Category Archives: Development

Highly portable game engine Unity has added yet another platform to its line-up of supported devices – smart TVs. Gamasutra reports consumer electronics manufacturer LG has struck a deal with Unity to deliver games built on its engine to a new range of TVs. Unity has over 750,000 licensees including Square Enix. LG has also recently partnered with OnLive and is apparently on a campaign to completely rid your living room of boxes.

D3Publisher has announced an agreement with DreamWorks Animation which will see the firm taking over development of studio’s next three films: Madagascar 3, The Croods, and Rise of the Guardians. Previously, THQ was on board to develop, but announced last week it was leaving the kids’ licensed business. The first title to be released, Madagascar 3: The Video Game, will hit shelves alongside the movie’s release in theaters. Rise of the Guardians is to be released during the holidays and The Croods during spring 2013. Thanks, Gamasutra.

US retailer Future Shop has tweeted that Sony announced “LittleBigPlanet Cart Racing” during a Destination PlayStation event today, as well as a new Move steering wheel peripheral. The game also supports 3D, and we’re going to assume for the moment the game contains kart racing of some sort. That’s all that’s known at the moment, but we’ll keep you posted as more information is available.

Develop’s reporting that UK indies Eutechnyx and Brain in a Jar have joined forces to build a new, under-wraps racing project.

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A job listing for Spark Unlimited as well as a resume posted on LinkedIn have caused Battlefront 3 development rumors to resurface.

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A new online service called Fireteam, made up of former Splash Damage, Bizarre and Rackage developers Arnout van Meer, Ben Hopkinson and Stephen Gaffney, has launched, and it aims to provide an online service suite to console, free-to-play, mobile and PC developers.

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David Jaffe to leave Eat, Sleep, Play, according to a report on the Salt Lake City Tribune, but the developer has said Scott Campbell’s assertion he’s to move into the “casual space” is misleading.

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A new study by UK trade body TIGA has found the majority of local developers have moved on from pure retail models.

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“There’s just south of 300 maybe in the Providence studio, which is the core of the [Copernicus] MMO team. I’s set in the same universe [as Amalur], so it will become obvious over the next, I don’t know how many months and years of time. This game exists in the same world. In a small way, if you think of Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, and World of Warcraft, those were tied together because they were in the same IP, but there will be story connectivity between what we’re doing in the games. In the MMO, there will be races that you can play are monsters in the RPG. Things like that. Same locations, there will be cities and places, there will be a familiarity to it that… Nobody else, I think, has gone in with the intent to do that like this.” – 38 Studios head Curt Schilling to VentureBeat regarding the Kingdoms of Amalur-based MMO Copernicus.

A 2010 Sony patent dug-up by VentureBeat shows what looks to be a touchscreen handheld controller similar to the one Nintendo introduced for Wii U.

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Junction Point boss Warren Spector will be the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award at GDC, organisers have announced. The ex-Ion Storm head, who created Deus Ex, Thief and System Shock at Looking Glass, will pick up the award at the Game Developers Choice Awards on March 7. GDC GM Meggan Scavio said Spector’s career to date “exemplifies the exact qualities that a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient should possess.”

Big congrats to Warren.

Paul McCartney is writing music for an unannounced video game, according to an interview with German music publication Zeit Online, stating it will be the first time “young people” hear his music in game – barring his work with the Beatles and Wings in the Rock Band franchise.

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FlatOut 3 developer Team 6 has announced it’s currently developing three titles for Nintendo 3DS. Development began at the start of the month after initially planning to do development on the games, but were shelved after its 3DS publisher “lost confidence in the platform in an early stage”. Despite the concern, studio CEO Ronnie Nelis said it had “always believed in Nintendo doing the right thing.”

EGk has more details.

Splash Damage has announced the hiring of Marc Fascia, gameplay programmer for Enslaved at Ninja Theory.

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A proper modding API is high on Mojang’s priority list because modders have way more Minecraft development manpower than the tiny independent team.

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GDC organizers have announced Audio Track sessions from Supergiant’s Darren Krorb, Crytek’s Thomas Wollenzin, and the Game Audio Network Guild.

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Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced during the firm’s investors briefing that it has a “strong lineup of titles” on slate for the current fiscal year, and that a new 2D Super Mario game is in the works for 3DS.

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Quantic Dream’s David Cage will show off brand new tech from the studio at GDC in nearly a month’s time. The tech, which will be used in what’s coming next from the company with publisher Sony, will be shown as part of an hour-long talk that will see Cage also focus on performance capture, art direction and virtual actors.

Develop has more details.

Runic Games co-founder and CEO Max Schaefer has said the firm chose Perfect World Entertainment as its partner for the Torchlight MMO due to the Chinese company’s experience with the genre.

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A Develop source has claimed Wii U has twice the processing and graphical power of Xbox 360, but it still contains less than some studios expected.

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