Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption game

The makers Corey and Lori Cole, of one of my favourite game series of all time (Quest for Glory from Sierra Online), are working on a new game, titled Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption, which appears to have a lot of similarities with the QFG series.

You can see more about the ongoing Hero-U development here on the official site, a must visit if you have played and enjoyed any of the five QFG games.

Ninja Theory and real-time cinematography

Having just returned from SIGGRAPH 2016 there are many very interesting developments exhibited there this year I could list, one of these is definitely the one showcased in the video below where Ninja Theory demonstrate their real-time cinematography approach, using Epic Games' UE4.

The possibilities exhibited here are certainly many and it should come as no surprise the approach won an award during the conference.

Changes in Unity business model

Unity made some changes to their business model recently; these are explained best here but the most major addition/alteration appears to be the introduction of Unity Plus. It appears the idea with this is to create something which sits between the basic (Personal) version and the Pro version (these two so far have been the main two versions Unity has rolled out to developers).

Unity thusly intends to offer more of the features Pro has to Plus users at a lower cost. It remains to  be seen if this is a policy that will take off.

Brian May and VR

With the many different VR headsets around today here is a more unlikely one, with a very famous person behind it (yet not one immediately associated with tech). Brian May, the guitarist from Queen, recently revealed a device called Owl (pictured below).

More information on this can be found on its official London Stereoscopic Company site here, where you can also order the headset (incidentally the website also lists another - Lite - version of the device).

BCUR 2017 at Bournemouth University

Next year the annual British Conference for Undergraduate Research (BUCR) will take place at Bournemouth University. This is to be in April 2017.

More information on this can be found here.

Xbox One S

With the new iteration of Microsoft's current console now upon us it is worth understanding the differences between this and the standard Xbox One that many of us have.

For a quick overview of this the Digital Spy article here is certainly a very good place to start, before moving on to the offical Microsoft site here.

NES Classic Mini

In a surprise move (or maybe not so surprising given the huge interest in retro gaming these days) Nintendo has decided to release their one time classic NES console which reigned in the 1980s but with a twist; the console is now of a much smaller size to the original (pictured below). 

It will also contain a number of games and, as this is 2016, HDMI output as well.

This is to be released in September, more on the official Nintendo site here.

Visual Computer article

An article I am the co-author on has now been published on Springer's Visual Computer journal (i.e. it is available online).

This article is titled "Biologically Inspired Simulation of Livor Mortis" and can be found here.

TIGA and their Brexit suggestions

Following on from a previous blogpost from last month, TIGA, the domestic trade association for games developers, has now released - recently - a more detailed report on what it suggests the government should put in motion regarding the games industry here in the UK (and its future), with the impending leave from the EU looming on the horizon.

More on this on the official website here, definitely a very interesting read.

Reviewer for ACE 2016

As per previous years I have once again been a reviewer for the ACE 2016 conference, Advances in Computer Entertainment, this time taking place in Osaka, Japan this November.

More information on the conference on its official website here.