Vive Specific

1. Ask the user to press a button to begin. Doing this has a few key benefits:
   – Ensures they have headset on and are ready
   – Ensures they have at least one controller ready to go in their hand
   – You can set any user height specific objects at this point (ie height of objects close to the user that need to be a height relative to their head)
   – The button pressed will be attached to the dominant controller (regardless of whether they are left or right handed). This can then be used as the primary controller if your controllers are handled differently.
2. Certain buttons are better/easier to use than others, much like console controllers. Favor the easier to use buttons where possible. When assigning buttons in your game/experience I recommend following this general order of priority:
   – Trigger
   – Track-pad as single button
   – 3D world interaction (eg pressing 3D button with controller)
   – Menu button
   – Track-pad as 4 buttons
   – Grip buttons – don’t use these unless absolutely necessary
3. For room scale experiences, aim for 2mx1.5m or smaller to capture 81% of users. This will allow you to capture the largest audience possible. More detail on current user stats can be found here.
4. Don’t encourage users to bring their controllers too close to each other or the headset. This is one of the few times they will hit something and possibly damage their equipment
5. Use controller vibration when the user is interacting with the world to increase presence. A great example is the room scale setup with the Vive. The faster the user moves the devices the faster the vibrations occur.
6. Many users fail to look at their controllers, take this into account. There are three main solutions to this:
   – Add a line to the button and have the text always render in the users view. Pin to the side of the view when the controller is out of their view frustum so they must look in that direction to centre the text. This can be extended to showing an icon for the controllers any time they are not looking at the controller and they are expected to use the controller to interact with the world.
   – Put text in front of them telling them to look at controller.
   – Add audio queues to tell the user to look at the controller when you are showing them a particular button.

General Virtual Reality

1. Framerate is paramount. Presence is achieved much more with a high frame rate than any other factor. Whenever you add something that impacts the frame rate below 90fps ask whether it’s important. Target a 970GTX as the minimum hardware and make sure on the lowest graphical settings 90fps can be achieved at all times.
2. Be careful when using screen-space effects. We can forgive lens flare on a computer monitor but it can seem totally unrealistic in VR. This is especially a problem for game developers who sometimes over exaggerate reality (eg bloom). Don’t do this in your game to get it to look “good” as per game dev standards but go more for realistic. If in doubt, leave it out.� Use this list as a general guide to importance of post-process effects:
   – Anti-aliasing
   – Colour correction
   – Bloom
   – SSAO (I usually drop this as the cost is too high for little payoff)
3. Keep all UI diegetic. The resolution of both consumer devices is more than enough to read in 3D. However keep the text extra large. Some users can’t wear their glasses in VR so make sure text is larger than it really needs to be for the “average user”. Attaching UI to the controller is a great way of giving the user control over the size of the text as they can bring the controller close enough to their eyes to be able to read.
4. Use audio when possible. While UI works well in VR, it’s much better to use audio queues where possible. There is no concern with the user missing the popup and users can multi-task, listening to your audio queues while performing another action. They must stop what they are doing to read a text message.
5. Fade to black when transporting/teleporting the user. I also keep the scene fully black for a small amount of time (~0.2 seconds) to help the brain with the transition.
6. Keep objects a minimum distance from the user as objects too close to the viewer can cause confusion and simulator sickness. It’s better to have the near z plane clip than have it get uncomfortably close. Respect the user’s personal space (or explicitly don’t for uncomfortable experiences). The only caveat to this rule is when the user picks up and object to look closely.
7. Build detail where it matters. If a user can pick up or otherwise get close to an object then focus detail in these objects. Texture detail is the most important with model quality a close second.
8. Closing one eye to line up objects works really well in VR. Things like iron sights and scopes (both weapons and telescope, microscope etc) are surprisingly effective. Rather than just using this for a gun/weapon think of novel ways this can be used.
9. Don’t lerp objects relative to user just lock them. I had thought this would give a less abrupt experience however it’s terrible. Keep the rotation locked and lock position on 1, 2 or all 3 axis.

Philosophical Virtual Reality

1. Virtual Reality amplifies the best and worst parts of a game/experience. When VR works well, it works really well. The level of presence achieved with a great project can instantly sell someone on VR. Unfortunately the same can be said for bad experiences. Low frame rates, low quality assets and other issues can completely ruin the experience and sometimes lead to simulator sickness. With great power comes great responsibility.
2. The absolute priority is presence. Ignore any of these rules that break presence in your application.
3. We are on the frontier so spend time looking at each new problem and seeing if there is a novel way of solving it. Don’t just go back to previous generations of games/apps and build upon them.
4. Respect the user. Respect their personal space and their comfort levels. Expect non-gamers and people of all generations to play your game/experience.
5. The biggest threat to VR at the moment is over hype and bad expectation management. Expect to sell a max of 10-20k units at the moment based on Steam Spy stats. While the consumer kits are great, remember this is the first generation of consumer devices so don’t expect everything to be perfect.
6. Things will change rapidly so be prepared. It’s better to start out small and start releasing products to build a name for yourself and get experience actually releasing VR content.
7. Watch your target audience use VR for the first time (gamers vs non-gamers). Watch them play your prototypes as early as possible. VR amplifies the best and worst parts of your software and can therefore be very unforgiving.
8. When demoing, don’t make a big deal about the experience. Most people will happily try it on, but if you build it up too much some will be turned off.
9. Build consistency. One of the major (perhaps overly) criticized areas of current games are the inconsistencies between games. Work to build a common vocabulary with other VR developers and work out standards we can all follow. We should be an inclusive community that helps one another rather than competing.

