00:07I just want to get on to introducing our
00:09last speaker ken wong ken is the lead a
00:12lead designer at us too and like so many
00:14people I'm a huge fan of the gaming
00:17created Monument Valley which one nearly
00:19every award in the book and like so like
00:22there are so many games that are kind of
00:23escapist and fantastical but Monument
00:26Valley was really very perceptual and
00:29the physics and the rules of the game
00:31were kind of close to those of our own
00:33world but then just subtly different in
00:36such that it kind of made you see the
00:37world in a new way and it also had such
00:40a tremendous artistry and a rhythm and a
00:43pacing that was really unique and
00:44deliberate and almost meditative so he's
00:46going to bring all of those gifts to a
00:48new game called Lands End in for VR and
00:52he's going to almost sort of premier it
00:54here today for us so we're very excited
00:56and please join me in welcoming a great
00:59artist ken womp thank you that's a I was
01:08a great intro wow thanks for coming
01:12today I'm so glad to be here thank you
01:15for google my name is ken wong i'm a
01:17lead designer at us to on the games team
01:20and for the past 16 months we've been
01:23working on on this this project called
01:25Lands End and lands end is a game or
01:28it's it's something like a game and it's
01:31designed to and to be played just in
01:34virtual reality it's not an iphone game
01:36it's not a console games it's
01:38specifically designed for VR and we're
01:41excited because VR is an entirely new
01:43medium and traditional game developers
01:46face an entirely new set of challenges
01:48when developing for VR and so I'm going
01:50to talk about some of that today and
01:52some of the solutions that we developed
01:55along the way so i love google image
02:00search who here loves google image
02:01search I use it every day and one of the
02:04great things about it I think is that it
02:07gives you an idea of the public
02:09consciousness right it's it's searching
02:12the web for the most the most popular
02:13most relevant results for any particular
02:15term and when I did a Google image
02:18search for virtually
02:20the number one result is this so who
02:24what's what's going on here who is this
02:26guy he's like he's got blueprints in the
02:29background he's got like lasers coming
02:31out of his eyes there's like this
02:33futuristic laser HUD going on he's got
02:38like matrix glasses this this is the
02:40number one result right so this is in a
02:44small way in one particular way this is
02:46the public face of VR and the rest of
02:49the results on the first page you know
02:53aren't that much better we've got you
02:56know guy putting his face through a
02:57laptop we've got you know floating HUDs
03:01we've got some weird green neon space we
03:04got a guy with a gun we've got more
03:06lasers coming out of people's faces this
03:10for better or worse this is what some
03:13people perceive to be VR the public
03:17perception of VR I think is also
03:19affected by depictions of computer space
03:22or virtual space in popular media so a
03:26lot of that dates back to the 80s and
03:2790s when we had movies like the lawn
03:30mower lawnmower man like Tron like the
03:33matrix and it seems that in a lot of
03:36these depictions we've got a eyes run
03:40rampant destroying everything we've got
03:43conflicts and we've got these kind of
03:46male power fantasies about you know what
03:48you could do if you could like control
03:50reality and that's sometimes really
03:55geeky stuff I'm a geek i love all this
03:57stuff but it's not necessarily for
03:59everyone but x times moved along
04:03literally vr managed to get on to the
04:07cover of Time magazine this year in
04:10August but a lot of people would say
04:12that this is not this is not really the
04:14message that we want to put out this is
04:16not necessarily the most flattering
04:18depiction of virtual reality that we
04:20could have at this time that's Palmer
04:23Luckey who kick-started the oculus rift
04:26at the age of 20 so when I'm when I'm
04:29here today to talk to you guys about VR
04:32for everyone what I'm really talking
04:34is how we can use design to affect the
04:37public perception and therefore the
04:39adoption of this new technology so
04:43here's the fun scary bit of the talk
04:46where I need a volunteer so can I does
04:51someone want to try lands in not you
04:54because you work from a company but this
04:58guy this guy right here hi what's your
05:06name I'm Adam hi Adam what's your
05:08experience with VR I've played a little
05:10bit of Orchestra okay cool so you're not
05:13a not a total virgin not sale alright so
05:15not that way anyway you haven't played
05:17lands in i dono ke what he wanted okay
05:20so um I have a headset here and we're
05:26going to this is really scary for me
05:29because we've never done this like
