Announcing The Tom's Community Indie VR Roundtable! Submit Your Questions

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By Joshua Simenhoff
published

Ever wanted to ask an indie VR developer how they built a VR game? Or what’s coming next for VR? Or what are the philosophical implications for VR? Or when will Sword Art Online be ready!? Well, now’s your chance!

We’re gathering five of the brightest and most creative indie VR developers to discuss their development process, the future of VR, and questions submitted by you! Mark your calendars for Tuesday June 14th, the first day of E3. You won’t want to miss the first ever Indie Developer VR Roundtable discussion recorded and broadcast in 360° VR!

Joining us for the first ever Virtual Reality Roundtable are:

  • Nick Abel hails from Tomorrow Today Labs, the developers behind NewtonVR a physics-based interaction system, designed for Unity, and maintained as a free resource to VR developers.
  • Alex Knoll is a co-founder of Stress Level Zero and creative director of the VR Shooter, Hover Junkers.
  • Andy Moore spearheads Radial Games, makers of Fantastic Contraption, a free-form Rube-goldberg-esque puzzle game for the HTC Vive.
  • Andrew Dayton is a former technical director for Pixar Studios, co-founder of Steel Wool Games and executive producer of the turn based VR strategy game, Quar: Battle for Gate 18.
  • Kalin co-founded Funktronic Labs, developers of the upcoming VR native first person strategy game Cosmic Trip. 

If there are any questions you would like to ask the developers, please let us know in the comments below. The discussion will be recorded in our LA office on Monday June 13th so please be sure to get your questions in before then.

Let your voices be heard!

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Joshua Simenhoff
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • turkey3_scratch
    Do you think in the future VR will be the norm and monitor gaming in general will be as pong seems today?
    Reply
  • edhem
    How difficult is it to adopt current games to existing VR systems without lag (I have tried VorpX, and am very disappointed)? Do you have to have 90Hz on the display for every game? How much power do we need to have decent quality, as today's games can barely get 60fps on ultra settings? (When trying to run any game on HTC Vive with a R9 295x2 I am not too impressed with the performance)
    Reply
  • campbelln
    What was the most interesting or surprising paradigm shift you experienced compared to developing traditional games?
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    We have amazing hologram technology and VR is out of the gate at a rather fast gait. How long do you suppose it might be before we start seeing a holodeck type marriage of the two technologies similar to what we've drooled over in the Star trek family of tv series? Obviously it would be a long time before anything even remotely to that extent comes along, but is this something that you guys foresee as being potentially viable at some point and is anybody already working on something similar?

    Also, video arcades like we saw everywhere in the 80's and 90's have largely faded away. Do you think VR technology can create a resurgence of interest in entertainment facilities or do you think that with the availability of relatively cheap hardware people will tend to embrace VR only on home based systems and not have an interest in something like a VR lounge?
    Reply
  • Davidtb823
    90% will buy phone VR.
    What does the headset do that the phone doesn't?
    Reply
  • scolaner
    Holy crap you guys, these are superb questions. Keep 'em coming!
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Do any developers still care about OSVR or other PC HMDs or APIs?
    Reply
  • kyle382
    If it fits, do you sits?
    Reply
  • Darkbreeze
    Going kind of sci-fi with this, and I realize there are already SOME kinds of training applications in the works for VR, but do you guys think it's possible that at some point VR courses could be a full time replacement for teachers and classrooms. This seems like something that could be easily implemented, but is rather frightening actually as it moves us a step closer to making US become irrelevant and taking more jobs off the table. Is it possible that VR could destabilize the human status quo? Thoughts on this?
    Reply
  • bit_user
    18086595 said:
    Is it possible that VR could destabilize the human status quo?
    At least wait until there are optic nerve implants. Most people won't want to wear HMDs like all day, every day.

    I actually do wonder what different people's threshold of discomfort is, with Vive & Rift. I'm sure this affects the kinds of games being made for VR, and that might be a good question to ask.
    Reply