet, all of the biggest games that ever come out – that set the records – are nearly always PC games, and a lot of them are fantasy games.”

“The biggest game in the world is a fantasy, PC, RPG MMO. We all know the drawbacks of PC. We all scream at our boxes and try to make stuff work. But at the same time, the interface is made for games. The mouse/keyboard interface allows so much less restriction [Than consoles]”

Personally, I’ve not experienced Dragon Age: Origins on a console  – I play it on PC – but it’s certainly obvious to me how much easier it must be to play on a PC as you can easily access spells and talents using hot keys 1-9 and the space bar easily pauses the action. I’d imagine the whole process is a bit fiddler using a control pad, but if you can do so, feel free to prove me wrong!

The PC certainly gives Train2Game students, be they Games Designer, Games Developer or Games Artist & Animator, an opportunity to test their skills thanks to the number of games with large modding communities.  Half Life 2 and Fallout 3 are just two games that a loyal fanbase who are giving others the opportunity to try new weapons, new skins or even whole games.  Counter-Strike, one of the most popular online shooters of all time, started as a fan produced Half Life mod and shows that with the right ideas, modding a current game could provide a small studio with a big break.

Some developers even encourage the addition of community content to their games, with Valve perhaps providing the best example of this with Team Fortress 2. Valve have run numerous community competitions calling on fans to create items in the form of weapons and hats with the winners being able to see their creations in game. There seem to be a lot of talented Games Designers out there, and Valve are going to have a tough time deciding on a winner of the most recent contest!

The PC is the most popular gaming platform, partially due to the rise in the popularity of flash games which in itself provides even more opportunities for Train2Game students to create games.

So what do you think? Would you consider creating PC games? Have you already made mods? As usual, let us know here on the Train2Gameforum.

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar – Part 3

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Part 3 sees the Train2Game webinar panel answer questions on if you’re video game idea is worthy enough to be pitched, if the video game industry is in danger of coming to a full stop and where the games industry will be in ten years time.

Key quotes include:

Carsten Maple on moving away from producing sequels : “Where is an idea that’s quite unique and pivotal to a game rather than just an idea for a game…most [games] are quite derivative and what makes it sell is the branding around it”

Pete Hickman on protecting your idea and getting it implemented: “it’s very difficult to protect just an idea, and IP protection law is a very complex subject. The best way I think to protect an idea, especially when you’re showing around to different publishers is to make sure that it’s not just an idea there’s some physical assets that you can use, you can show. We’re talking about storyboards, character design, and level design…”

Tony Bickley on publishers and video games – “I do know of quite a few publishers that refuse to accept ideas that are unsolicited because the ideas are fairly worthless unless they’ve been worked up into a full pitch, but they could impact on a current development and most big publishers and developers have 30-40 ideas that they’re kicking around, they prototype a few, they play with a few more, they take them to a storyboard etc.”

Let us know your thoughts either here, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game’s 2nd Webinar – Part 1

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The second official Train2Game Webinar took place on 18th June 2010 featuring CEO of DR Studios Clive Robert,  COO of DR Studios Tony Bickley, Executive Producer and Industry guru Pete Hickman and Professor Carsten Maple from the University of Bedfordshire.

In part one, we kickoff the discussion about the video games industry, with the panel answering questions about the complexity of games, children playing certified 18 games and making your characters look unique.