05:30publicly live before so I'd love to
05:35share you know lands in with all of you
05:38here in the room with a device but
05:40unfortunately I just have one device
05:41here so we're going to we're going to
05:43put it on Adam and we're going to watch
05:45like a simulation of what he's seeing
05:47check that that's working yep so
05:52actually there's a there's a ring on the
05:53top but you can use to adjust focus just
05:55maybe stop a little bit back from the
05:56wall how's that feeling
06:18so the the simulation is a little bit a
06:21little bit janky the the the refresh
06:24rate is not as great as as as it is in
06:27the headset but what you're seeing is
06:30kind of it's a 2d simulation this is the
06:33the unity editor showing a 2d
06:37representation of what Adams seeing Adam
06:39is seeing things all around he's
06:40controlling everything with his head
06:43with no hand controls and no instruction
06:48I haven't told him I just met you today
06:51right yeah and and he's just working out
06:56what to do by himself which which we
06:58feel is a really important part of what
07:04and if you'll notice he's Nava gating
07:08the space and and doing things by by
07:12looking at these points and the way that
07:15we help the player work through this is
07:17there's kind of a rim light around this
07:19and this is sort of this is I'll come
07:20back to this later about how we develop
07:27your lap they're not laughing at you
07:28they're laughing with you all right can
07:40I stop you there all right thanks very
07:42much okay I'm glad I'm really glad that
07:53when a cake is I've never done that
07:55before okay so welcome back to the real
08:04world so before I dive into some of the
08:09problems that we face developing Lands
08:12End and some of the solutions that we
08:13came up with I'd like to backtrack a
08:15little bit and talk about our company us
08:18too and where we came from and why we
08:22decided to take on this project in the
08:24first place so as to is not a game
08:27company us to is a digital products to
08:31do we have about 250 people of which 11
08:34of us are on the games team and we make
08:37apps and other interactive solutions for
08:40clients around the world apps for
08:42smartphones web solutions and design
08:46like smartphone SmartWatch faces and
08:50icons but aside from our client work we
08:53do a lot of projects and initiatives on
08:55on the side we do joint ventures in the
09:00case of wayfinder we're working with the
09:01the Royal London society for blind
09:04people to create an app that helps
09:06people navigate open spaces by
09:10themselves we produce documentation for
09:13free like pixel perfect precision which
09:15is a tool to help digital designers and
09:17we create our own IP apps like Rando the
09:20anti-social photo sharing app which is
09:23no longer available because of a Russian
09:25hacker and of course we have the games
09:28team games team has been around for
09:30several years and it's produced many
09:33games some like whale trail which have
09:35met a decent amount of success
09:38some are like flip flop which kind of
09:40failed to ignite audiences but that's
09:43okay cause we had a lot of fun making it
09:44and it it's we think that having side
09:48projects like this within us to really
09:50helps keep our creative culture going
09:54and we learned a lot from this
09:56experience and the next game that we
09:59made was this game Monument Valley and
10:01Monument Valley was a pretty a bigger
10:04success than whale trail we got a bunch
10:07of awards including an Apple Design
10:09Award we were ipad game of the year we
10:13got two BAFTAs but actually the
10:15achievement that we're proudest of is
10:16that the game was able to make such a
10:19big impact with a really wide audience
10:21we this was kind of unintended you know
10:24we thought that we were just making a
10:26pretty game for hipsters you know we're
10:28making a game for you guys like the
10:29design crowd you guys have have digital
10:32devices your you buy apps but you know
10:36as the games team at us too we wanted to
10:38make sure that our whole company was
10:40included and so we thought you know how
10:43can we make a game that but you know you
10:47guys digital digital designers might
10:51like even though you're not game players
10:54you're not initially gamers so we try to
10:56make it accessible as accessible as
10:58possible right using using UX using good
11:01game design and we found we the feedback
11:05that we got was that you know kids as
11:08young as three could play the game we
11:10heard that children as young as six
11:12could finish the game by themselves and
11:14a lot of people told us that their their
11:16parents or their grandparents were
11:18getting into the game and we're
11:20interested and for a lot of people this
11:23was the first game that they ever
11:24finished which probably has something to
