OVR's New 1st Party Content Team!

[cubytes]

Hey Forum,

I had noticed a couple days ago that @oculus sent out this tweet:

Welcome Kenneth Scott (@superactionfunb), Oculus Art Director, formerly of 343 and id Software. Ken is building our 1st-party content team!

shortly followed by this tweet:

We're hiring great art talent! If you're interested in building incredible VR experiences, please reach out! http://oculus.com/careers

I would love to be a part of that team 🙂 How badass would that be? Hey Kenneth you should recruit me to the team!

jk jk sadly I'm way under qualified for the part. I am good at conceptualizing ideas, but as far as development goes I have very little experience aside from testing and bug reporting. But hey you got to start somewhere right? On the flip side I am a fast learner! You don't even have to pay me at first. Just show me how to use the tools of the trade and I will give it a go.

Id be interested in learning how to work with graphics on a brand new top of the line mac pro with multiple 4K displays



$18,000 dollars of awesome? or extremely overpriced?

[Itsinthemind]

"cubytes" wrote:

Id be interested in learning how to work with graphics on a brand new top of the line mac pro with multiple 4K displays



$18,000 dollars of awesome? or extremely overpriced?

I've been thinking of upgrading to a MacPro, but already decided against it after another discussion here https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=8520&start=20. The top model is way to expensive and I looked at the bottom end, more in the region of $4,000, but then found out you can get a really decent PC for less than half that money or there about. Also, the top end 27" iMac is more powerful than the bottom end MacPro according to some write ups. So come July, I will probably baptize the new DK2 with purpose build, high end PC and save myself a small fortune 🙂 .

[needsloomis]

$18,000 dollars of awesome? or extremely overpriced?

Stupid overpriced. You can build a hackentosh with the same parts for far less, and have enough money left over to buy a car/feed a few hundred children.

Also, macs use server processors. Great for running servers and doing tasks like encoding audio/video and rendering graphics in maya, but really bad for gaming.

You buy low tier apple stuff because you are willing to pay 30% or so extra to be fashionable and have a status symbol, or you aren't technologically inclined enough to make a functioning hackentosh (and you really need final cut pro and/or are obsessed OSX).

You buy high tier mac stuff because you are an asshole who only purchases Veblen goods, or your department has a budget it needs to maintain.

[cubytes]

speaking of maya i am actually very interested in taking maya for a spin.

hahaha yea you could buy a car with what it would cost to get a top tier mac pro with 4k displays. i was going through the apple online store and ticking all of the top tier options and my jaw dropped as I watched the price sky-rocket towards 20 grand...

status symbol and osx obsession aside a top tier mac pro with multiple 4K displays would be like my dream workstation.

although with that kind of money i imagine if you want to get the most bang for your buck with 20 grand you could probably invest in some 6 foot tall server racks, fill the racks up with motherboards and probably still have a little bit of money left over to wire some of the office up with physical network connections so workstations themselves could be just thin clients...

but im not really sure how professional game studios design their network and workstation infrastructures.....

[Twitchmonkey]

I was looking at the Mac Pro configuration page, just about everything on there can be purchased for 50-75% of what they're going to charge you. The equivalent of a $20k Mac Pro would probably run you about 10-$12k in parts, don't feel comfortable making it yourself? Find a really competent computer builder for another $300 and you've still saved enough money to buy Max, Maya, ZBrush, and Photoshop.

[cubytes]

tru that twitch good insight.

im curious tho..

since they are hiring an art director does that mean they already have a concept in mind? or does the art director typically handle most of the conceptualization?

if so i wonder what kind of gameplay they are focusing on...

NPC interaction?
interactivity?
exploration?
vehicle operation?
combat?
all of the above?
or are they going for a virtual world type experience?

hmmm

who typically designs the gameplay experience?

[Twitchmonkey]

The art director is usually responsible for all the visual elements. That doesn't mean they get to decide if it's a sci-fi or a western game however, that's generally going to be decided by the executive producer/lead designer, possibly in collaboration with other designers/producers, though as with movies the term "producer" can have a lot of different meanings from being an integral part of the design process or marketing of the game, to simply supplying a bunch of funding to get their name in the credits. The art director will then take that theme and make decisions regarding color palettes, the general style of the game (gritty realism, polished modern, cel-shaded comic book style, etc.) as well as working with the lead programmer to determine things like polygon counts and texture sizes.

As for the individual mechanics, that is often dependent on the size of the team. Large development studios could have a team of 20+ people working on just the UI, just the fighting mechanics, etc. whereas smaller studios might just have a small team of programmers working with the designers to do these things. As with most creative things, the bigger the team, the harder it is for a single person to achieve their unique vision. That's why indie development can be so nice, sure it's not going to be AAA quality, but you have the potential to have a major impact on the experience.

[cubytes]

"Twitchmonkey" wrote:
The art director is usually responsible for all the visual elements. That doesn't mean they get to decide if it's a sci-fi or a western game however, that's generally going to be decided by the executive producer/lead designer, possibly in collaboration with other designers/producers, though as with movies the term "producer" can have a lot of different meanings from being an integral part of the design process or marketing of the game, to simply supplying a bunch of funding to get their name in the credits. The art director will then take that theme and make decisions regarding color palettes, the general style of the game (gritty realism, polished modern, cel-shaded comic book style, etc.) as well as working with the lead programmer to determine things like polygon counts and texture sizes.

As for the individual mechanics, that is often dependent on the size of the team. Large development studios could have a team of 20+ people working on just the UI, just the fighting mechanics, etc. whereas smaller studios might just have a small team of programmers working with the designers to do these things. As with most creative things, the bigger the team, the harder it is for a single person to achieve their unique vision. That's why indie development can be so nice, sure it's not going to be AAA quality, but you have the potential to have a major impact on the experience.

ahh gotcha right on right on. basically an art director just dials in the visual aesthetic and art style of the game then? i was thinking an art director was an overseer of all the art/media of a game including narrative, screenplay and music et all.

[Twitchmonkey]

"cubytes" wrote:


ahh gotcha right on right on. basically an art director just dials in the visual aesthetic and art style of the game then? i was thinking an art director was an overseer of all the art/media of a game including narrative, screenplay and music et all.

Those would fall under the lead writer and music director positions, though they all should work with one another to deliver a cohesive experience.

[cubytes]

"Twitchmonkey" wrote:
Those would fall under the lead writer and music director positions, though they all should work with one another to deliver a cohesive experience.

right on right on. hey twitch you should apply to be a part of the team! http://oculus.com/careers