Games News and Updates

Friday, December 3, 2010

Sony sells 4.1 million Move systems

Sony� said on Tuesday that it had sold 4.1 million of its Move motion-sensing game controllers worldwide in the two months since launch, putting it ahead of rival Microsoft's Kinect system as the holiday shopping season takes off.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40436148/ns/technology_and_science-games/

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2010 GDC China Confirms Final Schedule, Adds Ngmoco, Zynga Talks

Game Developers Conference China organizers have now debuted a completed schedule for the December 5th-7th Shanghai event at the Shanghai International Convention Center, with late additions including Ngmoco's Caryl Shaw and Zynga Beijing's Andy Tiang.

Now in its third edition, Game Developers Conference China -- a sister event to the major GDC shows taking place in San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; and Cologne, Germany -- offers valuable and timely insight into the art and business of making games for an audience of both local and international developers

Leading Chinese and Western developers have once again been recruited, with late additions to the schedule including Ngmoco's Caryl Shaw, a veteran of notable studio Maxis (SimCity, The Sims, Spore). She will discuss 'The Future of Game Production', and another new confirmation sees Zynga Beijing head Andy Tiang presenting a lecture called 'Building Sustainable Social Game Experiences'.

Also now locked down are Sunday's tutorials, with Autodesk presenting two half-day seminars on 3DS Max, Maya, and Mudbox, and a rare Asian appearance from Visceral Games' Matthias Worch (Dead Space 2), presenting 'Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business'.

A Serious Games Summit is also now confirmed, with speakers including Realtime Associates' David Warhol and NewGame Solutions' Shigeru Bart Chigusa discussing games used for learning, corporate, education, and other uses.

Another highlight of this Summit is a featured lecture from Crystal Digital Technology, analyzing the company's game featured in the recent Shanghai World Expo.

All talks at GDC China will be simultaneously translated into both English and Chinese for attendees, and the two confirmed keynotes for GDC China 2010 are from Square Enix's Hiromichi Tanaka -- on building Final Fantasy XI and XIV, as the latter is poised to become the first-ever official Final Fantasy title to debut in China.

The other keynote features Blizzard, Flagship and Cryptic alumnus Bill Roper on "how the game industry in the Western world has learned from Asia's successes in both development and business models", promising plenty of insight into the history and future of online games.

With the entire schedule locked down, organizers are drawing highlights from the tracks as follows:

- The Global Game Development/Outsourcing track includes major talks by notables from Activision, Intel, BioWare, Volition, and Slant Six, as it concentrates on the "unique cultural, geographical, legal, channel, and competitive landscapes" birthed from both exporting Chinese games overseas and providing assets for Western titles in China.

- In addition, the Online Game Development track includes a host of valuable Asian speakers from companies including NetEase, Joyport, Kingsoft and XPEC, plus CCP on EVE Online and Riot Games on League Of Legends, as the "opportunities for innovation, creativity, and revenue" in the vibrant space are explored.

- The Indie Games Summit at GDC China centers on discussions around successful development and marketing tactics from leading independents, including Andy Schatz (Monaco), Erin Robinson (Puzzle Bots), an Osmos postmortem, insight from Joe Danger creator Hello Games' Grant Duncan, and a Chinese indie-centirc talk from 4399.com.

- The Social Network Game Summit features major lectures from Playfish China's Andrew Mo, PopCap's Long Vo, and representatives from Disney-owned Playdom and major Chinese SNS firms 6Waves and Five Minutes, as they explore the new wave of social gaming.

- Finally, the Mobile Game Summit includes Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka on the firm's rapidly-expanding Angry Birds franchise, as well as lectures from notable companies in the iPhone, Android, and other cellphone space including PikPok, Gamevil, Coconut Island Studio and Noise Buffet.

In addition, a significant Expo Floor is hosting over 40 companies, including HP, Intel, China Telecom, The9, Autodesk, 6Waves and more. And the 2nd annual Independent Games Festival China will have finalist games playable on the GDC China Expo show floor, with the IGF China Awards Ceremony open to all show attendees on Monday, December 6th at 7pm on the 7th floor of the Convention Center.