1. Download VS 2015 Community – http://visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-community-vs.aspx
2. Download Phaser source – http://phaser.io/download/stable
     – Use whichever form you prefer (clone in github or download full source zip)
3. Create a new project – Select Templates -> Other Languages -> TypeScript -> “HTML Application with TypeScript”
   
4. For the next two steps, find the phaser src directory you downloaded to in Step #2
5. Copy <phaser src directory>buildphaser.js into the project (in the root)
   
6. Copy the files below into your project (in the root)
   1. <phaser src directory>typescriptphaser.d.ts
   2. <phaser src directory>typescriptpixi.d.ts
   3. <phaser src directory>typescriptp2.d.ts
      
7. Add http://phaser.io/images/download/run.png to the project in the root
8. Your solution should look like this:
   
9. Edit index.html and include the phaser.js script:

   <script src="phaser.js"></script>

10. Edit app.ts, remove all the existing code and replace it with:

    class PhaserDemo {
    
        game: Phaser.Game;
    
        constructor() {
            this.game = new Phaser.Game(800, 600, Phaser.AUTO, 'content', { preload: this.preload, create: this.create });
        }
    
        preload() {
            this.game.load.image('phaser_run', 'run.png');
        }
    
        create() {
            this.game.add.sprite(0, 0, 'phaser_run');
        }
    }
    
    window.onload = () => {
        var game = new PhaserDemo();
    };

11. Press F5 to run
    – The page will load up in http://localhost:<someport>
    – You’re now ready for phaser game development

• Firstly, could you introduce yourself, tell us what games you’ve worked on, how long you’ve been a game designer and what you’re favorite games are?

Hi, my name is Asher Einhorn. I’ve recently worked on the Disney Infinity games and the Formula1 racing series in roles ranging from programmer to game designer.

As for favourite games, there are a few stand-outs. Journey for the way it uses game mechanics to create a relationship between the player, the world and other characters.

Portal for being truly a pure computer game, and for motivating me to pursue game design.

Gears of War for its clear mechanics. Zelda for providing what I still think is the best format for an open world game. The Jak series. Uncharted for its fantastic pacing, writing and cinematic action. The list goes on, but you can see a pattern – third person adventures. Oh and Magic: The Gathering, for giving me the way I now approach designing core mechanics, as odd as that sounds.

• I’m intrigued when you say that Portal is a “pure computer game”, can you elaborate on that a little? 

By that I mean it’s something that couldn’t exist as anything else. The storytelling exists totally as part of something interactive. It’s through playing the game that you begin to explore and understand that there’s even a story at all. It’s essentially the opposite to a ‘cinematic’ game where cutscenes are sandwiched between bits of gameplay. As fantastic as these games are they can be thought of a little like films with bits of gameplay littered through them. It managed to be clever, charming and completely engrossing while always staying true to the medium.

• What areas of game design do you cover (eg system, technical, level) and what areas are most in demand in the industry at the moment?

On Disney Infinty I had a lot of influence with the overall design of the play set our studio was making (Pirates, Guardians and the upcoming Rise of the Empire), which was really great, but generally I mostly focus on mission design and core mechanics, which are entirely different in quite interesting ways. With core mechanics you’re creating the DNA of the game, just how it works, which really appeals to me a lot.

Mission design is also very interesting but in a totally different way – you’re thinking about pacing, about encounter flow, about rising and falling pressures in combat. It feels like much more of an art compared to systems design which feels more like you’re engineering a solution to a problem. The two are very linked also, as a mission designer you essentially use the tools that arise from how the core mechanics are set up. It’s a pretty useful thing to know about both sides of the process.

More often than not these days, my role is simply ‘technical designer’, which is a bit of an umbrella term for someone who designs and implements. I heard a nice description of the role recently that it was like an assistant director – you own a part of a game and work with everyone to pull that experience together.

In demand jobs in the industry right now are definitely anything related to content creation – art, gameplay scripters, level designers. Of course good programmers are always in demand.

• When you talk about “owning part of a game” how do you work together with other technical designers to make sure the game is cohesive and all the parts fit together comfortably? 

That’s best solved in my opinion by having a lead. Often the creative director is keeping watch over everything making sure this happens, but you’re right, it’s also down to you. It’s a skill – being able to take a step back and see the game as a whole. Often this means not getting carried away, you need to realise your system is just a small component and needs to be suitably simple.

• You started out as an animator before moving into design. Can you give us some background on this transition?

When I was younger I felt pretty sure I wanted to do something creative, but I wasn’t really sure what that might be. Game design seemed like an unreachable goal, so while I did a lot of it as a hobby, it wasn’t until later that I really set my focus on it as a career. Animation was something I played with for a long time, and I was lucky enough to intern at the Framestore in London. It wasn’t quite what I wanted to do though, and I ended up going to film school, and eventually learning game programming to get my first job in the industry. It’s been a long path, but I’m so glad I made it because I can’t imagine doing anything else now. Luckily I started young too, or this point would have come a lot later.

• Game design does feel like an unreachable goal to many. What advice do you have for aspiring game designers? What can help them to stand out and get hired? 

I personally believe game design is something that you should not do straight off the bat. I and many others have experienced these people in the industry and they lack a proper understanding of how everything fits together.

Having said that, you can move into design from anywhere – art, design, programming, writing and so on. I think my advice would be – learn how to make games first, learn a skill, work in the industry, always keep designing and building experience, and then when the time is right, it will happen naturally and you’ll be ready for the role. More often that not it will happen in drips and drabs, you’ll get more and more things to design until one day it will be your full-time roll.

• Having worked on large franchises like the Disney Infinite series, what are you experiences working with big publishers? 

There are always difficulties when you work with a number of groups that all have different opinions on how things should be done.

Ultimately everyone is trying to make a good game, as a designer one of the hardest jobs is to try and keep everything on track. You’re often in a unique position where you can see one tiny change can upset the whole ecosystem and stop the game from working.

