Tag Archives: Game development

Ammobox : How Malaysia Can Take Game Dev Further!

Jeremy Choo, founder and CEO of Ammobox, shares how far Malaysia has progressed in game development, and how it can take the serious business of making great games to the next level!

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About Jeremy Choo From Ammobox Studios

Jeremy Choo is not only the founder and CEO of Ammobox, he is one of Malaysia’s top game developers and a former lecturer on game development.

Established in 2008, Ammobox Studios is an independent game development studio based in Malaysia. Ammobox is responsible for developing the genre-breaking FPS/RTS hybrid game called EXIMIUS: Seize the Frontline.

With years of experience both in developing games, and cultivating new game developers, Jeremy Choo certainly knows what it would take for Malaysia to become a world-class nexus for game development.

In the following article, Jeremy will tell us how Malaysia’s game development has levelled up, and how we can take it further!

Recommended : Latest List of FREE Steam Games + DLCs!

 

Ammobox : How Malaysia Can Take Game Dev Further!

We’ve all been there — the game nights with friends where we gather around the TV, wrestle over a game, and inevitably choose the evergreen classics that everyone used to play. The starter Pokemon of our gaming experiences, you could say.

There is something inherently nostalgic about the early days of gaming, back when things were very much simpler. Graphics quality, gameplay experience, even options for customisation; very few of us could even imagine we would’ve made such leaps and bounds in the couple of decades since the founding days of pixelated console gaming.

In conversations about the growth of the gaming industry at large, it’s all too easy for us to slip into discussions about the software, the devices, the technology that makes it at all possible for people to now even carry immersive, imaginary worlds in their pockets. But I’ve always believed that while technology will always be the medium that brings games to the masses, tech doesn’t power itself.

The indispensable beating heart of the gaming industry is the right talent to understand, complement, and drive the rapidly advancing technology that exists.

This is arguably one of the main reasons why the Malaysian game development scene was slow to boot up — and not for any scarcity of talent, but rather a lack of general support and understanding for working in gaming as professionals.

When I first founded Ammobox, the core challenge I faced wasn’t navigating the tech requirements, but rather hiring the right artists, engineers, and programmers to make use of that very technology. The homegrown gaming scene at the time was largely comprised of outsourced stragglers and all-purpose studios that did not necessarily specialise in games. This made developing local IPs (shorthand for intellectual property, or the entire premise and ownership rights to a game’s content) especially challenging.

Funding was a whole other nemesis in itself. Most fledgling game developers wound up having to bootstrap their projects, which meant working on a project long-term with expected delays and keeping afloat on the bare minimum of time, resources, and abilities. It wasn’t uncommon for full working versions of games to be released an entire decade after its IP was developed!

Perception fed into this problem, and the difficulty in creating Malaysian IPs has led to a vicious cycle that dogs the industry to this day. By ‘perception’, I don’t necessarily mean the snide “so you play video games for work?” comments — it’s also the impression that because Malaysia didn’t have as many IPs to its name as some of our neighbouring countries, investors were hesitant to fund an industry that might not turn out to be lucrative.

Today, the gaming market is projected to reach US$200 billion in value by 2028, and Malaysia is in a great position to benefit from this rich landscape of possibilities if we can rise to the occasion.

Gaming studios and developers are now more commonplace here. Larger talent pools have also mushroomed across the country as more young Malaysians turn to making their hobby their professional craft, and especially as local universities have begun opening up game development courses.

Our current challenge has thus evolved: it has gone beyond identifying and developing that talent, to now ensuring that we keep that talent here at home.

To do that, stakeholders both from within the gaming industry and outside in its many interconnected fields need to join forces, to help Malaysia’s game development scene catch up to where it really should and can be. Digital infrastructure like Internet speeds and geographical connectivity need to reach the heights of our regional peers (making for lower ping in games and an overall smoother experience for consumers).

As for funding campaigns, which have been made easier due to the work of organisations like the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), investments are more likely to be made if the industry itself demonstrates that it is equipped for and capable of success. It is inherently a cycle: we have to first grow the industry and our IPs in order to grow our talents. We need to become those greener pastures that game development talents are seeking.

More employment opportunities, more participation in a globally competitive industry, more potential international investments and projects, more ways to showcase Malaysian talent to the world — the potential economic and cultural benefits that come from a thriving gaming industry are thrilling to imagine.

I genuinely believe that Malaysia, the diverse underdogs that we are, has a unique opportunity to take the global gaming industry by surprise with the local twist in our game titles and IPs. We already have the talent and the know-how! All we need is that little buff — so that we can graduate from mid-game to play in the big leagues.

 

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Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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CODEX Cracking Group Officially Shuts Down!