GDC China's online registration has now ended, but in-person registration starts on Saturday, December 4th, the day before the show, and is available from 1pm to 6pm in the lobby of the Oriental Riverside Hotel, Shanghai (the hotel connected to the Shanghai International Convention Center).

Registration is also possible on-site from 8am on Sunday, December 5th, the first day of the show -- for more information on all aspects of GDC China in both English and Chinese languages, please visit the official GDC China website.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gamesetwatch/~3/FQzJs-y3rj0/2010_gdc_china_confirms_final.php

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

GameStop's Jolt Launches Playboy Party On Facebook

Jolt Online, GameStop's online game developer subsidiary, announced and launched the public beta for Playboy Party, a free Facebook game based on the adult magazine franchise.

In the social game, players are invited to create custom avatars and throw the best party they can. Along with inviting Playboy Playmates and celebrity caricatures to make their parties more popular, gamers have to kick out drunk guests, the paparazzi, and "jocks/dorks" who can ruin the affair.

As players progress and earn fame, they can purchase items/decorations, photos (non-nude but revealing shots), and covers of Playboy magazine. Despite the game's adult connotations, Jolt Online says Playboy Party is less about sexual themes and more about "a fun filled lifestyle, good times. and parties".

Acquired by GameStop in November 2009, Jolt Online specializes in bringing brands to the social space through games on browsers, social networks, and smartphones. Its previous releases include Utopia Kingdoms, Gangsta Zombies, Legends of Zork, and Jolt Poker.

"This is our Christmas present to the Internet," says Jolt Online chairman Dylan Collins. "We almost went blind developing this game but we think that Playboy Party will keep you entertained anywhere you can access your Facebook account."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WorldsInMotion/~3/x9plzDuPFFM/gamestops_jolt_launches_playbo.php

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Epic Games Releases November 2010 Unreal Development Kit Beta

Epic Games, Inc. has released the November 2010 UDK Beta, the latest version of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides uncompromised access to the award-winning toolset used in blockbuster video games, 3D visualizations, digital films and more.

Epic is committed to providing the UDK community with regular software releases at no charge, and the latest beta is available now at www.udk.com/download.

This month, we?d like to share a brand new trailer that calls attention to Unreal Engine 3 features that help developers create gorgeous environments. Check it out at www.udk.com or at the Epic Games YouTube channel. �

Are you creating something great with UDK? Drop us a line in the Project Show-Off forums, where links to tech demos, gameplay videos and screenshots are always welcome.

It?s easy to sign up as a commercial UDK developer online. Our FAQ can help you determine which type of license is right for you.

Upgrade Notes
UDK now ships with an additional map, plus many improvements to the Unreal Editor have been made.

UDKGame

The new time of day map (as seen in the new trailer mentioned above) now ships with UDKGame example game content.

Unreal Editor

UDK?s new welcome screen improves functionality.

New Absolute Translation mode moves the widget to the mouse location.� This is the new default translation scheme.
A new widget has been added to combine common translation and rotation operations.� This handy tool for level designers is in the prototype phase and is therefore off by default.

Several updates to the Rotation Widget have been made. These can be enabled but are off by default.

Box selection is now supported in perspective viewports.
New version of the MemLeakCheckDiffer tool can be found in \UnrealEngine3\Binaries\MemLeakCheckDiffer.exe.
New HeadTracking track for eye/head tracking of skeletal mesh actors in Matinee has been added.
When saving a persistent level to a new name, you can now rename all sub-levels as well, specifying a new prefix if necessary.
New ?move/rename? source control command has been added.
Copying multiple soundcues to another package will now default the ?Name Suffix? checkbox to false.
New ‘Highlight Objects Under Cursor’ feature to editor viewports (actors and BSP surfaces) has been added.

The AnimSet editor now allows you to search an AnimSet for AnimSequence names.

The texture viewer now has a checkerboard for better viewing of transparent textures.

The option to turn on/off horizontal grid lines between properties in PropertyWindows is now available.
Double-clicking on sequence start/finished actions now takes you to the parent sequence.
Users should no longer have to triangulate meshes before exporting to FBX.
A command line option for rebuilding and checking in levels is now available.
The automatic build and submit tool no longer needs every streaming level checked out in order to proceed. http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AutomatedMapBuild.html

Miscellaneous Enhancements

Sockets in the socket manager are now in alphabetical order.
The following Kismet shortcuts have been updated:

C + left-mouse-click: Add console event.
Removed the "add comment" shortcut ("C").

