LucasRizzotto

Learning VR Screenwriting - A wonderful (and terrifying) week

I just had one of the best and scariest weeks of my life. Over the last 10 days I was in Venice, Italy developing a new skill I've been avoiding for years: screenwriting.   

Screenwriting has always been something I feel like I need to master to pull off my storytelling ambitions long term.  So I showed my first script to a group of experts, had my words read out loud for the first time by others, beat down, rebuilt and rewritten. It was terrifying, specially in the first days, but what I ended up with a...

🥤 Puppet hydration is very important 🥤

Been working more and more on my interactive puppet comedy \and now finally getting to the point where I can do some improv writing with all the stuff I've built! Here's a #NSFW scene I'd like to share with you guys.

It's been quite a challenge to find the right tone for this kind of experience, so this is one of many experiments. More to come!

Where Thoughts Go For The Quest is Here! Message me for a free copy :)

After months of work, it's finally arrived! :D

The game is releasing on Thursday but I'm giving early access to Patreon supporters, so message me and I'll add you to the Beta!

Video Patreon Update

Want to keep you guys in the loop on what I'm doing. Let me know if you enjoy these updates!

Becoming a Blob Master - Softbody Physics on the Quest

One of the comedies I'm working on involves a lot of.... let's call it touching. To achieve my desired outcome, I'm having to create a softbody system entirely from scratch with the Quest in mind and it's been quite the challenge!

The video above is the result of the first 3 weeks of work. Framerates aren't super high, but it's performant enough to run on a Quest. Although I do wonder if there's a better way of doing this... Trying out meta balls later today!

New Video! Funny Asgard's Wrath Review & Analysis

Keeping up the Youtube game. Hope you like this and thanks for the support <3

New VR comedy in the works - some details!

Hey, all! So lately I've been working on 3 separate VR comedies at the same time, all very different from one another: and the one I've been focusing on the most this week is named The Massage.

Set in a future where all humans have become unfeeling blobs (and all physical touch is illegal), you play as a rogue massage therapist that kickstarts a revolution.

I'm going to be posting more preview videos of this soon, but gameplay mainly involves massaging lots of creatures... and I'm really excited about this weird creation...

New Video! My (Late) Thoughts on Oculus Connect 6

Fans of my VR videos, here's a 9 minute long one for you <3

Got another one coming next week! Thanks for your support, as always.

"The Milking": My interactive musical

Hey, Patrons! Let me open up by saying that I'm so, so, so, glad you've continued to support me in the past few months. This income has given me a lot of freedom to continue to approach VR my own way and I'm so grateful.

While I have several projects in the works, the one that I've decided to finish over the next 2-3 months is an interactive musical called "The Milking". It's still in the early days, but I've developed enough of it that I know I'll get to finish it.

It tells a darky comedic story of a dysfunctional coupl...

Weird Stuff I'm Working On

 I've been working on lots of different things recently - and fortunately, some ideas are now making their way into the prototype stage. So I wanted to share them with you over the course of this week!

Project #1 is an absurdist satire comedy about Elon Musk set in a future where Elon owns most of the economy and has companies in every conceivable field. You play as a diehard fan who wins a worldwide contest to meet Elon in person - but as you find out about what he's working on next, a larger mystery unfolds as your love for him ...

Announcing... My new VR animation tool

All based off of puppetry. Thank you so much for supporting me and allowing me to build this!

Giving everyone who supports me access to the alpha this month. Hope you have fun using it!

Patrons can now play Where Thoughts Go on the Oculus Quest!

Good news, Patrons! I'm making a sideloaded, early build of Where Thoughts Go on the Quest available for all of my supporters months before the game is out.

If you want it, just message me with the e-mail you use for your Oculus account and I'll hook it up for you right away ^_^

PS: This is a Beta! There's some stuff missing I'll be adding in the upcoming weeks :)

#10DayVRGame Challenge is on! WTG Sequel

 Over the month of July I've reserved 10 full days to work on the Where Thoughts Go sequel... and when time runs out, I need to have a fully playable prototype from end-to-end to submit to film festivals. Talk about pressure!

But this time I'll be sharing screenshots and videos throughout the entire development process so you can be a part of it! Check it out here:  https://twitter.com/hashtag/10DayVRGame?src=hash 

I'm...

New Video & Life Update

Hello from Tokyo! Today I just posted a new comedy analysis of the Magic Leap title: Star Wars: Project Porg. It's the weirdest thing I've done, so I hope you enjoy it!

