Game Designer, Programmer, and Writer
Jukebox Beatdown, Awards and Festivals, Design, Games, XR
In February, I had the chance to talk about my rhythm-combat game Jukebox Beatdown at the Oculus / Facebook headquarters as part of the Oculus Launchpad program’s Demo Day!
During Demo Day, all of the Oculus Launchpad members are invited to Northern California to present their projects to the Oculus leadership and the other Launchpad members.
Check out a recording of the talk below!
Jukebox Beatdown, Design, XR, Awards and Festivals
If you’re not in the world of VR, Oculus is the world’s preeminent VR hardware company. They are known for building some of the world’s most popular VR headsets, including the Oculus Rift and the Oculus Quest, their amazing new standalone VR headset.
The Oculus Quest.
The purpose of Oculus’s Launch Pad program is to populate the VR ecosystem with new and diverse content. At the start of the program, one hundred developers from North America are invited to San Jose to attend a two-day VR bootcamp led by Oculus. They are also invited to Oculus Connect, Oculus’s flagship VR conference, that same week. After this initial training, Launch Pad members are provided technical support as they develop vertical slices of the projects they initially pitched to Oculus in the application stage. In early 2020, these developers will have the opportunity to pitch their vertical slices to Oculus again in hopes of gaining funding and ideally, launching their game on the Oculus store.
Some amazing projects have come out of Launch Pad in previous years, including Bizarre Barber, an awesome VR action game from NYU. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work towards creating a VR demo of the same caliber.
In Jukebox Beatdown, you play as Kleft and Kright, two up-and-coming alien musicians that are tied to the player’s left and right hands respectively. Your goal is to make it to the top of the Billboard Galaxy Top 10. To do so, you will need to battle the existing Top 10 musicians in a series of fast-paced, music-themed boss fights.
For more detailed information about Jukebox Beatdown, please read my initial post about the project.
Kleft and Kright’s first album. If these characters look familiar, that is because they are Goopy Le Grande from Cuphead (2017) on the left and Slime from Dragon Quest (1986) on the right. They will be replaced when we finalize our concept art.
Right now, I am exploring the best way to build an awesome vertical slice of Jukebox Beatdown. Since the game is made up of a series of boss fights, I think the most logical vertical slice would be a single boss fight.
To create this vertical slice, I will need to achieve the following:
Find or commission original music for the boss’s score.
Nail down the game’s mechanics as I outlined in the previous blog post.
Sync the game’s visuals to its music in a satisfying and clear manner.
If there is time, optimize the project so that it approaches the technical requirements for the Oculus store.
Most likely, I will not hit step four and not totally complete step three. However, I think the game should be able to stand on its own should that happen. In game producing, I believe you should find what makes your game fun first then build everything else around that element.
Happy to say that the Wamco PIE, a VR experience I wrote, programmed, and directed, was shown at NFFTY, the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, this weekend!
The project was shown in NFFTYX, the festival's interactive and VR section.
Unfortunately, I am in China with a one-entry visa, so I could not attend, but I am grateful the project was shown at the festival!
You can check out a play-through of the experience at my website here.
A still from the experience.
The project was also shown at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival earlier this month.
Thank you to Anjali Krishnan and Emily Zhao for all their hard work on this project!
The Wamco Product Immersion Experience, a VR comedy that I wrote, programmed, and directed, is headed to the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival!
I unfortunately will not be at the festival because I am in China on a one-entry visa, but I will be following the festival’s releases!
You can check out a play-through of the experience below:
This weekend, the Wamco PIE VR experience is headed to the Ivy Film Festival at Brown University!
Ivy Film Festival is one of the world's largest student film festivals, so it is an honor to be invited. In the past, the festival has hosted guests such as Robert De Niro, Wes Anderson, and Jack Nicholson and held preview screenings of films like No Country for Old Men and Super Size Me.
The piece will be featured in the festival's Virtual Reality Arcade. If you are in the Brown area, you can sign up for it here. The festival is free and open to the public. For those not in the Brown area, you can check out a video play-through of the experience here.
I am feeling a bit under the weather today, but I hope to be able to take the train up to see the festival for a bit this weekend. If you are in the Brown area, let's meet up!