11:27do with us making the game quite short
11:29and easy because we felt that you know
11:33unlike other games we we wanted people
11:35to make sure that they get to the end we
11:36didn't want difficulty or like testing
11:40people's skills to get in the way of the
11:42story and and the beauty of the game so
11:46so really this was really fulfilling and
11:50and we kind of accidentally made this
11:52game for everybody everyone so a lot of
11:57a lot of people ask us you know if this
11:59was so fulfilling to you guys if this is
12:01something you care about bringing
12:02gaining to a really broad audience then
12:04why creative VR it's this niche
12:06technology and so few people have the
12:09particular device that we're creating
12:11for what why why are you getting into
12:13this now and i was asking this question
12:16you know i was asking my teammates of
12:17this because i was fully against the
12:19project to begin with you know i was a
12:21huge skeptic of VR VR doesn't
12:24particularly work on me very well I
12:27think it's this fiddly immature
12:29technology that you know so few people
12:32use but but you know you know I that my
12:37teammates were very passionate about it
12:38so we started we started looking into it
12:40so here's the the state of VR in 2015
12:44actually not that different to how it
12:45was last year when we started the
12:47project I'm sure a lot of you have heard
12:50of the oculus rift it's developed by
12:54oculus which was kick-started and then
12:56later bought by Facebook and it's still
13:00in development it's it's a bunch of
13:03developer kits have gone out but the the
13:06full retail kid is coming early next
13:08year we've got the HTC vive which is
13:12developed in conjunction with valve one
13:14of the foremost game developers in the
13:17world we have playstation vr so this is
13:20Sony getting into the act and hooking
13:23this up with a PlayStation 4 in order to
13:26create console VR and there's this thing
13:29called google cardboard which i'm sure
13:31you guys familiar with which is great
13:34and you know looking at this landscape
13:38you have these three really high-end
13:41quite expensive systems aimed aimed
13:45mostly at high-level gaming right so
13:48you've got people with with high-end
13:51next-gen pcs or consoles plugging in
13:56this this new headset technology at the
13:59other end you've got google cardboard
14:01which is really affordable really easy
14:04and is purposely designed for for short
14:08stints right there's no head strap so
14:10it's really intended so that you're
14:12going to take a look in at go into
14:14another world and then come out of it
14:16but what really got us passionate and
14:19excited was was this the Samsung gear VR
14:21powered by oculus now I'm going to sound
14:23a bit like a Salesman when I talk about
14:25this because in order for us for people
14:27to play lands end they have to buy this
14:29sorry so Samsung gear VR guys and
14:34Samsung gear VR is is is a it's a
14:37collaboration between Samsung and oculus
14:39and it only works with these for
14:41smartphones the galaxy s6 s6 edge a 6 h
14:45plus and the note 5 and why we love the
14:48gear VR so much is first of all there's
14:50no wires the the three high-end sets
14:54that that you saw before what we think
14:56of as desktop VR risk or console VR they
14:59have a tether or an umbilical cord
15:02coming out the back of your head and
15:04joining into your living room or your
15:07bedroom set up right and when they demo
15:11this they often have an assistant who's
15:13kind of holding the wire to make sure
15:14you doing it tangled up the fact that
15:17the gear VR has no wire no tether means
15:20that you can create a full 360
15:22experience right you can you know as as
15:25you saw Adam he can turn all the way
15:26around without getting tangled up and
15:28that really helps fulfill part of the
15:31promise of VR which is fully explorable
15:34worlds we think that that's that's
15:36really important the fact that the gear
15:41VR is portable means a lot to us you
15:43know we are sort of in the field of
15:45mobile games and mobile games are great
15:48because they're it's kind of a lower
15:50commitment gaming experience right you
15:52don't have to invest in dedicated
15:54hardware you can take it anywhere you
15:56can play it for short times on public
15:58transport and we think that these
16:00strengths are also applicable to the
16:02gear VR you know in the past year we've
16:05taken our DVRs to the beach to the park
16:08to people's houses we've even shown it
16:11in line when people are queuing up for
16:14the high-end VR experiences we just say
16:16like I've got this thing in my bag you
16:18try it now i was i was showing around at
16:20dinner last night and this means that
16:23it's it's great for for showing people
16:26via referring for showing them a lot of
16:28people for the first time their
16:30first-ever VR experience and usually
