Tag: Gaming

• Little Town provides an introduction to the principles of game development using GameMaker to college and university students. By building a game to control a child in an idyllic small town, players learn how to design games and develop key coding skills

• The interactive game-building tutorial provides a robust framework for educators with teaching guidelines and assessment criteria with which colleges and universities can effectively start teaching game design to their students.

YoYo Games today announced the launch of Little Town – a major new game-making tutorial which teaches students and hobbyists game development with GameMaker Studio 2, the world’s leading 2D game development engine.

Developed in collaboration with award-winning game developer and university lecturer, Benjamin Rivers, Little Town has been designed to help new game designers quickly learn the core functionality of GameMaker Studio 2 in a natural, fun way.

Little Town is an adventure game in which players control a child in an idyllic small town. By following clues players must find the right items and bring them to one of the town’s three characters – the Baker, Teacher and Grocer.

The tutorial enables students, hobbyists and new game designers to create their own layout for Little Town and use code to bring it and its people to life. Users will also be able to choose where to hide each item, as well as writing their own hints and dialogue.

With over eight hours of video tutorials as well as a wealth of supporting materials, Little Town provides a robust framework for educators with teaching guidelines and assessment criteria with which colleges and universities can effectively start teaching game design to their students.

The Little Town tutorial teaches many core skills from creating vibrant animations using GameMaker’s powerful Sequences tool to controlling sprites, sounds and laying-out the playing area  – providing the perfect introduction to GameMaker Studio 2 and the fundamental principles of game design.

Stuart Poole, General Manager, YoYo Games, said: “We’re extremely pleased to release Little Town, our most comprehensive GameMaker tutorial to date and the first in a series of high-quality tutorials which are currently under development.

Poole continued: “While we’re constantly striving to make GameMaker as easy to use and accessible as possible, quality tutorials like Little Town are essential as they provide a practical framework to enable users to quickly get up-to-speed with the core functionality of GameMaker so they can start making their own amazing games.”

Benjamin Rivers, Little Town’s creator, added: “While Little Town is perfect for anyone who wants to learn how to understand the basics of game making, the tutorial has been developed specifically to support students in higher education who are learning game design”.

The tutorial features six sections and has been designed to allow for both synchronous and asynchronous participation for in-class and remote learning.

“Little Town has been structured to encourage self-driven learning and experimentation, which we hope will inspire a new generation of game developers,” added Rivers

Fingersoft, the Finnish company behind the popular Hill Climb Racing games presents Boom Karts: a fast-paced online multiplayer PVP karting game. The game was developed in partnership with another Finnish game studio, Zaibatsu Interactive.

Boom Karts is a free-to-play mobile game now globally available on Android via Google Play. The iOS version is expected to come out to the App Store later.

In the new Boom Karts game speed is the goal. The players’ aim is to beat the opponents to the podium, not just by racing but also by using gadgets obtained along the way. The online multiplayer game can be played against friends or other players. As the game progresses, the players can upgrade, modify and equip their vehicles and avatars with items earned through gameplay.

“We set out to create a game that has the potential to become ‘the best in class’. We wanted to develop a fun karting game with racing in focus, with a very short time from app launch to racing against other players. Boom Karts has tight controls and the drift boost mechanic is intuitive and easy to learn. You can customize your character with whatever style you like, from plain to hilarious, and each kart has its own unique feel, also depending on selected parts,” Fingersoft Producer Daniel Fischer explains.

”The development process has been very transparent and we worked closely with Fingersoft throughout the entire process. Both of us understood that this ensures the best final outcome”, tells Jussi Ultima, the CEO of Zaibatsu Interactive. “We have great expectations: last year’s Rambo: Last Click was a newsworthy production, but Boom Karts is aiming even higher when it comes to the amount of players. Very often the discussion on Finnish game industry concentrates on investor-funded companies based in the Helsinki metropolitan area, but this co-production is a great reminder that we have top game development know-how all around.”

