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Unity created a game meant solely to test AI
Unity Technologies has a new game that you can't play. The maker of game development tools is releasing a new title called Obstacle Tower that is designed to challenge the capabilities of artificial intelligence. The release of the title is being accompanied by a contest, the Obstacle Tower Challenge, that will allow participants to run their AI agents through the 100-level challenge and compete for prizes.
Create your own films on a VR movie set
When someone mentions "VR filmmaking," they're usually referring to 360-degree video, or some kind of video game environment where the story unfolds around you. One developer in Japan, however, has taken the concept in a vastly different direction. 'Make it Film' is an experimental project by 'MuRo' that lets you operate a camera inside a VR environment. Like a film director, you can frame up the shot and then hit record as characters converse or take part in an action scene. It was built on top of Unity3D and currently works with the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers.
Valve's VR technology now works with the Unity game engine
For many gaming platforms, the litmus test these days is whether or not they get official support in Unity's game engine -- land that and many developers (and by extension, gamers) are likely to give them a closer look. Valve just got a big credibility boost, then, as Unity is introducing native SteamVR support. If a virtual reality game runs on Unity's seemingly ubiquitous code, it's that much more likely to work with the HTC Vive and other SteamVR-friendly headsets. And much like the Unreal Engine, teams can edit in VR if they want to know what a scene will look like for players.
Unity engine comes to Vita with full feature set in tow
In its ongoing quest to support every gaming platform in existence, the Unity engine is now available to developers on Sony's Vita handheld. According to a blog post on the Unity website, the Vita version of Unity supports all of the handheld's unique features including touchscreen sensitivity, dual analog joysticks, the Vita's front- and rear-facing cameras and its gyroscopic motion sensors. In addition, the engine also supports the features of the PlayStation Network, allowing developers to easily integrate trophies and friends list support into games developed on Unity. Most crucially, the addition of Unity support to the Vita will make it easier to port games from the handheld to other platforms supported by the engine. Instead of having to rewrite a game's code from scratch, developers can now build a game in Unity and with a few relatively simple tweaks port it to other Unity platforms. In March, an agreement was announced to bring the Unity engine to all Sony gaming machines. This should make development of future cross-play games less resource-intensive.
Some Assembly Required: Community dictates development path of Neo's Land
Sandbox aficionados, are you ready for another contender in the fight to be your next virtual world? Well, ready or not, here one comes! And now that the cat (or Kickstarter, as it were) is officially out of the bag, we can take stroll through this new development project and see just how things are shaping up. The name of this virtual playground-to-be? Neo's Land. With the number of crowdfund-hopefuls coming and going, you might be wondering what -- if anything -- distinguishes this game from all the others also vying for your attention and support. What exactly makes this project different and worth a look? It's not the various sandbox features like skills, an open world, and building homes; you can find those in other games that are out there or in the works. No, what sets Neo's Land apart is the different approach to development it is taking. Instead of building a game using the studio's ideal features, NeoJac Entertainment is quite literally soliciting the feature set directly from the players before implementing. In this case, Some Assembly Required also refers to the game itself! Can it be done -- can a game truly be built to honest-to-goodness player specs? During an exclusive interview with CEO and President Jacques Rossouw, I got to walk along the development path of Neo's Land and see what the game is about.
Mini TARDIS really is bigger on the inside, thanks to augmented reality (video)
Once in a while we'd come across some cool DIY projects inspired by Doctor Who, the world's longest-running sci-fi TV show, but nothing beats this little TARDIS that would actually make you gasp out the classic line: "It's bigger on the inside!" Greg Kumparak, a former writer of sister site TechCrunch, initially built nothing more than just a convincing model of the iconic blue police box (with a functioning light at the top) by hand, but soon afterwards he wanted to somehow give it an interior as well. By utilizing the Blender 3D creation suite (which was a first for Kumparak), Unity 3D engine and Qualcomm's Vuforia AR SDK, the result is an Android app that renders the 3D interior atop the random wave-like pattern -- visible once the door's removed -- on the TARDIS in real time (no pun intended). Once you've seen the demo video after the break, you'd probably agree that Kumparak's only one sonic screwdriver away from becoming an honorary Time Lord. For more detail on how and why this project was put together, head over to Kumparak's blog post.
BitGym Motion SDK brings Kinect-style games to Android and iOS, no huge living room required (video)
If there's a common barrier to playing with a Kinect controller, it's free space. The sheer amount of necessary distance between sensor and player is fine for suburbanites with expansive living rooms, but not so hot for apartment dwellers. Thankfully, BitGym is doing its best to bring hands-free gaming to small spaces with a new Motion SDK for Android and iOS developers. The kit takes advantage of the front cameras on phones and tablets to track three-axis movement, leans and multiple players without any special hardware -- and without necessarily rearranging the furniture. It's built to work with Unity 3D and most common app code on both platforms, all with a reportedly low overhead for mobile processors. Just don't anticipate any leaps and sidesteps in your loft for the next little while. Although the SDK is ready today, we won't see shipping games built on the motion-friendly framework until early 2013.
Unity 3D for linux gets two playable demos
Linux gamers are really just having the time of their lives right now. They've been embraced by indie game devs, by Valve, Epic and the increasingly popular Unity 3D. And, some of these properties aren't quite ready for the big show yet, you can get a taste of what to expect from Unity 4 thanks to a pair of playable demos that have hit the web. AngryBots and Unitroids are both available as standalone executables for your open-source desktop. They're not complete games, but they at least serve as practical demos of the progress being made in porting the gaming engine. They've both got their quirks at the moment, but it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of plummeting through AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome on your Quantal PC. Hit up the source for download links.
