Next week is the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. A friend was able to secure some passes, so we’ll be popping in for a bit on Wednesday. I’ve never been to GDC before, so I’m really looking forward to it. I’m hoping to catch the Oculus guys at the exhibit hall (I somehow I managed to miss them last year at SIGGRAPH) to get a preview of the developer kit I have coming sometime next month.
Speaking of Oculus, I have to say I’m a bit disappointed about the latest Kickstarter update describing how the Rift will require Unity Pro features. I had some great ideas I wanted to build out in Unity, but the $1500 pro license is rather steep. At this point all game development I’ve done has been in Unity, but I guess I’ll have to spin up on the Unreal Engine, or somehow justify the Unity Pro investment.
Even though I’m disappointed, I can’t blame the Oculus guys. I’m sure they did what they could and tried to work out a deal with Unity (thus the 4 month Pro trial they are offering Oculus devs). That’s also the nature of the beast with Kickstarter – you have to remember that you are investing in a project, not necessarily purchasing something that is set in stone. I’m still really excited to play with the Rift. I’ll just have to figure out how I plan to develop once the 4 month Unity Pro trail runs dry.