Entries tagged with gdc - Channel 10

Step into your television : Z-Dome

Laura — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:25:00 GMT

You have to admit, owning the Z-Dome would make you the coolest kid on the block. Within the Z-Dome immersive experience, the user visually feels like part of the environment. You can go flying over a volcano or really get on that stage while playing Guitar Hero. I took it for a test drive and got all the nitty gritty details for you. The good thing is that it's coming out in a smaller consumer format that regular people can actually afford and there are tons of tweaks you can do to really make it fit your needs.

NeuroSky: Powered by your mind

Laura — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:37:00 GMT

NeuroSky is a break through mind controlled interface. In our never-ending search for new and better ways to experience our games, I found this headset. Now, I've tried EEG reading headsets before but they always involved wet sensor pads and therefore were somewhat messy and complicated. Brainwaves have been used in medical research for years and now NeuroSky is bringing it to us, the consumers. I gave it a test ride to see just how powerful my brainwaves are. Be afraid.

Wanna work for Xbox?

Laura — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:46:00 GMT

People are always approaching me and asking how they can get their foot in the gaming industry door. What a dream come true it would be to be a lifelong gamer and then actually get paid to be a part of what you love? Well, the truth is there are alot more opportunities than you might think. Xbox and Microsoft are constantly on the hunt for fresh new talent- and sometimes they even recruit it! I came across an Xbox recruiting booth and decided to get you guys all the info on nabbing that dream job. Enjoy.

XNA Challenge: Be a game maker!

Laura — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:20:00 GMT

Think you have what it takes to be a video game designer? Well XNA is offering you the opportunity and the tools. Meet me at GDC next year...

Games on your Zune!?! What? How? When?

Laura — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:08:00 GMT

There are many happy Zune owners right about now. At GDC last week Microsoft announced that XNA Game Studios games can now also be made for the Zune. If you didn't know, XNA is a game development toolkit available to "do it yourself" enthusiasts for about $99 / year. You don't need to create your own games, simply take advantage of XNA games created by the user base. The XNA team also made some cool announcements about Xbox LIVE community games. I got all the good dirt- take a look.

Download and Vote for your favorite Independent Video Game

Tina — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Come on people, what are you waiting for? We all love FREE! Organizers of the Independent Games Festival (IGF) have launched the IGF Audience Award voting website, allowing game fans everywhere to download and play all of the eligible Main Competition finalist games who submitted a publicly playable demo, and vote for their favorite independent game of the year. Online voting is open now and continues through the day of the IGF ceremony, taking place alongside the Game Developers Choice Awards at the 2008 Game Developers Conference February 20^th. The winner of the Audience Award will be awarded a $2,500 prize, part of the $50,000 total in prizes being given as part of the IGF Main and Student Competitions. The full list of finalist games for download and voting is available at http://www.igf.com/audience.html; the full list of IGF finalists is available at http://www.igf.com.

In addition to those available to play via digital download, all finalist games will be playable at the IGF Pavilion, February 20-22, on the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Expo floor. Finalists were chosen from a record 173 entries and represent the growth of the independent games movement with innovative games of excellent quality, across various platforms. GDC, CMP Technology’s annual conference dedicated to the art, science and business of games, takes place Feb. 18-22, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Hey, if you ever want to work in the game industry...GDC is the place to be. Try to make it if you can.

Second life is hiring, who wants a job?

Tina — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:33:00 GMT

Okay party people. Everybody is always asking me "How do I get a job in the video game industry"? Well, I have not always been completely sure how to answer that question so at GDC this year I noticed that Linden Labs was hiring. I dragged my camera over to their booth and sat down with Linden Labs to find out exactly what jobs their looking for and got some tips on how to get that job. I also got the scoop on what's next for "Second Life".

OptiTrack offers you Motion Capturing you can do at home- and affordable!

Laura — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:21:00 GMT

Want to be in a video game? Want to do your own motion capture for your own animations? Well Optitrack allows you to do just that! OptiTrack cameras work with a range of software toolkits, all the way from Point Cloud tracking, Rigid Body tracking, up to Full Body Motion Capture. In addition, stop the fastest motion with high-speed grayscale video at 120 fps. OptiTrack provides the tools to create your ideal solution. Watch this clip and see just how simple the future of motion capture can be.

GDC '07: EyeTronics

Laura — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:53:00 GMT

Have you ever been blown away by the realism and accuracy of a 3D facial skin? Well then the chances are you were looking at an Eyetronics creation. Check out this clip to see how its done.

Introducing the Novint Falcon

Tina — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:36:00 GMT

The Game Developers Conference of 2007 was filled with cool new peripherals and demos. This one I found particularly interesting. It's a company called Novint and The award-winning Novint Falcon is the first controller that makes high-fidelity interactive three dimensional touch possible and practical for consumer computing applications. Being introduced initially as a PC game controller, the Falcon is, in essence, a small robot which lets users feel weight, shape, texture, dimension, dynamics and force effects when playing enabled games.

It's a bit of learning curve for shooting and such but I give you a demo of it while playing through a little known game titled Half Life 2.

GDC 2007 - XNA Challenge; Four Games in Four Days

Nic — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:29:00 GMT

Yep - that's not a typo in the title. The GDC XNA Challenge saw four teams of independent developers create four games in four days, completely from scratch, using XNA Game Studio Express. Sound tough? Well to make it just a little bit more interesting the developers had to code their games in the middle of the GDC foyer surrounded by thousands of conference attendee's, snap-happy media, Xbox 360 demo stations and a fully stocked bar. The end result? Four amazing games - all playable and all fun - including a 3D action RPG with two player co-op. Be sure to check out gamerscoreblog's extended coverage including links to download the source code for each project.

