VirtuaX

Earlier this year I started a synthwave/trance/digital hardcore musical project called VirtuaX. First track from the EP I'm working on, is released and available for listening on YouTube.

DevGAMM Moscow 2017

Between 18th and 19th of May I had the privilege of speaking at DevGAMM conference in Moscow.

It was quite an experience to open the whole conference and meet a lot of wonderful Russian, Ukrainian and Belarus developers. Including the wonderful and very talented people at Ice-Pick Lodge, who are hard at work on Pathologic.

Again I talked about quests and the Quest System in Horizon Zero Dawn, but this time I had the opportunity to get a bit more technical.


The conference was unlike I have ever seen before, relaxed, not very formal and very, very friendly. Also a bit crazy as this picture shows:

Yes that is Chris Taylor (damn that dude is ripped) and Jon Carnage on stage :D

GDC 2017 Talk on YouTube

My GDC talk about Non-linear narratives in Horizon Zero Dawn is now available on YouTube :)

GDC 2017

A couple of days ago I returned from sunny San Francisco where I was attending GDC 2017. I'm at a loss for words to describe how amazing the whole event was. It is absolutely mind blowing to meet so many people from the industry, to share ideas and just to nerd out. Talks were super interesting but as everyone knows, the evenings are the heart of the whole event.

During the first day, on the Narrative Summit I also delivered a talk about Quests and Non-linear Narratives in Horizon: Zero Dawn (full talk is freely available in the GDC Vault, presentation slides are already available at the Guerrilla Games website). Where I talked about the Quest System I built and designed for Horizon: Zero Dawn, our process in creating it and our approach to non-linear narratives. It's sort of a Engineer's Approach to Game Narrative :P

I never talked at such a important event before so I was pretty scared and breathless. However it would seem it all went quite well, the I reception I got was amazing. The fact that the game was critically well received undoubtedly helped as well (currently 89 on Metacritic!). Afterwards I was answering questions for an hour, so I missed the following talk (sorry Amy!).

One of the coolest things that happened to me during the conference was meeting Jeff Howard. Who had his own talk: Force and Fire: Making Your Game More Metal (also available on the GDC Vault, but account is needed for access). He wrote an amazing book about quests in video games (Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives), which I used to create my talk and even quoted at the very beginning. The meeting was unexpected to say the least :D

Apparently some of the game press also found the talk worthwhile, which blows my mind even more:

• http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/02/28/horizon-zero-dawn-non-linear-quests-guerrilla-games/
• http://www.usgamer.net/articles/horizon-zero-dawns-quest-design-was-inspired-by-everything-from-vampire-the-masquerade-to-skyrim
• http://www.4gamer.net/games/305/G030590/20170228142/
• http://news.nicovideo.jp/watch/nw2665517
• http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1046865.html
• http://www.gamersglobal.de/news/126917/gdc2017-nicht-lineare-erzaehlungen-in-horizon-zero-dawn
• http://revistayumecr.com/horizon-zero-dawn-recogio-inspiracion-varios-juegos/
• http://www.meristation.com.mx/noticias/los-juegos-que-influenciaron-la-historia-de-horizon-zero-dawn/2179336
• http://www.vandal.net/noticia/1350687911/guerrilla-analizo-la-historia-de-los-juegos-de-rol-para-horizon/
• http://www.outcast.it/home/2017/2/28/costruire-la-narrativa-non-regolare-di-horizon-zero-dawn-coi-post-it

 My friends at Guerrilla Games also gave talks on other topics:

• Dan Sumaili & Sander van der Steen - Creating a Tools Pipeline for Horizon Zero Dawn
• Paul van Grinsven & Thijs Kruithof - Player Traversal Mechanics in the Vast World of Horizon Zero Dawn
• ​Jaap van Muijden - GPU-Based Procedural Placement in Horizon Zero Dawn