Auch in diesem Jahr dürfen wir uns wieder über eine Nominierung beim nextReality Contest freuen. Unsere VR-Anwendung Jackhammer Jam, welche in Kooperation mit Strabag entstand, hat es in die Endauswahl im Bereich “Interactive Buisness” geschafft.
Jackhammer Jam nominiert beim nextReality Contest
Bei der Jackhammer Jam müssen die Spielenden mit einem Presslufthammer auf den Mond und dort nach verborgenen Schätzen suchen. Dabei werden die Suchenden von einer zweiten Person unterstützt, welche mittels Tablet eine Drohne steuert, die das vergrabene Gold sichtbar macht. Kommunikation ist bei der Jackhammer Jam also unabdingbar und nur durch gutes Teamwork ist ein Platz in der Highscore-Tabelle erreichbar. Neben dem trackbaren Presslufthammer und dem Tablet bekommen die Nutzenden auch diverse Feedback-Systeme angelegt, um die Illusion abzurunden. Ob wir auch in diesem Jahr den begehrten Preis erhalten, wird sich am 06.11.2019 in der Astor Filmlounge in Hamburg entscheiden.
Doch das VRHQ hat gleich doppelt Grund zur Freude: Auch unsere Freunde von SpiceVR sind nominiert und treten in der Kategorie “Interactive Entertainment” mit ihrem Projekt The Gate an. Wir drücken die Daumen!
Virtual reality and augmented reality represent areas of opportunity. VR failed to live up to the wildest promises when the new systems launched in 2015. But the number of job postings for VR and AR have risen 93 percent since 2015, with 17 percent of that growth happening in the past year. Those jobs are dispersed across the U.S. but job site Indeed.com noted that five cities have the most VR and AR job listings.
In order, they are New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Jose, and Atlanta. The top three cities are all home to major gaming companies, with New York City housing Rockstar Games, while Los Angeles as a region is home to companies such as Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and Naughty Dog. Seattle is home to Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Popcap Games. (GamesBeat Summit 2018will feature a fireside chat with game entrepreneur James Hursthouse on where the game jobs are.)
Indeed.com said that esports is generating a lot of buzz, with a lot of gamers hoping they can make a career in esports. Indeed.com reported that job postings related to esports are up 18 percent since last year and up 57 percent since 2015. Indeed.com is a major job seekers site, and it analyzed its data for patterns in the game industry, which is prone to ups and downs. The report is a follow-up to data it released on the game industry in early 2017.
The top five cities for AR and VR jobs in the U.S.”There’s no doubt that behind the glamour and excitement, gaming is a serious business subject to ups and downs like any other major industry,” Indeed.com said in its report. “New technologies bring disruption and new roles; some jobs rise as others decline.”
Games generated an estimated $36 billion in revenues in the U.S. in 2017, according to the trade group Entertainment Software Association. Overall, games have become a $116 billion industry worldwide, according to market researcher Newzoo.
But Indeed.com said declines did happen in some of the general categories related to games. Game tester and quality assurance roles are down 36 percent since last year and down 43 percent since 2015.
Game designers, developers and engineers aren’t faring much better, with postings for designers down 30 percent since 2015 and postings for developers and engineers dropping by 36 percent since 2015.
Despite that drop, game developer and engineer roles still make up a large portion of gaming job postings.
New York City may be strong on VR and AR, but it’s less of a hub when it comes to gaming jobs overall. Los Angeles leads, followed by Seattle while San Francisco and Austin take the number three and number four spots. (This ranking should be viewed with some context, as San Francisco was ranked as having about twice as many jobs as Los Angeles in 2017).
Jobs seekers, meanwhile, are aiming toward the hot category of esports. Searches for esports jobs are up 117 percent since last year and up 336 percent since 2015. And while VR/AR job searches saw a slight drop since last year — just 1 percent — that amount seems particularly small given that searches have still gone up by a whopping 81 percent since 2015.