16:32what happens is we pass it along along
16:34the room to two friends and and it
16:37becomes actually a more social
16:38experience the gear VR is more
16:43affordable it's if you already have if
16:47you're ready an android phone user you
16:49know these are the most most popular
16:51Android handsets apart from that the
16:54headset is only ninety nine dollars
16:56which you can pre-order now which makes
16:59it more accessible right this is VR for
17:02everyone not just for the high-end
17:04matrix geeks and I know what you're
17:07thinking these all of these things are
17:08applied to google cardboard the last
17:11point is that it's it's powerful enough
17:13so as game developers you know what we
17:16really want to focus on is creating
17:17amazing experiences and fragmentation
17:21really kind of hampers that right when
17:23you have tons of platforms some of them
17:25are like legacy devices older devices
17:27that aren't as powerful that makes
17:29development much harder so the fact that
17:32this is geared towards the current gen
17:34of good android phones makes our
17:38development life so much easier we don't
17:40have to worry about you know plugging
17:42just any device into cardboard right now
17:46so with this idea we we scoped out an
17:50initial project we thought that yeah
17:51it's the side project we're going to
17:53spend like three months on it will will
17:56release in a couple months in September
17:582014 and it's you know it's not
18:01obviously geared to make money but it's
18:03going to it's going to gain some
18:04traction because we think of it as a
18:05cousin of Monument Valley it's not
18:08necessarily a sequel it's not
18:10necessarily the same universe but we're
18:12going to build on some of the lessons
18:14that we learn some of the same themes
18:17and you know what we think was really
18:23successful about Monument Valley is we
18:26built a game that was specifically
18:28designed for touch devices so Monument
18:32console game or a pc game that we poured
18:34it over to the ipad or the iphone it was
18:36really designed first and foremost to be
18:38held in your hands played in portrait on
18:41with with touch gestures and so we
18:43applied the same thing to give yo we
18:45look specifically at this headset at the
18:47seeker system and the efficiencies and
18:49advantages that are provided and we
18:51thought how can we design around this
18:53and the first thing that you need to
18:56know when you're designing for any VR is
18:58that motion sickness is a big problem
19:01it's it's a lot like car sickness it's
19:04it's where what you're seeing and what
19:06your body is doing is different if
19:08there's too much of a disconnect your
19:10body freaks out and makes you nauseous
19:13and you know interestingly people
19:16experience this in different ways some
19:17people are really sensitive to this some
19:20people are totally immune some people
19:22feel more discomfort when they're going
19:24upstairs some of your more discomfort
19:26going downstairs so we really do a lot
19:29of testing to try and figure out you
19:31know how can we make sure the people are
19:32nice and comfortable in this so they
19:34don't tear it off their heads in vomit
19:38unlike other games we have to take a lot
19:41of physicality to import into
19:43consideration so a lot of computer games
19:46you're just sitting in a chair and
19:47you're playing with the keyboard with a
19:49control pad in this case you've got a
19:52headset you know strapped around your
19:53head you've got headphones on and you're
19:57you're looking around your you're moving
19:59your sometimes your whole body and and
20:02it's encompass in your whole vision so
20:04it's it's kind of more exhausting and in
20:06and we can actually ask the player to to
20:09be stretching in in in different ways so
20:10we have to just take that into account
20:13we find that that gaze is or where the
20:17player is looking is the most the best
20:20tool that the player has because we do
20:22that all the time right in real life we
20:24use it we're always looking at things
20:26focusing on things in real life and and
20:28we have we're used to that we have good
20:30murder control for that perhaps even
20:32better than you know trying to memorize
20:34finger gestures with your with your
20:36hands so we really focus a lot on that
20:40we try to make use of that in our game
20:41design even though it's not perfect so
20:45tracks the angle that your head is
20:48tilting out but it doesn't track
20:50position so in Lansing you can't lean
20:53and you can't look at things like this
20:55and we don't track we don't do any eye
20:58tracking so you know fortunately Adam
21:02here learnt pretty quickly to move his
21:04head to look at things but you can't
21:05look up and look down and and navigate
21:08in that way so it's not perfect and that
21:10all that also that imperfection
