Joey and I left Adelaide to attend GCAP and PAXAus in Melbourne last week. They were conveniently in the same building with only one day in between. We were able to do this because Formula C was chosen for the GCAP Student Showcase, which allowed us to show our game and came with one free ticket to the conference.

GCAP (Game Connect Asia Pacific)

All the winners of the student showcase were setup in a line with computers provided, but of course it started with difficulties. The organisers said they would print a poster for us but unfortunately they hadn’t been able to do so. Also, the provided computer hardware (Alienware Alpha) didn’t support the Oculus Rift DK2, and strangely it wouldn’t even run Formula C. We still haven’t been able to determine what caused that, but it hasn’t been a problem on any other computer. Fortunately Keirron Stach was willing to lend his gaming laptop to us, which allowed us to demonstrate the game (although still not in VR).

The organisers (especially Liam Esler) were very helpful in trying to make sure we were all sorted and everything else went smoothly after those initial difficulties. We manned the booth in the breaks and were still able to attend a number of talks. That meant we could talk to people while they played our game, and we didn’t need to miss out on the great presentations going on (although they did run a few at a time so we couldn’t see them all).

GCAP ran for two days and we had a meeting with people from Surprise Attack at the end of the first day, to discuss marketing. They seemed quite negative, which was disappointing, but they did give us a couple of useful tips. We also got to talk to a number of other people around the conference and the people who played our game. Generally, they gave us much more positive feedback and advice. There are too many people to mention, but all that advice has given us a stronger sense of direction for Formula C and more confidence in what we are doing.

This event has been a great opportunity to meet other developers. We haven’t really participated much in the Adelaide game development community yet, and it’s not a very big one compared to other cities around Australia, so being exposed to the largest gathering of Australian developers was a bit of a surprise. We got to see just how many people there are in this industry and how positive and welcoming they all seem to be. We were also able to establish some connections which we hope will grow and enable us to be an active part of the Australian game development community.

The catering was really good, with great food during the conference, an open bar near-by on the first night plus another open bar for an award ceremony on the second. Joey was attending the conference on a student ticket which didn’t grant access to the award ceremony, but thankfully they were kind enough to let him in anyway. Those nights just added to the atmosphere of a vibrant and welcoming community, which we are proud to be part of.

PAXAus (Penny Arcade Expo Australia)

We only attended the first day at PAX because the middle day was already sold out by the time we knew we were going to GCAP. However, we didn’t feel like we needed more than one day. PAX was a big game convention with a lot going on but the highlight for me was being able to check out a huge number of indie games and meet the developers, as well as catching up with some that we met at GCAP.

As developers, PAX didn’t really compare to being able to show our game at GCAP but it was still fun to attend as gamers. It was also a useful experience to know how it works for next year, when we plan to show our game at PAX.

Summary

The entire trip was very informative and enjoyable. We learned some invaluable lessons, such as how to manage social media, what to research when using VR in your game, the importance of community events and perhaps most importantly, how to prepare for next year!

Finally we would like to thank everyone involved: The organisers of GCAP, for running the event and providing this opportunity, all the speakers at GCAP for their time and information and the people who took the time to play our game. We hope to see most of you again next year!

It's been a month since our last update and a lot has happened. We submitted Formula C for the GCAP Student Showcase and we are very proud to announce that it was chosen as one of the 6 winners.

Unite, GCAP and PAX are three big game conferences/conventions running in the same week in Melbourne Australia, being given the student showcase for GCAP means we have booked flights for Joey and myself and we will be checking out all three. It should be a valuable experience and hopefully give Formula C a good boost in publicity as well, so we are very excited for this opportunity.

In preparation for the submission a lot of work was undertaken to remove bugs, and complete all the little details to create a good smooth experience. More work is still required before we are happy to release this version, but this has been a big step towards that.

Our plan for that version is to make it available as early access through itch (web store). This will be instead of running a crowd funding campaign so it would be a big help to have a lot of people pre-ordering the game, for the final stages of development. For those that do, you will only have to pay $10 (USD) instead of the planned $15 for the full version and you will be allowed to download the early access versions. You will also be given access to a Steam key as soon as Formula C is available on the Steam store, so don’t forget to vote for it on Greenlight to speed that up.

If you’re not ready to pay, then there will be another free demo version released eventually but you will just have to wait for now.

We are working on better media to make a bit of a push for pre-orders and hopefully take full advantage of this opportunity given to us by GCAP, so keep an eye out for that.

We have been doing a lot of work on the scenery recently. The video below shows the result of most of that work. We think this work has been another fairly large step in the right direction but there is still a lot to do.



There has also been a signifcant rework in the way the track data is stored. This makes it easier to add in more options to the editor. The first of which, has been the ability to place checkpoints and the finish line anywhere along the track (instead of just at the end of a piece).



The next demo has been delayed in light of the extra work being put into the scenery and the editor, but this means we are getting closer to the full version instead. Our priority is to try our best to have the full version avaliable for the release of the consumer versions of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive.

There is now an option to create moving scenery.


Otherwise there has been a lot of work in polishing the next demo version. That includes more scenery objects, tweaking the physics, lots of work on menus and lots of other little details. It's nearing completion but there are still a lot more little details to polish and a lot of work required to make a new set of good tracks.

We are planning to release a new demo soon. This one will include the track editor as well as improvements to address some concerns raised about the current demo. That includes more scenery objects, new backgrounds and a smoother learning curve. We will also be putting more effort into designing the tracks we provide to better demonstrate the potential of this game.

Here is our latest video showing the process of making a simple track then driving on it. This features our latest background which is still a work in progress.