I have in the past had quite a lot of trouble with IP owners. When you have to make something exactly like a piece of concept art that you’re not allowed to see, well, that’s a pretty tricky situation! The truth is that a lot of the time film-makers have no sympathy for game devs. Some see what we do as inferior so they can be pretty hard to communicate with.

In the end if there is a problem specific to publishers, it’s that they’re not with you in the same room. Long distance communication is where things get turned around. My experience has been 95% of the time, when you finally sit down to talk about something, you actually realise you’re saying the same thing in two different ways.

• Speaking of long distance communication, what kind of communication does your team use day-to-day? Are you all co-located in the same office? Do you follow any agile development frameworks?

On Infinity we were, but we also communicated with other teams making other parts of the game across the world. Internally we used scrum. I think some of so-called ‘agile’ development is great, other parts less-so. Stand-ups – small morning meetings to catch everyone up on what’s happening in the game are great, as is relying less on physical design documents.

Working with other teams conflicts with this of course, often another studio will want documentation you wouldn’t have otherwise needed. And yes, time differences and Skype meetings are very ineffective ways to communicate – painfully so.

I had an idea in the last studio, that we would create an always-on two-way video link and present it as if our lunch table was reaching into another room through a big projected screen. Sounds far-fetched but surprisingly easy to set-up. Last I heard they’re still going ahead with the idea.

• Rather than physical design documents, what do you prefer to rely on? What does the ultimate design doc look like?

The thing about design documents is that absolutely NO ONE reads them. It really doesn’t matter if they’re long and detailed, or brief and to the point. They will not get looked at so they’re pretty pointless. You basically need to get into the habit of trying to make the design as visible as possible. You print out your mission flow on enormous pieces of paper and stick them all around the studio. Use whiteboards and post-it notes to do the same with other aspects of the game. Create sandbox levels specifically designed to showcase movement mechanics and enemy design and force load people through those levels when they boot the game.

Ultimately design documents are useful, but only to remind you of the decisions you’ve made. For everything else, you need to think about what teams need to know about what aspects of the game and then present it to them in the most appropriate way. So, you may have a really complex story, but the art team may not read it. Instead you work with the concept artist to make a very well presented colour script and give that to the artists. They can then get the feel for each environment and match it to the story beats.

• Do you have any sites or books that you regularly read or refer to that you could recommend to other game developers?

Well, there’s always The Book of Lenses. That’s a classic. It’s good for beginners but anyone who has really been thinking about game design for any amount of time will find it completely obvious. I would say it’s good if you’re interested in game design but have no intention of working in the field.

Other than that Gamasutra is a great resource – everything on there is just theory, but it’s a good way to get you thinking about different aspects of design. In fact I’ve recently been writing up some of my own thoughts on there (simply under my name) which you can check out. I do try and keep things on the more practical side so hopefully that’s useful to people.

Another nice resource for beginners is a series of YouTube videos by Mark Brown which achieve a similar thing (take with a big pinch of salt), and my personal favourite of course: a YouTuber by the name of Matthewmatosis who does the most astute and in-depth analysis of some of my favourite game series.

• What would be your perfect project to work on?

Right now, either something Naughty Dog is making because they really feel like the exist in a class of their own – their games take traditional design and push it to the absolute limit. They employ people who are masters of their craft. You could learn so much from every person there. Or, something more experimental. Valve make incredible games that really push the idea of what a game is. And I’ve always had a huge soft spot for SuckerPunch – I’d love to work on the next Infamous game. There’s a real art to how to deliver a cinematic experience in an open world game that is so undefined so far. Being part of that exploration would be fantastic.

I’d like to say a big thanks to Asher for doing the interview. If you’re in the game industry and would like to do an interview send me an email or contact me on twitter.

The main advantages of using Git with Unity are:

1. Support for Unity Cloud Build
2. Distributed development allowing offline work when on the road or otherwise disconnected from the internet
3. A number of GUI clients
4. Cross platform support

The main disadvantages of Git are:

1. Not specifically supported by Unity, however it works without an issue
2. Not great for large files
3. Can be complex for some team members

I’ll just jump straight into the steps for getting yourself set up with Git. You have two options for creating a Git account, GitHub and BitBucket. For a more comprehensive tutorial on the git commands, check out the Git tutorial. This tutorial will use BitBucket as you can create a free private repository, however everything after the first 2 steps are the same if you use GitHub.

Getting Started

1. Create a BitBucket account if you don’t have one – https://bitbucket.org/
2. Create a new repository on BitBucket
   1. After signing up you are automatically taken to the create repository screen. If you missed this, you can just click the “Create” button at any time within the BitBucket header to create a new repository
   2. Choose “Empty” repository and give it a name
   3. You will be prompted to download SourceTree or to Install Git. For this tutorial will will use the command line version of Git, SourceTree is a great option if you don’t like using the command line
   4. 
3. Set up your local directory
   1. Drop into a command window on your platform (I use powershell on Windows)
   2. Create a new directory for your project (mkdir /path/to/your/project)
   3. Go to the new directory (cd /path/to/your/project)
   4. Initialize git (git init)
   5. Add the new remote repository (git remote add origin https://<username>@bitbucket.org/<projectname>/<projectname>.git)
      1. This copies the remote repository (sitting on bitbucket) down to your local machine
      2. From here you make changes to the source and push back up to the server once finished
4. Create a new Unity project in the project directory
5. Set up your Unity project to work with Git (or any source control)
   1. Navigate to Edit -> Project Settings -> Editor
   2. Change Version Control Mode to Visible Meta Files
   3. 
   4. Change Asset Serialization Mode to Force Text
   5. 
6. Save the current scene of your game
7. Close Unity
8. Update your gitignore_global.txt file to ignore unwanted Unity files
   1. Unity has a bunch of files we don’t want to check into source control. Copy the lines from the following file into your gitignore_global.txt file to ignore these unwated files.
   2. The only directories you need to have source controlled for a Unity project are Assets and ProjectSettings. Unity has done a great job of separating all the temporary files out into their own directories.
   3. The global ignore file is used across all git projects and saves you ignoring the same files each time you start a new Unity project. This file is combined with project specific ignore files (see below) to determine the full ignore list
9. Add the new files to your local repository (git add .)
   1. The period (.) at the end of the line adds all files
   2. This tells git you want to include the added files in the commit
10. Check that the files have been successfully added (git status)
    1. You should see about 16 files
    2. If you see more, check that you have set up you gitignore_global.txt file correctly
    3. 
11. Commit the changes to your local repository (git commit -m “Initial Commit with empty project”)
    1. The -m switch lets you supply a message to your commit. These should be clear and concise
    2. The changes are now committed to your local repository
    3. These changes are not yet up on the server
12. Push the changes to the BitBucket server (git push -u origin master)
    1. Enter your password
    2. The -u origin master parameters let bitbucket know where to push these changes. From now on you will only need to call git push to push changes
    3. This pushes your local repository (that you commited in step 11) up to the server. Note that any changes in your working directory will not be pushed to the server

