Bon Voyage, GDC! It’s been a trip!

Hello Humans!

We’re back from the yearly Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco! The Owls were out in force, sharing knowledge on talks, chatting VR on panels, and showing the first playable demo of Vacation Simulator! 

DEMOS

We showcased Vacation Simulator in sunny style (despite the rain at GDC)!

This was the first-ever inside look at Vacation Simulator and we were really blown-away by the positive response. It’s always thrilling the first time you show a new game, but we were floored by just how excited people were to experience [VACATION]. Attendees had a blast taking selfies, scoring points in Net Ball, lounging on the beach, and spending a frankly ridiculous amount of time building the perfect sandcastle.

No shortage of joy in our booth: We couldn't help but have fun demoing Vacation Simulator!

TALKS

Alex Schwartz (Chief Executive Owl and Janitor) and Devin Reimer (Chief Technology Owl) presented lessons learned from the development of 'Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality".

True to Owlchemy-fashion, we also presented a TON of talks this year: Carrie Witt (Art Director, Señor Artist, and Cat Whisperer) gave insight into the art direction behind Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality; Cy Wise (Studio Director, Owlmancer, Science) and Andrew Eiche (Developer, Producer, Alleged Certified Adult™) tackled accessibility design in VR; and our dynamic duo Alex Schwartz (CEOwl) and Devin Reimer (CTOwl) shared lessons learned from the development of Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality in their postmortem talk!

All of these talks will be available on the GDC vault in a couple weeks, so keep an eye on the Speaker page for links. 

PRESS

Lastly, press have been quick to share their first impressions of Vacation Simulator!

Road to VR: Scott Hayden from Road to VR stopped by to see the game, and spent time with the Sandcastle Sandbox!

TechCrunch: We swooned when Lucas Matney from TechCrunch found our game “delightful”, not to mention calling us out as an argument to evolve the hardware landscape (OMG)!

Shacknews: The team at Shacknews stopped by to demo and grab an interview with CEOwl Alex Schwartz! They chatted about the evolution of jokes, VR drunkenness, and the future of the VR industry.See the whole thing below:

All in all, it was a fantastic GDC! We met with fans and friends both new and old, snapped an absurd number of selfies, and even held impromptu juggling sessions!

Alex and Jesse Schell showing off some serious juggling skills.

We already miss everyone dearly, but the show must go on! Until next year, GDC!

-Owls