WHO AM I?

 

Cratesmith!

(aka Kieran Lord)

WHAT DO I DO?

I make games!

 

Things I've contributed to...

• PS2/XB: Destroy All Humans 2
• 360/PS3: The Dark Knight (Unreleased)
• Wii: Next big thing (Unreleased)
• Web: Alternator
• PC/PS3: Vessel
• iOS/Droid: Sim Cell
• iOS/Droid: Codebreakers
• PC/Mac: Kinect & VR support for Tail Drift

WHAT ELSE DO I DO?

 

Unity middleware such as Autopilot 

(Testflight build/SDK integration for unity) 

 

VR/Tech R&D 

 

Unity3D, VR and emerging technology consulting

 

and custom plugins. 

 

What consumer VR is coming.

Disposable VR

• Google Cardboard, 
  already on market. (many others coming)
   
• Similar viewing experience to a toy viewfinder
   
• Uses a mobile phone, usually supporting a wide variety of handsets
   
• Ideal for advertising, promotions and education.

Mobile VR

• Samsung Gear VR coming to market in the coming month or so (Monetizable from around april)
   
• Very high quality VR experience.
   
• Less focused on games. No position tracking.
   
• Ideal for entertainment, serious games, business

Desktop VR

• Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheous; release dates unknown
   
• Ideal for PC games, simulators & demo installations.
   
• Initially a niche consumer market (peripherals)
   
• Best VR experiences available.

Developing for VR...

And designing projects for it

It's a completely new space

• Many things you think will work, probably wont
• Many things you think won't work probably will
• The shape and size of the consumer market is completely unknown

So how on earth do you work in this space?!

Set Clear High Level Goals

• The best way to make your project work in VR won't be apparent from the outset, but you still need a plan.
   
• What are the core elements of the project?
   
• What are the key experiences or targets it should deliver on? 

Constant prototyping.

• You won't know if something is good until you build at least two of it
   
• Always build several prototypes of every feature you want to add.
   
• Test them on users (never yourself) and pick the one that they respond best to.

Go super agile. 

• The worst enemy you can have is a fixed and detailed long term plan. 
   
• Things will change often and plan time for setbacks.
   
• Use methods like agile, scrum, kanban etc to organize your project as you go

What we know works well in VR

Seated & Cockpit experiences/Games

• EVE-Valkarie, Elite, Warthunder, Oculus Cinema
   
• Very convincing experience, encourages the user to look around. Main experience in front and extra info at sides.
   
• User is given a virtual, static seat to match the real one they're sitting in

Disembodied camera experiences/Games

• Lucky's tale, Land's end, map viewers
   
• The user's vision is a floating camera that is static or able to move slowly through the world
   
• These are mostly seated experiences but 

Body tracking experiences/Games

• Hoverboards INC, XTODIE, Tail Drift VR
   
• Difficult to develop as controls must be uniquely built to game experience.
   
• Often requires extra hardware.
   
• (my personal favourite)

What we know doesn't work so well in VR

First person shooter games

• Team fortress 2, Half life 2
   
• Someone will be able to make a decent FPS game for VR, but patching existing ones doesn't work well most of the time.
   
• Quake 2 oddly is an exception, it plays really well, not sure why though!

3rd person games with camera follow

• Hard to find examples, people don't develop these past a first test it seems.
   
• Behind player cameras do not work in VR, they have lots of movement and rotate "without permission".
   
• It's also really disconcerting.

Traditional MMO/Open world RPg games

• Everyone keeps asking for these. I really wish they would stop.
   
• Text and complex interfaces aren't easy to use & read in VR.
   
• We are going to get VR based MMOs but they won't be like the MMORPGs we have now.