You’re now set up with Git for your Unity project. Below is an overview of the different parts of git:

• Working directory – this is your local file system containing your Unity files. This is basically your src tree as it was before source control (with a hidden .git directory that stores all of the git related stuff, Unity ignores this folder)
• Local repository – Think of this as a local copy of the source tree with all the changes that have ever been made to the project. This resides on your local PC and can be committed to independently of the server repository
• Server repository – This is the server copy of the source tree that is shared between all the users of the project. Changes from each developer are pushed up from their local repository into this shared repository (that sits on BitBucket in this example but can be anywhere).

Below are common commands you will use

• To pull changes from other team members
  • git pull
• To commit further changes
  • git commit -m “<your message>”
• To push more changes to the server
  • git push
• To see which files are in your working copy (which files have changed locally that have not been commited)
  • git status
• To add new files to a commit
  • git add .
• To add a specific file to a commit
  • git add <filename>
• To ignore project specific files
• Create a .gitignore file (touch .gitignore)
• Add the files to be ignored to .gitignore
• Add .gitignore to the commit (git add .gitignore)
• View changes made in the working directory (git diff)
  • I highly recommend a tool like Araxis Merge or similar for powerful diff and merging
• Revert local to latest commit (git checkout — .)
  • If you’re working and decide you want to revert the work you’ve done to the previous commit
  • Make sure you remember to period (.) at the end
  • Not this won’t remove added files, it simply reverts modifications (and deletions) to the previous commit
• For more commands I highly recommend the git tutorial

Some thoughts on workflow

• One of the only major downsides to Git (or any distributed source control) is the inability to lock files so multiple users can’t edit them at the same time. Unity’s “force text” option minimizes these problems, however there can still be conflicts if you have multiple poeple working on the same files, especially .scene files. There are a few options to get around this:
  • Only have one person working on a particular scene file at a time
  • Use prefabs for storing game objects rather than scene files. This is a good practice anyway
  • Get a good diff tool
• The other downside of Git is that large file can bloat your repository size. For this reason we tend to have our artists and audio director work in Dropbox while working on their files and we only bring completed versions into the repository and Unity project.
• We use branching for different features/versions of the game, especially supporting multiple platforms. We tend to keep all of our platforms in the main development branch and as we approach a release we create a branch for each platform to create platform specific code and speed up making small platform specific fixes. A great article on branching in git can be found here. After release we merge the branches together and continue working in the single main development branch.
• I highly recommend checking out Unity Cloud Build for doing continuous integration with Unity. If supports Git and every time you push code to the server the Unity Cloud Build servers will automatically pull this code and make a new build. It currently supports Android, iOS and the WebPlayer.
• While Git and source control in general can be daunting to non-technical people on the team it is definitely worth getting everyone up to speed. GUI based clients like SourceTree allow an easier transition to source control, however it’s still good for everyone to have a solid understanding of the underlying principles of Git (or any source control you are using).
• If you’re on windows using Powershell then I recommend installing PoshGit. You can get some instructions here.

Conclusion

Please let me know what you think of this tutorial and if I’ve made any mistakes or missed anything out. I tried to keep the tutorial as pragmatic as possible, covering the most common usage of Git. See the links throughout the article for some deep dives into different aspects of Git.

What source control are you using? What are your best practices for Git (or any source control) and Unity?

Steam Changes

We’ve seen a bunch of changes to Steam in 2014 and I see these continuing to occur. Greenlight has grown every month with December 2014 having a huge 500 games accepted. The floodgates have also opened with publishers releasing their back catalogs and generally a much higher number of games than we’ve seen in the past. In 2015 I predict we will see more ways for consumers to distinguish the good from the bad. Curators was a great start and I’ve heard mixed results from gamers and developers I’ve spoken with. I expect Valve to continue adding more tangential forms of differentiation to help filter the flood of games while removing Greenlight entirely.

I don’t expect much movement in the Steam OS area for the average consumer just yet however as the second and third generation of Steam Machine’s are released I expect an increased uptake from the average gamer. The largest tipping point will occur when the the average Steam Machine costs a similar amount to the current generation consoles, while being more powerful.

Virtual Reality Rise

I predicted the rise of Oculus back at the start of 2013 and I expect both Oculus and it’s competitors to grow substantially in 2015. The consumer kit from Oculus will be the flagship product with the Gear VR coming in a close second. While there has been a lot of attention on the Gear VR (especially from Carmack) this is more where their engineering power is specifically focussed right at this time, it doesn’t mean the Gear VR will be more important/dominant than the CV1.

