Games developer BillyGoat Entertainment start R&D of tools to facilitate and create believable, reactive, open world citys in Unity 3D.

Belfast-based BillyGoat Entertainment Ltd have recently received a Research & Development award for a project to facilitate real-time game aspects to streamline ongoing advances in games consoles and realistic depictions. In response to the increasing sophistication and detail fidelity of game creation corresponding to the release of more powerful hardware in the likes of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, BillyGoat Entertainment acknowledge the complexity and demand of new software to compete in the game development market. Focusing on an aspect of game world creation, the project will seek to research and develop a procedural, city network system, drawing on the power of AI to work in real-time to create an interactive road network that develops as the player engages with the programme. The intended result will be a programme with an aim for a largely “plug and play” system enabling very minimal setup required by a developer. This would largely automate what would otherwise be a very time intensive, laborious task. The project’s intended outcome would significantly speed up the development process of game-creation freeing skilled individuals to work on other more demanding tasks.

BillyGoat Entertainment Ltd is a video game developer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Established in 2010 ‘The Goat’ specialises in crafting jovial, light-hearted, comedic experiences, currently developing for consoles and PC. Beginning its life as a 3D animation studio, producing a variety of animated TV adverts broadcast in Ireland, in 2011 BillyGoat shifted focus to video game development, producing several mobile games for commercial clients.

In 2016 The Goat released its first console title, a satirical intergalactic adventure game called Her Majesty’s SPIFFING, tasking players with establishing a new, Galactic British Empire! The game was a recipient of TIGA’s 2017 Creativity and Heritage Award. Recently, they produced Supermarket Shriek, a light-hearted shopping (kart) racer available on Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC featured by Xbox during their 2019 E3 stage show and was available on Xbox Game Pass until the end of 2020, when it was then released through distributer PQube on other platforms.