Get tips on maximizing the life of 'midcore' mobile games at GDC 2017

November 2, 2016

As the schedule begins to come together for the 2017 Game Developers Conference next year, organizers are pleased to highlight another great expert talk taking place at the show about an important topic: practicalities of the mobile game industry.

Are you maximizing the life -- and lifetime value -- of your mobile game? Using genre-specific predictive models developed from the Kongregate portfolio, Kongregate's own Tammy Levy will give you practical tips and advice on doing just that in her GDC 2017 talk on "Lifetime Value: The Long Tail of Mid-Core Mobile Games."

It promises to be a great talk, because Levy aims to demonstrate how (and why) post-D30 (day 30) retention can be key to increase your revenue. Through case studies you'll learn strategies to boost both early and late revenue, as well as game core loop modifications to drive better player investment in the long run.

See you tomorrow at the inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference!

November 1, 2016

It's time: The first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference starts tomorrow!

All passes to the show -- which is happening this Wednesday and Thursday at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco -- have been sold out. However, there's still time to register for the next VRDC (during GDC 2017 in San Francisco) February 27th & 28th covering VR/AR for games & entertainment. Register now to reserve your space!

Those of you attending VRDC this week are encouraged to plan out your show schedule ahead of time via the online VRDC Session Scheduler. Make sure to leave time to check out the VRDC show floor, featuring cutting-edge virtual- and augmented-reality technology from some of the industry's biggest and most influential companies.

Learn about VR ghosts, werewolves, and more at VRDC this week!

October 31, 2016

Winter is coming, and tonight people around the world are celebrating All Hallow's Eve. In the spirit of the season, organizers of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference would like to wish everyone a safe and happy evening.

Since VRDC itself kicks off this Wednesday in San Francisco, show staff would like to quickly highlight some of the expert VRDC sessions that touch upon topics that are just a little bit dark, spooky, and otherwise unsettling -- in a fun way, of course.

For example, HUGESound audio director Chance Thomas will be delivering a great talk about how "Hearing Is Believing In The Void."

Beyond its spooky name, "The Void" is a system blends real-world elements with VR to create a sort of "hyper-reality." It made a splash this year when The Void team partnered with Sony Pictures to create an interactive mixed-reality experience (pictured) based on the comedic supernatural capers depicted in the Ghostbusters movies, and in his VRDC talk Thomas will dig into the nitty-gritty details of how you go about crafting compelling audio for such an experience.

Attend GDC 2017 for a behind-the-scenes look at Titanfall 2's textures

October 31, 2016

Organizers of the 2017 Game Developers Conference are working hard to put together a bunch of great content, and given that registration is open for the show -- the world's premier event for game developers -- they wanted to quickly highlight one of the great talks already lined up.

Respawn Entertainment's mech-enhanced shooter Titanfall 2 just came out, and at GDC Respawn's own Chad Barb will be breaking down the stunning game's rendering tech in his talk on "Efficient Texture Streaming in Titanfall 2."

According to Barb, Respawn faced a tricky challenge: In developing Titanfall 2, the studio wanted more detailed environments, but also a lot more options for player weapons, equipment and titans.

Follow Gamasutra's VRDC coverage right here!

October 28, 2016

The inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is happening next week!

Gamasutra will be there to cover a wide variety of talks, roundtable discussions, demos and workshops during the show, which is happening November 2nd and 3rd (next Wednesday and Thursday) at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco.

At GDC, see how Agents of Mayhem was crafted using physically-based rendering

October 28, 2016

Physically-based rendering is the new hot trend for more photorealism in game rendering, both real time and pre-rendered, but it doesn't have to be -- it can also be used to great effect in the production of stylized, cartoony, or otherwise surreal games.

At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, the largest event for game industry professionals in the world, James Taylor of Deep Silver Volition will showcase just how you can use PBR to make a strikingly stylized (and not at all photo-realistic) game like Agents of Mayhem.

In his talk on "'Agents of Mayhem': Physically-Based Materials in a Stylized Open-World," Taylor will speak to how the upcoming game is one of a new breed of graphically-stylized games using the PBR technique, and cover methods for balancing a full physically based pipeline with a distinct illustrative artistic style.

Raph Koster explores what AR/VR devs can learn from MMOs at GDC 2017!

October 26, 2016

Registration is now open for the 2017 Game Developers Conference, the largest event for game industry professionals in the world, and today organizers are proud to highlight another one of the great talks taking place at the show!

Niantic and The Pokemon Company's augmented-reality mobile phenomenon Pokemon Go had a huge impact on the game industry this year, and veteran online game designer Raph Koster believes it has fundamentally changed the way we understand MMO game design.

In his GDC 2017 Design track talk on "'Still Logged In: What AR and VR Can Learn From MMOs," Koster will talk about the social and ethical implications of turning the real world into a virtual world, and how the lessons of massively multiplayer virtual worlds are more relevant than ever.

Get cutting-edge info from Microsoft, Google and Qualcomm at VRDC!

October 26, 2016

The first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is happening next week, so today organizers want to quickly let you know about more of the great sponsored sessions from leading innovators that you should check out at the show.