21:12contributes to motion sickness as you
21:18you'll quickly realize that the existing
21:20you I paradigms don't work because the
21:22screen has gone away right you don't
21:24that you don't have a 2d screen there's
21:27no edges of the screen the world is all
21:29around you the user experience is all
21:31around you and it's it's in 3d it has
21:34depth so we have to kind of rethink how
21:36we're going to relay information and and
21:39interfaces for the for this new medium
21:43unlike a lot of other gaming we can
21:46better assume that people have
21:47headphones with mobile you know people
21:51just kind of don't care maybe they're on
21:52the tube there or they're on the toilet
21:54and they're not necessarily wearing
21:57headphones but because you know you're
22:01not you probably don't want to be
22:03hearing the phone output when you've got
22:04this headset on people in our experience
22:07are usually using headphones and that
22:09allows our sound designer to put a lot
22:11more work in and and make the most of of
22:13what's available we found that in VR
22:19everything is more amplified right
22:21everything is stronger and more intense
22:23and more powerful because it's it's
22:24really there like you feel like it's
22:26right there and it's all around you so
22:28even simple interactions like like like
22:31picking an object up or you know or
22:34going or just moving throughout the
22:36world that feels that feel stronger and
22:38and everything just glistens and feels
22:40looks more beautiful because it's it's
22:43right there instead of being in a TV
22:45screen you know a few feet away from you
22:47that's great because that means instead
22:50of having to make really bombastic out
22:52of this world over the top video games
22:54we can be a lot more subtle we have a
22:55much more subtle toolbox to work with
22:58I think for a lot of people the fantasy
23:02of via the promise of VR is being able
23:05to navigate totally virtual spaces or
23:08spaces that are that are away from us
23:11but like I said that you know motion
23:13sickness is difficult the interface is
23:15challenging but if we can overcome that
23:19then moving around a virtual spaces is
23:21is a real is a really powerful thing
23:25lastly you know the apple app store is
23:30has sometimes really difficult to
23:33develop for because it's such a crowded
23:35marketplace and it's full of free games
23:37and the Google Play has some of the same
23:40problems oh these types of experiences
23:43for gear VR are in a whole new app store
23:45the oculus store and that allows us to
23:48kind of reset the conversation and reset
23:49player expectations reset expectations
23:53about what they expect for certain price
23:55points so we're really optimistic about
23:57that we're really fortunate that our
24:02tech director Peter partially figured
24:05out very early on in the project a
24:07really good solution to a lot of these
24:09issues which is what we call look points
24:11so as you saw with Adam the basic
24:15mechanic of of Lands End is looking at
24:18these points of light guided by sort of
24:21this this focus ring around the lights
24:24to kind of guide you towards looking at
24:26them and we found that this was quite
24:28intuitive we could give this to someone
24:29without any instruction and you know
24:32they'd start looking around and then
24:33focus in on these little points of light
24:36and so it's not total freedom you know a
24:39lot of people say they'd love to be able
24:41to roam around this world with total
24:43freedom but this is this is pretty good
24:45we can put points around the world and
24:47and allow the player to move in between
24:50them this is called water City this is
24:57just going to turn that down a bit this
24:59is the first demo playable demo that we
25:02had which we actually had in august of
25:04last year's over a year ago and it's
25:07actually pretty solid you can you can
25:09move around the world it looks pretty
25:10good you can see that we're using a lot
25:12of Monument Valley assets as
25:14placeholders and but we really struggled
25:19to develop a full game out of this demo
25:21you know we thought we had some things
25:23right but there was still a lot of
25:25design problems that we we struggled to
25:28overcome and at the same time Samsung
25:32kept pushing back the release of the
25:34final device one month at a time you
25:36know they initially told us to be ready
25:38for a launch in September of 2014 and
25:42they kept extending it and every time we
25:45decided to extend our our project length
25:48eventually an innovative sedition was
25:50released in December of 2014 paired with
25:54the Galaxy Note 4 but we still we felt
25:57like we didn't have anything that we
25:58were comfortable with releasing so what
26:03took us so long like why you know we
26:06thought that three months would be
26:07enough to come up with like a really
