In today’s computer gaming news, learn more about the School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts at Temple University’s new Video Game and Playable Media Design course that includes all aspects of video gaming development. Meanwhile, players of a video game that is scheduled for release in 2023 will find themselves immersed in a dystopian environment brought on by the effects of climate change, the new game boss. Lastly, Electronic Arts and Koei Tecmo have officially introduced Wild Hearts, which they describe as “a new kind of hunting game including unique crafting elements.” Wild Hearts was developed in collaboration between the two companies.
New Video Game Course at Temple
Original Source: Ready player one: Temple launches new video game course
Video Gaming and Playable Media Design was created in response to a desire for more game courses at Temple. The first video game production class at the institution is in the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts.
Interactive Design and Video Game Theory and Writing are also offered under the cinema and media arts department, but this new subject started in fall 2022 takes a unique approach to teaching video game production.
“Usually, game development courses focus on a certain component of production, such as art, programming, or design, but for this course, I want students to grasp how all the pieces of video game development fit together to form the ultimate result,” said adjunct assistant professor Thomas Sharpe.
Each week, pupils study a different video game discipline. Some of these subjects include level design, establishing a world for players to live in, character design, using a system called MetaHuman to produce realistic characters, and game cinematics. Students create projects using Unreal Engine 5, an industry-standard program.
Sharpe, a first-year professor, says students don’t need to know how to program or use gaming engines. “We assume everyone is fresh to these topics and go over the material together”
Sharpe loves to teach. As director of Philadelphia’s Gossamer Games, he’s helped create two games. The first is Sole, an abstract adventure game about feeling lost and alone by being the only source of light. The game was nominated for outstanding student project at the Independent Game Festival and shown at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Boston Festival of Indie Games. In Howloween Hero, a puppy goes trick-or-treating instead of a person. Windows and Mac have both.
Gossamer Games works with universities, museums, and other research groups. The Goldsmith’s Daughter is a narrative adventure game that uses the Science History Institute’s alchemical paintings to allow players to undertake experiments from mid-17th century London. Independent studio produces video games for companies.
“Video games are one of the most impactful and fascinating mediums of this generation,” said Sharpe. No rules exist for what a video game should be. This creative form is up to us.
Even for pupils not interested in video games, the new course provides creative and technical abilities. “Playing with the latest and finest technology can bring up career opportunities,” added Sharpe. We employ film and media resources in this lesson.
Sharpe hopes the curriculum will help children express their creative ideas, whether or not they involve video games. “Exposure to a multidisciplinary media that encompasses so much creativity is a great approach to promote expression and fine-tune ideas,” he said.
Climate Change Becomes a Video Game Boss
Original Source: Video games get a new boss monster: Climate change
In 2023, Hightower will be flooded.
What happens next is up to “Highwater” players, the next climate-influenced computer game. In the game, characters will make friends, fight adversaries, and scavenge for resources in a digital city that resembles post-Katrina New Orleans.
Igor Simic, creator of Demagog Studio, explained the game’s premise: “You’re just normal people living in a flood.” His gaming and animation firm is releasing “Highwater” alongside Rogue Games Inc.
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Whether “Highwater” and other games will motivate real-world action is unknown.
Developers didn’t want the game to be “preachy,” said Simic. The industry wants meaningful games, experts say. In certain circumstances, that means reflecting real-world social, economic, and environmental concerns with nuance, purpose, and yes, pleasure.
“Our focus is entertainment. No climate or political messages are overt. Our’revolutionary’ games take reality into account. It’s not escapism, says Simic, 34.
The 20 creators at his Belgrade, Serbia-based studio are encouraged to examine world events via a comic prism. “No guilt,” he said.
One industry official suggested it’s risky to do so.
“Dystopian games depress people,” says Marina Psaros, senior manager for sustainability at Unity Software Inc.
She said “Highwater” is part of a trend in the video game business in which virtual and real-world experiences are more tightly interwoven.
“Games guard culture,” stated Psaros. “For younger generations, like my kids, digital and real-world selves are entwined.”
While much of this meshing occurs at the player level, where the thrills and chills of gaming are felt individually or in player groups, concerns about the gaming industry’s role in tackling challenges like climate change are ripening because gaming has global reach like few other sectors. Creative and commercial ideas creating gaming span every continent.
At the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York, officials inaugurated the Playing for the Planet Alliance, a volunteer cooperation between UNEP and more than 30 game developers to accomplish sustainable development targets. In July, the alliance announced its 2022 “Green Game Jam” honorees in categories such as “Best in Forests,” “Best in Food,” and “UNEP Choice.”