The Game Development World Championship (GDWC) 2020 came to a close with the Winners announcement in a live-streamed awards show last Friday, April 30th.

The GDWC 2020 was the biggest in the championship’s history with over 1800 participating development teams from over 100 countries. The Pro category alone had over a thousand games submitted making the judges’ task of deciding the Top 3 games in each category a very challenging one. After much analysis and discussion, the winners were decided, and here they are.

GDWC 2020 Pro Category Top 3:
Winner: There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension by Draw Me A Pixel (France)
2nd Place: The Riftbreaker by EXOR Studios (Poland)
3rd Place: Helheim Hassle by Perfectly Paranormal (Norway)

GDWC 2020 Hobby Category Top 3:
Winner: Burn Me Twice by Null Reference Studio (Spain)
2nd Place: Fat Bear Week by Team Fat Bears (Finland)
3rd Place: From the Shadows by Gamagora (France)

GDWC 2020 Game Jam Category Top 3:
Winner: Time to Dance! by Savvy Community (France)
2nd Place: Cat Colony Crisis by Devil’s Cider Games (Canada)
3rd Place: Big Fish by TOQGames (USA)

In the Fan Favourite category, the winners were decided by gamers in an open vote.
GDWC 2020 Fan Favourite Category Top 3:
Winner: Receiver 2 by Wolfire Games (USA)
2nd Place: The Pancakes Official Game Show by Dema Studios (Italy)
3rd Place: Haven by The Game Bakers (France)

GDWC Team sends congratulations to all Winning Teams and big thanks to all participants. GDWC would also like to send out thanks to the judges and all sponsors for making the championship possible.

During the Show, GDWC also announced the GDWC 2020 Official Selection, a highlight selection of games that caught the GDWC team’s and judges’ attention during the championship. Check out the Official Selection here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2eZEU_-Xl4

See all the GDWC 2020 Winners in a showcase video here:

If you missed the almost 8 hour long Awards show, you can watch the recording on the GDWC Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOfjHIiKXWY

Gamestream, the world leading provider of cloud video game streaming solutions for B2B industries – is thrilled to announce it has emboldened its publisher partnership network, having secured the licensing rights for over fifty console quality video games for its rapidly expanding family focused cloud gaming catalogue. Gamestream is welcoming onboard globally recognised IPs including the smash hit children’s franchise PAW Patrol: On A Roll!, Asterix & Obelix XXL 3 – The Crystal Menhir, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, and Garfield Kart Furious Racing.

In addition to the strengthening of its iconic video games catalogue, Gamestream is launching a solution to empower global video games publishers to launch their own-branded cloud gaming solution. This solution harnesses the full might of Gamestream’s market leading technology, delivering ultra high performance cloud gaming with low bandwidths, across all platforms including PC, tablet, console, mobile, IPTV and Smart TV, delivering gaming anywhere at any time. The solution includes critical operational services such as auditing, game data analysis, and the optimisation of video game content so they translate well into high quality cloud gaming experiences.

Gaëlle de Jong, Director of Content and Licensing at Gamestream, commented:

“We’re incredibly proud to be expanding our family of global publishing partners to deliver over thirty new titles to our burgeoning global catalogue of iconic video games. Our goal is to focus on providing our diverse industry clients across sectors such as telecoms and hospitality with best in class gaming franchises which are loved by families all around the world.”

Ivan Lebeau, CEO of Gamestream, commented:

“Over the last year or so, an increasing number of our video game publishing partners have asked Gamestream to develop bespoke cloud gaming strategies and solutions for their core brands. They are doing this to create a direct communication and community channel with their passionate user bases, and also with the objective of reaching new audiences. Publishers are now realising that cloud gaming allows them to easily reach casual gamers which don’t normally invest in hardware such as a console or PC, or gamers with limited computational resources at the user side. The games industry is facing an inflection point, as cloud gaming is powering a transformation for video gaming accessibility and usage. Publishers can now engage with their carefully nurtured communities with cloud gaming, due to Gamestream’s leading global technical infrastructure and expertise.”