The games cracking group – CODEX – has called it quits, officially shutting down for good. This is truly the end of an era.

 

CODEX Cracking Group Officially Shuts Down!

The CODEX cracking group announced their retirement in the release notes of “The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories”.

It was not due to legal troubles (arrests) or internal conflict, but the team felt they had already achieved their goal.

A CODEX short story

CODEX was founded with one and only one goal in mind: “to give the dominating PC games group at the time, RELOADED, some serious competition.”

A highly motivated and hard-working group of veterans and rookies alike banded together and created a new name to achieve that goal. It was a fun and sometimes dirty ride with lots of give and take on both sides. Bud sadly, it did not last very long and RLD started to crumble and slowly fell apart, making the scene less interesting.

What was left when they finally surrendered and the dust settled?

The blade has been dull for a long time. Quality, tradition and pride was slowly fading to darkness.

Of course, there is a particular group that uses an old name without permission. From the first day they started releasing in the PC section, they have worked hard to shamelessly destroy the reputation of a once iconic group tag when they really should have closed down years ago after all the spectacular fuckups they are responsible for.

Since then there have only been people resurrecting and adopting old names from previously busted groups instead of creating something new and unique on their own. Starting from nothing to slowly build up a reputation for themselves through hard work was obvious too much of a hassle and recycling old identities to get a head start was their way to go.

Still, even with that, this did not lead to any serious competition with two traits we pride ourselves on– a strong continued effort and a good amount of quality output on more than just DRM-free games or simple Steam protections.

CODEX cracked a large variety of protections like Steam (Stub+API+CEG), Arxan, XboxLive, UWP, Denuvo, Origin, Play, Bethesda.net, Battle.net and custom protections on games like Grim Dawn, Street Fighter V, WWE2k20, Croteam games, BigAnt games, Minecraft Dungeons, and many more.

So now, years after reaching our initial goal, we feel that it is time to move on. We thank everyone who accompanied and supported us on our journey.

Have a good time… Bye from CODEX!

 

CODEX Ends 8-Year Run At The Top

Since they burst into the scene in 2014, CODEX has been at the forefront of cracking and removing game copy protections.

They were able to consistently crack even the strongest copy protections like Denuvo, and release major game titles soon after their launch.

That made them the bane of game developers and publishers, potentially costing them millions of dollars in revenue.

On the other hand, CODEX gave less fortunate people access to games they perhaps would not be able to afford, and a DRM-free copy to gamers who already paid for a particular game.

More than a few hardware reviewers also relied on the latest CODEX-cracked games to run benchmarks.

Perhaps their greatest effect was to convince at least some game developers to eschew paying for “strong” copy protections, and offer DRM-free games through platforms like GOG.

Warhorse Studios, for example, released Kingdom Come: Deliverance on Steam, only to have CODEX release a cracked copy within hours. But Warhorse quickly offered a DRM-free version on GOG.

In the end, Warhorse sold half a million copies of Kingdom Come: Deliverance within two days, and a million copies by the end of the week. By its first anniversary, two million copies were sold, even though a CODEX cracked copy existed on launch day.

Warhorse Studios director and co-founder, Daniel Vávra, even printed and put up a poster of the CODEX NFO of their cracked game.

Now that the CODEX crew has officially retired, new PC games cracking groups will inevitably come to the fore, possibly “taking over” their famous name.

But they will likely not be able to come close to their quality or prolificacy – CODEX released some 7,000 game titles in the past 8 years.

This is truly the end of an era in the scene.

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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AppGameKit Classic : Get It FREE For A Limited Time!

AppGameKit Classic – a game development engine – is now FREE for a limited time!

Find out how to get it FREE, and make sure you tell your friends!

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AppGameKit Classic

AppGameKit Classic is a powerful game development engine, ideal for beginners, hobbyists and indie developers.

You can now quickly code and build apps for multiple platforms using the AppGameKit BASIC scripting system, or use their C++ and Xcode libraries for more complex games.

Games can be developed and deployed to your chosen mobile devices for rapid prototyping. AppGameKit does all the heavy lifting for you – making it easy to code, compile and then export apps to each platform.

All you need to focus on is your game/app idea. It’s that simple!

AppGameKit Classic also caters for more seasoned developers, allowing you to use the AppGameKit C++ libraries and benefit from all the features of AppGameKit’s core game engine.

Two great examples of this are the games 1982 and Echoes+ developed by Binary Zoo and both are FREE to download on STEAM.

 

AppGameKit Classic : How To Get It Free!

