No Mention of 4K at GDC Next

I was fortunate enough to attend the inagural GDC Next Conference last week co-located with App Developers Conference at the LA convention center. This got me access to over 140 talks covering 6 different conference tracks about the immediate future of the video game industry. I am undergoing a research project about gaming in 4K resolution (4KGamer.com) and was excited to see how game developers are preparing for higher resolution displays.

I did not expect image resolution to be a focal point of the conference, but was very surprised that the resolution or visual quality of the devices used to play games was never mentioned in any of the talks I went to. Most of the conference were focused on the design and development process of games and the different technologies affecting the future of making and playing games. But at no point did they seem to take into account the image quality of the devices that the games will be played on. As the consumer electronic industry constantly changes the hardware devices that people play games on, it is critical for game developers to think about and understand the trends in the visual output of their games. With 4K Ultra HD TVs on the rise, it was surprising that nobody was talking about taking advantage of the advanced devices that users will be playing with and making games better in 4K.

Although there was little connection to my research or and no mention of 4K resolution, as a passionate gamer and aspiring game developer, I had a fantastic time at the conference. Seeing and hearing about the immediate future of play from the people driving it forward was really exciting and only fueled my enthusiasm for the future of the industry. I have highlighted a few of my favorite talks below:

Nine Trends for the Next Decade of Video Games 

Starr Long is a 20 year gaming industry veteran who presented his predictions for the important factors and trends for the next 10 years in gaming. A full write-up of the talk can be found at GDC’s blogging site, Gamasutra. This was a perfect first talk for the conference as it highlighted many of the technologies and trends that are emerging were subsequently discussed in depth at other talks throughout the week (the fact that image resolution was not mentioned as a trend was a first big signal that the conference would not be talking about higher resolution technology.)

3D printing, wearable tech, augmented reality, playing seamlessly on multiple devices, and innovative monetization methods are here now, and Long talked about which ones he thinks will matter most in the coming years.Long also suggested that many of these emerging ideas and technologies may work together and be “mashed up” to create new and potentially disruptive technologies in the next 10 years.

The most interesting of these mash ups came from the first trend he mentioned: the combining of physical and digital with 3D printing, virtualization, and user generated content. 3D printing is the additive creation of a physical object which allows a digital model to be created in the physical world. But what happens when we go the other way and can capture and digitalize any physical item to bring it into the digital realm? By taking 3D images of physical objects, new cameras are able to bring 3D models of these physical items into the digital world.

Games like Skylanders and Disney Infinity are bringing physical toys into virtual worlds and 3D printers are bringing digital models into the physical world. There is amazing potential to combine these technologies to blur some of the lines between the digital and physical realms. Cameras like the Kinect sensor will allow the 3D scanning of any physical items to be played with and manipulated digitally and then 3D printers like the Makerbot will bring them back into the physical world. Definitely some exciting opportunities to use these emerging technologies together.

Second Screen Games: Innovation from the Broadcast TV Industry? 

This talk was about the gamification of watching television with a second screen in your lap. The speaker pointed out that 77% of people watch TV with a phone, tablet, computer, or (as I usually do) a game system running alongside the show. Broadcasters are looking for ways of engaging fans on their other devices while they have the show on in the background. The speaker went through several examples that were not very innovative or even interesting including: polling of the audience through their smartphones with results appearing live on screen, asking trivia questions about the show, as it airs, and finding objects in the show and pointing them out on your second screen. This was extremely disappointing as I was expecting something interesting and innovative instead of more of the same.

USA's Find the Pineapple Second Screen Game

When he did not mention anything about this during the talk, I asked him about it during the QA and was shocked that he seemed to have never thought about it before. He even asked me to follow-up with my question and explain my idea. I suggested using the phone or tablet camera to capture the image of a TV show and then have a digital image overlay over it to add to the show.  I am not sure if there are limitations to this, but I am shocked he did not put those two things together before. That seemed like a logical progression from his projects with augmented reality and his career engaging viewers on their second screen devices to add content to the show. Hopefully I helped him out and we will see actual innovations in second screen games from the broadcast TV industry in the future.

For more information about gaming in 4K resolution, check out 4KGamer.com