BA Games Design & Development

This is turning out to be a strange year in video games. Possibly the strangest year I can remember for quite some time. It was supposed to be the year of VR, the year we all got to be Jeff Fahey in the Lawnmower Man and lose ourselves in the various other worlds that designers were busy creating for the range of VR headsets hitting the market. But that hasn’t really happened. The Vive needs a space more than most of us really have in our gaming dens to appreciate and the Oculus can’t seem to ship them into people’s hands. As for PlayStation VR… We’ll just have to wait and see.

It was also supposed to be the year of the Nintendo NX. It was supposed to be the year that Nintendo took back some arbitrary throne bestowed by gamers on some arbitrary corporation for services rendered in software format. It was supposed to herald the grand new vision of the masters in Kyoto, the streamlining of the mobile and home platforms into one. It may still be, and with the release, most proven false, of various mock ups and technical specification leaks, we still may end up as slaves to Mario by the end of the year.

But more surprisingly, and from out of nowhere, and of far more interest right now is this fundamental shake up of just what consoles are. We’ve all been slightly taken aback by the PlayStation  4K, it seems. This knowledge that the console space is now going to harbour hardware upgrades seems oh, so very alien, which it is. But should it be?

Let’s go back somewhat, to the early eighties, when computers ruled the roost, at least in Europe, and the thought of incremental upgrades was already common place. Whether it was the Vic 20 to the Commodore 64 to the Commodore 128, or the Spectrum 16k to the 48k to the 128k, it didn’t seem to matter that much. Even  a generation on, there was the Amiga 500 then then Amiga 1200 and so on, until the PC became the de facto home computer and upgrading was just what you did. This all seemed acceptable and good and just the way things were.

But not in console town, where things have always been done differently. You could pretty much always rely on knowing that if you bought a console at the start of the generation, it would pretty much be the same console at the end of the generation until the replacement came along. The NES to the SNES to the N64 to the GameCube to the Wii to the Wii U for example. It was just the way things were. Bar some small incremental upgrades like the 4k ram pack in the N64, it was business as usual. My launch PlayStation could play games and was fundamentally just the same as someone buying one at the end of the generation.

Yet it seems that change is in the air, a fundamental shifting of the console goalposts. It’s only two and a half years since the PlayStation 4 came out to unprecedented success, shipping in excess of 40 million consoles worldwide, which is no small thing. Yet there has always been the nagging feeling that both it and, probably more so, the Xbox One, were slightly underpowered. I never felt that. Looking at titles like Halo 5, The Order:1886, Forza 6, Killzone: Shadowfall and Ryse, I never once thought that they looked anything other than incredible. Yet, there were calls that the systems were not up to scratch, not powerful enough. So in response, we seem to be heading into uncharted waters.

It started a couple of months back with Microsoft stating that there was the possibility of an updated Xbox One, a possibility that the technological advancements held by Sony would be quashed with some new hardware revision. This was swiftly followed by rumours a PS4K or something coming out of GDC, which have now finally turned out to be true. The new PS4, codenamed Neo (you have to love the 17 year old Matrix reference here), is now incoming. Better CPU, GPU and faster RAM to give us better resolutions and frame rates. But, and here’s the strange thing, there can be nothing unique, bar these visual differences, to software released on the new PS4K. The games have to be the same, offer the same features, offer the same DLC, offer the same experience (bar frame rate etc) as they do on the base PS4 released two and a half years ago. And to me, this seems really strange. I can understand why people are going to be up in arms if this wasn’t the case, but I’m not really seeing the point of this, unless of course, it’s got nothing to do with gaming at all, and Sony are just using the renewed reputation of the PlayStation brand as a Trojan horse for their other products.

You remember games don’t you? You know, those things you used to play. Those things that you used to control with a controller, a Wiimote or a joystick. You remember them, don’t you? It seems so long ago now, but just try and remember when you picked up a pad and thoroughly enjoyed playing something. That thrill of controlling Master Chief in Halo, Bayonetta in Bayonetta, a Ferrari in Forza, even Pacman in Pacman; you remember that thrill, don’t you?

It’s an odd thing to contemplate, that games are not something that people play anymore; that games are now something that people watch and experience vicariously through other people playing them. The rise of Youtube, Twitch and Ustream have ushered in a whole new way of experiencing games that has changed the consumption of them from an interactive art form to a passive experience that is being mistakenly confused as the same thing.