Follow these steps to get AppGameKit Classic for FREE, but make sure you do this before 1 AM (GMT+8) on 6 October 2020 :

  1. Log into your existing Steam account, or create a new account.
  2. Go to the AppGameKit Classic page.
  3. Click on the Add to Account button to add it to your Steam account.
    You can choose to install it now, or postpone the installation.

That’s it! You now have AppGameKit Classic in your Steam account!

While you are getting this free, make sure you get their Educational Materials Pack for free too!

 

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Gamecraft : Get It FREE For A Limited Time!

Gamecraft – the sandbox building game formerly known as Robocraft X – is FREE for a Limited Time!

Find out how to get Gamecraft for FREE, and make sure you tell your friends!

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Gamecraft

Build complete working games from blocks and parts without the need to code using one of the most powerful sandbox building engines available.

Build games in minutes and publish them to the cloud for others to play with the click of a button.

Play many games created by the Gamecraft community, rate them, comment on them, subscribe to them, with new games being published every day.

Build Games

An incredibly versatile block building engine allows players to create games of all kinds. Environment, game logic, and stupendous physics all made possible with a powerful new block building engine, so no need to code.

Stupendous Physics

One of the most powerful and open sandbox physics engines on the market. Thousands of rigid-bodies, complex physics simulated joints, and a user-friendly wiring system combine to really open up possibilities for sandbox building fans.

Play Games

Play many games created by the Gamecraft community. Rate them, comment on them, subscribe to them. New games are published every day.

Planned Features

  • MULTIPLAYER – Craft and Play PvP, Co-op online and locally hosted multiplayer games
  • CO-OP CRAFTING – Collaborate and build in real-time with friends
  • COLLABORATE – Large scale collaboration allowing the community to share prefabs to make large scale projects easier and faster to create
  • AI UNITS – AI enemies and AI-controlled vehicles for PVE games
  • GUNS – First-person character wielded guns and vehicle-mounted guns
  • DESTRUCTION – Realistic physics simulated damage and destruction
  • BUILD EM UPS – Support for multiplayer games where players battle and race with their own purpose-built machines

 

Gamecraft : How To Get It FREE!

Follow these steps to get Gamecraft for FREE, but make sure you do this before 25 April at 12 AM (GMT+8) :

  1. Log into your existing Steam account, or create a new account.
  2. Go to the Gamecraft page.
  3. Click on the Add to Account button to add it to your Steam account.
    You can choose to install it now, or postpone the installation.

That’s it! You now have Gamecraft in your Steam account!

 

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Did TM Block Games On Unifi? No, And Here’s Why…

The official Unifi support account on Twitter shocked Malaysians when it claimed that TM will block games with inappropriate content.

We confirmed that it actually happened, but that it was all a misunderstanding, and Unifi did not block access to the Rainbow Six Siege game servers.

Here is what happened, and how TM Unifi’s response kicked off the whole controversy…

 

TM Unifi Will Block Games With Inappropriate Content?

The whole issue started when Ahmad Asyraf asked the official Unifi support account on Twitter (@helpmeunifi) to check why he was unable to connect to the Rainbow Six Siege game servers on Unifi.

Shockingly, he was told that “TM will block if the games involve inappropriate content such as violent, gaming, scam, etc.

While some netizens started saying that @helpmeunifi is a fake account, that’s not true. It is a genuine Unifi support account on Twitter.

We got in touch with a Unifi Chat staff to clarify this, and she confirmed that the @helpmeunifi statement was correct.

It would have been easy to stop there, and start lambasting Unifi for such a policy. After all, the Malaysian government is promoting esports involving FPS games like Rainbow Six Siege!

But for us, their statements appear to be boilerplate replies by frontline staff members who have no idea if this is actually a technical issue, or a policy decision.

 

No, TM Unifi Did Not Block Access To Game Servers

So we wrote to TM by email, asking them to clarify why Unifi users are unable to access Rainbow Six Siege game servers.

If it was a technical issue, what was the problem, and when will Unifi be able to restore access?

And if it was a policy issue, we wanted to know how TM came to that decision to block access to the Rainbow Six Siege game servers on Unifi, and if that was a directive by the MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission).

This was their replies to us in two separate emails (edited for clarity) :

We are not restricting access to Ubisoft game servers. We are currently working on the issue with Ubisoft.

Our 2nd Level team is already aware of this issue, and are in the midst of investigating the cause. We cannot give you a restoration time frame, and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.

So, there you have it, everyone. Confirmation that TM did not actually block access to the Rainbow Six Siege game servers, or any game server for the matter.

As we suspected, the TM Unifi frontline support staff merely recited their boilerplate policy that they have the right to block access to content with inappropriate content.