AMD at GDC

Tina — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:41:00 GMT

Our non-stop GDC coverage takes us next onto a tour of the AMD booth. AMD is taking the xbox 360 chip, shrinking it down and putting it in phones. They're also working with developers to make some great games. Nic Fillingham our Singapore rep for channel 10 does an indepth interview to bring you the scoop. 3D graphics on Mobile phones in a few years...hey, that's what they're saying. :)

Emotiv Systems: We get a first glimpse at this revolutionary brain gaming peripheral

Tina — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:24:00 GMT

At GDC this year, Emotiv Systems unveiled a neural interface that was all the buzz. It was the hottest thing on the show floor and people were shocked. Remember when Force Feedback was cool? Emotive's technology is based upon interpreting the electrical activity in the human brain via EEG that looks below the individually unique outer cortex to deeper regions of the brain. You strap on an electrode studded headset that wirelessly interfaces with a receiver so thinking about making a decision in a video game actually makes it happen. This device really works and it blew me away. You have to check out this video!

GDC '07: Penny Arcade the Video Game!

Laura — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 21:04:00 GMT

Hothead Games and Penny Arcade teamed up to create the first ever videogame based on the much loved comic strip. The first game is entitled Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The game will be released in episodic format, delivering new installments of the adventure to Penny Arcade fans every few months. I grabbed Jerry from Penny Arcade and Joel from HotHead games at GDC this year to get some more info about the game straight from the horses mouth :)

And if you've seen my last interview with Penny Arcade, sometimes getting a straight answer from these guys is not as easy as you'd imagine.

Game Developers Conference - a total success!

Tina — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:45:00 GMT

So I spent last week in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. This week was great for those who are interested in working in the gaming industry and what's happening in the gaming industry. Every major developer and publisher showed up. The week was filled with presentations, workshops and announcements from game makers like Shigeru Miyamoto to Cliff Bleszinski. Talking about next-gen to graphics to storytelling. Microsoft came to the table with some solid stuff this year.

They held an XNA competition where four community game developer teams from four different countries each set out to create an original game in just four days. At the end of GDC, the XNA Game Studio Express Challenge teams unveiled their completed games to the public at the Game Developers Conference. We snagged an interview with two of these community game makers which you will see in the near future.

Microsoft also made a few announcements:

Microsoft Announces 512MB Memory Unit for Xbox 360 and Increased Xbox Live Arcade Game Size Limit
512MB Memory Unit enhances storage capabilities and choice for Xbox 360 gamers; increased Xbox Live Arcade size limit provides additional flexibility for game developers. Read the press release.

Microsoft Unlocks Game Development and Encourages Everyone to “Dream-Build-Play”
Providing the opportunity for game developers to create visions in a world where they make the rules, Microsoft Corp. today kicked off the Dream-Build-Play game development contest, offering a $10,000 (U.S.) grand prize and the opportunity for a winner’s game to be published on Xbox Live® Arcade. Read the press release.

Laura, Nic and I got some great interviews with the guys from XNA, Penny Arcade, and tons of cool peripherals. We will be bringing you all of these videos soon.

For more information on what went down at GDC 2007 check this out.

Xbox Live stats are announced! And the winner is?

Tina — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:51:00 GMT

There is no doubt that Xbox Live has been an enormous success for Microsoft. But just how successful is it? Microsoft announced that more than 6 million Xbox 360 owners are connected to Xbox Live, a target that was projected to be hit in June. Xbox owners have spent more than 2.3 billion hours playing Xbox Live since the system launched in November 2005.

The worldwide top 10 most played Xbox Live titles are:

1. Halo 2
2. Gears of War
3. Hexic HD
4. Call of Duty 2
5. Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
6. Call Of Duty 3
7. Oblivion
8. Project Gotham Racing 3
9. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
10. Perfect Dark Zero

The top Xbox Live Arcade games are:

1. Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting
2. Bankshot Billiards
3. Marble Blast Ultra
4. UNO
5. Doom

Other stats to keep you up at night:

There are 2 million text and voice messages sent every day on Xbox Live.

The average Xbox Live Gold subscriber has 22 friends on their friends' list.

To date, Xbox 360 owners have unlocked nearly 300 million Achievements, creating a grand Gamerscore of nearly 7.5 billion.

Nearly 70 percent of Xbox Live users have downloaded at least one Xbox Live Arcade game.

More than 70 percent of Xbox Live members are downloading content from Marketplace.

Xbox Live hosts more than 7,000 pieces of gaming and entertainment content.

More than 5 billion Microsoft Points have been activated on Marketplace to date.

Nearly 50 percent of Xbox Live members in the U.S. log into Xbox Live Marketplace every time they turn on their console.

Flight Simulator X: Expansion Pack to be released this Holiday Season!

Tina — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:00:00 GMT

With the Game Developers Conference finally underway so are official announcements. The ACES team has been slaving away at the next two updates for "Flight Simulator X". The DirectX 10 update and Service Pack 1. But hold onto your wings, flying enthusiasts, this holiday season Microsoft Game Studios is officially releasing their first expansion pack in years: "Flight Simulator X: Adrenaline". New features will include multi-player air racing, who doesn't want to fight head-to-head at fifteen thousand feet? There will be new missions and all-new aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang. It's going to come out on both Windows XP and Windows Vista and will include both the Game Explorer and Parental Controls.