The Toggle Horizontal Dividers setting will now be remembered across sessions.
?NO COLLISION? warnings will again be displayed for static meshes and fractured static meshes on their thumbnail icons.
The nFringe script debugging is now supported with 64-bit UE3 executables.

You will need the latest version of nFringe (version nFringeSetup-pre-1.1.34.193 or later).

The FBX SDK has been upgraded to FBX SDK 2011.3.1.

With this upgrade meshes no longer need to be triangulated before importing to UE3.

Community Links
UDK Forums: www.udk.com/forums
UDK Developers on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2493123
UDK on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/UDK/183744733429
Epic Games on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EpicGames

Source: http://www.epicgames.com/news/epic-games-releases-november-2010-unreal-development-kit-beta

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EA and Harmonix Launch Rock Band Reloaded for iPhone and iPad

EA Mobile and Harmonix Music Systems have released Rock Band Reloaded ($4.99), a new entry in the popular band simulation franchise for the iPhone and iPod Touch. An enhanced iPad version ($9.99) is also available. In addition to offering a new setlist of playable songs, Rock Band Reloaded introduces a vocal recognition feature, allowing players [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/fingergaming/~3/KzuVMxbsuEU/

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2011 Independent Games Festival Announces Nuovo Award Jury

Organizers of the 2011 Independent Games Festival are announcing the distinguished jury panel that will determine the eight finalists and overall winner of its Nuovo Award.

This special award, part of the IGF, which takes place at Game Developers Conference 2011 next February, is dedicated to honoring abstract, shortform, and unconventional game development which "advances the medium and the way we think about games."

Now in its third year, the Nuovo Award allows more esoteric 'art games' from among the almost 400 IGF entries to compete on their own terms alongside longer-form indie titles, and has been newly expanded to include eight finalists.

The Nuovo has previously been awarded to Jason Rohrer's abstract multiplayer title Between and to Tuning [YouTube link] -- the perception-warping platform puzzler from Swedish indie Cactus.

This year's Nuovo Award jury has been selected to represent a diverse body of developers both independent and mainstream, academics, art world notables, and -- in general -- some of our industry's top thinkers on the future of art and the video game medium.

The jury will receive game recommendations from the wider body of over 150 IGF Main Competition judges (itself including notable former IGF winners and finalists including Petri Purho, Kyle Gabler, Jakub Dvorsky, Tyler Glaiel, and Dylan Fitterer).

The 2011 IGF Nuovo jury consists of the following:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GameDevelopersConference/~3/CmkNQ5h0M3k/2011_independent_games_festiva_2.html

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The 'GDC 25' Chronicles: Totally Boffo

[Continuing his 'GDC 25' archival research ahead of the 25th Game Developers Conference in San Francisco next February, official GDC historian Jason Scott makes available online for the first time audio of a GDC 1998 talk about storied adventure game studio Boffo Games.]

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mike Dornbrook a few years back related to a gaming history project.

As the marketing genius of Infocom, he figured somewhere in the story I was trying to tell, although at the time I wasn't sure how much. It turned out he was extremely prominent in the story, and beyond that, was one of the best interviews I've done throughout the years (out of over 300).

Involved with companies such as Infocom (some time ago!) and Harmonix (more recently!), Mike has been a playtester, marketer, salesman and no doubt a bushel of other, less formal roles. He's been in the games industry for three decades, a remarkable achievement.

Mike's talents are two-fold - he's great at marketing and management for a video game company, and he's got a razor-sharp memory. While asking someone to remember events of a quarter-century ago is at best a fishing expedition with a lot of chances for bringing up old shoes and tires, Mike provided story after story and backed it up with facts; an interviewer's dream.

So it was with pleasure that I found an audiotape called "Look Before You Leap: The Rise and Fall of Boffo Games", presented by Mike Dornbrook at Game Developers Conference 1998 in Long Beach, CA.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GameDevelopersConference/~3/Mlu66exeqEA/the_gdc_25_chronicles_totally_.html

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