VRDC Fall 2017 is happening this week!

Gamasutra will be there to cover a wide variety of talks, panels, and demos during the show, which is happening this Thursday and Friday, September 21-22 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. (You can still register here and join us in person!)

Make sure to follow Gamasutra’s coverage on the special event page, which will be updated regularly during the show. We’ll be on site to bring you highlights from talks including:

How to Be a Successful VR Game Studio

Starting a traditional game studio is a challenge not for the faint-hearted. However, making it as an indie game studio making VR games is beyond challenging; it can be downright mystifying! Playful will share what it's learned over the years doing just that; everything from how to raise money, how to convince publishers to fund your games, how to manage a team that, no matter how talented, is facing a brand new industry with a steep learning curve, and how to create a sustainable culture on the leading edge of disruption.

Use Your Illusion: Creating Immersive Virtual Reality Worlds

In virtual reality, nothing is more important to the experience than transportive destination and immersive space. Panelists Will Smith (FOO Show), Chris Pruett (Oculus VR), Adam Orth (ADR1FT) and Dirk Van Welden (Space Pirate Trainer) will dissect the topic and discuss the critical importance of creating believable and immersive VR worlds through 4 unique experience lenses, products and platforms.

A Game Designer's Overview of the Neuroscience of VR

What are the key insights that modern neuroscience can provide for VR? Game design veteran and VR expert Noah Falstein covers three areas that present huge opportunities and challenges to VR developers: immersion, motion, and emotion. Each is discussed in terms of the basic neuroscience behind it, advance techniques to take it to new levels, and near-future opportunities.

'Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality' Postmortem: VR Lessons *burrrp* Learned

Hear Owlchemy Labs break down the successes, failures, and lessons learned during the development of 'Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality', developed by the creators of 'Job Simulator' and published by Adult Swim Games. Feast your eyes on tons of early development videos, failed prototype interactions, and learn of the horrors of building portals, interacting with characters in room-scale, zone-based teleportation, and managing performance.

'Obduction', from 2D to VR: A Postmortem and Lessons Learned

Hannah Gamiel will explore the triumphs and tribulations of the development of 'Obduction', a game by Cyan. Inc. (creators of 'Myst') that had an initial release in 2D and a successive release in VR for Oculus Rift, Vive, and (soon to be) PSVR.

See you there!

Gamasutra and VRDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas