Monthly Archives: November 2019

Interviews

In 18 years, Full Sail grad, Insomniac’s Shaun McCabe has seen video game industry evolve

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A lot has changed in the 18 years that Shaun McCabe has worked in the video game industry, having contributed to AAA games like Ratchet & Clank and Spider-Man while at Insomniac Games.

More people play.

Many play for money.

And the tools available for video game developers to build have grown in both number and sophistication.

But as tech advances the industry, one very important aspect of the industry remains unchanged.

“At their core, video games seek to engage players with compelling fantasies that allow them to experience the impossible,” he told The OVG. “That’s the same today as it was when I started my career 18 years ago.”

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Schools

4 teams from UCF’s FIEA video game school to showcase games

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Students at the University of Central Florida’s video game school will show off the titles they have been building this semester early next month.

The quartet of projects will include a virtual reality video game, a puzzle-solving platformer, a treasure quest game and a movie created using the Unreal Engine.

The groups at the Startup Showcase will exhibit their games at noon on Dec. 11 at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, 500 W. Livingston St.

Below are the descriptions of the four titles, straight from the development teams:

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News

Report: EA could bring back NCAA, which could mean jobs in Orlando

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Industry analysts have speculated that Electronic Arts could revive its popular NCAA football video game, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The move could mean more jobs for Orlando, as the company’s Maitland studio did the majority of the work on the title until it was canceled in 2013.

Electronic Arts will move its East Coast headquarters from Maitland during the next couple of years, the Sentinel reported.

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Events

Orange County Library hosts showcase of 6 games built at 1st game jam

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A game that has players control a ball through a vertical level while collecting tokens won the top spot in the Orange County Library’s first-ever game jam, which asked those who attended to build a video game in a weekend.

The game – called Dreamscaper – was one of six built from Thursday through Sunday.

Library patrons throughout the day on Sunday played the games and voted on their favorites, with Dreamscaper receiving more votes than the other five games.

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YouTube

Watch: Interview with FIEA director, who helped lead development of Ultima Online

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Ben Noel was part of a team that would develop a video game that has a special place in the industry’s history.

Ultima Online was released in 1997 as one of the first massively multiplayer online role playing games while Noel was part of Electronic Arts’ Origin Studios, which created the title.

He was lured by the appeal of trying to create a networked world that connected hundreds of thousands of players to each other.

“That sounded a lot different than a video game,” he said.

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News

Orange County Library System opens 1st game jam

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The Orange County Library System on Thursday hosted the opening of its first-ever video game jam, as roughly 15 local gamers and developers opened the four-day event.

The group will spend the weekend through Sunday morning building a video game from scratch at the library’s high-tech downtown Orlando Melrose Center.

Melrose Center’s Juan Rivera said he launched the game jam after attending others in the city, including one hosted by the independent video game group Indienomicon.

“The idea of everybody working together to make a game within 48 hours, that builds the community,” he said.

Overall, six games were pitched on Thursday, with those in attendance splitting into teams that will work on them throughout the weekend.

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YouTube

Orlando video game group Indienomicon leads charge to advocate for dev industry

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The independent video game community in Orlando has been seeing a growth period pushed along by organizations that advocate for and support it.

Indienomicon, which will celebrate its seventh year in April, has become one of the most prominent.

The group hosts a monthly meetup that helps keep the organization top-of-mind for the community.

In 2020, it hopes to expand that presence, with plans being crystallized and details expected soon.

It’s a way to continue to grow the industry and, more importantly, keep businesses here.

“If we want to help cultivate the best developers and projects, we need a ‘scene’ where people can feel comfortable sharing, learning and having fun,” founder Kunal Patel said in an interview with The OVG. “We are social creatures. Ideas cannot grow in a vacuum.”

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YouTube

Watch: Rapper Mega Ran Performs Final Fantasy VII song ‘Avalanche’ at Ongaku Overdrive

It was a night of celebrating Final Fantasy at The Abbey.

Hundreds of die-hard fans swarmed the venue Saturday to check out live music related to the classic series.

Rapper Mega Ran kicked off his set with one of the signature songs off his “Black Materia” album, “Avalanche.”

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Interviews

‘Ratchet & Clank,’ ‘Spider-Man’ vet to video game developers: Innovate, don’t emulate

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Shaun McCabe first became interested in video game development when he was playing Final Fantasy VII in the late 1990s.

But to turn that spark into an actual career, he looked to Full Sail University in Winter Park.

The classes there would prepare him for a career that has taken him to Insomniac Games to work on the Ratchet & Clank.

Ratchet & Clank lead a Full Sail hall of famer

Now a Full Sail hall of gamer, McCabe returned to Orlando this month for a series of appearances at the school and around Orlando.

After he did, he shared three tips with The OVG that he said could help up-and-coming game developers.

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Interviews

Full Sail grad, ‘Ratchet & Clank’ vet Shaun McCabe sought chance to explore amazing worlds, characters

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When Shaun McCabe joined Insomniac Games near the end of 2003, shortly after he earned a degree from Full Sail University, he jumped into a game that the company hoped would recapture the magic it had discovered with its popular “Spyro the Dragon” series.

McCabe became the sound programmer on the adventure game “Ratchet & Clank,” the story of a Lombax named Ratchet who traveled around with a robot companion named Clank.

Several “Ratchet & Clank” titles later, McCabe continues to build video games for the studio as its head of technology.

“On the technical side, our good friends at Naughty Dog offered to let us use components of the ‘Jak & Daxter’ engine as a foundation for a demo,” he said. “The rest, as they say, is history. It speaks to the true nature of creativity. Great products are often the result of constraints and culture rather than resources and strategy.”

McCabe was recently named to Full Sail University’s Hall of Fame and granted The OVG an interview to talk about his career and his time in Orlando.

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