GDC 2016 Observations

Post date: Mar 28, 2016 5:21:20 PM

Monday: VRDC

GDC 2016 was the first time I attended the conference as an attendee. It was also the first time conference section solely created for VR was made, so it was a great time to dig deep into the emerging medium and see the kind of mindset and technical problem solving. One of the most informative talks I went to was "A Year in Roomscale: Design Lessons from HTC Vive and Beyond." They key points I learn from this talk were the following:

• • People will come with their own preconceived ideas of how your things work in the game

    • Alex Schwartz, Owlchemy Labs member and developer of Job Simulator, explained the challenges he faced when people started using the mechanics in his game in novel ways. Since VR is a medium where UI is kept to a minimal and controls can be executed with hand movements and gestures, there is a greater probability that people will try to execute commands or solve problems in ways that weren't really programmed for the game. How did they solve this? By programming these, making problem solving that could be effective in the real world possible.

  • People's anxieties and physical discomforts may be more vivid. 

    • Patrick Hacket has been leading the development of Google's VR painting software, Tilt Brush. In the project's early stages, he talked about how people felt very anxious and uncomfortable when they were placed in pure black or pure white spaces. The human mind is used to having horizon lines, points of reference, things to keep it grounded. So they solved this issue by creating a horizon line by using a faint sky box and placing dust particles that gave the space movement and depth. As an artist who's building experiences, this aspect of VR fascinated me. You have to be delicate, careful and specific about how you create your spaces and experiences. You're not placing an avatar on a screen in a space, you're placing the player's presence within the space. It's an opportunity to go in depth on how the human brain perceives things, and how VR can improve to accommodate for it.

Tuesday: Dreams and its voxel engine

I had the opportunity of sitting down with Mark Healey, the Creative Director of Media Molecule. They were showcasing their game/game engine/content development project Dreams. The whole software is one incredible piece of work! You use the Playstation Move controllers to model characters and props (and export them as objs if you'd like), build and light environments, program game mechanics, and much more. The biggest point that Mark explained to me was the fact that, unlike other engines that use pixels, Dreams is a voxel engine. This means that instead of creating 2-dimensional pixels per vertices, it creates 3d points that you can see. This article explains it well. Usually this would put an incredible strain on your computer, but somehow these wizards have managed to make it work. And it looks beautiful

This is a 3D space made in Dream. Imagine the styles that could be possible with this type of engine...

Wednesday: Career Pavilion and Ringling Booth

The Career Pavilion had a variety of positive, constructive feedback for me this year. The biggest thing I took away from it is, if you have a variety of styles in your portfolio, rearrange your images so the recruited from that company sees their preferred style. A good handful of recruiters and artists can recognize if your work has strong foundations and is technically sound, but you'd increase your chances of making a much more memorable impression if you cater to their preferred style and types of environments.

Thursday: Muslim Representation in Video Games

I went to hear a good friend and former Intel Scholar, Farah Khalaf, talk in a panel about Muslim representation. With the current events happening, I'm thankful that they were able to create this panel. These were the key points I took away from it:

• • When making a character from the middle east, please use reference based on how that state or territory would be be clothed. Don't base it on religion- Along the many things that were exasperating for the speakers, one of the things was being represented solely by their religions and beliefs. A more realistc way of approaching it would be researching how the characters place of origin dresses, avoiding overgeneralization/oversimplification

  • "Not all of us have the stereotypical family"- Some families are more conservative than others. Not every family has the incredibly strict older brother, and not every family bans their children from dating. Character creation should be approached by what aspects and behaviors that would make sense for the those living in that location. Reaching out for people who live/have lived/are part of a middle eastern culture should also be a step taken to gain a better understanding for the different family styles.

  • Within the work environment, please be accommodating of cultural differences- Some middle easter cultures or religions take time during the middle of the day to pray, choose not to drink, smoke, or eat certain foods. Please, ask. Don't assume that you know their culture/religion (some are extremely liberal and follow different rule sets). Once you've asked, be accommodating and respectful of their needs. Oe of the speakers talked about how she was really touched when her boss asked her if she wanted to use his office to pray. Small things like this make individuals feel welcomed and part of the community.

  • "Please, we just want a game where you're not shooting us"- "Imagine having a game/games where the Americans are the bad guys and you're constantly shooting them. It's f*cking suck." Most of the examples they picked up where from the Call of Duty series, where most of the antagonists and enemy AI are of middle eastern religions and cultures. They made it clear that this was extremely discomforting and worsens the stereotypes and prejudice around individuals of Middle East origin. They did praise the Assassin's Creed series for showing the beauty of Middle East architecture and compelling Middle Eastern characters. The takeaway here is: If you're going to be developing historical fiction, build believable characters with believable motivations, and be aware that current issues will arise when processing the judgement of a character. Be sensible.

This year's GDC was