Author: sick skills

This week Valve published an update regarding its plans for the 2.0 version of its SteamVR Tracking tech, detailing the ordering process for licensees and informing them of some significant changes to the system.

Most notably, Valve intends to update the new base stations sometime next year so they can work together in groups of 4, covering a play space of up to 10 x 10 meters.

That’s a significant improvement over SteamVR Tracking’s current 2-base station maximum, which tends to max out at a play space of roughly 4 x 4 meters.

This puts a hard number on Valve’s previously-stated plans to improve and expand the number of base stations supported by SteamVR Tracking, but it’s not a hard stop — the company goes on to note that it is looking at supporting even more base stations, though it won’t say when or if that will happen.

This is presumably possible because the new SteamVR Tracking 2.0 base stations are capable of providing data when hit with a tracking laser. That data can identify where the laser is coming from, which allows the system to work with more than 2 base stations.

VR devs should also know that the new SteamVR Tracking 2.0 base stations will begin shipping to licensees early next year, and won’t work with earlier versions of the system — most notably, current HTC Vive headsets.

They also won’t ship with any sort of mounting equipment, since Valve is “creating a custom wall/ceiling mounting solution” it expects to talk about next year.

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: Frisco, Texas

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with UI artists, programmers and Project Directors to drive interface style and function.
• Create wireframes and mockups that visually communicate game features.
• Create art assets like graphics, animations and icons as identified by the UI Lead.
• Implement, animate, and maintain intuitive UI screens using engine tools.
• Visually display complex data intuitively with an emphasis on information hierarchy.

Required Skills:

• At least 3 years of professional experience as a UI Designer
• At least 1 shipped AAA title
• Proficient in Adobe CC Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects)
• Experience using engine level UI tools (Unity, Scaleform, Flash, etc.)
• Ability to quickly prototype and visualize engaging user experiences.
• Strong background in motion graphics.
• Ability to give and receive constructive criticism and critique with a focus on improving quality.
• Craft UI components with an emphasis on modularity.
• Ability to rapidly prototype designs in a variety of visual styles
• Team player with a great attitude & love for video games

Desired Skills:

• Scaleform experience
• Flash experience
• Scripting (Lua, ActionScript, C#)

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

Studio MDHR’s hand-drawn throwback Cuphead has sold over 1 million copies, just two short weeks after its release.

While the quick pace at which Cuphead reached 1 million sold is noteworthy in itself, it’s especially impressive considering the game only launched on Xbox One and PC.

In a short blog post, Studio MDHR co-founders Chad and Jared Moldenhauer announced the milestone and took a moment to thank fans for the success of their visually distinctive run-and-gun platformer and talk briefly about the game itself.

“We have worked tirelessly over the past few years to deliver a game that remained true to our vision and we are both humbled and excited that so many people from around the world are playing Cuphead,” reads the post. “It truly makes it all worth it.”

The game itself was announced back in 2014 and quickly drew no small amount of attention with its 1930’s styled animation. As members of the development team have explained, the look is replicated by hand-drawing each and every frame of animation for the game, including backgrounds, characters, and effects. 

Media giant IGN announced today that it has acquired Humble Bundle, the company best known for selling packs of indie games at pay-what-you-want prices. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This is potentially a big deal for game developers, since Humble has expanded beyond its bundling business to publish games, pay devs to make games for its subscription-based monthly game club, maintain a subscription-based online game trove, and operate an online game storefront.

However, a press release confirming the deal also noted that Humble will continue to operate independently in the wake of the acquisition, with no significant business or staffing changes. It will have some degree of support from IGN (which is itself owned by digital media giant J2 Global), specifically in terms of accelerating growth and raising more money for charity.

Humble grew out of a bundle of indie games sold to raise money for charity in 2010, and in the seven years since it has raised over $100 million for charity. In a conversation today with Gamasutra, Humble cofounder John Graham and IGN executive VP Mitch Galbraith reiterated that IGN does not intend to change the way Humble does business.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Galbraith, who explained that IGN started looking to make a deal like this nearly a year ago. “The idea is just to feed them with the resources they need to keep doing what they’re doing.”

“We want to stick to the fundamentals in the short term. We don’t want to disrupt anything we’re doing right already,” added Graham. “Because of the shared vision and overlap of our customer bases, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities.”

Many indie devs feel like they’re under pressure to make high-quality art that rivals that of big-budget studios — with the smallest team size and budget possible.

At GDC 2017 The Molasses Flood’s Gwen Frey, self-described sole animator and over-tasked generalist on The Flame in The Flood, discussed how to rapidly generate triple-A quadruped locomotion as an indie dev.

It was a video-heavy talk that focused on animation authoring and state blending for quadruped characters. According to Frey, these characters have unique foot sliding challenges and traditional solutions result in either poor fidelity motion or a bloated animator workload.

Frey shared some techniques for illustrating high-quality quadruped locomotion without the need for transition animations, using two different quadruped characters as examples – a boar with a rigid spine, and a large, gangling wolf with a procedural spine. 

It was a fascinating talk, one that you can now watch for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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