Emerging Trends and Technologies That Will Shape the Future of Game Design Education
If you’re considering pursuing a career in game design, you might be interested in knowing what trends and technologies will shape the industry.
One of the biggest challenges for video game companies is finding talent that understands and embraces the medium.
Immersive Environments
Immersive Environments are a subset of virtual environments that provide a near-true-to-life level of immersion. They are characterized by using a head-mounted display (HMD), which replaces the real world with an artificial one.
IVEs are increasingly used in medical applications such as anesthesia and psychiatry and as entertainment in gaming. They offer several unique advantages, including enhanced senses and a more realistic representation of physical space.
VR and 3D immersive interactive environments are media with unlimited possibilities to represent ideas and interact with them in ways not available in any other medium. Therefore, developing and building new symbolic, narrative, and representative approaches is necessary, allowing us to connect these new potentials with our traditional knowledge.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual reality (VR) replaces the user’s physical environment with a simulated one. This can be done using computer vision and advanced graphics that add depth, scale, and distance between static two-dimensional (2D) images.
VR can also create a complete immersion experience, which shuts out the real world.
Another emerging technology that can be used in gaming is augmented reality (AR). AR is a form of virtual reality that overlays digital information onto the user’s current view. This technology is commonly used by businesses to display helpful information.
Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
Blockchain and cryptocurrency are two technologies that have the potential to change the way we play games ultimately. They are changing how we make games, how players interact with their virtual worlds, and even how students learn in the classroom.
In a nutshell, blockchain is a ledger that records transactions and contracts between parties. It provides a safe, secure, and transparent way to send digital assets from one party to another without needing a central bank or third-party service provider.
Many gaming companies or some of the best game design schools in the world have begun integrating blockchain into their games and use cryptocurrencies to incentivize players to keep playing. These games, called crypto games, are gaining popularity among gamers.
Inclusivity and Accessibility
Accessibility and inclusion are gaining momentum in the world of game design. Studios and researchers are sharing their approaches and best practices to include diverse stories, characters, and worlds in games.
For designers, accessibility means ensuring a product is accessible to people with disabilities. At the same time, inclusivity involves fostering a community where everybody feels included and can contribute to building products or services.
Improving access increases your user base and keeps existing customers happy. Likewise, by addressing inclusivity and diversity, you build a stronger foundation for your Company’s future.
Environmental and Narrative Storytelling
Environmental storytelling is a great way to flesh out your game’s world and increase player immersion. The player must combine clues from their environment and determine what is happening.
It is a technique used for years in theme parks to create emotion and drama. This can be done by using contrasting elements within the environment or using color and lighting to communicate story points.
Environmental storytelling can be a great tool to help players understand the game’s narrative, which is why it is so essential for games to use it correctly. It also helps build player engagement both within and outside the game.
Haptic Feedback
Haptic feedback is a technology that mimics a person’s natural somatosensory system, which includes 12 specialized receptors to send information about vibration, pressure, pain, and more. It can help users feel immersed in virtual environments and is a great way to boost user satisfaction, leading to better engagement with your app and increasing conversions and sales.
It is used in consumer electronics such as mobile devices and game consoles to give users a more immersive experience. It also helps deepen users’ sense of touch, which improves their interaction with digital devices and reduces their learning curve.
Ray Tracing and Realism
Ray tracing is an algorithm that simulates the behavior of light on objects within a game. It is a new technique that is becoming available for PC games.
The ability to create realistic lighting has always been a priority for game designers. This technology is a step in the right direction and will make a big difference in how video games look.
Until recently, the only way to create realistic lighting was to render the 3D graphics in a rasterized image. This is a fast and cheaper process, but it needs to match the realism of ray tracing.
Remote Development
Remote development is a growing trend within the software industry, with 57% of all software developers working remotely. It allows teams to collaborate from anywhere worldwide and work on different projects simultaneously while ensuring their code is thoroughly tested.
As a result, it’s becoming easier to set up remote development environments and reduce setup time to just minutes. That’s more convenient for new hires and enables more frequent deployments and testing, resulting in faster development times.