However, that is not the case with this sudden loss of connectivity to Ubisoft servers. And even more unfortunately, they cannot give anyone an idea of when they can restore connectivity…

 

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Double Eleven : First Overseas Game Studio In Malaysia!

UK-based games developer and publisher Double Eleven announced on 21 January 2020, that they are opening a new game development studio in Malaysia!

Find out what this means for the Malaysian game development industry, and how YOU can join the Double Eleven team!

 

Double Eleven To Open First Overseas Game Studio In Malaysia!

Double Eleven is opening their first overseas game studio in Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur. Set to open in the first quarter of 2020, this new studio will provide a full complement of development capabilities including quality assurance, art, software engineering and production.

The Double Eleven Malaysia studio will work alongside main development teams in the United Kingdom on current and next generation titles.

 

Join The Double Eleven Team!

Double Eleven is recruiting full-time staff in development and management positions, including a new Malaysian Studio Head. Here are the jobs currently open for application, and their requirements :

Studio Manager

  • Four or more years of industry experience in a similar role
  • Significant management (people and project) experience
  • An interest in games.
  • Strong general knowledge of the video game production process – ideally a comprehensive end-to-end oversight from within the industry
  • Gamer and consumer oriented, with a deep knowledge of video games market
  • Relevant business degree
  • Experience with SCRUM or AGILE methodologies

Producer

  • Project management skills – initiating, managing and closing software projects.
  • Ability to mediate and arbitrate discussions, getting the right people in the room when needed.
  • Excellent communicator in both content and tone through a variety of methods; online, face to face, presentation or written.
  • Meticulous attention to detail and good organisational skills.
  • Ability to motivate and able to lead by example.
  • Excellent time management, multitasking skills and the ability to process complex information efficiently.
  • A strong interest in games or gaming technologies.
  • Business management experience.
  • Relevant degree qualification.
  • Programming or other technical experience.
  • Strong general knowledge of the video game production process – ideally a comprehensive end-to-end oversight from within the industry.
  • Experience working on titles or projects with live operations.
  • Experience with SCRUM or AGILE methodologies.

Lead Quality Assurance

  • Confident, thorough and articulate communicator; both written and orally
  • Great planning skills
  • Excellent self-management and organisational abilities
  • Second to none for attention to detail
  • Genuine problem solver; no problems, just opportunities
  • Ability to work as part of your own team
  • Has lead or helped to lead a QA team of at least four people, for at least one year from start to finish
  • Has had QA experience on at least 3 console titles
  • Has written and implemented test frameworks

QA Tester

  • Excellent attention to detail
  • Strong communication skills
  • Excellent self-management and organisational abilities
  • Aptitude to learn quickly and effectively
  • Ability to remain focused in a team-oriented environment
  • Previous Testing experience within a development environment
  • Skill/experience in any other area of game development and/or strong IT knowledge
  • Knowledge of project management software such as Hansoft, Testrail, Jira, TFS.

Lead Artist

  • Unreal / Unity experience / Blueprints / Python / C#
  • Animation knowledge
  • UI experience
  • ZBrush or other sculpting software experience
  • Shader creation (Substance designer/shader forge etc)
  • Degree level / HND or Art related qualification
  • A portfolio that demonstrates the potential to meet the industry-standard level of art.
  • 6+ years of industry experience and previous Senior or lead roles. Having completed a full production cycle on a published game title.

3D Animator

  • Knowledge of Autodesk Maya
  • Strong Knowledge of game engines (Unity /Unreal).
  • Scripting / blueprints
  • Experience with Motion Builder
  • Degree level / HND or art-related qualification
  • An animation showreel that demonstrates a strong understanding of animation principals and character acting
  • 3+ year industry experience

3D Graduate Artist

  • Exceptional 3D Modelling and Texture creation skills
  • Experience with: 3DMax, Maya, or equivalent, (Maya preferred)
  • Experienced with Photoshop
  • Experience on multiple games and ability to work across varied art styles.
  • Experience with popular game engines, preferably Unity / Unreal.
  • Experience with shaders and real-time rendering pipelines.
  • PBR workflow experience (Substance Painter / Designer)
  • Other visual art skills, e.g. illustration, graphic design, VFX
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills allowing effective collaboration with teams
  • Strong organizational, problem-solving and time management skills
  • Strong observation and research skills
  • Strong knowledge of the video game industry and awareness of the video game development processes
  • Unreal / Unity experience / Blueprints
  • Animation knowledge
  • Zbrush or other sculpting software experience
  • Shader creation (Substance designer/shader forge etc)

 

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Sony Interactive To Open First SEA Game Studio In Malaysia!

Sony Interactive will soon open their first Southeast Asia game development studio in Malaysia! Here are the full details!

