MOGA Ace Power, an iPhone/iPod game controller

Pictured below, MOGA Ace Power is a controller which wraps around your iPhone and/or iPod device, affording you with controls similar to that of a joypad. This tackles one of the biggest criticisms of iOS games though it does appear to be quite sizeable.

What is also important about the MOGA Ace Power controller is that it is part of the Apple MFI (which stands for Made for iPhone/iPod) program and thus officially sanctioned. 

More information about the device here.

No Man's Sky, a procedurally created game

Hello Games' No Man's Sky has been making the news for its unique approach to its world creation where everything in the upcoming exploration game has been created procedurally according to it developers, even down to a single atom.

 

This is worth looking at in the video above.

Resident Evil 4 and Doom mash-up

In what is one of the most peculiar mash-ups in a mod I have seen recently; it is now possible to play the original Doom game with Resident Evil's 4 characters driving the game. This is best explained by watching the vid below. The mod is (imaginatively) called Doom The Mercenaries.

It is fascinating to see people modding games released so long ago; this can also be downloaded here (you will need a copy of Doom).

Crytek to launch mobile CryEngine powered game

I have often blogged about UDK-powered games; with the Epic Games engine now being firmly behind a number of iOS titles. Crytek is attempting to catch up on that by launching, in 2014, a game called The Collectables which is created using their popular CryEngine engine tech.

The video above shows the game (and it does look fairly impressive), this is set to appear on both Android and iOS platforms, is free to play and is, hopefully, going to set a trend with other CryEngine-created mobile titles following suit.

CryEngine instructional video from Packt Publishing

Packt Publishing who have published a book I was the co-author on (see here) also do instructional videos, with a very recent one, from November 2013, being the CryEngine SDK Game Programming Essentials one.

With an emphasis on AI for the popular Crytek engine, the video can be purchased from here (this also includes more detail on the content and a short sample clip).

Book review on the International Journal of Game-Based Learning

A book review I have authored is now published on the IGI International Journal of Game-Based Learning, on Issue 4 of Volume 3. This is on the Guide to Computer Simulations and Games, authored by Katrin Becker and J.R. Parke. The book was published by Wiley.

This review can be read in full here.

UDK iOS Game Development Beginners Guide on the official UDK website

A book I am the co-author on, released in 2012 is, I have just realised, featured on Epic Games' official Unreal engine website, alongside other resources under the Books and Guides part of the site.

This can be seen here, the book in question is the UDK iOS Game Development Beginners Guide from Packt Publishing.

 

You can purchase the book from here.

Microsoft Imagine Cup Pitch Video Challenge

Static Games, a start-up games dev studio put together by Bournemouth University BSc Games Technology undergraduate students, has achieved an Honourable Mention in the Microsoft Imagine Cup Pitch Video Challenge (under the Games category).

 

More information about this (and the competition) can be found here.

Jagex guest talk

Jagex, the Cambridge-based developer behind Runescape and Transformers Universe, is visiting Bournemouth University this coming week for a guest talk focusing on careers in games development.

 

 

You can find more information about this talk which is this coming Friday here and more about Jagex here.

Force of Habit in Develop magazine

Force of Habit (see previous post) has had another great achievement recently; they are featured in Develop magazine as one of Europe's most exciting games dev start-ups. You can access this feature in full here.

 

 

Great news for Ashley and Nick and well done to them for this distinction.

Force of Habit winners of TIGA Game Hack 2013

Force of Habit; a start-up which also has one BU graduate in it, who I have mentioned already in a post earlier this month (they won the Best New IP award at the TIGA Games Awards 2013), have now topped the TIGA Games Hack 2013 games jam competition which took place at Pinewood Studios a few days ago.

 

 

You can see more about this here on their website and even download the winning entry and play it (the game is called Timmy Bibble's Friendship Club).

John Carmack leaving id Software

John Carmack, the iconic games programmer behind titles such as Doom and Quake, has announced officially he is leaving id Software to concentrate on other activities. One of the main ones appears to be the VR headset Oculus Rift (he is the CTO for this). The end of an era but hopefully John will continue to innovate in games dev related areas.

 

 

You can read the Gamasutra article, containing quotes and the id Software press release here. 

CDE doctorate training centre renewed by EPSRC

The Centre for Digital Entertainment (CDE) doctorate training centre, a joint venture the University of Bath and Bournemouth University, has been successful in a renewal grant by EPSRC.

This is fantastic news for both Universities and also everybody involved, supervisors (I am supervising a number of students on this scheme), students and industry alike.

 

 

 You can read more about CDE here and the renewal news here.

Static Games

I have blogged about Static Games before (relating to the Make Something Unreal 2013 Live competition). Static Games is now, post-MSUL 2013 Live, a company formed of Bournemouth University students from the Games Technology course.

 

You can check out their website here.

ECGBL 2014 IPC member

I have been invited to be an international program committee member once more for the ECGBL 2014 conference. This is the 8th European Conference in Games Based Learning and will take place next year in Berlin, Germany between the 9th and 10th of October.
 

 

 

More information about the conference can be found here.

Force of Habit best new IP award at TIGA Awards 2013

Very proud to be able to mention that a start-up based in Bristol (Force of Habit) won the best new IP award (created over the last 12 months) at the recent TIGA Awards 2013 event which took place at Pinewood Studios in Slough. Ashley Gwinnell, who is a School of Design, Engineering and Computing Bournemouth University graduate, is part of the company and the award is related to the launch of their Toast Time game (about which I have blogged before).

  

 

More information about Force of Habit can be found here.

Oculus Rift/Razer Hydra/Emotiv EPOC prototype

It is great to see work like this put together with what is essentially relatively inexpensive devices such as the Rift, the Razer Hydra (a gaming controller) and the EPOC EEG. Chris Zaharia demonstrates in the video below the use of a combination of these three devices in different application areas (architecture, chemistry, military and surgery), showcasing the potential of affordable virtual reality development today.

 

Worth watching and Chris has also made this available on his site here.

Unity and Facebook

For Unity developers it is worth checking out this out here, which is now officially out of beta. This is the Unity SDK for Facebook which provides Unity games with the capability of having social features connected to the popular social networking site. This already appears to be used to good results in games such as Shadowgun: Deadzone.

You can download the latest version of the SDK (dated 22/10 on this site) from here.

Springer edited book chapter chapter accepted

A chapter I am the co-author on titled "A State of the Art Survey in the Use of Video Games for Upper Limb Stroke Rehabilitation" has been been accepted for publication for the Springer book "Virtual and Augmented Reality in Healthcare".

You can find more information about this upcoming book publication here.

VS Games 2013 proceedings on IEEE Xplore

IEEE informs us that the problems with the pdf associations for the recent 5th VS Games 2013 conference proceedings on IEEE Xplore are now resolved. 

You can access the full proceedings (if you have access on IEEE Xplore) here. Full, short and poster papers as well as workshop papers are available on IEEE Xplore from September's conference.