In other words, employers and job seekers are generally aligned on what’s hot. However, one notable group of positions is experiencing growth in job searches and a decline in job postings, potentially indicating a high level of competition for these roles. Game developers and engineers have had a steady rise in job searches totaling 40 percent since 2015, even as job postings have fallen by 9 percent in that same time period.
Some roles have seen a drop in job seeker interest. The number of searches for game designers has fallen 8 percent since 2015 and searches for game testers and QA jobs are down by 15 percent in the same time period.
Indeed.com said it will continue to monitor game jobs throughout 2018. A separate survey by Limelight found more than a third of gamers surveyed said they would quit their jobs and become a professional gamers if they could support themselves by doing so.
Der Handel im Internet ist ja gut und schön, aber gerade Wearables wie die noch jungen VR Headsets und kommenden AR-Brillen benötigen eine konkrete Erfahrung, um sie einschätzen und verstehen zu können. In einer neuen Stellenanzeige sucht Magic Leap nun einen „leidenschaftlichen und furchtlosen“ Mitarbeiter, der Store-Konzepte designen und bei der Umsetzung helfen soll. Dieser nimmt laut Start-up eine Schlüsselposition für die Kunden-Erfahrung im Verkauf ein.
Magic Leap sucht Designer für Ladengeschäfte
Dieses Jahr soll die Magic Leap One auf den Markt kommen und den Weg zu Entwicklern und Kunden finden. Bisher ist zwar kein genauer Preis bekannt, doch soll die AR-Brille zusammen mit einem Hosentaschen-PC lediglich so viel kosten wie ein Highend-Smartphone. Falls die Magic Leap One die Erwartungen erfüllt, könnte sie also durchaus eine größere Zielgruppe außerhalb des Business-Bereichs ansprechen. Die bisherigen Äußerungen des Unternehmens lassen vermuten, dass Magic Leap genau das im Sinn hat.
Für diese Strategie spricht auch das jetzt veröffentlichtes Job-Posting. Darin sucht das Augmented-Reality-Start-up einen Designer für Ladengeschäfte. Zu den Anforderungen an den neuen Mitarbeiter zählt beispielsweise auch die Gestaltung von Merchandising-Produkten. Eine enge Zusammenarbeit mit dem Verkaufs- und Marketing-Team gehört ebenfalls zu den Bedingungen. Aus der Stellenbeschreibung geht hervor, dass Magic Leap Shop-in Shop-Konzepte plant. Außerdem setzt das Unternehmen Reisefreudigkeit voraus und geht davon aus, dass Reisen jährlich bis zu 75 Prozent der Zeit verbrauchen werden.
Wer Lust hat, andere Job-Angebote zu inspizieren: Die beeindruckend lange Liste findet man auf der Seite des AR-Start-ups.
Seit 2013 betreiben wir mit VR-Nerds das größte deutschsprachige Portal zu den Themen Virtual Reality und Augmented Reality. Stets können wir aus der Nerd- und Developer-Perspektive berichten, da wir selbst auch VR-Spiele und VR-Anwendungen entwickeln und seit der Kickstarter Kampagne von Oculus begeistert von den digitalen Brillen sind. Dies hat auch Auswirkungen auf die Zielgruppe: Aktuell besuchen täglich tausende Nerds unsere Seite. Ein Großteil ist zwischen 25 bis 44 Jahre alt und besitzt ein ausgeprägtes Interesse für neue Technologien, Kunst und Entwicklung.
Jobbörse für VR, AR, MR und 360° startet kostenlos
Mit unserer neuen Jobbörse möchten wir zukünftig unseren Lesern eine Option bieten, sich interessante Stellenangebote anschauen zu können, die sich sehr wahrscheinlich mit den eigenen Interessen überschneiden. Dabei ist es egal, ob ihr eine Teilzeitstelle, eine Vollzeitstelle, ein Praktikum oder eine freiberufliche Tätigkeit sucht. Zudem finden Unternehmen und Start-ups eine sehr spezialisierte Zielgruppe und somit schneller einen passenden Mitarbeiter oder eine passende Mitarbeiterin, als bei der Nutzung einer herkömmlichen Jobbörse.