We're talking about cutting-edge companies like Google, Qualcomm and Microsoft sponsoring excellent in-depth talks about everything from where VR is now to where it's going -- and how developers can make the most of it.

Get ready -- VRDC is happening next week!

October 25, 2016

Get ready: The inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is one week away!

If you haven't already, there's still time to register online for a VRDC pass that grants you access to a wide variety of talks, roundtable discussions, demos and workshops during the show, which is happening November 2nd and 3rd (next Wednesday and Thursday) at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco.

VRDC attendees are heartily encouraged to plan ahead and bookmark their favorite talks in the online VRDC Session Scheduler. All passholders also have access to the VRDC show floor, which will showcase cutting-edge virtual- and augmented-reality technology from some of the industry's biggest and most influential companies.

Microsoft, HTC, Google, CCP and ARM are but a few of the notable exhibitors at the show this year -- you can visit the official GDC Next website for a dynamic list of the show's exhibitor lineup. The Expo Floor also provides attendees with numerous opportunities to learn about upcoming products, interact with developers, and establish business relationships with some of the industry's top professionals.

Learn to build mixed realities for HoloLens, Tango and beyond at VRDC!

October 24, 2016

Devices like Microsoft's HoloLens and Google's Project Tango provide powerful spatial awareness capabilities that go beyond augmented reality to enable "mixed reality" applications. Leveraging these capabilities requires not just an understanding of these technologies, but new ways of thinking about user interface design and gameplay.

At the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, Rabbx chief Aaron Pulkka and Ant Hives Games CTO Cyrus Lum aim to provide you with just that in their presentation on "Creating Mixed Realities with HoloLens, Tango, and Beyond."

Pulkka and Lum will share their experiences developing apps for spatially aware devices, including the immersive experience "Behemoth" which won "best spatial mapping" at the SFVR HoloLens hackathon and Ghostly Mansion, a game about solving your own murder which won "best entertainment/game app" in Google's Project Tango development contest.

Come out to VRDC and get tips on telling great stories in VR

October 21, 2016

Whether you're crafting a branded 360 video experience or real-time room-scale immersive fiction, good VR storytelling is hard.

That's why, at the inaugural standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference this November, Soap Collective creative director Logan Dwight will be presenting an engaging presentation about VR tale-telling titled "From Branded Content to Immersive Fiction: Directing Techniques for Better Storytelling in VR."

VR is more than games, film, or theater: it's a convergence medium that requires understanding all of these forms. As storytellers and brand creatives, The Soap Collective have spent years exploring multi-media narrative. Using a technique they call the "Cone of Focus", the Soap team has developed guidelines that maximize immersion, support user comfort, and can help us all tell better stories in VR.

Come out to GDC, learn to maximize player engagement and avoid disaster!

October 21, 2016

Registration is open for the 2017 Game Developers Conference, and we already have some great talks from top minds in the game industry that you should know about!

Live games are a critical part of the modern game industry, and time is the core currency for live games -- but humans are notoriously bad at projecting long-term outcomes over time. Thus, MaxPlay creative director Chelsea Howe is coming to GDC next year to deliver a fantastic talk on "The Design of Time: Understanding Human Attention and Economies of Engagement."

This talk covers patterns of human attention and engagement over time and concrete ways to design for those phases, including how to surface time components, approaching engagement with a relationship lens, transitioning from hand-crafted experiences to procedural and social systems, and balancing permanent progress with maintenance mechanics.

Learn about the future of VR/AR from HTC, Intel and ARM at VRDC!

October 20, 2016

The first standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference is happening next month, and today organizers want to quickly let you know about some of the great sponsored sessions from leading innovators that show attendees should check out.

For example, cutting-edge companies like HTC, Microsoft and Intel are sponsoring excellent in-depth talks about everything from where VR is now to where it's going -- and how developers can make the most of it.

Consider the "VR Developer Roundtable: Looking Where We Want to Go" session, presented by HTC Vive, Rikard Steiber (SVP of virtual reality at HTC Vive and president of Viveport, HTC) will guide a panel of leading developers as they share their vision for what the next big thing will be for VR.

Attendees will hear firsthand from creators of popular apps and up-and-coming developers about designing immersive content, personal and social experiences, and the right monetization strategies that are helping grow their audiences and build their VR business.

Making third-person VR game HUDs is hard -- learn to do it right at VRDC!

October 19, 2016

Designing a great user interface for your game is no easy feat, and it gets even trickier when you decide to embrace virtual reality.

So if you're making (or thinking about making) a VR game, make sure to come out to the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference next month and catch Force Vield VR's Joost Peters' talk on "Designing a HUD for a Third Person Game."

Peters is an experienced UI designer, and his presentation will detail the challenges he and other members of the Force Field VR team ran into while creating a HUD for their third person VR game Landfall. During the session, the challenges they found will be highlighted and their design approach and the solutions they applied will be explained.

Get VR game dev tips from Ubisoft, Double Fine, CCP and more at VRDC!

October 18, 2016

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.

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