I recently bought Besiege from Steam. It’s an Early Access game and I’d heard interesting things about it. For a fiver I thought I’d see what the fuss was all about. So I bought it, played it for a bit, and decided that it was good fun and was looking forward to seeing how it would expand from its Early Access beginnings. When I spoke to people about it, telling them that I had bought it, the first comments I received were asking whether I had seen the crazy stuff the people had created on Youtube. I stated that I hadn’t, that I found the pleasure in the game not from seeing what other people had created, but what I was able to create in order to pass each round. This was met by shakes of the head and further assertions that I really should look at what other people had created.

This argument baffles me. Games are there to be played and experienced by you. The thrill of the game is in the playing, isn’t it? This notion that you can get just as much enjoyment from watching a game being played by some Youtube personality whilst they jabber inanities over it is complete anathema to me. It’s a concept that seems utterly at odds with what makes gaming a truly unique art form.

A recent article on Gamesindustry.biz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-03-18-minecraft-4-3-billion-monthly-youtube-views-and-counting) stated that Youtube clips of Minecraft had been viewed an incredible 4.3Billion times. Behind this was Grand Theft Auto with a mere 1.1Billion views. Practically all these views were of fan made videos, so somebody somewhere is playing them, but these are more than likely Youtube personalities that are being lapped up by gamers, or should we call them viewers? I can’t do the math to work out how much time has been spent watching these videos rather than playing games. I admit that with the advent of mobile technology, it is much easier to watch YouTube clips when on the move, a time when you wouldn’t normally be gaming. But then the flip side of that argument is that with games being so readily available on mobiles as well, why aren’t gamers playing games on them?

More and more I see and hear this displacement, this confusion that watching a video of a game being played is the same as having played it yourself. You could argue that how is this any different from the millions of people who watch football every weekend in some form rather than heading down the park and playing it themselves, or any other sporting activity you wish to use instead of football. But I’d counter that with the assertion that professional sports are represented in games with professional e-sports, and with these I do not have a problem. Watching top gamers play games at the very highest skill level makes games as inherently worthwhile and pertinent to society as football and every other sport that commands an audience. But this watching of random Youtube clips is akin to millions of people regularly tuning in to watch me play football at my local park whilst I babble over the top of it.

Please note that www.globalgamejamgrimsby.com is now live! You can also find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalgamejamgrimsby/

Please register for the regions biggest game jam here:

I’m going to start this with something that’s been a dawning realisation for some time now; both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One released a year too early. There are probably quite a few people who would disagree with this statement, least of all those who work for Sony. I can understand why of course, with the PlayStation 4 selling somewhere in the region of 7.5million units in its first seven months on sale. Employees of Microsoft might also disagree; probably not as vehemently, seeing as at last count they had only shipped 5million units into retail. But if you don’t work for them, I fail to see how you could disagree.

Driveclub was the first indicator that something wasn’t right. Sony’s big racing title for launch, their Forza competitor, pushed back weeks before the console’s launch to an indefinite time in the “Launch Window”. Seemingly that Launch Window now lasts for an entire year, as Driveclub is due to come out in October 2014. This wasn’t a third party developer who may have got their hands on the hardware quite late; this was one of Sony’s first party studios who had been involved in the gestation of the machine itself.

Now, if Driveclub had been an anomaly, a one off, then everything would have been fine. But then there was Watch_Dogs, the next big game to slip from the launch period. This could have been down to Ubisoft not wanting to launch another title against their own Assassin’s Creed franchise, it could have been down to something else, but it was pushed back six months and when it eventually came out, it didn’t live up to the visual promise of the original 2012 E3 announcement trailer. My thoughts are this: Ubisoft overestimated the power of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and the delay was due to making what they had originally designed for these two consoles fit into what was eventually delivered. To quote Digital Foundry on Eurogamer, “The most obvious conclusion is that Ubisoft - and it is not the only company to do this by any stretch - simply overestimated the raw power it would get from the new consoles…”

Looking further ahead, we’ve had a slew of games slip this year, some by a few months, others completely into 2015. The Evil Within, Batman: Arkham Knight, The Witcher 3, Mad Max, The Order: 1886, The Division, Dying Light, and Even Halo 5. More importantly is what we’ve actually had delivered into shops since the two machines came out.

