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Friday 19 May 2017

Develop:Five - John Campbell, Triangular Pixels

Every week, we ask some of the best game development minds five questions in a feature we are calling Develop:Five. This week, John Campbell from Triangular Pixels answers our five question blog feature.

1. The earliest game I have a clear memory of playing was Lord Of The Orb, a game for the Atari 800. Looking back it borrows a lot from pacman as you avoid monsters in a maze, but what makes it really stand out for me is the haunting music and sounds. It's a great example of how even primitive music can completely change the tone and feel of a game.

2. I'm concerned we're seeing the negative aspects of startup culture creeping into the games industry, particularly within VR. A culture of spending big, growing fast and flipping investors is harmful for the industry as a whole, and puts too much focus on marketing over results.

3. My favourite talk is one that I wasn't even intending to go to! I had a gap between talks and ended up listening to a wonderful programming talk about the simulation and rendering of ocean waves for a mobile surfing game. I do think more games would benefit if they started from a simulation approach and then worked the fun in on top of that.

4. I'm really looking forward to catching up with a whole bunch of friends and former colleagues over drinks and finding out what they're up to!


5. I don't really have a list of developers I'd really like to meet - but I do keep bumping into people I didn't realise I wanted to talk to. Recently I had a great chat with the music composer for Rez Infinite, one of my favourite games, and hearing his take on London was fascinating.

John Campbell is the Technical Director of award winning VR games studio, Triangular Pixels. With over eleven years of development experience on a variety of PlayStation hardware and VR devices, John works at the bleeding edge new platforms solving the tough technical challenges VR brings. With a background in gameplay, systems and networking he specialises in new user experiences and interactions, never more clear than in his innovative, BAFTA nominated game 'Unseen Diplomacy'. 

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Find out more about Develop:Brighton and John's session here