26:08nice little experience but you know
26:12first and foremost we we had this
26:14problem where we're trying to balance
26:16gameplay like using your skills trying
26:20to figure out puzzles with just doing a
26:24purely visual experience we knew that we
26:26could probably make something about just
26:27moving around beautiful worlds and just
26:29just taking in the landscape but we knew
26:31from monument valley that people really
26:33like interacting they like the feeling
26:35at least of of being smart and solving
26:37puzzles so trying to get that balance
26:38was was really tough for us we struggled
26:44to develop puzzle mechanics that don't
26:46require any explanation you know look
26:48points worked well but beyond that
26:50trying to figure out how to gate the
26:52player how to prevent them how to create
26:54obstacles for them that was was really
26:56difficult because if we can create
26:58difficult puzzles that's the easy bit
27:01but you don't want to be frustrated in
27:04VR right because you put this thing on
27:06your head and you're in this totally
27:07other world it's beautiful and you want
27:09to be sitting there at a puzzle going
27:10like what what am I not seeing like a
27:12and then you trying everything over and
27:14over again you want these puzzles to
27:18have just enough friction that you're
27:20you know you have to stop in and look
27:22closely but not so much friction that
27:24people get stuck in the same room for 10
27:26minutes we again the the motion sickness
27:32comes back again we we know that we have
27:34to make this as gentle and as
27:36comfortable as possible but we also
27:38didn't want the experience to be boring
27:40or slow so we had to train and balance
27:43that and try and find ways to kind of
27:44mask how slow and and and how limited
27:47the movement really is and finally you
27:51know our level designs just weren't
27:52really cutting it you know they function
27:54you could you could get users from the
27:56start to the end of the levels but they
28:00didn't seem to via the sense of
28:01progression you didn't feel the same
28:03satisfaction that that we gave users in
28:06Monument Valley and it didn't really
28:07feel like a lived-in world and so this
28:10is evidence of of a lot of the
28:12development work that we did we we tried
28:17we tried tons of levels every time that
28:18we came up with a new idea we had to
28:20build a level around to test it out you
28:22know we can't test these mechanics in
28:24isolation we kind of have to test the
28:26whole user experience so these are all
28:28levels that didn't end up in the game
28:32these are just test ideas some of them
28:34we spent a lot of time on but you know
28:37but that's okay because it's it's all
28:40for the purpose of learning how to make
28:42a good Lands End level and this process
28:46was very familiar to us we we went
28:48through this on monument valley this is
28:50a collection of some of the ideas and
28:53mechanics and and story ideas from
28:55monument valley that didn't make it into
28:57the game none of this is is in the game
29:00so eventually you know it took us many
29:03many months but we arrived at some
29:05solutions to these problems we realized
29:09that there's this middle ground of
29:11interactions rather than puzzles where
29:14again I said that things in VR feel more
29:18intense than they than they do in a
29:19regular game and we found that just
29:21interacting with things was interesting
29:22enough you know people got sadist
29:24action just moving things around and
29:27joining the dots together we didn't need
29:28to necessarily have complex puzzles that
29:31required problem-solving skills so we
29:34knew that you know people were okay with
29:36just interacting and moving on between
29:39the sites we kind of came back to this
29:43the principles of Monument Valley which
29:45we'd somehow forgotten which is we
29:47should be designing levels with
29:48spectacle and progression in mind so
29:51from the very beginning we should kind
29:52of treat it like a user experience like
29:54a user story and we know that we want to
29:57create these points of high intensity
29:59and and spectacle and interest and
30:02between them we're kind of having these
30:04these you know traveling from point to
30:06point and kind of lower intensity things
30:08and once we went back to that approach
30:10our levels just felt a lot better and
30:14finally we found that we tried lots of
30:17different interaction mechanisms beyond
30:21the look points and it was really when
30:24we discovered when we realized that you
30:26know gaze is the strongest thing gazes
30:28what we what we is the strongest thing
30:31about current VR we figured out these
30:33two systems star lines and draggers so
30:37star lines again makes use of gays but
30:40instead of moving from point to point
30:42you are connecting the dots and it took
30:46a lot of development figuring out you