Zunächst startet das Portal vollkommen kostenlos. Ihr könnt unendlich viele Jobs in diesem Jahr mit einer Sichtbarkeit von 30 Tagen einstellen und diese Angebote jederzeit bearbeiten. Es gibt also nichts zu verlieren. Ab 2018 wird das Angebot dann kostenpflichtig und ausgebaut. Unsere verschiedenen Angebote für Unternehmen findet ihr hier.
Warum die Jobbörse gut für die Branche ist
Als Entwickler und Betreiber von VR-Nerds.de sind wir auf vielen Messen weltweit vertreten und sind innerhalb der Branche dementsprechend auch gut vernetzt. Da uns immer wieder auffällt, dass es Unternehmen schwer haben, die richtigen Mitarbeiter mit einer ausgeprägten Leidenschaft zum Thema zu finden, kam uns die Idee mit der Jobbörse. Wir profitieren durch neue Leser und können durch zusätzliche Einnahmen die Werbung auf der Website reduzieren. Leser erhalten ein erweitertes Angebot durch interessante Anzeigen und Unternehmen finden schnell, einfach und günstig neue Mitarbeiter und neue Mitarbeiterinnen.
The number of jobs posted for game developers has declined 65 percent since 2014, according to an analysis by the job search site Indeed.
The global game industry has grown to $91 billion across multiple platforms, but the number of jobs in the U.S. could be on the decline, at least among larger companies. The data from Indeed does not necessarily include jobs at tiny game companies, known as independent game studios.
Searches for game designer jobs has remained relatively constant since 2014. However, game developer job searches have grown over 50 percent. And searches for augmented reality and virtual reality gaming jobs have skyrocketed, with searches up 1,500 percent. Job postings for AR/VR are up 400 percent. And after a decline in 2014, job growth for esports has steadily increased, up 40 percent overall.
The companies with the most jobs available, in order, are as follows: Electronic Arts, Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, Epic Games, 2K Games, Zynga, Bungie, Nexon America, Ubisoft, and Nintendo of America.
The cities with the highest percentage of video game designer and developer jobs are listed below, followed by the average salary for developers in those metros. These cities are also major tech job hubs:
S.F./Oakland/Hayward: $134,796
Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue: $97,558
L.A./Long Beach/Anaheim: $80,870
N.Y./Newark/Jersey City: $95,367
SJ/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara: $111,397
Austin/Round Rock: $76, 295
Reno: N/A
Boston/Cambridge/Newton: N/A
San Diego: $84,331
Las Vegas: $88,716
Asked why there aren’t more game jobs, the analysts at Indeed said, “There is obviously job seeker demand for careers in gaming, but the way video games are created is changing as new technology like smartphones and virtual reality is advancing. This is leading to drastic changes in the gaming labor market.”
Games have historically been created by teams of developers at large publishers or game studios. But today, many developers are choosing to work at independent video game studios, making mobile games or PC games. The games at the larger companies are on the decline.
But since 2014, AR/VR has seen job growth both at traditional game companies and at technology companies too. The esports scene has also grown.
The brain is weird. All it takes is a little bit of visual, audio, and physical stimulation and for all intents and purposes we can be tricked into believing that we’re in an entirely different place. What’s even weirder is when you combine all of those stimulations into making the brain think it’s somewhere familiar doing things it’s already familiar with, it starts to actually feel real.
In the case of Job Simulator, a funny and whimsical VR game developed by Owlchemy Labs, the places your brain takes you could be anywhere from such exotic places as behind the grill at a restaurant and at a cubicle in a boring office, all the way to under the hood in a car repair shop or even manning the cashier at a convenience store.