Community Villa is one of the leading agencies in the gaming industry around the world and one of the few companies that focuses on direct action in gaming communities. It builds communities of players for new titles from scratch, using a number of promotional activities in multiple channels and is responsible for all communication on the player-developer / player-publisher line. The company started the conquest of the gaming market in April 2016 — since then, it has worked on over a hundred projects with developers and publishers from all around the world. The extensive portfolio of Community Villa includes activities for games such as SUPERHOT, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, RUINER, The Universim, Gloomhaven, Dying Light: Bad Blood, Fishing Clash and Ghostrunner.

Merging companies means improving the quality and broadening the scope of offered services. Community Villa, together with the support of Fantasyexpo, are planning a global expansion to comprehensively support game developers and publishers (both PC and console and mobile) on every continent, both in the promotion process leading to increased sales of games and in the area of communication with players and strengthening relationships with them.

Adrian Palma, the founder of Community Villa, has been involved in gaming from the beginning of his career. He worked as an editor for leading gaming portals, gained experience as a community manager in a number of gamedev studios as well as worked in the marketing department at Google. The idea to bring Community Villa to life was inspired by the reflection that what distinguishes the most commercially successful games in the overcrowded and demanding gaming market is… the gaming community. Numerous great productions get lost in the flood of new games precisely because of the lack of a fan community around them.

Every good game deserves to reach its audience base — this is the keynote of Community Villa activities. So far, we have been able to help a huge number of developers and publishers in Poland; now is the time to help companies from outside our country on a larger scale. We are ready to support promising games globally and we look forward to delivering results to game developers around the world, says Adrian Palma, founder of Community Villa.

The merge will also benefit Fantasyexpo, which will further expand the offer and communication possibilities in the area of gaming, both for its own esports and gaming initiatives, as well as for brands that are looking for new alternatives and communication opportunities in the gaming space.

Investors recognise Azerion’s huge potential in online games and user engagement

This second significant financing in two years will pave the way for Azerion to become a major platform player

Azerion has attracted much investor interest with a new funding package aimed at accelerating the company’s growth.

The new funds will be used (among other things) to finance multiple acquisitions across its platform, adding both exciting new gaming content as well as creating revenue opportunities. These acquisitions help us in our mission to bring a wide range of entertainment content for consumers while enabling content providers to engage with users in a safe, reliable and meaningful way.

This new issue will refinance a €100 million bond issued on the Frankfurt exchange last year. It is rare for a private company to raise these levels of capital, but Azerion’s track record of exponential growth supplemented by acquiring gaming and monetisation technology companies and quickly building their revenue has grabbed investor attention. Last year’s bond was met with significant investor interest and the company has experienced a similar response to this new bond.

“Online entertainment has become central to people’s lives,” says Atilla Aytekin, Azerion’s co-CEO. “It has enormous business potential. Our vision is to make digital entertainment better, safer, and more reliable. That way everyone can enjoy the basic human need to play in a carefree environment, and advertising and publishing businesses can thrive.”

Since it was founded in 2015, Azerion has worked hard to create a digital entertainment platform for people of all ages to enjoy. This has been supported by an active acquisitions strategy, adding to the Azerion family 38 companies in the digital entertainment and technology sectors. Azerion layers these acquisitions on top of its existing business into a single, coherent platform. Within this ecosystem, these businesses have grown organically and work seamlessly with each other.

This has seen Azerion become a powerhouse in online entertainment providing a broad range of content to users and monetising it through in-app purchases and advertising — through a proprietary platform that provides safety, reliability and efficiency to all stakeholders.

“The gaming business represents a total annual market of  US$175 billion,” Atilla explains. “We’re well on our way to becoming the biggest platform in Europe with our vision to serve that market. Our goal is to create a safe, connected and intelligent ecosystem (enabled through our technology) that will accelerate the growth of European companies connected to our operations.”

The new bonds are expected to be listed on Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm.

