Unreal Developer Kit

There's news on the Beyond Unreal site that Epic has released an Unreal Development Kit. This makes the Unreal Engine 3 runtime available free for non-commercial use.

It seems there's also the possibility of releasing mods or total conversions commercially via Steam, in what appears to be something akin to the way in which independent developers can develop and flog apps for the popular apple phone: the vendor takes a 30% cut and the developer keeps the rest. There aren't any details on this yet aspect of the UDK yet, but it would appear to open up possibilities for modders/game developers.

There are a couple of games included too, a ball game and something called Whizzle. There's also a design document and developer's video diary for the latter which should make interesting reading and viewing. Beyond Unreal refer to the UDK "the most powerful game creation toolset there is". Click on the image to read the news on BeyondUnreal.com and get the download links.

GameCity, Nottingham

The GameCity 2009 computer games festival in Nottingham has just finished. (It ran from 27th-31st October). It'd be great if we could get a trip to the festival organised for next year. Hopefully, costs for transport, accommodation and entry won't be too prohibitive and, if enough people were committed to going, we could see what kind of group rates we could get. They offer student "internships" too ("internship" seems to be the new word for "placement" that appeared to gain popularity after the news was full of stories about a certain Whitehouse "intern" and her infamous blue dress a few years ago). I imagine that, while there would be a lot of interest in securing such a placement, it would be something well worth the effort of submitting an application. There's no pay and you'd have to sort out your own accomodation, but they do feed you, you get to get involved in the festival and, when you're not "on" will get access to the event itself. And just think of how that would look on a CV.

Click on the image to go to the Nottingham GameCity photostream on Flickr.

Machinima Expo 2009 - Student Showreel

Nicole Small created a great promo piece for the Machinima Expo that's taking place at UCSville in Second Life on 22nd November 2009. Another of Nicole’s machinima pieces will be showing at the festival, as part of the UCS student showreel. The showreel includes the following works:

Ben Deakin, When Mr Deff Comes Calling

Alexandra Burnell, The Tell-Tale Heart

Mark McLaughlin and David Hunter, S.P.A.Z.

Aaron Giles, American Beauty

Alan Salmon, Soldiers of War: Tribute

Aaron Bridgeforth, Dante Vein Interview

Nicole Small, Carmilla

It’s great that these pieces will be seen by an international audience along with some of the most exciting and cutting-edge machinima around. A full list of the films in the running for prizes can be seen here:

http://machiniplex.net/expo/films-screening-at-the-expo/

As well as the film festival itself, and the associated awards to be given by a panel of judges, there’ll be other things going on too, such as discussion panels, Q&A sessions with machinima directors, presentations and various exhibits and stands (it’ll be a bit like the Latitude festival, except it won’t be in a field).

Of particular note is a presentation called “Which Machinima Engine For You?”, which will be of interest to those who want to get started in machinima and who might be wondering which game to use (did I mention machinima is the art of making films using games technology?)

Another highpoint will be an installation featuring the work of machinimator Lainy Voom. Her wesbite is here: http://www.voom-machine.com/

Meanwhile, if you have two minutes to spare, spend them watching her recent film, Push, which was screened at the Cambridge Film Festival.

Virtually Where?

This presentation, by Andy Powell of Eduserv, considers some of the ways Second Life is being used in education, along with some of the reasons why it isn't always as successful as it might be. Apparently 80% of HE institutions in the UK make some sort of use of SL, even if it is "under the radar". Powell's presentation also notes the various multi-user virtual environments that are now available as alternatives to Second Life.

The presentation, which I found on Vod Pod, was originally made to the UCISA User Support Conference (University and Colleges Informaiton Systems Association).

Virtually where? Are 3-D virtual worlds such as Second Life having an impact on learning? - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Understanding Games

Last time I blogged about Understanding Games (in a blog I since appear to have mislaid--if you see it anywhere, do please let me know where I left it) it was so new that the second episode had only just appeared.

Now, all four episodes are available, and very good they are too. I particularly like the way episode three handles rules and r-ing the fm.

Understanding Games is a student project by Andrea Zecher at the University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam. It is a series of four games--actually interactive tutorials--which explain the basic theory of games. Understanding Games has picked up some awards, including a Serious Game award in 2007.

Where Worlds Collide - Machinima Expo 2009

Nicole Small, currently in the final year of her BA (Hons) degree in Film and Media Studies at UCS, created a marvelous short promo for the forthcoming Machinima Expo 2009. There's Sims 2, Second Life, and what looks like a bit of Quake III Arena/Machinimation 1 and World of Warcraft all in a glorious green-screened melange of machinima. I particularly like the way a poster advertising the event is just in the background in one of the shots.

Where Worlds Collide:

machinima, Nicole Small, Second Life, ucs, UCSville

Machinima Expo 2009

I was in Second Life last week for a meeting with various people involved with the upcoming Machinima Expo. Toward the end of the meeting my avatar started to move around oddly and I ended up having to fly around in order to try and regain control. Before things got odd, I took a few snaps of the assembly and post them here. Clicking on one of the small images will open a bigger version on Flickr.