It may not sound like much, but taking these seemingly menial tasks, these boring jobs that no one ever dreams of having but everyone knows are necessary to make the world work, and applying a generous dose of humor and personality, is all it takes to turn something mundane into something magical.
In the world of Job Simulator, you take on the role of someone going through a series of simulations that are designed to mimic what it was like for average, ordinary humans to attend and perform their daily duties at one of four different jobs: Auto Mechanic, Gourmet Chef, Store Clerk, and Office Worker. In this world robots have replaced humans, so there is no need for these now-irrelevant careers, which leaves Job Simulator to serve as a portal to the past.
Job Simulator will earn its place as not only a hilarious game to boot up for a quick laugh, but also as one of the best ways to introduce someone to VR for the very first time.
Each scenario is so full of humor and gushing with infectious charm that it’s hard not to simply play through each job all the way from start to finish without stopping. Overall, each experience averages at about an hour in length, especially if you’re like me and like to take a few breaks between tasks to mess things up and cause a ruckus. But a big part of the fun has less to do with how quickly you can tear through each individual occupation, and more to do with how creative you can get with your environment.
For example, my favorite job is probably the Gourmet Chef. One reason is because it is one of the best displays of all of the game’s systems working together in unison, such as the interactivity of picking up and manipulating objects, mixing things together, changing temperatures, and much more. But even more so than that, I love this level because I like seeing how the fish across the room react to the different things that I can toss into their tank.
Each environment has little Easter egg moments like this – such as the basketball hoop that shoots confetti when you make a basket with an object on the office level – so they’re just as fun to poke around in as they are to actually complete. A great feature is that if you want to jump to a specific section of a job, from the main hub area, you can easily start at any section you want without issues.
While I’ve mentioned it before, it deserves mentioning again: Job Simulator may very well be one of the funniest games I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing. Your instructor is always babbling off to the side or behind you about something and making random side comments that elicit laughter. Above all else, Owlchemy clearly put forth a great deal of effort to make sure that not only does the liquid work correctly, but also that each and every ounce of content is brimming with a unique sense of personality.
Watching other people play Job Simulator for the first time is also a special experience. Since the physics and interactivity do such a wonderful job of recreating each occupation, it’s the type of game that doesn’t require a tutorial at all. All I had to do was hand the controllers over and strap the headset on and the other person could immediately start following instructions.
Need to get an item out of the refrigerator? Open up the door and grab it. Need to grab a wrench or other item that fell on the ground? Walk over or lean over and pick it up. It’s easy to play precisely because of how intuitive and natural everything is. There’s no pesky gamepad separating you from the world you’re viewing. Instead, you’ve got two discrete controllers in your hand that provide you with the motion tracking and haptic feedback necessary to trick your brain into believing you’re actually filling up that slushie for Mr. Robot across the counter.
Thankfully, Job Simulator is the least accurate simulation game I’ve ever played.
Since motion tracking technology is far from perfect, there were still moments of frustration occasionally. Pulling levers seemed to be particularly difficult for the sensors to detect, as I noticed I had to often try several times to get a lever to work properly. Every now and then my hands wouldn’t really work properly or objects would clip into other objects causing some craziness. But luckily the tongue-in-cheek tone makes every bug or minor issue appear as just another quirk of the game rather than a glaring issue.
Once you finish each job, you’re free to pick and choose where to jump back in and play around further. Many of my favorite moments came from when I was replaying levels to goof around, as opposed to when I played them “correctly” the first time around. However, I do wish there was a bit more content in the final package. At least one or two more jobs would have been nice, or a more sandbox-type mode that let me move around the locations and interact with more objects. Ultimately, I just wanted more.