30:48know that triangle is the start point
30:50and circle is the end point but trying
30:53to teach people that they have to go
30:54from start to finish connecting all the
30:56dots it looks so simple but this is this
31:01is what we arrived at and it's fairly
31:03intuitive you will see that that Adam
31:06was able to to figure out at least the
31:08first puzzle by himself and secondly
31:13draggers so we knowing that we can look
31:18at things with the center of our vision
31:19we we experimented early on with just
31:21moving things up and down or left to
31:24right a lot like how Monument Valley
31:25works and then at some point we realized
31:27that we could connect this with physics
31:29and just have physics objects moving
31:31around with some constraints and as soon
31:34as we tried that we were like oh my god
31:37this is this is so much more fun than
31:39anything we've done before because of
31:41the innate fun of physics and we it took
31:44a lot of fine tuning to to work out the
31:47interface of how you're going to grab
31:49onto these objects how you going to let
31:50go being able to finally place objects
31:54but when when it's right when it's
31:56working right it really feels like
31:58you're using the force or like your
32:00Magneto and x-men so that's that's a
32:03really magical moment that that worked
32:05well for us the final part of how we
32:08make games that I'd like to talk about
32:10is user testing we think the user
32:14testing is incredibly important it's
32:16part of what we learnt from being a
32:18games team embedded within aux to do so
32:22right from the beginning from as soon as
32:23we had a playable prototype we were
32:26showing the games to our colleagues at
32:28us to who don't normally play games and
32:31saying you know it doesn't matter if you
32:33play games it doesn't matter if you suck
32:35at games that's safe that's actually
32:37better because if you can put this on
32:40and figure out what to do then we've
32:42done our job right we created an
32:44intuitive user interface an intuitive
32:46user experience so we're always testing
32:48weird you know and the portability is
32:50great for this right we now take the
32:52Year vyas wherever we go we and we show
32:54people at dinner parties we show it when
32:57we go to people's houses we take it on
32:59on holidays just to get as much input as
33:02possible and with weather as wide an
33:04audience as possible and just before I
33:09wrap up I just like to share with you
33:11our release trailer because personally I
33:13want to hear it with this great sound
34:38so the game is out now it actually came
34:40out two days ago so if you happen to
34:43have a gear VR innovators edition or if
34:45you would like to preorder the consumer
34:47edition of the gear VR then our our game
34:51is now ready on the store so I just like
34:54to come back to this this question of
34:56why creative vry now because I think by
34:59the end of the project our motivations
35:01had kind of shifted I think I realized
35:06along the way that VR is not just a new
35:09form of gaming you know people are like
35:11is this the future of gaming is this is
35:13all gaming going to now be in this form
35:15and I think it's actually different it's
35:17it's an entirely new medium you know we
35:20have people coming to VR from
35:22architecture and from film and from
35:25other areas and it's and that's awesome
35:26because we can all meet in the middle
35:28because this is something entirely new
35:29and you know video games have always
35:32struggled because I think video games
35:34have this ancestry in amusement and
35:38diversion right the first video games
35:40they're kind of their their their
35:43trivial they're meant to be a way to
35:45pass time or two or to test our skills
35:47and that's cool you know that's that's
35:50the kind of games that I grew up with
35:52and it's great it's a great culture to
35:54be invested in like these virtual games
35:57but the and but we struggle to to tell
36:01people that actually you know you can
36:03make games that are more than that you
36:05can make games that are meaningful and
36:06can make a difference and that aren't
36:09violent and that are more inclusive
36:11that's something that that you know 30
36:1330 35 years of gaming culture now has to
36:16kind of reverse but VRS is this new
36:19thing and I think that VR because VR is
36:23about telepresence right VR is about
36:26being in another world and seeing this
36:29virtual well through someone else's eyes
36:31vr is intrinsically promoting learning
36:35and new experiences and empathy I think
36:39this is wonderful i think that gaming is
36:42just one small part of this and now is
36:46the time that we can be using our skills
36:49our design skills to be laying a solid
36:52foundation to enter set a direction for
36:55the medium and to maximize the potential
36:58of VR thank you very much for listening
