What is the best way to approach a VR Jam project?

[ricard2798]

Ok, so here is the deal.

1-I am somewhat experienced in doing simple vr stuff (have a demo for oculus dk1/2 on share).
2-Already have a concept and idea for a gear vr demo
3-in fact, i already cooked up a sample scene for it, with assets and concepts in place. runs smoothly for the most part, and it is a HUGE interactive environment.
(from what I understand, I can't start building stuff yet (just assets), so this scene is not for the demo, but more to gauge if the hardware can roughly handle what I want to do)
4-I feel i might be able to develop it own my own, but perhaps in a team i can deliver a much better product
5-Yet, i am self taught. not a real programmer nor project manager so my questions are:

-Should I develop on my own or a team?
-Will sharing my idea open things up for someone to copy my idea, or improving upon it, making my efforts to compete harder?
-If i have a simple scene demo already for VR, should i share in here, to get feedback... again at the risk of revealing too much?


Keep in mind, my idea ain't that great or groundbreaking. in fact, probably there are 20 just as good and similar. My intent on asking is because i have never done a jam before, and I want to be prepared in order to do things right 🙂

[Gerald]

"Kirito" wrote:

"Gerald" wrote:
on reddit I was told to just start since they can't prevent it anyway ... so just saying you should not wait, they want awesome jam titles 🙂

im expecting a great game from u this jam 😛

focus all your time in 1 game and blow them away gl 😄

thanks mate ... I think I will do just that. I am very tempted to do a couple of smaller titles, but I think a single very polished experience does make more sense. The past few days I have done nothing but convert assets to mobile for GearVR.

The idea is that even if I end up empty (there are now over 500 participants already!!!) I have a good title to sell it on the store! Originally I was not convinced that having one big title on the store is the way to go, but after Carmacks talk I suspect having something that I can polish over the summer if I win a price and that is ready when VR on mobile hits the mainstream (Note5 release ...) should be just the thing.

Will you join the Jam Kirito?

[ricard2798]

I am really excited to see what you create. I also agree, creating those mobile assets, or in your case, optimizing for mobile, its a very important and crucial task. Working on VR as challenging as it might seem, has made me a better developer (or aficionado, or noob tinkerer, or whatever you call a guy like me... LOL).
For example, I had an asset that was 4mm polys. On my dk2, I used that without a care cause the game ran fine, but the moment I brought that into my gearvr, LOL, it brought my note to its knees. So I started to focus on optimizing my assets. Now I got that 4mm asset down to 20k, then 10k, and even 4k. I have learnt that its an art form in itself to make efficient assets that look great but have a low poly count. But the best part was, that later, I went to my original dk2 project, replaced the assets with more cost efficient ones, and the performance increase was dramatic!!!
So even thought at times I question if investing on the gear was worth it (I still think its an overpriced piece of plastic), it has definitely made me a better (whatever you call me) 😛

just for kicks, here are sample videos of my model in 4MM poly and low poly. link http://1drv.ms/T03DGV the ones with 10k in the name are the low poly ones.

Im kind of happy I dove into this VR thing. Who could have imagined an old banking industry guy like me would end up doing all this stuff... and even better, teaching middle school kids about the wonders of Vr and unity development 🙂

Anyways, good luck to all on the Jam

[Gerald]

love the style of your assets - I am not an artist and am working with assetstore stuff, but I have a nice collection to pick from by now 🙂

and you are right, my understanding for optimization has gone up a lot and I feel ready now to tackle smartphone VR 🙂

looking forward to your submission too!!

[Kirito]

"Gerald" wrote:

"Kirito" wrote:

"Gerald" wrote:
on reddit I was told to just start since they can't prevent it anyway ... so just saying you should not wait, they want awesome jam titles 🙂

im expecting a great game from u this jam 😛

focus all your time in 1 game and blow them away gl 😄

thanks mate ... I think I will do just that. I am very tempted to do a couple of smaller titles, but I think a single very polished experience does make more sense. The past few days I have done nothing but convert assets to mobile for GearVR.

