Awards presented at sell-out European Women in Games Conference

London 11^th September: Catharina Lavers Mallet, who is Head of Studio at King and Marie-Claire Isaaman, who is Course Director for the BA Games Art and Design course at Norwich University of the Arts were inducted into the European Women in Games Hall of Fame at yesterday’s European Women in Games Conference. The Hall of Fame was created in 2011 and is sponsored by EA.

Speaking after receiving her award Catharina said, “I’m very proud and grateful to be a part of this group which supports women working in the games industry. Thank you so much for this award and to Women in Games Jobs for organising such a useful and helpful event for women in our industry.”

 Marie- Claire added,” I‘m delighted to receive this award. It’s wonderful to get recognition for the work we do at Norwich University of the Arts in nurturing and supporting talent into the games industry and I see this not only as an award for myself but for both my course team and my students.”

Yesterday’s event which was held at London South Bank University was a complete sell out with over 245 tickets sold. Attendees enjoyed a mix of speeches, panels, the award ceremony and the world premier screening of Boy’s Toys?  a documentary film by Elke Teichmann and Eef Den Boer.

David Smith, Founder of WIGJ commented “Yesterday’s conference was our best attended yet.  It is very gratifying to see the conference grow year on year.  The generosity of London South Bank University in supplying a first class venue meant we could peg the ticket price to an accessible level for all delegates. I would also like to thank NaturalMotion, EA, Green Man Gaming, Creative England, BAFTA, IDGA and TIGA for their support.”

Press Contact: Cathy Campos Panache PR E: cathy@panachepr.co.uk 

About Women in Games Jobs
Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) is a not for profit organisation that works to recruit more women into the games industry and support those already in the industry. It also campaigns to ensure individuals and businesses understand that a more diverse workforce leads to greater productivity and financial success.

http://www.womeningamesjobs.com
 

Submitted by: E. Thomas

Acclaimed Creators of the Halo Series Using Havok’s Game Development Technology To Make the Dynamic World of Destiny

                                                    
SAN FRANCISCO – September 9, 2014 - Havok®, a leading provider of game development technology announced today that its Physics, Cloth and Script technologies are helping to power Bungie’s highly-anticipated open world shooter, Destiny. Making use of this technology, Bungie has created a persistent, dynamic online world which draws gamers into the lore, legends and evolving adventures of the Guardians of the last city on Earth . Published by Activision Publishing, Inc. and developed by Bungie, Destiny is available now for the PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3, Xbox One®, and Xbox 360®.

In developing Destiny, Bungie continued their long-standing partnership with Havok by utilizing Havok’s world class support team to maximize the title’s use of Havok Physics, Cloth and Script starting from the early stages of the title’s development. Havok Physics comes into play with realistically simulated environmental collisions and vehicles, allowing the player’s speedy hovering vehicle, the Sparrow, to maneuver, bounce, weave, bump and float in compelling ways. Havok Cloth is used throughout the game to bring realistic motion to player garments, capes and coat tails, which are simulated realistically, interacting with the environment and reacting to character movement in a seamless fashion. Early production of the game utilized Havok Script for planning and rapid prototyping to help the team at Bungie build out the larger experience.

“Bungie games have always been about robust, complex simulations creating exciting new gameplay experiences.  Destiny’s living world could not have been realized without Havok’s Physics, Cloth, and Script technology,” says Justin Truman, gameplay engineer at Bungie.  
“It’s been great to partner with the talented Bungie team to ensure that the universe of Destiny offers a convincing and engrossing experience, and our support engineers were able to embed themselves within the Bungie team to ensure they got the most out of their use of Havok,” says Brian Waddle, Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Havok. “Havok technology has been a perfect fit for a game as ambitious and epic as Destiny, because it helps streamline the development process and lets the artists at Bungie focus on realizing their vision.”

Havok Physics is an industry-leading tool offering robust collision detection and physical simulation technology, which has been used in more than 400 released titles from leading game developers. Havok Cloth is a performance-optimized artist toolset and runtime for creating believable simulation of cloth, hair, foliage and other soft body objects. Havok Script is a console optimized Lua compatible virtual machine designed for game development and includes an integrated environment for Microsoft Visual Studio, stand-alone debugger and on-target profiler.

In Destiny, players are cast as Guardians of the last city on Earth, who will traverse the ancient ruins of the solar system from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus.  Able to wield incredible power, gamers must battle humanity’s enemies and reclaim all that was lost during the collapse of mankind’s Golden Age.  In a story-driven universe, Destiny’s saga unfolds through grand tales and epic adventures by immersing players in a bold new universe filled with cooperative, competitive, public and social activities, all seamlessly connected.

For further information, developers can visit www.havok.com.

About Havok®
As a leading provider of game development technologies, Havok has over 15 years of experience servicing the most demanding technology requirements for leading game developers. A combination of superior technology and dedication to delivering unparalleled support to its customers has led to the company’s technologies being used in over 500 titles including top franchises such as Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, Uncharted, Dead Rising and Skylanders.

Havok works with the world’s best known publishers and development studios, including Microsoft Games Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, EA, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft, Wargaming, Remedy, Bungie and Infinity Ward. Havok’s cross-platform, professionally supported technology is available for the Xbox One® and Xbox 360™; PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3, and PlayStation® Vita; Wii U; Wii™; Windows® 8 (Desktop, Tablet and Phone); Windows 7; Android™; iOS; Apple Mac OS and Linux.

Havok’s products have also been used to drive special effects in movies such as X-Men First Class, World War Z, Harry Potter, James Bond, and The Matrix. Havok has offices in Dublin (Ireland), San Francisco, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Germany. Havok is an Intel® owned company.
 

Submitted by: E. Thomas

Growth in HTML5 games fuels BoosterMedia’s games distribution strategy

Amsterdam, September 8, 2014 – Award-winning HTML5 games publisher BoosterMedia has acquired the Hallpass Media web game network from Los Angeles-based, independent game developer SGN.

In an all-cash deal, largely funded by existing shareholders, BoosterMedia gains around 6 million active users a month on 11 desktop game websites, including popular brands such as Girlgames.com, Cookinggames.com and Wordgames.com.

Laurens Rutten, founder and CEO of BoosterMedia, said: “We live in a multi-platform world and with this acquisition, BoosterMedia not only doubles its reach among casual gamers worldwide, but also gains strong web gaming brands that we plan to extend to smartphones as well as tablets.”

“The benefits of this deal are three-fold,” Rutten added. “Our HTML5 game-developer community will now get access to a much larger audience; advertisers will be able to reach 12 million engaged casual gamers each month across multiple platforms; and our game-distribution partners will benefit from more and better titles.”

The Hallpass network has grown by 50% over the last three years and BoosterMedia plans to grow it further by extending the brands to smartphones and tablets, gradually replacing most of the current Flash games with cross-platform HTML5 games.

Unlike native apps, which require developers to invest time and money porting their games from one operating system to another, HTML5 games technology enables developers to build a game once and deploy it across multiple platforms.

Games dominate app store revenues, yet most game developers struggle, according to a recent survey of 10,000 app developers (Vision Mobile, July 2014). Rutten said: “Although headlines tend to focus on the demand for native apps, the arrival of more and more high quality HTML5 games is fuelling the growth of cross-platform web-based games. It is BoosterMedia’s intention to make sure we’re the world-leader in the rapidly developing HTML5 games space.”

Submitted by: E. Thomas