Richard “Lord British” Garriott, Creative Director at Portalarium, will be speaking at Austin Games Conference this week at the Austin Convention Center! In his first talk, Explore & Create, he shares how his experiences adventuring across, underneath, and over our planet helped him create other planets.
EXPLORE & CREATE: HOW EXPLORATION & RESEARCH CAN FEED THE CRAFT OF VIRTUAL WORLD CREATION
RICHARD GARRIOTT, ROOM 19A
SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, 2:15 PM-3:15 PM
Richard Garriott has spent the last 40 years using his passion for exploration and research about our world to help him craft the virtual worlds he creates. In this talk he shares how his experiences adventuring across, underneath, and over our planet helped him create other planets. He will also share how a commitment to detailed research helped him create a level of believability in the worlds he created by creating layers of detail that reinforced the reality.
Visit the AGC Website for Richard’s latest schedule.
The Portalarium Team
Starr Long (Executive Producer), Finn Staber (Designer/Programmer), and Fletcher Kinnear (Character Artist) from our team will also be speaking at the event:
DEVELOPING NAKED IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE
STARR LONG, ROOM 14
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016, 2:15 PM-3:15 PM
More and more game developers are pushing community engagement earlier and earlier in the process of game development. Traditional game development consists of the developer working behind closed doors on their vision. Periodically, and in very controlled circumstances, the customers can see the work in progress but that is mostly elaborate trailers, often not even showing actual game play. Most importantly the customers cannot give feedback while the game is still being developed. Now earlier engagement is also extending more and more beyond the virtual (forums, gameplay, irc) and into the real with cosplay, conventions, meetups, physical rewards, and other tangibles that make the community connections even stronger. This is going beyond just letting customers see the game at all stages and begin playing it as soon as it is possible to provide feedback. This is moving more and more towards blurring the line between the developers and the players into one community. Starr Long, a twenty-five year veteran of the game industry, provides deep insight along with examples, from Ultima Online up to his current project, Shroud of the Avatar.
FINN STABER (ON A PANEL WITH OTHERS), BALLROOM G
SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, 4:45 PM-5:45 PM
Advancements in technology now allow for a new level of immersive interactive experiences. The term “mixed-reality” is used in many ways for both AR and VR to describe the convincing presence that can be created. This panel of expert developers discusses techniques for creating immersive user experiences, and some of the important lessons learned over the past few years as “early adopters” of the latest AR/VR technology
FLETCHER KINNEAR, EXPO HALL
SEPTEMBER 21, 2016, 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Wacom staff and guest artists will be on hand to demonstrate the latest in Wacom tablets and techniques on how to use them. Shroud’s very own Fletcher Kinnear will be manning the booth Wednesday afternoon sharing his tips and tricks.