 

Sony Interactive To Open First SEA Game Studio In Malaysia!

Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SIE WWS) announced their partnership with the Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia, at Level Up KL 2019 Biz.

The new game development studio, which Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios plans to open 2020, will provide art and animation services for the development of global titles for Sony PlayStation platforms.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios will also work with the Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to create more opportunities for the local and regional games industry, as well as establish a partnership with local educational institutions.

This is a major win for the Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia that have been actively pushing to build up Malaysia as the premier digital creative content development hub in Southeast Asia.

Over the past 20 years, their efforts have created a strong local digital creative content industry with 149 IP titles that generated RM 7.6 billion (US$1.84 billion) in revenue, and a global reach to over 120 countries.

 

Recent Sony Interactive Games

Here are some of the best games Sony Interactive released for Sony PlayStation in 2019 :

 

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Level Up KL 2019 Biz + Play : Full Details Revealed!

Level Up KL 2019 is right around the corner! The premier gaming development conference in the APAC region will take place from 2-10 November 2019.

This time though, it is so large, it’s being split into two parts – Level Up KL Biz, and Level Up KL Play! Here is EVERYTHING you need to know!

 

Level Up KL 2019

In its fifth iteration, Level Up KL 2019 has greatly expanded since last year. It is now a week-long conference, split into two parts – Level Up KL Biz and Level Up KL Play.

And for the first time ever, Level Up KL 2019 will feature events that will cater to both game developers and gamers.

Level Up KL Biz 2019

Event Period : 2 – 8 November 2019
Target Participants : Game developers and industry leaders
Location : Bangsar South

Level Up KL Biz continues the Level Up KL tradition of bringing regional game developers and industry leaders together to interact, learn and share knowledge.

This year, Level Up KL Biz will feature key announcements from local and international game developers, expert workshops and talks, business connections and more!

The exhibition and showcase are free to visit, but make sure you register for the Expo Visitor Pass!

To attend the expert workshops, you will need to purchase the Masterclass Workshops ticket for just USD 50.

You can check out the schedule and ticket prices here.

Level Up KL Play 2019

Event Period : 9 – 10 November 2019
Target Participants : Gamers and the general public
Location : Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre

The inaugural Level Up KL Play event aims to become Malaysia’s ultimate game conference for the general public.

This two-day game festival will feature game demos of soon-to-launch AAA and indie titles for both PC and console, esports tournaments, a video game concert, meet-and-greet activities, and more!

You can purchase the Early Bird tickets now at just RM 20 for both days. If you just want to attend a single day, you can show up and purchase the event day ticket on-site for RM 10.

 

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NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Ray Tracing Technology Explained!

NVIDIA just announced the NVIDIA RTX real-time ray tracing technology at GDC 2018. It promises to bring real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to content creators and game developers. Find out what NVIDIA RTX is all about, and what it means to all of us!

 

The Holy Grail For Photorealism

Ray tracing is the gold standard for creating realistic, lifelike lighting, reflections and shadows. It adds a level of realism far beyond what is possible using traditional rendering techniques.

Real-time ray tracing replaces a majority of the rendering techniques used today, with realistic optical calculations that replicate the way light behaves in the real world. But until today, it has been too computationally-demanding to be practical for real-time, interactive gaming.

 

NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Ray Tracing Technology

NVIDIA RTX is a real-time ray tracing technology that promises to deliver real-time ray tracing with high frame rates and low latency.

It runs exclusively (at the moment) on the NVIDIA Volta GPUs. Applications that run on the newly-announced Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API will support NVIDIA RTX when used with an NVIDIA Volta graphics card.

 

GameWorks For Ray Tracing

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NVIDIA also announced that the NVIDIA GameWorks SDK will include a ray tracing denoiser module. This suite of tools and resources will help developers increase realism and shorten product cycles for titles developed using the new Microsoft DXR API and NVIDIA RTX.

The upcoming GameWorks SDK — which will support Volta and future generation GPU architectures — enables ray-traced area shadows, ray-traced glossy reflections and ray-traced ambient occlusion.

With these capabilities, developers can create realistic, high-quality reflections that capture the scene around it and achieve physically accurate lighting and shadows.

 

Broad Industry Support

Industry leaders such as 4A Games, Epic, Remedy Entertainment and Unity featured NVIDIA RTX in their technology demonstrations at the Game Developers Conference 2018. They showed how real-time ray tracing can provide amazing, lifelike graphics in future games.

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LEVEL UP KL 2017 Ends With More Collaborations!

