Voices of VR

I interviewed Kerestell Smith, Chief Creative Officer at Another Axiom and original solo creator of Gorilla Tag, at Meta Connect 2024. Another Axiom announced in June that Gorilla Tag has surpassed $100 million in lifetime revenue. We talk about the journey into creating Gorilla Tag, the underlying design philosophy of emphasizing embodied gameplay and proprioceptive consistency, as well as what's coming next in their follow-on title of Orion Drift. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Since this is the last episode in my series from Meta Connect 2024, then here's a list of all 20+ interviews and 12+ hours of my coverage from this year:

#1468: Kickoff of Meta Connect 2024 Coverage with Orion AR Glasses Hands-on Impressions with Tested's Norm Chan & CNET's Scott Stein

#1469: Analyst Anshel Sag on Meta Connect Announcements & Orion Glasses Impressions

#1470: Meta's Hyperscape Serves Cloud-Rendered, Photo Gaussian Splat Captures

#1471: Tyriel Wood & Zimtok5 on Oculus Quest 3S Tradeoffs with Quest 3

#1472: VR Training Trends Using AI with Virti's Courtney Harding

#1473: Learn XR's Dilmer Valecillos on Teaching XR Development & Meta Connect Announcement Impressions

#1474: Teaching Immersive Storytelling at ASU's Narrative and Emerging Media Program with Nonny de la Peña & Mary Matheson

#1475: A-Frame's Diego Marcos on WebXR Momentum and Integrations with Open Source AI

#1476: UploadVR Editor Ian Hamilton's Deep Reflections: AR vs VR, Ethical Dilemmas, & Future of Meta's Algorithmic Realities

#1477: Flat2VR Studios' Journey of Bringing 2D Games to VR with Eric Masher

#1478: Agile Lens 2018: The Intersection of Architecture, Theatre, & Storytelling with Alex Coulombe

#1479: Agile Lens 2023: Selling High-End Real Estate with VR, Unreal's Meta Humans. Pixel Streaming, & AI Experiments

#1480: Agile Lens 2023: Hands on with Four Seasons VR Demo & A Christmas Carol VR 2023

#1481: Agile Lens 2024: Context on Boz's Apology to VR Devs, Orion AR Glasses Impressions, & Unreal Engine Mediation with Apple/Meta

#1482: Mixed Reality Gameplay Innovations & Design Insights from "Starship Home" Co-Directors Mark Schramm & Ashley Pinnick

#1483: Dimensional Double Shift Combines Multi-Player Co-Op, "Job Simulator" Gameplay, & Hand Tracking

#1484: Cas & Chary on Meta Connect Announcements & Using Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses to Stay Connected

#1485: Fitness Flow States with "Starwave" Design Innovation Leads & Finding Love within VR

#1486: Going All in with Gaussian Splats: Gracia's Viewer, AI Training, & Photoreal Capture with VR Fund's Tipatat Chennavasin

#1487: XR Evangelists JoyReign & JDun on Horizon World Trends & Meta Connect Announcements

#1488: Nima Zeighami on Delivering WebXR Content with Infinite Reality's Ethereal Engine Acquisition

#1489: Gorilla Tag Design Philosophy & Embodied Gameplay Deep Dive with Kerestell Smith

Here's the launch trailer for Gorilla Tag:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivwQ2DUjcHI

Here's a developer snapshot preview of their next title of Orion Drift:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xjnw_skc9g

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Nima Zeighami, VP of Product at Infinite Reality, at Meta Connect 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed XR Evangelists JoyReign Creator of Joy In The Morning Show and CEO of Onyx Leaf Media as well as JDun of the Getting Things Dun YouTube channel, Get'Em To The Metaverse Podcast, & Chief Metaverse Officer of Onyx Leaf Media, at Meta Connect 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Here's the Question HDMI video that JDun mentioned in the podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8QDvoEJLps

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Tipatat Chennavasin, General Partner and co-founder of Venture Reality Fund, at Meta Connect 2024 about why he has gone all-in with Gaussian Splatting by investing in the Gracia.ai and their viewer that's on the Quest store. We also talk about some of the news from Meta Connect, Quest 3S excitement, the merits of AAA games like Batman Arkham Shadow to bring more people into VR, and other some experiences and demos that caught his attention at Meta Connect 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Job Stauffer and Robin Orr, the two design innovation leads on Starwave, at Meta Connect 2024. They also met and fell in love in VR, and each share their respective journeys into the space through building community around VR fitness experiences. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Here's the launch trailer for Starwave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LtG2qnPeSY

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Casandra Vuong and Chary Keijzer of the Cas and Chary YouTube channel, at Meta Connect 2024 about all of the latest announcements, their journey into their XR coverage, and how they use the Ray-Ban Meta Smartglasses to stay connected to each other. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Here's their video about the Quest 3S launch produced while onsite at Meta Connect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrGZ7ef84tw

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Andrew Eiche, CEOwl at Owlchemy Labs, at Meta Connect 2024 about their latest title Dimensional Double Shift. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Here's their launch trailer.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Co-Directors of Starship Home Mark Schramm, Director of Engineering at Creature, and Ashley Pinnick, Art Director at Creature, at Meta Connect 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below.

Here's the Launch Trailer for Starship Home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6SepPOEwh8

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I interviewed Alex Coulombe, Studio Lead & CEO of Agile Lens Immersive Design, at Meta Connect 2024 about Meta's Orion AR Glasses first impressions, being a mediator with Apple and Epic Games as well as with Meta and Epic Games, and a bit more context as to why Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth gave an apology to developers at the beginning of the developer keynote. See more context in the rough transcript below. Also be sure to read Coulombe's Orion hands-on impressions in his UploadVR article.

Here's the Developer Keynote where Boz gave an apology to developers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztl25aRlnWE

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality

I'm diving into my backlog to publish three unpublished interviews with Agile Lens with this last conversation from December 2023. I interviewed Alex Coulombe, Lead & CEO of Agile Lens Immersive Design, Kevin Laibson, Experience Director for Agile Lens, and Jackie Roman, Cinematographer at Agile Lens, at FilmGate Interactive 2023 about the Four Seasons Lake Austin VR experience as well as the A Christmas Carol VR experience. See more context in the rough transcript below.

This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.

Music: Fatality