Decentral Games, the world’s first community-owned metaverse casino, and Amnesia, the internationally renowned club with over 40 years of history, have announced an agreement to develop the Amnesia Ibiza club in the metaverse. The Amnesia Ibiza club, powered by Decentral Games, will bring the Amnesia Ibiza experience from the real world to the virtual world. Without needing to be in Ibiza themselves, electronic dance music fans from all over the world can look forward to partying and socializing at three new Amnesia dancefloors – Amnesia Experience and Amnesia Hype, in the metaverse.

The Amnesia Ibiza digital club, promoted by Decentral Games, will have 3 spaces:
– The Iconic Terrace, where users can move around one of the best and most recognized dance floors in the world, listen to music or watch live streaming sessions from Ibiza

– The Museum, where the user can enjoy music and visual content of the history of Ibiza, flyers, paintings and even clubber clothes; both from current and previous years

– And a third space called the “Amnesia Arena”, will accommodate new talents, concerts or other special shows

Decentral Games also plans to develop an Amnesia store within the metaverse club to offer exclusive NFTs, ranging from electronic music, DJ’s autographs,art pieces to in-game wearables people can wear in the metaverse. These limited edition NFT wearables will be produced in collaboration with celebrity DJs and producers, appealing to music fans who are interested in digital collectibles from their favourite artists. These NFT wearables also allow Decentral Games members to earn extra $DG token rewards when they wear them while playing games in Decentral Games. Decentral Games community members can also expect regular auctions of exclusive NFTs during the music events. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to organizations that support new talents living in regions of the world where they have little access to avenues for monetizing their own music.

The pandemic is driving demand for alternative entertainment as there is no certainty when governments worldwide can put COVID-19 under control despite the availability of vaccines. “There’s a shift in how people attend music events these days. We have seen an increase in individuals joining our Decentral Games community when we held our recent event featuring DJ NIGHTMRE’s live performance. Our next event for the launch of our latest casino, Atari themed casino featuring platinum-selling DJ ,Dillon Francis’ live performance is expected to break the record number of users,” said Decentral Games’ founder/ CEO, Miles Anthony. “Bringing such an established name from the entertainment industry onto the metaverse is very exciting for us,” Decentral Games’ director of Investor Relations, Gabriel Mellace added. “This partnership is a move that is bound to breathe new air to both parties, which is expected to not just add value to user experience but also to overall market worth.”

“This partnership with Decentral Games will bring a piece of the heart of Amnesia and Ibiza into the homes of our fans, allowing them to recreate a unique experience through the 3D metaverse environment of Decentral Games. We have always focused on offering our clients the best party of their lives, now with the pandemic we must try to bring a little piece of Ibiza to each home wherever they are.” said Sergi Blaya, Brand Manager at Amnesia

The virtual launch of Amnesia Ibiza’s metaverse club is expected to be in June. Amnesia is preparing a line-up of world-famous DJs and artists, to be announced later. There will also be exclusive meet and greet opportunities for $DG holders with these artists. $DG is Decentral Games’ governance token which $DG holders own the rights to propose and vote on key decisions that shape the future of Decentral Games.

Aliens, the latest Puzzle Pack DLC for Pixel Puzzles : Illustrations and Anime released Friday 23rd April as KPL continue to grow the library throughout 2021

Kiss Publishing Limited (KPL) release their latest Puzzle Pack for Pixel Puzzles : Illustrations and Anime.

Pixel Puzzles Illustrations & Anime is the natural successor to the 4 million selling Pixel Puzzles Ultimate. What Ultimate achieved through puzzles created with outstanding photographic images, Illustrations & Anime achieves through stunning visual art, both drawn and painted, creating some stunning puzzles.

Like Ultimate, PPIA is a free to play client and comes with five specially selected, free puzzle packs with a further Sixteen now available to add to your Steam library.

Aliens features nine extra terrestrial puzzle images for $7.99 / £5.79 / €6.59.

KPL also plan to bring the franchise extensively to console formats through the course of 2021.