I expect the Oculus competitors to grow in 2015 with possibly 1 or 2 reaching similar levels of quality, however I don’t foresee them taking much market share. Oculus simply have too much of a head start, the best brain power and the deep pockets of Facebook to keep them ahead.

Mobile Movements

My biggest prediction for mobile is for Android to continue to outpace iOS. I’m continually surprised by staggering numbers Android has, especially coming out of China. While iOS is generally still more profitable for a similar quality game, Android’s brute force numbers are gaining on Apple with every month that passes.

I see the existing strong developers extending their market share with the occasional small indie having a huge win but for the most part, the average mobile developer will still only make hundreds of dollars from their games.

Web Second Coming

I see HTML5 and WebGL leading to a second wave of web based games. 2015 will be the final nail in the Flash coffin with the new technologies slotting in perfectly. The zero download, zero install of these new technologies will help them to grow across all desktop platforms. I don’t see much growth in mobile web for games as the experience compared to a native app (even one written in HTML and converted to native) is just not there yet. I’m excited that all the major mobile platforms now support HTML5/WebGL so that is definitely a step in the right direction.

With the second wave of web games I foresee (towards the latter half of 2015) a rise in web payments. While PayPal and Facebook are the current leaders, I expect a lot of movement in this area in response to the growing web gaming trend. Whether it’s a technology that sits of a crypto currency or something completely new, there is a high demand for a simplified, low cost form of payments to support web games.

Wearables Worn-out

The flood of wearable hardware will begin in earnest in 2015. Apple entering the fight with their Apple Watch will see the battle heat up, however I think it will be short lived. At this stage the bulkiness and battery life is too restrictive for the average user to pick them up. While there will continue to be growth in wearables in 2015 I don’t see it reaching the ubiquity of mobile phones in 2015. Specifically for games, there are some edge cases where wearables will add value to a game, for the most part they will only be used to allow gamers to receive notifications from their games with a little more ease.

In the longer term I definitely see wearables taking off, however I don’t see this occurring until late 2015 or more likely 2016 and beyond. Once the form factor is down further and the screens become more powerful I see the possibility of “gaming on your arm” being a reality.

Facebook Fallout

The continuing trend away from Facebook as a game platform will continue. It seems both players and developers have been burnt in the past year or two of Facebook gaming and while there could be a swing back in the coming year, I don’t see us returning to the crazy high revenue’s and growth we’ve seen previously. My hope is still (as it was in 2013) to see better quality social games growing out of these platforms. At the very least we will continue to see tighter integration between games and Facebook Connect in the coming year.

Major Hacking

We’ve seen some large hacks in the video game industry in 2014, most recently on Christmas Day with Xbox Live and PSN. I see more hacks like this in 2015 as well as at least one major hacking incident which shakes the foundation of the video game industry. The power of cyber attacks seems to be growing exponentially and unfortunately it’s only a matter of time before one of the big players gets a huge hack that could cause major disruptions.

Summary

What are your predictions for 2015? Do you agree or disagree with any of my points? What would you love to see in 2015?

How Likely Is It?

Microsoft has done two things recently relating to Unity that make me think there is a reasonable chance they will buy it.

1. They acquired SyntaxTree, the creators of UnityVS. UnityVS is a plugin that allows debugging Unity applications within Visual Studio. Immediately after the acquisition they made UnityVS free. This shows that they are interested in acquiring companies related to Unity and specifically how it integrates with Visual Studio.
2. Microsoft made the Unity Windows Store add-on (Windows Store and Windows Phone 8) free for all Unity users. This means developers can target Microsoft platforms for free compared to the regular $1,500 on other platforms. This shows that Microsoft is happy to write a blank cheque for developers to use Unity to target their platforms

What’s In It For Microsoft?

Why would Microsoft want to buy Unity? I see a few major reasons for this:

1. Catch Up to iOS and Android – Microsoft is currently behind iOS and Android in market share for mobile. There is a chicken and egg problem where consumers won’t switch to Microsoft Phone as there aren’t enough apps, and app developers won’t switch as there aren’t enough customers. If Microsoft buys Unity and tightly integrates the Microsoft platforms into Unity, it becomes a no-brainer for developers to release their games on the Microsoft platforms. In turn, this will encourage consumers to make the switch.
2. Buying Mindshare – Unity is used by a large percentage of all indie game developer. There is a massive amount of talent using the platform and tapping into this pool would be a huge plus for Microsoft. If the Minecraft acquisition was partly about buying the huge consumer base that plays the game, then a Unity acquisition would buy them a huge game developer base.
3. .NET Penetration – Unity’s foundation is based squarely on Mono, the open source implementation of .NET. Microsoft is making moves towards embracing Mono in all its forms and this is great for Microsoft and .NET. The more developers using C# the better for Microsoft. By purchasing Unity (and I’d also like to see a Xamarin acquisition) Microsoft would be in a great position to widen the appeal and reach of .NET and could look to converge it with Mono to have more control over developers across many platforms.

Why Do I Want It?

So why do I want Microsoft to buy Unity? The main reason is Microsoft’s focus on developers and the fact they believe the way to get good products on their platform is good developer support. This focus would be perfectly realized with the purchase of Unity as Microsoft could extend their tools to games developed for nearly any platform. Unlike other viable companies that could buy Unity (Apple, Facebook, EA) I feel that Microsoft would put the developers first and make sure the product gets better for all platforms, specifically their own. Microsoft’s recent adoption of both open source software and non-Microsoft platforms shows there is a large shift within the company and a tool like Unity would fit perfectly into this shift.

The other reason I would like to see Microsoft purchase Unity is that they have the technical talent and experience with large products that would possibly enable them to fix some of the deeper issues that many people have with Unity. From making it open source to fixing some of the core functionality that is causing issues for many developers I speak with.