KUALA LUMPUR, 10 November 2017 – The games community in Malaysia and the Southeast Asia will benefit from closer regional collaborations and support from corporate partners including Google, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Unity Technologies and Media Prima Labs. Announced by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) at its third annual LEVEL UP KL 2017 Conference on Wednesday, the agency said that the collaborations are part of Malaysia’s effort in building a vibrant ecosystem for the regional games development industry in Kuala Lumpur.

These cross-border collaborations with games associations and corporate partners from Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia will see the countries working together to drive the content creation business through talent development, ecosystem funding, community acceleration and global outreach.

Speaking at the event, Kellie Liu, Project Manager, Taipei Computer Association said “It is a great honour for us to be here, participating in LEVEL UP KL 2017. Thanks to MDEC, Taipei Game Show has been partnering LEVEL UP since 2016. With this partnership, we hope to enhance the games industry communication between Taiwan and Malaysia, and help them to find more business opportunities.”

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The LEVEL UP Inc

At the event, MDEC also spoke of LEVEL UP Inc, an incubator space for starting game makers, indie developers and small to medium game start-ups, that will provide comprehensive support for talent development and business enhancements, complete with a customised brainstorming room, and high-end games lab. LEVEL UP Inc is a joint initiative with UOA Group, located on the same floor with the company’s newly opened co-working space, Komune.

The facility will see technology and games partners like Google, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Unity Technologies and Media Prima Labs coming in to provide resources and platforms for cutting-edge games development.

Sharing on their involvement with LEVEL UP Inc, Arata Naito, Head of Product Management, Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong Limited Singapore Branch (SIES) said that the company sees high potential in Malaysia, having contributed to the development of several AAA games including Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V, Monsters of the Deep and Final Fantasy XV. The company will be providing LEVEL UP Inc with PlayStation 4 development kits to encourage Malaysia developers to create more games for the PlayStation 4.

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The LEVEL UP KL 2017 Conference Details Revealed!

LEVEL UP KL is coming back this November! As South-East Asia’s premier gaming conference, LEVEL UP KL 2017 presents a unique opportunity that brings together top professionals from the video games and creative content industry – game publishers, studio producers, content artists, and talents – all in one place to drive the growth of industry in Malaysia and across South-East Asia.

 

The LEVEL UP KL 2017 Conference Details Revealed!

What Is LEVEL UP KL 2017?

LEVEL UP KL is an annual South East Asia Games Developers conference led by Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), with the mandate to develop the games and creative content industry.

The goal of this conference is to provide a platform for the region and bring together the local, regional, and international community of games developers, publishers, and technology providers to gather, learn, and share the latest information of content development technologies and business trends in the industry.

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When & Where Is LEVEL UP KL 2017?

LEVEL UP KL will run from 4th – 9th November 2017 at :

Connexion@Nexus,
Bangsar South City,
7, Jalan Kerinchi
59200 Kuala Lumpur

Who Will Be At LEVEL UP KL 2017?

Over 40 notable speakers will be at LEVEL UP KL this year including Wan Hazmer from Square Enix, Danny Koo from Marvel Entertainment, Brian Recktenwald from Naughty Dog, Grayson Chalmers from Riot Games and many more. We also have local speakers such as Desmond Lee from Appxplore, and Falk Au Yeong from SoundtRec Malaysia.

There will also be more than 60 exhibitors including the finalists of the South East Asia Game Awards, studios and participants from regional association such as Asosiasi Game Indonesia (AGI), Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), the Singapore Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and many more.

How Do I Get Into LEVEL UP KL 2017?

You can sign up for LEVEL UP KL 2017, at the following prices :

  • 2-day Conference @ RM800 / ~US$ 190
  • Game Design Workshop @ RM100 / ~US$ 24
  • Concept Art Design Workshop @ RM100 / ~US$ 24
  • Environment Art Creation For AAA Games Workshop @ RM100 / ~US$ 24

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AMD GDC Capsaicin – Vega, Bethesda & Forward Rendering!

1 March 2017 – AMD held its GDC Capsaicin livestream event, a celebration of PC gaming, the technology steering its future, and the developers who work tirelessly to transform their imaginations into tomorrow’s blockbuster games.

 

What’s New @ AMD GDC Capsaicin

The one-hour AMD GDC Capsaicin live event offered PC gaming enthusiasts and developers around the world a preview of AMD’s latest graphics and processor technologies, revealed exciting new details surrounding Vega, and showcased the summer’s most anticipated PC and VR games from visionary game developers.