Taikodom prepares for August closed beta
Earlier this year we were wondering what had happened to Brazilian sci-fi shooter Taikodom -- and if we'd ever see it at all. Happily, things are looking up in this department: Reloaded Games announced that the title is now on the verge of closed beta testing. CEO Bjorn Book-Larsson said that beta signups will commence shortly and the title will go into closed beta in August. If you're wondering what Taikodom is all about, Book-Larsson attempts to sum it up as thus: "The game is a cross between EVE Online, Risk, and a shooter/action game, and has some incredible first-person space vehicle battles, combined with the capability to build large strategic battleships. Players will be able to not only engage in some incredible head-to-head combat in space, but also control vast territory and engage in interstellar politics." Taikodom has taken so long in getting to beta because the team switched to the Unity3D engine halfway through its development. The title is slated to launch this year on the PC and Mac, with tablet and console versions to follow in 2013.
Icarus and GamersFirst collaborate on new MMO
Icarus Studios and Gamersfirst's Reloaded Productions have announced today that the two studios will be partnering yet again on an upcoming MMORPG. The game, titled Hailan Rising, will be based on Icarus' xScape platform, which is being modified to support Unity 3D. Hailan Rising is "slated to be the industry's first full scale PvP-based Fantasy MMORPG developed in Unity 3D," and places players in the role of one of eight character classes in the post-apocalyptic fantasy world of Hailan. After the world is destroyed by a huge flood, land is at a premium, so players must battle it out for the newly created islands and the resources they hold. For more information on this upcoming title, head over to the game's official site. %Gallery-128213%
E3 2011: A look at Star Trek: Infinite Space
Engagieren! At this year's E3, German game developer Keen Games (under the production of Gameforge) brought us to warp speed and gave us a first look at the upcoming browser-based MMO Star Trek: Infinite Space. Powered by the Unity 3D engine, the latest game in the Trek franchise will be free-to-play by the end of 2011. The devs are calling it an "action-tactic" MMO, and it title will hopefully give players just what they have been asking for in a Trek MMO. Set in the Deep Space Nine timeline, the game allows players to create custom characters and immediately begin to pilot their own ships. Right from the beginning, a player can start as either a Starfleet or a Klingon officer. To our surprise, the game's development is being fully supervised by Mike and Denise Okuda, Star Trek experts who have been involved in the franchise's many movies and television shows. Star Trek: Infinite Space is currently in closed beta but has a cinematic trailer that is sure to give any Trekker or Trekkie goosebumps. Check it out after the break! Massively's on the ground in Los Angeles during the week of June 6-9, bringing you all the best news from E3 2011. Whether you're dying to know more about Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, or any MMO in between, you can bet we'll have it covered! %Gallery-125755%
Pac-Man reimagined with Kinect and Unity3D
YouTube user buptkangbo used the Unity3D game engine to develop a sort of 3D version of Pac-Man -- or, at least, a game roughly equivalent to what someone who has never seen Pac-Man would imagine if you had just described it to them. A yellow sphere walks around through a grassy field, collecting mushrooms and throwing them at ghost monsters. That's cool; the "official" Pac-Man platformers took lots of liberties, too. What makes this particular version unique is that it's controlled with Kinect, played dolphin-style -- by which we mean the player leans into the camera as if swimming underwater. See for yourself after the break. If the demo actually becomes available for download and you then decide to try it, we suggest having plenty of snack foods handy for the full Pac-Man experience.
Crytek interested in offering free development platform
When Epic offered the Unreal SDK free to all users, it got Crytek to thinking -- specifically, thinking about doing the same thing. Speaking to Develop, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said that his company is looking to offer a free platform for budding game developers "that will be up to speed" with CryEngine 3. It's nothing new to Crytek, which offered free versions of its previous platforms to the modding community, but this new venture is something different -- a "standalone free platform that people can run independent of CryEngine that will also be up to speed with the latest engine," Yerli hopes. While he's quick to point out it's not the same thing as what Epic and Unity are doing -- another popular game development tool that offers a bit of variety in free and premium toolsets -- we're hard-pressed to find much of a difference between the two. Crytek curently has no timetable for release of the new platform, nor has it commented on potential tech and licensing agreements stemming from the new venture.
Evolve your 3D avatar
Evolver (currently in alpha) is an interesting service. It allows you to build a 3D avatar either from scratch and components or from a photograph of yourself, and export that avatar as an image, a functional 3D model in a couple of different formats (presently Maya [MA] or Kaydara 3D Data Exchange Format [FDX]), or a ready-made avatar for a number of 3D virtual environments. They've got more planned it seems, like the ability to potentially embed a little animated 3D avatar in places where you might today be using a 2D image. Think Gravatars only in 3D.
Unity engine to power iPhone gaming
At this time of year, every press release must be taken with a grain of salt, but sometimes products announced on or around 4/1 can prove to be real even when they seem a bit unlikely (1GB of free email? Must be a hoax). It's in the vein of strange-but-true (I hope) that Unity Technologies announced a beta program for Unity 3D on the iPhone.Unity's dynamic game development system (used by some fairly big names), if it makes the leap to the iPhone and iPod touch successfully, will give game creators a spectactular platform for rapid development. Hopefully that will include the unique interaction modes (multitouch, accelerometer & maybe even location awareness) that we saw at the SDK announcement. Can't wait!Thanks fursund
WWDC Video: Unity 2.0 sneak peek
The gang from Over the Edge gave us a sneak peek of two new features in Unity 2.0: a cool terrain tool and real-time dynamic shadows. Check out the video, but also check out their page of all the other features coming soon to Unity.[Note: we'll have all these WWDC videos available for direct download soon!]