How Much?

The rumours going around put Unity at between one and two billion dollars. That’s cheaper than the recent Minecraft acquisition Microsoft made. Microsoft has a lot of cash (around $85 billion in cash and short-term investments) and given their position in the market acquiring another company for a small percentage of this would put them in a great position in the game development space.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts about the sale of Unity? Who do you think should buy Unity, or would you rather not see it sell to anyone?

Rather than discuss the features of the device as most reviews do, I’ll just cover what I like and dislike about the device after a month of use. To put this review in perspective. I purchased a Surface RT when they were first released and I was extremely disappointed. I ended up using it for about 15 hours before giving up. My main concerns where the lack of apps (not being a full Windows machine) and also the type cover which I found difficult to use and only gave me about 50% of my maximum typing speed.

PROS

Firstly, what I like about the device. I have been pleasantly surprised by much of the Surface Pro 3 and this is why it has replaced multiple devices in my home office.

iPad Replacement – The SP3 runs most apps I have on my iPad and whole bunch more. I can play Hearthstone on it and it feels just like the iPad version. With the Smart Cover removed or folded back it’s like 75% of an iPad in terms of functionality and feel. The ability to plug an XBox 360 controller in to play games is a big draw card vs the restrictions of an iPad (and Android tablets). Gaming on a tablet with a controller is a great alternative to the virtual thumbsticks forced onto us by many games. The real proof as an iPad replacement is that I haven’t touched my iPad since getting my SP3.

Laptop Replacement – Many people compare the SP3 to the MacBook Air and I think this is a legitimate replacement. It’s running a full version of Windows so it’s really also a replacement for a regular Windows laptop/notebook/netbook. With a USB port and mini displayport you can plug most peripherals into the device as you would a regular laptop. It would be great if there was a second USB, but so far I’ve only had the need for one at a time. Again, the real proof is in the fact I haven’t touched my MacBook (Pro or Air) since getting this device.

Type Cover – If you buy an SP3, make sure you get the Type Cover with it. If you don’t the device can really only reach 40% of its potential and I would recommend sticking with an iPad.

The Type Cover is a dream to work with. If the iPad has a smart cover, then the SP3 has a genius cover. The Type Cover can be used in two configurations making it even more accessible than a regular laptop keyboard. I tend to have it in the raised position which seems to fit the way my hands lay while the device is on my lap. Connecting the Type Cover into the Surface has a satisfying, heavy click to it and it feels extremely secure, unlike the iPad’s smart cover. The trackpad is close to the quality of the MacBook Air and a little smaller. The backlit keyboard works really well as the device can be used anywhere, often away from a good light source. Most importantly, I’ve found my typing speed is about 90% of my regular typing speed at my main PC. I achieved 96 words per minute on the Surface Pro 3, sitting on the couch with my legs up (compared to 107 wpm on my main PC).

The great side effect of the Touch Cover being a simple keyboard is that any heat generated by the device (and there is some, see below) is not resting on your legs. The SP3 itself is elevated off your legs/table when using the kickstand allowing the best dissipation of heat.

Kickstand – The kickstand in the original Surface RT was terrible. The pre-set positions seemed to always be just off perfect and it was one of the main reasons I couldn’t use it. The SP3 kickstand though is a thing of beauty. It has no pre-set positions so you can move it to whichever position you like. This works perfectly no matter where you are using it. I just hold the device and position it until my reflection is perfectly in the center of the screen. I then shift the kickstand into position and it stays exactly where I want it no matter how long I use the device. The movement is firm enough that it doesn’t move out of place even when moving around, taking it off my lap to get something and replacing it once finished.

One of the biggest benefits comes from touch screen usage. While the ultimate touch input is done in “iPad mode” without the Type Cover or with it folded back, I still find myself using the touch screen when in “laptop mode”. Unlike many touch screen laptops though, the device is rock solid while tapping all over the screen, no matter how hard you press. This is one of my pet hates of modern touchscreen laptops as touching the screen often lifts the device up off your lap or the table, or worse changes the tilt of the screen. The design of the kickstand stops this from happening entirely. The force of taps are distributed down the kickstand itself and due to it’s angle there is no way the device can move.

The Pen – The main reason I purchased the SP3 over competitors was so I could draw directly onto the screen. I have a wacom tablet and while it’s good, there’s something to be said for drawing directly on the display itself. While I’m no artist, I do find this ability makes the device stand out from everything else on the market other than the high end “draw on the screen” devices I have seen in some game studios. However for a portable device, this is hands down the best I’ve seen. It has great pressure sensitivity in apps that support it such as Photoshop, however a few apps I tried didn’t support it well, but hopefully this can be solved in the future.

A final cool thing about the pen is the “click button” at the top. Clicking this brings up One Note and lets you instantly draw on the device like it’s a note pad. I have yet to create the Mona Lisa with it, but it’s great for showing off the device and I can see a use for people with any artistic ability or for quickly drawing diagrams.

Windows 8 – The device comes with all the advantages you expect from Windows 8. You have the full ecosystem of applications that run on Windows 8, from Steam to Photoshop and development tools. Not having to think about whether “there’s an app for that is a real plus and you can leverage all of your existing licenses for software (my entire Steam catalogue, Photoshop, Unity, Visual Studio, etc).

Miscellaneous – Below are a few random thoughts that I like about the device as well:

• The weight is light enough to carry around while being heavy enough be used as a touch device. While it’s slightly heavier than an iPad, it’s lighter than most laptop/netbooks available
• The screen is a great resolution and for the most part is as good as I’ve come to expect from a retina iPad display.

