Going to the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March? Here are a few talks going on that you should check out.
It’s not long before we’ll be heading to GDC, hosting a few dinners, and looking for a good talk to attend. But what’s actually going on? Well, we’ve spotted a few highlights that we reckon are worth checking out.
So if you’re developing a multiplayer game, here are eight talks worth attending. In no particular order, here they are.
By Daniel Brewer from Digital Extremes. Monday March 18th at 10:50am in Room 2001.
Warframe is a sci-fi, third-person MMO shooter that came out in 2012. It started as a passion project, but the developers have been constantly working on the AI behind the scenes for the last 12 years.
So Daniel will be explaining how they built their AI, what they did to keep it relevant, and delving into the lessons they’ve learnt along the way. A really useful talk for anyone looking to add AI to their multiplayer game.
By Matt Firor from ZeniMax. Wednesday 20th March at 5.00pm in Room 2002.
As one of the biggest MMORPGs in the world – with over 26 million players – The Elder Scrolls Online has clearly cracked the code. But what have they learnt over the last 10 years?
In this talk, Matt is going to be walking people through the key moments that led to their success and what to do if you want to follow suit.
By Sarah Huth from Jadu AR. Tuesday 9th March at 2:10pm in Room 301.
Making a multiplayer game is hard enough. But add augmented reality into the mix and it’s even more difficult. With a whole host of new challenges, it’s a tough balancing act.
So Sarah is going to explain exactly what technical challenges there are when building a multiplayer AR game. She’ll dive into the technologies they used, the game design principles they used, and how to make sure you don’t fall into any traps.
By Ankit Kaushal from SuperGaming. Tuesday 19th March at 4.40pm in Room 2001.
Maps and levels are challenging to design. Not just from a creative perspective, but just from the workflow. How do you make sure that everything comes together seamlessly? Often studios split up the work into modules.
But Ankit explains how a modular workflow might not always be worth it. You really need to understand the pros and cons of a modular workflow before you apply it to your studio.
By Robin Moulder from 3lb Games. Tuesday 19th March at 9.30am in Room 301.
How exactly do you create a multiplayer game in Virtual Reality and not only make it immersive, but intuitive? You want to get players into the action as soon as possible, without needing hefty tutorials.
Robin walks you through the design principles behind their games Grokit and digs into the challenges behind the creating the game.
By David Partouche from The Multiplayer Group. Monday 18th March at 2.10pm in Room 2002.
The way you program AI pathing for people compared to vehicles should be quite different. People can stop and turn on a dime, while vehicles have much more limited movements. These types of paths are particularly important in dynamic environments, where you can’t program in a manual path.
This is why The Multiplayer Group has created a new algorithm to help figure out how vehicles can navigate in an open map.
By Bradley Pollar from Frontier Developments. Thursday 21st March at 4.00pm in Room 2005.
A deterministic approach is one where – given the same inputs – you’ll always get the same result. This can be incredibly useful in gaming for numerous reasons. Not least, it can cut down on the amount of data you need to send – and let the calculations happen on the client side.
Bradley will be explaining the pros and cons of determinism, how they used it for their game, and what you need to do to use it for your game.
By Sylvie Sherman from Survios. Wednesday 20th March at 3.30pm in Room 3014.
As virtual reality becomes more and more popular, the devices themselves have been rapidly improving. If you want to keep your game alive, you constantly need to be fine-tuning and adapting to those changes.
Sylvie explored exactly how to approach that journey, using Creed: Rise to Glory as a case study, explaining what the best practices are, and how best to prepare yourself for changes.
In between talks, we’d love to see you. Pop by our stand to say hello (we’re at booth S549 with servers.com). Or pop a time in our diary to book a meeting. And if you fancy joining us for one of our client dinners, then get in touch. Spaces are limited.
