3DVIA®

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2009 Game Developers Conference and stopped by the 3DVIA booth. We had an excellent show: great in-booth attendance and a lot of interest in our products and services.

If you weren’t able to make the show, don’t worry, I’ll be recapping the highlights below.

The 3DVIA Lineup

We demonstrated four key technologies in the booth:

- 3DVIA Virtools 5: the latest release of our game engine for rapid prototyping and game development
- 3DVIA MP: NextGen visualization engine for creating online and standalone games
- 3DVIA.com: a thriving community and resource for 3D artists and enthusiasts
- 3DVIA Shape: a free, online modeling application perfect for the beginner, yet powerful enough for the expert

Show Stealers

As proud as we are of our products, we’re even prouder of the amazing, interactive 3D games and other applications our customers create using them. We had several terrific customer presentations of games and other applications currently in development/use built on 3DVIA Virtools, including Subsurface, the first game ever built on 3DVIA Virtools 5.

Subsurface

“Subsurface gameplay”

“Ian McClusky: bad guy from Subsurface”

The first game built on 3DVIA Virtools 5, Subsurface was developed to put 3DVIA Virtools 5’s design principle of “speed without sacrificing quality” to the test. We collaborated with long time 3DVIA Virtools partner, Little Chicken Game Company, and gave them what would normally be seen as an impossible challenge: develop a game in 60 days with 6 people. Subsurface was the result.

“Little Chicken demoing Subsurface”

“GDC attendees play Subsurface for the chance to win a Wii”

You can play Subsurface online here.

UPDATE: Our servers are temporarily offline, which means Subsurface is also temporarily offline. We’re working out the kinks right now and should be back up and running soon. My appologies to those who have tried to play and got error messages. I will post an update as soon as we’re back in business. 

You can also visit the official Subsurface website here.

Liight

“Studio Walljump demoing Liight”

Think of the most addicting game you’ve ever played and then multiply it by…well…a lot of lights. This game, currently in development by Studio Walljump, is totally awesome, and is another example of a game being built on 3DVIA Virtools for the Wii. Liight asks players to use color theory, strategy and brain power to solve some unique puzzles. Users can even use Liight to create their own puzzles and publish them online for others to solve.

Avatar: Legends of the Arena

“Sarbakan demoing Avatar: Legends of the Arena”

Developed by Sarbakan, and available for download on Nickelodeon’s website, Avatar: Legends of the Arena is action packed. Users can create their own characters, enter the arena and compete with players online from all over the world. This game is very, very cool and really fun.

“Show attendees watch Sarbakan present”

Virtools for Dummies

“Jim Kiggens giving a tech intro to 3DVIA Virtools“

Jim Kiggens, director of the Serious Game Design Institute at Santa Barbara City College, gave a fantastic tech introduction to using 3DVIA Virtools for game development. He and his students currently use 3DVIA Virtools to learn the technology behind making games.

For an artist, non-programmer, type (like myself), this lecture was very helpful. I especially enjoyed the discussion on how to make a realistic water shader using animated textures. Thank you Mr. Kiggens!

New Booth Design

If you’ve looked at 3DVIA.com in the past couple of weeks, my bet is you’ve seen at least one (sarcasm alert) render of our new tradeshow booth. It’s in banner ads all over the site, featured on our “3DVIA at GDC 09” page and even posted as a model so our community can visit it virtually. If you’re thinking we’re obsessed with this booth…you’re right.

The new booth debuted at GDC (I’m talking the real thing, not the model), and it was very well received. One GDC attendee even sent us an e-mail after the show commenting, “Your company rocks! You probably had one of the funnest and most interactive booths at GDC this year.” Thanks buddy!

OK. I’m done talking about the booth now…maybe. Check out the pics below.

“That’s one nice booth!”

“And from the other side”

The 3DVIA GDC Team

Here’s a picture of the 3DVIA team that staffed the booth at GDC.

“Team 3DVIA GDC”

Back Row (left to right): Pierre Emmanuel Chaut, Virgile Delporte, Arnaud Muthelet, Martin St. Germain, Romain Sididris, Derek Lane, Yours Truly
Front Row (left to right): Cyril Cohen, Gerald Nacache, Juan del Rio, Christine Moses

“A more casual shot”

Special shout out to David Laubner who took both photos!

Again, thank you to everyone who came to the show and visited us and thank you to everyone who visited us online!