Day of the Tentacle Remastered now released

As of a few weeks back Double Fine has released the remastered version of one of the most iconic adventure games of all time; Day of the Tentacle. 

Effectively Manic Mansion 2, the original LucasArts game is a great example of what adventure games did best back in the 1990s.

Now that it has been brought up to date a bit visually it is well worth checking out for a great example of game design blending original puzzles and humour with a strong and very unique story line. 

AMD VR headset

Whilst the VR headset market is not exactly an unsaturated one currently there is another interested party now emerging with a potential claim to a share of this; AMD. Their device is called Sulon Q and has its own site already here.

One of the most interesting features of AMD's effort is the fact that the device promises to be wireless; which could possibly be quite a major plus point over the competition. 

Amazon's Lumberyard game engine

For every game engine that leaves the scene (see the post on Project Anarchy below) there is another one which emerges on to it; Amazon recently announced their first effort in this area, Lumberyard.

You can read more about this here (or even download its beta for experimentation), this is based on the CryEngine and given Amazon's clout could potentially be a real competitor in the months/years to come for companies such as Unity and Epic Games.

Diablo pitch/proposal document now available

For aspiring game designers who enjoy dissecting the creation of iconic games from the past this is a must; here you can find the original pitch/proposal document for Blizzard's Diablo, an absolutely classic game that launched the successful series that is of course ongoing (with the third game of the series).

This is borne out of a recent GDC 2016 talk and is a great read indeed to see how the game was eventually envisaged and then shaped (if you have played it). Maybe we will one day see a similar document of GGD (game design document) for Diablo 3 too.

Unity engine certification

It appears that Unity is now starting a certification programme for their engine. This is not a new concept generally but it is one that the major game engines have not been involved with much before so it will be interesting to see how this evolves and whether competitors will follow. 

More information on this initiative on the official Unity site here.

The end of the road for Project Anarchy

An engine that showed much potential when first announced, from Havok, is now unfortunately no longer a going concern. This is Project Anarchy, more information on this can be found on the official site here.

This is a shame and is very indicative of the fierce competition in 2016 in this area.

Creating a game level in UE4 in VR

Picking up from the previous blog post, Epic Games has recently showcased the possibilities of creating an Unreal engine level not in the traditional way that everybody has been used to for many years now but, this time, in virtual reality.

This, if of course it takes off as an approach, could be a major revolution in game level design. It is worth watching the video above to see the vision of Epic Games on this front.

UE4 4.11 released

A few weeks ago the much anticipated final version of UE4 4.11 was released, after a few months of test versions being available for the community to try out.

This has now already, during April, progressed to version 4.11.2 with an even more recent update.

For the usual very comprehensive full list of the updates, changes and fixes that this version offers over 4.10 visit here.  

CGVC 2016 at Bournemouth University

The CGVC 2016 (Computer Graphics & Visual Computing Conference) is this year taking place at Bournemouth University in mid September. I am myself part of the Local Organising Committee for this.

Proceedings will be published after the conference in the Eurographics digital library. You can find more information on submission processes, deadlines and dates here.

Lecturer and Senior Lecturer positions in Games at Bournemouth University

We are currently advertising for two positions, one for Lecturer and one for Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University, in the Creative Technology Department, for the undergraduate Games courses we run here (BSc Games Programming and BSc Games Technology).

More information and the application forms here.