BlitzTech Engine, Middleware Adds Kinect & Move Support

Blitz Game Studios has announced that its BlitzTech game development tools will now feature full motion control functionality for use with the Xbox 360 Kinect and PlayStation's Move. BlitzTech,which is used internally by the UK firm and also licensed to third parties, is a comprehensive solution, including a game engine and in-built asset management that supports remote working and in-built version control. The engine has been used previously for titles such as House of the Dead: Overkill (Headstrong), Power Up Forever (Blitz Arcade), and Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore 2 (Blitz Games). Titles currently in the works from Blitz that make use of the motion functionality include karaoke game Yoostar2 and an exercise title based on the popular television show of the same name, The Biggest Loser: Ultimate Workout. These games will both come out under Blitz's family games division. Blitz Games was founded by Philip and Andrew Oliver in 1991 and has six separate divisions that handle everything from family games to educational titles, including Volatile Games, TruSim, Blitz Games, BlitzTech, Blitz Arcade, and Blitz Academy. Richard Hackett, Blitz Game Studios' Technical Director, says of the new announcement: "The amazing variety of Kinect and Move titles that we've signed up over the last year has enabled us to really experiment with the capabilities of these new devices. We are incredibly excited about the potential of both systems and we've already received some great feedback on our work so far."