Chelsea Whitmore GDC Post

Post date: Mar 17, 2017 3:23:45 AM

This was my second GDC, so I was a little bit more prepared to organize myself and take on challenges! I was less focused on finding specific job leads, and more focused on taking in new things about the game industry and talking to people and learning about their experiences.

I arrived early afternoon on Tuesday, but I only had an Expo Pass, so there weren’t any talks that I could really get into. Instead, I spent some time at the Day of the Dev area, taking in a lot of the indie games. I really enjoy indie games and the idea of working in an indie environment really appeals to me, so this was important to me. I played nidhogg 2, sequel to an incredibly simple, fun, and challenging game called nidhogg. I also got to play ooblets and mineko’s night market, both games that have an aesthetic and feeling that I appreciate.

In the evening I was able to go to the Polycount party and the Github party. The Polycount party was a little bit too loud to do very much talking, but I still managed to connect with some alumni. I had more success at the Github party, where I got to meet and talk to some of the people working on Potionomics, a game that I’m deeply anticipating! It’s always interesting to meet the actual people working on a product that you like! That’s one of the things that I appreciate more about GDC.

On the Expo floor, I tried to play as many demos as I could and visualize all the new tech that’s coming into play. VR is still a huge thing, and many studios have jumped on the VR train. I went to a talk called “VR: Where’s My Money?” (which I only really went to because it was next to a talk that it turned out I couldn’t get into). In that talk, the panelists discussed the various models of monetizing VR that make come into play in the future, because as it is, the population of console/PC VR owners is very small, so the number of people buying high-end VR games is also rather small. Right now, it seems as though there is a much bigger market for mobile VR games-- they are cheaper and easier to set up. However, there is the implication that as VR technology improves and gets cheaper, “desktop VR will be the VR of tomorrow.” I thought this was very interesting, because I haven’t put that much thought into the different markets desktop VR vs mobile VR presents.

There was a larger discussion about ads in VR and how those would be implemented, if at all. There was talk of how disruptive a giant 360 ad would be to players. They also discussed interactive ads and how those have become more popular- although personally I get annoyed when an ad tries to get me to do anything. I don’t want to be manipulated by your advertisements! I just want to play my game. They also discussed more integrated ads, like how there was a Coca Cola polar bear integrated into Farmville or something, but that that had been so costly and inefficient to be a realistic model for the future.

I went to another talk about Lo-Poly modeling that gave me some insight into that style. I admire lo-poly art for many reasons, so it was fun to listen.

Here are some of the benefits of a lo-poly art style:

• • Production-wise, it’s much easier to get a good product faster;

  • It is easier to increase the scope of a game;

  • Easier/more rapid iteration;

  • Better Product/edge-flow when going from low-poly -> high-poly, than to go from high-poly -> low-poly

  • Computation Efficiency, which is becoming more relevant with smaller screens and VR. Lower threshold for user access (someone with a not-so-good computer can still play)

In terms of implementing low poly, the speaker mentioned that it was important to make sure that the low poly style worked thematically/was compatible with the rest of the game. He also said that it was important to maintain stylistic consistency between assets- low-poly style can vary. It also is important to recognize that over-reduction is possible- it’s important to still maintain the silhouette and idea of the asset. It still has to look Good. What is important about the shape? What needs to be maintained?

More random ideas about low-poly:

• • One can’t just simply decimate a high-poly asset: the results won’t be very good.

  • Low Resolution Rendering works stylistically with low-poly, and may hide errors.

  • For glass items, reversing normals may work.

  • Keep face resolution consistent. He calls it “atomic consistency,” which is hard for me to explain, but basically each face is around the same size, so a larger sphere will have more faces than a smaller sphere, because each face will be about the same size.

  • When rigging, it may sometimes be easier to have things not connect- just float a hand into an arm.

The speaker for this talk was Ethan Redd, who is on twitter at @EthanRedd.