AMD and Bethesda Softworks Partner to Propel PC Gaming Forward

  • AMD and Bethesda have announced a long-term, multi-title partnership to rapidly advance game technology development, fuel new PC game experiences, and reshape the gaming landscape.
  • This brings together two titans of the gaming industry: Bethesda Softworks, which has sold more than 80 million copies of legendary games series like FalloutDOOM and Dishonored, and AMD, whose CPU and GPU technologies power the experiences of 400 million gamers worldwide.
  • The two companies will work together to develop and accelerate the implementation of new technologies, including:
    • Harnessing the full potential of low-level APIs such as Vulkan
    • Maximizing the capabilities of the computing and graphics power of AMD’s multicore AMD Ryzen CPUs, Radeon GPUs and AMD server solutions across Bethesda’s existing Bethesda franchises

AMD’s Vega GPU to Power LiquidSky Platform

  • AMD announced that its upcoming Vega architecture-based GPUs have been selected to power LiquidSky, enabling gamers around the world to enjoy the extraordinary power of Vega from anywhere.
  • LiquidSky already lets their 1.4 million beta users play any PC video game as it was meant to be enjoyed on Android phone or tablet, low-spec Windows, Mac, and even Linux devices.
  • With Vega’s powerful Radeon Virtualized Encode feature, subscribers will relish a high-quality gaming experience on par with enthusiast gaming PCs, but at a much lower cost through LiquidSky’s low-cost and free subscription models.
  • Gamers across the world can benefit from the exceptional GPU performance by connecting to any of the 13 LiquidSky global data centers.

Be sure to read our AMD Vega articles – The AMD Vega GPU Architecture Tech Report, Watch AMD Vega Run DOOM On Vulkan!, The AMD Vega Memory Architecture Q&A.

AMD and Developer Partners Embrace Forward Rendering in Unreal Engine 4

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  • VR developers today are constantly challenged to strike the right mix of technical features and computational power for the best balance of performance and visual fidelity.
  • Deferred rendering, used by many of today’s big game engines, does all of the geometry work first and then shades pixels last to save work but it’s not a great fit for VR.
  • AMD is working to enable a forward rendering path in Unreal Engine 4.15, giving developers more choice in how they develop VR games and helping to achieve a stunning looking game while delivering the high frame rates necessary for a good experience.
  • AMD is also working with leading game developers to explore the benefits of forward rendering in VR games, including Survios, First Contact Entertainment and Limitless Studios.

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Ian Livingstone – The Past, Present & Future of the Game Industry

Level Up KL 2016 was a great opportunity for game developers in Asia to meet up, and learn from each other. Industry luminaries like Wan Hazmer and Rami Ismail gave talks on creating a triple A game title like Final Fantasy XV, and how a new developer can survive the development of their first game.

But MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) saved the best for last – Ian Livingstone CBE. We were so fortunate to be able to meet him in person, and listen to him talk about the past, present and future of the game industry. Join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience!

 

Ian Livingstone On The Past, Present And Future Of The Game Industry

On 11 November 2016, we were invited to a special session with Ian Livingstone CBE. You may know him as the co-founder of Games Workshop and the roleplaying gamebooks – Fighting Fantasy. He was also the Life President of Eidos, and helped bring Tomb Raider to life.

With over 40 years of experience in the game industry, his life experience is truly the stuff of legends. And he kindly shared that with us in his hour-long talk.

Ian Livingstone was not just part of the explosion of the roleplaying genre in the 70s, he was also a pioneer. With Steve Jackson, he created the White Dwarf gaming magazine and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. And both of them (with Bryan Ansell) then founded Citadel Miniatures.

Ian Livingstone now divides his time between nurturing new game developers, and the Livingstone Foundation (which he founded). He is recognised as one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry, and listed in the 2015 Debrett’s 500 of most influential people in UK. He has also won a slew of awards like the BAFTA Special Award, the British Inspiration Award and the Develop Legend Award.

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Q&A On The Game Industry In Emerging Markets

At the end of his talk, Ian Livingstone graciously sat down for a Q&A session with members of the media and students who were lucky enough to be part of the session. Joining him at the Q&A session was Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, the Director of Creative Content & Technologies, MDEC.

We hope you enjoyed the insights Ian Livingstone shared with us. We are certainly very glad we had the opportunity to meet and listen to him.

 

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The Making Of Final Fantasy XV & Final Gameplay Preview

After showing us the PC development version of Final Fantasy XV, Wan Hazmer is back with more Final Fantasy XV goodies. At the second day of Level Up KL 2016, he gave a much-anticipated talk on the making of Final Fantasy XV and the rebirth of the Final Fantasy franchise.

Wan Hazmer also showed off the final gameplay preview for Final Fantasy XV, and the Omen trailer. His talk ran long, but seriously, who cares??? 😀

 

The Making Of Final Fantasy XV

In this video, Wan Hazmer reveals how the Final Fantasy XV team reinvented themselves and the Final Fantasy franchise to “reclaim the gaming throne“. It is a mesmerising look at the making of Final Fantasy XV.

