Next month the Virtual Reality Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco, and organizers would like to briefly showcase some of the great talks about VR/AR games and entertainment taking place at the show!
This first-ever standalone VRDC is expanding beyond games to also encompass the use of VR/AR in entertainment, journalism, retail marketing and more -- but games are still a critical focus of VRDC, as exemplified by its cutting-edge Games and Entertainment track of talks.
For example, in "Reinventing 'Psychonauts' for VR" project lead Chad Dawson will talk about how the team designed and built a fresh experience from the ground up, one that captures the strengths of the original Psychonauts while embracing the immersion and gameplay that can only be delivered in VR.
His talk promises to be fun and insightful, as it covers the design evolution of the upcoming VR game Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin -- including the specific challenges of camera perspectives, control iteration, navigation, and interactive dialog unique to title with a strong focus on stylized characters, story, and humor.
Also, Ubisoft Montreal's Olivier Palmieri will be sharing lessons learned from his work designing the remarkable VR flight game Eagle Flight in "Full Speed Flying in VR! The R&D Behind Eagle Flight."
The game was the result of an R&D project aimed at finding a way to allow comfortable high speed motion in VR, so Olivier will describe this research (e.g. effects of motion in peripheral vision), and solutions he and his team found (e.g. dynamic peripheral vision blinders).
He'll also run down how he and his compatriots sought to create VR flight game controls that would not only be comfortable, but also very intuitive and precise. The results surpassed their expectations, in some surprising ways!
And in the VRDC Games & Entertainment track talk "Prepped for Launch, The EVE: Valkyrie Development Story" lead game designer Andrew Willans will deliver an earnest narrative of the development of EVE: Valkyrie from prototype to launch.
This lecture will cover many aspects of game design from UX to gameplay and mechanics balancing. Willans will also share and discuss the best practices with examples from various stages in production as the hardware, and vision for the game evolved.
Plus, the presentation will also cover the launch of PSVR and discuss how community-led development and cross-platform play are essential ingredients for the success of social VR gaming.
So head over to the VRDC website now and register to attend the conference, which will feature a plethora of great VR/AR talks spanning games, entertainment, and beyond into subjects such as healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, and so much more.
VRDC 2016 will take place November 2-3 at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco. For more information on VRDC 2016, visit the show's official website and subscribe to regular updates via Twitter and Facebook.
Gamasutra, VRDC and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.