The idea is that even if I end up empty (there are now over 500 participants already!!!) I have a good title to sell it on the store! Originally I was not convinced that having one big title on the store is the way to go, but after Carmacks talk I suspect having something that I can polish over the summer if I win a price and that is ready when VR on mobile hits the mainstream (Note5 release ...) should be just the thing.

Will you join the Jam Kirito?

i would like to but i cant 😛 im entering college next year and then im finaly going to be able to learn programming and other stuff like that 😄

and i agree that you should put all your time in 1 game. even if you dont win this jam, you can polish your game even more after the jam and have a completly ready game for when the gear vr app store and consumer gear vr are there.


its not my bussiness but i realy want you to win if its even the lowest price so work hard 😛

if you need feedback on your game just tell me xd

[ricard2798]

"Gerald" wrote:
love the style of your assets - I am not an artist and am working with assetstore stuff, but I have a nice collection to pick from by now 🙂

and you are right, my understanding for optimization has gone up a lot and I feel ready now to tackle smartphone VR 🙂

looking forward to your submission too!!

Thanks for the kind words. I will tell you this much... I am also not an artist nor a programmer, but there are a few tricks I have learned (photogrammetry and probuilder). these 2 tools have empowered me tremendously. If you ever feel the need to learn about them, or need help, send me a pm... I bet that in 30 minutes I can solve your asset creation problems really quick... and all done by you ( so no prize splits) 🙂

[Gerald]

"ricard2798" wrote:

"Gerald" wrote:
love the style of your assets - I am not an artist and am working with assetstore stuff, but I have a nice collection to pick from by now 🙂

and you are right, my understanding for optimization has gone up a lot and I feel ready now to tackle smartphone VR 🙂

looking forward to your submission too!!

Thanks for the kind words. I will tell you this much... I am also not an artist nor a programmer, but there are a few tricks I have learned (photogrammetry and probuilder). these 2 tools have empowered me tremendously. If you ever feel the need to learn about them, or need help, send me a pm... I bet that in 30 minutes I can solve your asset creation problems really quick... and all done by you ( so no prize splits) 🙂

yeah I already worked with probuilder - it's a time management decision that I do not try to build my assets (and the quality of the best assetstore stuff is clearly out of reach without years of practice).
but just today I posted to their reddit that 2015 is the year I become a probuilder ... but not for this project 😉

@Kirito: thanks man, I really appreciate your motivating words mate!!! 🙂

[HomerS66]

"ricard2798" wrote:
I am really excited to see what you create. I also agree, creating those mobile assets, or in your case, optimizing for mobile, its a very important and crucial task. Working on VR as challenging as it might seem, has made me a better developer (or aficionado, or noob tinkerer, or whatever you call a guy like me... LOL).
For example, I had an asset that was 4mm polys. On my dk2, I used that without a care cause the game ran fine, but the moment I brought that into my gearvr, LOL, it brought my note to its knees. So I started to focus on optimizing my assets. Now I got that 4mm asset down to 20k, then 10k, and even 4k. I have learnt that its an art form in itself to make efficient assets that look great but have a low poly count. But the best part was, that later, I went to my original dk2 project, replaced the assets with more cost efficient ones, and the performance increase was dramatic!!!
So even thought at times I question if investing on the gear was worth it (I still think its an overpriced piece of plastic), it has definitely made me a better (whatever you call me) 😛

just for kicks, here are sample videos of my model in 4MM poly and low poly. link http://1drv.ms/T03DGV the ones with 10k in the name are the low poly ones.

Im kind of happy I dove into this VR thing. Who could have imagined an old banking industry guy like me would end up doing all this stuff... and even better, teaching middle school kids about the wonders of Vr and unity development 🙂

Anyways, good luck to all on the Jam

Do i need skyworxx injector tool to test the flight2 apk?

[AbandonedCart]

"HomerS66" wrote:
Do i need skyworxx injector tool to test the flight2 apk?

Unless you sent your oculussig to be included in the build, it's implied that you'll need some way of adding it.

[ricard2798]

oops, i forgot about that pert... guess i posted for nothing! Anyways, if anyone wants to give it a go, feel free to message me your sig, and ill do a build for you.

Thanks again