Tomasz Dzierza leads VR Development at Crytek Shanghai. He has been in the games industry for the last 14 years. Starting his career as a game design instructor he has gradually transitioned to game development and now focuses on exploring AR/VR design challenges. We are glad that we invited him to do an interview.

1. Can you please briefly introduce yourself to us?

Hello, my name is Tomasz Dzierza. Im a Senior Technical VR Designer at Crytek Shanghai. I started my career in the games industry 14 years ago as a game design instructor. Since then I worked on games such as Alice Madness Returns as a Lead Level Designer. American Mcgees Grimm as a Level Designer and created Toy Glider, a small indie game published on iOS. For the last 2 years Ive been focusing on AR/VR and its potential to deliver high quality immersive experiences. Ive been lucky to be part of Chinas game development community and watch it grow for over a decade now. Thank you for the interview.

2. When did you know and begin to explore VR technologies? And for what reasons you start to create VR content?

My first VR experience was about 2 years ago on the DK1. This seems like ages ago now, at that time the technology in my opinion wasnt quite ready but from the creative perspective it gave me that initial glimpse of whats possible in terms of creating new, compelling user experiences. After being introduced to couple more VR demos I was convinced that this is something I want to explore further. VR experiences when presented at the right frame rate, at high quality and at the right level of interactivity are so appealing. The level of immersion is so deep. The fact that you fully engage with the device allows this unique opportunity to present stories and experiences that are free of distraction and full of new possibilities. I think for every creative individual who wants to tell stories and create new experiences VR is an exciting medium to explore.

3. As we know you have abundant experiences in gaming industry, which experiences have inspired you and contribute to designing VR content?

Inspiration for VR content development comes from a lot of different places. Experiences from travel, traditional game design, meeting people, curiosity to learn new things and just asking myself, what would this experience feel and look like in VR? As designers, we have the opportunity to create worlds, characters and user scenarios that range a full spectrum of human condition both past, present and future. Both fictional and non-fictional. So the inspiration to create content can come from anywhere. This is not unique to VR content creation but because VR is so immersive and because of it inherit interactive nature exploring that spectrum of possibilities makes it very attractive. When i think about Alice Madness Returns and the whole Wonderland universe I picture the locations, the game mechanics, the characters Alice encounters. I think about how much better those experiences could have been if presented in VR.The feeling like you are present there, meeting and interacting with those characters, perhaps being able to influence that world in some ways is exciting to me. How deep does the rabbit hole go?

4. You are an expert in VR Gameplay Experience, at the design perspective, is there any difference between traditional gameplay experience and VR? How can we improve player experience in VR games? Can you please give us an example?

The transition from traditional game development to VR has been very educational one. From design perspective, there are several key differences compared to traditional gameplay design. One of the differences is you have to be a bit more careful about your camera design. The camera movement needs to be designed to be comfortable, virtual motion within VR makes some people uncomfortable and that needs to be addressed. Maintaining high frame rate is important. Stable 90fps is a requirement for a comfortable experience. We can improve player experience by instead of moving the camera we teleport or blink players to different parts of the level or limiting how the camera moves in specific ways.

With VR design the clarity of what exact experience you want to create is probably more important as you have the additional options of standing or room scale experiences each presenting its own design challenges. Considering the space player will play in is important.

VR development bring the necessity to focus on the whole user experience not just the in-game experience, for example you need to consider fatigue levels of the player, how active are you making the player within the experience? Does the time to setup and get into the experience justify the actions inside the experience?

At the most basic level we can say that VR only brings a new way to view and control entertainment but that would be missing the opportunity of how we can push the design further.

5. You are also focusing on Realtime Cinema, can you please briefly explain it for us?

If we look at the evolution of in-game cinematics and compare how rough they were 10-20 years ago to now, we quickly realize that the quality is getting closer to levels that satisfy many productions. The ability for most game engines to be able to export content to a video format allows for a more accessible way to share that experience. It also allows the opportunity to share assets and resources between game and video productions. It has all the benefits of using real-time technology as it allows for faster iteration due to itsWhat You See is What you Get nature. Directors can play with the visuals in real-time eliminating the need to wait for it to render. The backbone of this technology is still based on real-time game engines and Im curious to see how game technology will spread to other fields in the future.

6. What is the largest challenge do you think in VR development now? How can we probably solve it?

Any new technology brings its own share of challenges. With VR, there are business challenges, can consumers afford it? Usability challenges, is it easy to setup and use? Technical and design challenges, how can we create safe and compelling experiences for users? I think the most exciting but also most challenging thing about VR Development is how fast and quickly all this is moving forward. Its really difficult to predict if what we are working on today will still be relevant in 6 months in terms of hardware or software. Its an exciting time, creating, learning, and sharing with the community is whats going to make this rapid transformation easier and more fun for everyone. And so far its been great.

7. We know that you are living and working in China for many years, what do you think about the VR development and gaming industry in China?

Im very happy to see how fast the VR industry in China is developing, Its incredible how many different headsets, hardware, platformand VR content companies enter the market on daily basis. The diversity is great. China with its long history and rich culture has great opportunity to share its stories and new IPs with the world. I think once we see the business, hardware and content come together not just in China but everywhere it will really open up a lot of opportunities to create interesting, rich VR experiences across all verticals. Ive had a great experience so far in China and looking forward to see where it goes forward.

8. In Vision VR/AR Summit Asia 2016, what content will you share with us?

During VR/AR Summit Asia 2016 on December I will talk about some of the tools and techniques designers can use to tell stories in VR. The art of storytelling has been around for long time. People love to hear stories and as creative people we love to tell stories. Not only that, we love to tell stories using latest tools and technologies. Im going to explore what some of the old and new methods are and keep that conversation going. I hope to see you there.
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