Report 046: Back from GDC news

As promised this is report is to announce that I came back from GDC and into active development again.

I took a day off to rest, but I still feel that I’m recovering from the jet lag.

Also this report will be divided in two parts, the first is about the development that I manage to make in the last week just before going to the GDC, and the last part is my thoughts about that trip.

The followings are very small changes that have a significant visual impact.

The main one is the tweak of overall aesthetic, now the terrain and overall look have more vibrant colors.

Here is a comparison shot of the old and new version:

The idea was to too advantage of the cel shaded look and have a more distinct bright colors

The other one was on effects; it has been tested before but now has been fully realized; now all missiles and rockets have more noticeable flares.

New explosion effects have been added:

The last change that was added was to improve the aircraft’s visual feedback, especially for units that don’t have an afterburner. This new change makes the engine slightly glow red as the as the throttle increases.

Also as a correlation, the aircrafts no longer instantly afterburn, now each aircraft has a short period where the acceleration gradually increase.

Let’s start off with what was probably my own issue, because I never went to the GDC before, but I was expecting more a games festival, but the business aspect is the main theme of this event, so it was a bit disappointing in that regard.
But this is more of my impression, because I actually spent little time inside GDC.

Besides enjoying a city that I haven’t been before and be able spend a few days without touching the development of the game, something that I wasn’t able to do in ages, which was also great to step a bit back and see things in a different perspective.
But what really mattered and I think it was overall the most valuable experience I gained with this trip, was to be able to hear other developers’ stories.
In the last week, I spend the whole days with other game developers that iceberg is also publishing, namely Start Drive, Star Lords and Star Port Gemini 2. They are all great guys and besides enjoying my stay I used that opportunity to hear everyone own stories.
It ranged from their development priorities, missteps and stories of best and the worst moments and actions of their own community.

I also noticed that I was making a mistake, my priorities was to develop the game, then talk to the community and much later when I had time, talk a little with the press.
They told me that no matter the quality of the game I’m making, if I don’t leave my cave to spread the word no one will know or care what I am doing.
So, learning from what they said, from here on, that the main priority should be to talk to any press whenever I have the chance because, they combined with the community, are the most important factors that will determine if a game relevant or not.
This should not be translated in the time invested, but for example at the start of the day, which should be done first.

But besides all that, I have to say, I was very positively impressed by the Icebergs, I was already grateful for their support, but meeting them in person I saw that they are really great.

So I can say this trip was absolutely positively, made me grow as a person and as a professional, it also inspired me to immediately jump into to the development and make VT even better.

Before closing this report, I took a lot of pictures in this trip, but they were more about hanging out with these guys and probably not very relevant to this report.
But I’ll leave here one picture of me with the Icebergs and Star Lords and Star Port Gemini 2 developers in the last day of my stay.

Stay tuned, more reports will follow.