Update: Since release on the HTC Vive, Job Simulator has since been ported to the PlayStation VR (as a best-seller, no less) and the Oculus Rift with Touch. On each of these other platforms, the environment layouts have been slightly altered so as to allow you to reach everything you need with minimal room-scale movement. Tracking is always a bit bothersome on PS VR, with its single front-facing camera, but the game is fully playable and enjoyable. On Oculus Rift with Touch, we recommend one of the experimental 360-degree setups to get the full experience, but two front-facing cameras should allow you to enjoy the majority of the game.
Either way, you’re getting one of VR’s very best games and it’s now available on all three major headsets.
Final Score:8/10 – Great
Thankfully, Job Simulator is the least accurate simulation game I’ve ever played. The last thing people want to do is come home from work only to put on a clunky headset to go right back to work again. Fortunately, Job Simulator’s interpretation of various mundane professions is anything but boring. From now until the end of time, I imagine Job Simulator will earn its place as not only a hilarious game to boot up for a quick laugh, but also as one of the best ways to introduce someone to VR for the very first time.
Oculus is going on a recruitment drive, with over 100 positions available, mainly in its US offices. But the company is making big moves across the globe.
Late last week German site Handeszeitung reported that Oculus parent company Facebook had acquired Zurich Eye, a Switzerland-based group formed of members of the University of Zurich and another university, EMT Zurich. Following that, a Facebook representative apparently confirmed to Swiss Info that the 10-man team would be joining Oculus as part of a new office in Zurich.
Oculus declined to comment about the acquisition itself, though did confirm that it is opening an engineering office in the capital which is dedicated to computer vision. Zurich Eye is a computer vision company and seven members of the team are engineers.
All we know of Zurich Eye is what’s written on its website, seen below:
“Zurich Eye enables machines to independently navigate in any space. Our hardware / software system provides reliable and sub-centimeter accurate position information to robots that navigate indoors, in urban areas, and in fully open space.”
The first words on the page also read “Enabling Machines To See”. Helping robots to navigate spaces doesn’t sound like an area of immediate interest for Oculus, but Zurich Eye’s solutions may sound relevant to inside-out tracking, an important topic in the VR industry right now. It refers to headsets that feature position-tracking using a solution embedded in the device, rather than external sensors as currently seen in the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Oculus already has its own inside-out tracking solution seen in its prototype standalone headset, Santa Cruz. Given the early nature of that device, though, it’s possible the company is still working on refining that solution. If Zurich Eye has tech that helps machines read the environment around them, and understand where they are within it, it’s not hard to see how that could fit in.
Elsewhere, Oculus is also moving into AR with its latest hiring spree. Last month the VR specialist also acquired display tech company InfiniLED.
Being a writer for UploadVR is just like being a member of a super team. We want to make the world a better place, we all bring our own unique abilities to the table, and at least two of us are powered by gamma radiation (because who has the time to stop and eat when deadlines are approaching?)
Our site is expanding faster than the Hulk’s thighs in those poor, purple shorts (that’s right, the superhero theme made it into paragraph two, baby!) But what’s growing even quicker is the VR industry itself. That’s where you come in.
We are sending up the Bat-signal (three in a row!) to all of the talented wordsmiths out there and asking them to join us in our personal Fortress of Solitude, which is basically just a Slack channel.
What will you do as a newly minted member of VR’s premier fighting force?In short: a lot. In long: pitch interesting stories, dominate assigned pieces, help us cover events, and lead the industry through thoughtful, original editorials. In return you’ll get the chance to impact a scene you’re passionate about, meet amazing people, and attend incredible events. Oh yeah, and we’ll also pay you money, which a lot of people seem to enjoy.
What you need you to have are the super powers we prize over everything else: talent, ambition, and creativity.
If you think you’ve got what it takes then send an email to contributors@uploadvr.com. Resumes and published writing samples are appreciated but cover letters are boring. Instead, show us your personality, your interests and your voice in your message. We don’t need a college thesis, just something that catches our eye.
So if you’ve been dying to join a team of super friends, then consider this your vat of toxic waste. Drop us a line, let’s talk, and we look forward to shaping the future with you soon!