For those who don’t know yet, Wan Hazmer is the Lead Game Designer (Culture Team) of Final Fantasy XV. A true blue Malaysian, he is the reason for the Malaysian influence in Final Fantasy XV.

 

The Final Fantasy XV Final Gameplay Preview

After his presentation, Wan Hazmer showed off what is likely to be the final gameplay preview of Final Fantasy XV before its official launch in just 3 weeks. Check it out!

Final Fantasy XV, if you recall, was previously scheduled to be launched on September 30, but Square Enix announced on August 15 that it would be delayed to November 29, 2016. The two month delay was necessary “to achieve a level of perfection that our fans deserve“, according to Final Fantasy XV Game DirectorHajime Tabata. [adrotate banner=”5″]

 

The Final Fantasy XV Omen Trailer

Omen is a short Final Fantasy XV-inspired cinematic trailer created by Digic Pictures. It features a shifting reality around seemingly unrelated events.

 

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Rami Ismail : How To Survive Developing Your First Game

Rami Ismail is the co-founder of the Dutch indie game developer, Vlambeer. They are famous for developing Serious Sam: The Random Encounter, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box and more recently, Nuclear Throne.

Rami is famous for speaking out against game cloning, and his insights on succeeding as an indie game developer. It was to the great delight of everyone attending Level Up KL 2016 that he was one of the guest speakers.

 

How To Survive Developing Your First Game

You may have seen the talk Rami Ismail is most famous for – You Don’t Stand A Chance. Well, this is an updated version of that talk, with more focus on how to actually survive developing your first game as an indie game developer.

If you are a budding game developer, or someone who is planning to develop games for a living, you must absolutely watch the entire presentation. Learn from the mistakes Rami Ismail and his partner, Jan Willem Nijman made, and find out how Vlambeer succeeded when so many others failed.

Here are the key takeaway points :

1. The large majority of indie game studios do not survive their first game.

2. That does not mean you should not try. It just means you should understand that you’re probably going to fail.

3. Tens of thousands of people are making games today. Only a few can make a living.

4. You only hear about the success stories because of survivorship bias. Many successful developers actually fail countless times.

5. So prepare for failure, create for success and try building a space around your own work.

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6. Possible failure points include

  • Your budget is too small, or you don’t plan for one at all!
  • Your team is too big.
  • Your game is too big.
  • Your game’s pitch sucks.
  • Your game’s design sucks.
  • Your business case sucks.
  • Your game’s art sucks.
  • Your game’s audio sucks.
  • Your marketing sucks.
  • Your self-care sucks.
  • Your communication sucks.
  • You don’t think enough.
  • You don’t follow news.
  • You don’t appreciate your competition.

7. Your first try probably won’t work, and that’s fine. Take small steps. Build your failures into a success.

 

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The Malaysian Influence In Final Fantasy XV (With Preview)

On 24 October 2016, we were invited to a special session with Wan Hazmer, the Lead Game Designer of Final Fantasy XV. He came to talk about the Malaysian influence in Final Fantasy XV, as well as to show off previews of the highly-anticipated game which will be released on 29 November 2016.

Due to the secretive nature of the briefing, we were not allowed to record video footage of the event, or the Final Fantasy XV gameplay Wan Hazmer demonstrated. But we were allowed to take pictures and record their speeches. Check out what they revealed at the event!

 

Streamline Studios Co-Development Work

In July 2016, Streamline Studios was picked by Square Enix to provide premium development work on Final Fantasy XV. Streamline Studios is the largest game development studio in Malaysia with over 200 AAA collaborations under its belt, including BioShock Infinite, Star Citizen, Gears of War and Street Fighter V.

In this video, Alexander Fernandez, CEO of Streamline Studios, details how Streamline Studios came to be selected to co-develop Final Fantasy XV with Square Enix. The photos in this video will also show Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, the Director if Creative Content & Technologies, MDEC and Wan Hazmer.

 

Malaysian Influence In Final Fantasy XV

Wan Hazmer is a true anak Malaysia (Malaysian son). As Lead Game Designer of Final Fantasy XV, he tried to introduce as many Malaysian cultural elements as possible. Not everything made the cut, of course, but believe it or not – he managed to add roti canai, satay and teh tarik!

In this video, Wan Hazmer explains the Malaysian influence in Final Fantasy XV. Not just the inclusion of Malaysian culture, but also the creative contribution of Malaysians like him and the Streamline Studios team in its development.

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PC Development Preview Of Final Fantasy XV

Wan Hazmer showed off the internal PC build of the PS4 version of Final Fantasy XV. Here are the photos we took. Enjoy!

 

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