I’m aware that when the 360 came out we got a few cross generation games with the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and even the Gamecube getting some of the games that launched with the Xbox 360 – King Kong, Gun, Hitman: Blood Money and Tomb Raider Legend and Anniversary being among them. But the big releases on the Xbox 360 were the exclusive titles (or in the cases of Call of Duty 2, Oblivion and Quake 4, only available on the equally powerful PC as well). Condemned, Call of Duty 2, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, PGR 3, Ridge Racer 6 and then after a few months Oblivion, Dead or Alive 4, Quake 4 and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

What have we had this time? Killzone Shadowfall, Knack, Infamous Second Son, Dead Rising 3, Forza 5 and Ryse. Oh, and Fighter Within. You might want to include Resogun and Killer Instinct to that list as well. Aside from that, it’s been cross generational ports with a slightly better frame rate and resolution. Even the Xbox One’s shining light, Titanfall, has a more than decent Xbox 360 version. The list of exclusive titles for the two new machines is almost laughably poor. Killzone, pretty as it may be, feels inferior to both its predecessors on the PlayStation 3. Ryse, again very pretty to look at, is amazing in that they managed to make a single Roman’s conquest of ancient England into the dullest block/slash/execute/repeat game I think I’ve played. The single shining light from this whole morass is Dead Rising 3, but that next generation vision comes at a cost with a fairly low resolution and poor frame rate; something that will be fixed in the upcoming PC port.

Finally, we have these last generation up-rezzed ports. Tomb Raider Definitive Edition – oh, look, she’s got a new face! – then Rayman Legends and Injustice. Coming up we have versions of Metro 2033 and Last Light, but more tellingly, we have The Last of Us from Sony this month and some version of Halo reworking later this year, and it’s the port of The Last of Us that seems to me to be the biggest indicator that not all is well with development of games on the new machines. The game is barely a year old and I can’t for one moment believe that if Sony hadn’t had to delay Driveclub until October and The Order: 1886 until next year that we would be seeing this as some kind of tent pole release for the summer to shore up the paucity of exclusive software on the machine.

Once again the keen game developers and designers studying BA Games Design & Development at the University Centre Grimsby and BTEC Games Design & Development at the Grimsby Institute of FHE have packed their laptops, cables and computers and shipped over to Hull College for the Global Game Jam 2014.

Over 40 dedicated students have taken up the challenge of creating a game on 48 hours based around a globally set central theme. 

As soon as the theme is announced, the eager designers form groups, teams, brainstorm ideas and then cluster around their computers bashing out graphics and code.

Its collaborative, fun and simply brilliant! And all under the watchful eye of University Centre Grimsby, Hull College, Sony, Microsoft, Jagex, Platform and Boss Alien. The next generation of games, game designers, developers and programmers are here and working on their products - with some major success already!

The next 48 hours are going to be full of surprises! Good luck to ALL Global Game Jammers all over the world!

The University Centre Grimsby, home of the BA Games Design & Development degree, has opened another video games development lab with amazing top spec computers - and the students are loving it!

We all know that the games industry is a tough nut to crack! Statistics suggest that while the UK games industry is one of the best in the world - the competition for the top jobs is getting intense. An undergraduate degree in video games design and development is one way of ensuring that you have the specialised knowledge, experience and expertise required by today's games industry.

The Grimsby Institute and the University Centre Grimsby is at the forefront of video games education in the UK. Not only is it the home of the £23 million University Centre building (and the soon to be opened £20 million Arts College) but also where the nationally recognised BA Games Design and Development degree is delivered.The recent investment in another computer games development lab further enhances the degree programme. The students already enjoy 24/7 access to the computer labs, expert tuition from industry recognised tutors and industry advocates, top spec computer equipment, consoles and hardware and a full green screen studio and motion capture studio.

The University Centre Grimsby has one of the best games development facilities and degree programmes in the country and with tuition fees held at an amazing £5995, newly fitted hall of residence 5 minutes walk away and amazing small group sizes (average ten students to one games staff member), you really are getting more tuition and facilities for your money. 

If you want to study a degree in Games Design and Development, and you want to make finished and publishable games with like-minded games students then contact the University Centre Grimsby via [email protected] or 0800 315002