CONS

While the SP3 is a great device, it has some issues, below is my summary

Windows 8 – The biggest issue I have with the SP3 are really issues with Windows 8. These are all minor things, but they are frustrating when they occur and I’d like to see Microsoft resolve them ASAP.

• Close, minimize and maximize buttons aren’t tall enough so I misclick them about 10% of the time
• Some scrolling is not as it should be. Sometimes lifting your finger off the screen abruptly stops the scroll and other times inertia continues the movement. There’s also a problem with the scrolling not working at all, requiring a few retries to get it working
• The new start bar in Windows 8 is supposedly built for touch devices. It’s frustrating to use on a regular (non-touch) PC and I find it isn’t much better on a touchscreen device. While it’s cool to scroll around, I still just can’t get used to it and rarely find it helpful

Miscellaneous

• While the kickstand is awesome in 95% of situations, the one issue I have with it is how sharp it can be if you are wearing shorts. It’s not enough to cut you but it can get uncomfortable after extensive use.
• In Chrome, tapping somewhere in a document (eg Google Docs) brings up the virtual keyboard even if I’m using the Type Cover. This is annoying when navigating around the doc. I am not sure if this is a bug or not, but it should be solvable by requiring a second click before bringing up the virtual keyboard.
• With the Type Cover elevated, the start bar applications are a little hard to press
• The holder for the pen came separate from the Type Cover and I had to stick it on myself. This is prone to error and felt a little tacky. I also think it looks suboptimal compared to being seamlessly build-in.
• Occasionally the device heats up which is only an issue if you are using it in “tablet mode” without the Type Cover. This is by no means a negative in day-to-day use but it slightly concerns me. While it’s not enough to burn anyone, I would still have liked it to be more like an iPad than an overheating laptop.
• Along with the heating up is the fan that cools the device. While it’s not excessively loud, it is annoying. I find it keeps turning on while watching YouTube video’s which is annoying as I often have them on quietly and have to turn them up to hear.
• Out of the box I couldn’t connect to my iPhone as a personal hotspot. I had to install a bunch of Windows updates before it would see the device and connect. Once that was done though, it connected without an issue every time
• There are slight light bleeding issues at the bottom of the screen. This is especially noticeable on black screens which unfortunately includes the the initial Surface startup screen which is the first thing you see when using the device.

Conclusion

So all in all I am a huge fan of the Surface Pro 3. It’s replaced both my iPad and my MacBook’s and I can’t see me going back to them any time soon. While there are issues, the majority of them are software based and therefore can be fixed in time. I have a game jam coming up and I’m going to try building a game in Unity using nothing but my SP3, I’ll report back on my findings.

Have you tried the Surface Pro 3? Can you see yourself replacing your existing tablet and/or laptop with it?

The Problem – Not Enough Content

The underlying problem is the creation of enough quality content to keep players engaged for a set period of time. For Battle Group 2 this was a handful of hours, however for our next project, we are aiming for something people can play for months without running out of content. The problem is that a small team is limited in what it can produce in a given period of time. For us, 3 (hu)man-years of work. So what are our options to solve this problem?

Solution 1 – Reduce Scope

The first solution is to reduce the scope of the game. Instead of providing x-months of content for the player, cut this back to weeks or hours. This is the usual advice I give to game developers when they are concerned with the amount of time/budget required to develop their game. It’s a common trap to overscope a project and have the development go on for years, abandoning it entirely or releasing something that doesn’t live up to the original vision of the game. Reducing scope has the advantage of focussing the design back on the core “5 minutes of fun” and making sure the game being built is the tightest play experience possible.

Solution 2 – Change Design

The second solution is the change the design of the game to cater to limited resources. From a business point of view, this can involve changing the monetization for the product. Free to play games often require a large amount of content to keep people engaged/playing and therefore draw out more money. Switching to a paid model allows developers to “get paid” up front and focus on quality over quantity. The game is then more about providing an enjoyable experience than keeping people playing and extracting as much money for as long as possible. From a game design perspective, this involves changing the underlying design of the game to cater to reduced resources. The difficult part to this is keeping the original vision of the game at the same time.

Solution 3 – Roadblocks

The current trend for free to play games (Boom Beach, Candy Crush) is to stop the player from racing through the content by placing artificial blocks on their progress. Players continually run into roadblocks that require them to wait, ask a friend for help or pay cash. This is not something we want to do for our future projects. While it has become the norm for a particular set of games, I’m glad to see it hasn’t made its way into more mainstream games outside of F2P mobile domain.

Solution 4 – Procedural Content

The solution I am leaning towards on our future project is to use procedural content generation for the majority of our content. This changes the problem from one of time/resources to one of solving complex problems and tweaking algorithms to make quality content. This in itself can sometimes be as time consuming as simply creating the content and therefore needs to be handled carefully. The major advantage to this solution is that it frees the team up to make the building blocks for the game and have players explore the space in the direction they enjoy. One risk of this approach is creating content that all feels the same. Players quickly see through procedural generation when all that changes is simple stats or superficial changes to content. However games that are built upon procedural content from their core (Minecraft, No Man’s Sky) can give deep experiences that allow almost unlimited play time.

Our Decision

We are in the middle of making this decision for our next project at the moment. We have not decided on the best option and this blog post is a way for me to think through our options as clearly as possible. Have you encountered a similar problem and what was your solution? Are there any other solutions you would suggest?

Open Source Game

The most important part of the announcement in my eyes is that the next Unreal Tournament will be completely open source. From the game down to the engine (as UE4 is already open source). Once complete, this will be an invaluable resource for game developers to see how a commercial AAA title is put together. It will specifically help those using UE4, however there will also be insights for those using other engines. From the workflow to layout of the project, peeking into a finished game is a great way for students to learn best practices.