Winners include Supercell, based in Helsinki, Finland, for “Hay Day,” a farming game that “lets you get back to nature and experience the simple life of working the land,” and Ubisoft, a French gaming giant with more than 140 titles, including “Riders Republic,” which won the 2022 “Media Choice” award for incorporating real-world wildfire risk. Chinese corporation Tencent was honored for “Carbon Island,” a game where players make decisions to attain carbon neutrality.
Psaros, a new fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, will focus on climate change and gaming. She said a handful of downloadable games allow players to make decisions about “how they can impact future scenarios,” including actions to reduce carbon emissions.
“In a game, you can talk about climate change, but then what?” she asked.
“Game of Floods,” designed by Marin County, Calif., puts gamers in charge of sea-level rise preparations on the California coast. By today’s standards, “Game of Floods” and others like it might find internet channels that reach far wider audiences, delivering amusement and instruction.
Climate-minded game developers “pushed” for climate games, and gamers “pulled” for real world-inspired content. A delicate equilibrium. Fun is key for gamers. Game businesses aim to entertain.
Simic, whose studio is finishing “Highwater,” is attentive to gamer psychology and sociology. He studied film at Columbia and philosophy there.
“Highwater” isn’t supposed to be cocky. “We’re not an NGO or firm promoting climate change. He stated they aren’t alarmists or stuffy academics.
In “Highwater,” players face obstacles and make choices.
In the game, “you’re in a small boat with other passengers seeking for a way out.” “They aid folks along the road.” They must also choose to focus on their own survival morally.
Like life, he said, it’s morally ambiguous.
EA and Koei Tecmo Release Wild Hearts in Feb
Original Source: EA and Koei Tecmo premiere Wild Hearts trailer and confirm Feb release
The game’s premiere trailer was released Wednesday, along with first details and a February 17, 2023 release date for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Origin, Steam, and Epic Game Store.
Wild Hearts is set in a fantasy feudal Japan, where players battle huge nature-infused animals called Kemono with Karakuri, ancient mechanisms.
In the game, players can roam Azuma alone or with up to two buddies in co-op, featuring cross-platform play.
Players can go on special quests while pack hunting, join other hunters in the world, or take on Kemono alone. The game has English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish voice overs.
“Wild Hearts delivers a lively, untamed fantasy world to players,” stated Koei Tecmo Games EVP Yosuke Hayashi.
“With Wild Hearts, we wanted to demonstrate the development, infusion, and true menace of Kemono while also redefining what may be done in a beast hunting game.
We designed Karakuri to fit battle, and we’re enthusiastic for players to use them to fight enormous animals and explore the environment.
EA VP Stuart Lang said, “EA Originals is for explorers.” It’s a haven for studios like Omega Force that forge new ways to play from strong creative ambitions, and for players who love to uncover untold stories and unknown worlds.
We’re pleased to follow Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two with Wild Hearts, the first AAA hunting experience for a new generation.
Kotaro Hirata and Takuto Edagawa, two Koei Tecmo directors, said IGN they worked with EA to build a global hunting game.
“Our goal was to create a Japanese-style hunting game for a new generation,” said Hirata.
“We had to create something distinctive and appealing to players everywhere. We went through many prototypes and trial and error to do this.
Edagawa continued, “We want more people in the West to play our games, and EA’s feedback from a Western perspective helps us adapt the game.”
In terms of basic design, we don’t focus on a Western audience, and as Japanese developers, we attempt to make something fun. EA respects our ingenuity.
Summary of Today’s Computer Gaming News
Overall, in response to the desire for more game education programs at Temple, the Video Game and Playable Media Design course was created. It is housed inside the School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts and is the university’s first video game production course. While courses such as Interactive Design and Video Game Theory and Writing are also offered within the cinema and media arts degree, this new video game creation course starting in the autumn of 2022 takes a novel approach.
On the other hand, Hightower will flood next year. “Highwater” is the latest climate-influenced video game. Players decide what occurs next. The game’s characters will make friends, fight adversaries, and scavenge for resources in a digital city modeled after post-Katrina New Orleans. Demagog Studio founder Igor Simic remarked, “You’re just average individuals living in a flooded area.” His gaming and animation company is partnering with Los Angeles-based Rogue Games Inc. to release “Highwater” early next year.
Finally, Electronic Arts and Koei Tecmo have unveiled Wild Hearts to the public. The game’s premiere trailer was released on Wednesday, including initial information and a confirmed release date of February 17, 2023 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Origin, Steam, and Epic Game Store. Wild Hearts is set in a fictional feudal Japan, where players combat against nature-infused enormous animals known as Kemono with the aid of Karakuri, complex mechanisms constructed from a long-lost technology.