More important than the static final product though is the ongoing development of the game. From day one, Epic have put the source code up on GitHub so anyone with a license can dig in and look at the process of making the game. Where the first few weeks are spent, what is taking the most time and which areas are seeing the most development.

The final piece of the open source puzzle is the ability to push code to the project. Epic are encouraging developers to get involved in the project and help. Whether you want to fix an annoying bug, have a great idea, want to get recognition or just be a part of a AAA game, this is great news for game developers the world over.

Sharing Mods

Another part of the announcement that is great for smaller game developers (both hobbyists and students) is the mod support they are building in from the ground up. Developers can come together and create multiple parts of a game wrapped up as mods and combine them to make a game that’s more than the sum of its parts. Most developers can’t do everything and having access to mods that involve script, modelling, animations, etc lets individuals focus on what they are best at and take off the shelf whatever they need. I see this becoming similar to the Unity Asset Store. The major difference I’m expecting is that Unreal Engine is a little more focussed on FPS games and so I feel the mods will be focussed in this area giving much greater breadth within this smaller area.

While it’s unlikely to affect most people, the opportunity to sell mods is also a great part of the announcement. With the creation of the right mod it’s possible for smaller developers to make a living from tools that help other developers make great games.

Bridging The Gap

Another area I’m excited about is bridging the gap between game developers and players. At a superficial level this will give players a look into how a AAA game is made and the amount of effort that goes into it. I also see this as a great way for players to take the plunge and get involved in game development. Many of the tools available in UE4 (eg Blueprint) allow non-programmers the ability build fun, unique gameplay.

What about us?

While I’ve only spent a small amount of time with UE4, I’ve been impressed with what I saw. Whether we develop our next game in UE4 or not, I plan to follow the development of the next Unreal Tournament to learn from their processes and best practices throughout development. For 2D focussed games I still see Unity as the best option, however the closer a game is to a standard FPS the more reason there is to make the switch to UE4. Once we’ve finished Battle Group 2 I will spend some solid time with UE4 and make a decision on whether we will use it next.

The Reaction
Francis nicely sums up the reaction around the internet at the moment. We’ve also seen Notch pull out of talks with Oculus to bring Minecraft to the platform. From all sides of the globe, Indie’s, AAA and gamers alike have made it clear they are not happy. Of particular note are those (like myself) that backed the Rift on Kickstarter. Lets delve into why everyone is so unhappy.

The Hate
There are a bunch of reasons people are citing for their displeasure of this announcement, lets look at each one in detail.

1. Distrust of Facebook – Notch is the most outspoken proponent of this point and has gone on record within hours of the announcement to completely pull out of negotiations. There is also widespread complaints across twitter and the Indie community. Ironically, many of the people venting their frustrations are using Facebook to do so. While I agree that Facebook have a tarnished record of late with privacy concerns and issues with the virality of the network (vs paid advertisements) I don’t see how this impacts on the Oculus. Do people really think that their rift will start showing ads to them or selling their private information? These are two very different platforms, one paid and one free. I would much rather see FB money going to Oculus rather than more VC money which is almost exclusively tied to ROI and profits alone.
2. Kickstarter – On the kickstarter page as well as twitter and other social platforms, a lot of backers of the original Oculus Kickstarter are stating they feel betrayed by this news. The logic is that they backed the original project and therefore selling to a large company is betraying that initial trust. I am an original backer, I backed within the first few hours. I feel no betrayal at all, in fact, quite the opposite. I took a chance on Oculus and by funding the initial run, the company has managed to secure $2B for future development. I originally back Oculus as I want to see VR in every home around the world as soon as possible. By partnering with FB the humble beginnings of a kickstarter campaign can come to fruition.
3. Farmville VR – There are already a bunch of meme’s going around referencing facebook games and VR. The fear here is that Oculus will become a casual game platform, or worse a social networking platform. Hardcore gamers feel this acquisition will change the development path of VR and take the focus away from them. I don’t see how these are mutually exclusive. I always assumed VR (and specifically the Oculus) would service hardcore and casual players alike. Facebook is unlikely to restrict the usage of the platform to only service their own games. There will be enough competition in the VR market that Facebook will need to stay competitive. With the current setup it looks like Valve will be offering an API that sits on top of the majority of VR headsets so they will become a commodity

The Counter Argument
Rather than being angry at this announcement I am looking at it in a positive light for the following reasons:

1. Cash Money – This injection of cash to Oculus is four times larger than all of the funding received so far by the company, with the shares coming in at four times this again. This sort of cash injection will set Palmer and the team up to take on Sony and any other competitors that come along in the future. If VR is to hit the mainstream a large cash injection like this will help to expedite the process.
2. Mainstream – VR is still a niche part of game development and video gaming. Having the Facebook name on the product and working closely with them will allow Oculus to enter the mainstream more rapidly. Whatever your thoughts on Facebook, they do have a large reach and this is ideal for seeing VR reach ubiquity.
3. Self Contained – Facebook has a history of leaving companies they acquire fairly self-contained, letting them get on with what they are good at. I can’t see this being any different for Oculus. Facebook, as a business, has little to do with VR which lead to my initial surprise in the announcement. Long term though, this will be a good thing. My prediction is for Facebook to get out of the road and let Oculus do what they do best, make great VR solutions. Facebook will utilize the technology where it suits them, but otherwise I can’t see this derailing the company too far.

Conclusion
I know my view is not a popular one, however I feel the debate has been too one-sided this far. While I do have my reservations about the deal, looking logically at it I find this to be a positive thing for VR in the long term. My dream is to see a VR device in every home within the coming decade and I see the announcement today helping this cause. Carmack has made a number of comments supporting the move and I highly his opinion. I think watching what he does will be a good way of gauging the success of this acquisition.

Still not happy? What are your major complaints with the acquisition? Is there anything Facebook could do to ease your concerns?