Things have been hectic on my life due to travel, so I haven't been able to post things as often. But that's just ending as of this week and I'm excited to get back on track!

The WTG sequel goes well, I'm (starting) to go back to running and being healthy(er) and I have a bunch of crazy ideas in my head that I want to start executing... ...

New Video - Star Wars VR Review!

First thing I played this morning once the Oculus Quest was open for business. Loved it!

Building a new game in 2 weeks

Some of you know that I've been working on a sequel for Where Thoughts Go for a few weeks - well,  last week I was at the Cannes Film Festival and had an epiphany. It was another idea for a WTG sequel, but much simpler, elegant, emotionally powerful & easier to make than my previous concept.

I then learned that the deadline for the Venice Film Festival was on May 31st, 2019. I decided to take this as a challenge. Yesterday I convinced myself I could build a good, full-fledged protoy...

New video & show: #RealityTalk!

I've spent the past 2 weeks trying to figure out what's a cool, simple format for weekly videos that I can make for you guys - and this seems to be it!

In this first episode of #RealityTalk, I talk about why I think the Oculus Quest marks the beginning of mainstream VR.

Hope you enjoy it and thanks for supporting me in making it <3

Patreon Video Update #1 - What's been going on

I want to give you guys more frequent (and more personal) updates - so I'll be shooting videos for you every week or so discussing what's been going on!

In this video, I talk about going to Tribeca and the projects that I have lined up. Let me know what you think of this unedited format!

Announcing the Reality Caravan!

Recently we crossed a Patreon milestone in which I promised I'd do a weekly podcast. Well, I one-up you with this...

In July I'm starting a nomadic XR home called the  #RealityCaravan! Every month we'll pick a country, rent a home there, have countless adventures & film it all.

First stop is Vietnam... and there I'll also be doing weekly videocasts with the members of the house. So the podcast is still coming, jus...

Comedy Progress - Building a CyberPunk Alley

So as you know, I'm on week 2 of developing my first VR comedy, currently named Dinglechalk. And there has been some good progress!

This week I got to build a Cyberpunk alley where the first half of the story will take place in and I'm pretty happy with the results. Of course, it's not going to be the final environment by any means - it might be too dramatic for the lighthearted tone of the story and the aesthetic is a bit cliché, but it's already a solid background for me to start prototyping the rest of the experie...

New Video - Optimizing Your Unity VR Game

Saw that many other developers were struggling with optimizing their games for the upcoming Oculus Quest... So I made a video that walks you through a few cool tools and techniques! Hope it's helpful to you in your project!

Secret Partnership + New WTG Announcement!

Over the past few months I've been quietly working together with HTC's VR For Impact Program and the United Nations to develop a short experience around the Sustainable Develpment Goals. I really like how this is coming together, and the simplicity of it made me realize I should be doing more with Where Thoughts Go.

Over the next few months you'll see a lot of free DLC coming out for the game in the form of "Bonus C...

Hey... I just got nominated for a Webby! Help us win it!

Link to vote:  wbby.co/vote-vid67

Boo-yah! Right as I was in the middle of optimizing Where Thoughts Go for the Oculus Quest (and failing miserably at it), I got the news that the project was nominated for a #WebbyAward! Really motivating ( :

Thanks everyone for your continued support <3

VR Pupetteering - an easier way to animate

This week I had to find out how I'm going to make an animated comedy without any animation experience or a team. The solution? VR PUPPETS! 

This is the early result of a tool I've been making that lets you grab anything & puppeteer it. The result? A native #Unity animation file... voice recordings included.

This will speed up the development of my comedy so much and it's also just...

Valve's New VR Headset - In-Depth Look & Predictions

Yesterday Valve announced their first VR headset - the Valve Index. So I put up together a video to share some details and predictions. Hope you like it!

A secret announcement...

This one is still very early and just for you, Patrons - today I started very rough prototyping my very first VR comedy, named Dinglechalk.

Last night I finished the screenplay and figured out the story I want to tell, but over the next few weeks I need to find out whether it feels right for the medium. I'll use the month of April to test, fail and rewrite whatever needs to be rewritten, so then in May I can build the whole thing from scratch with the knowledge I've obtained.

I hope this works out well. Really wa...

Surprise Video! Analysis of the new Oculus Quest Trailer

Half-informative, half-comedy. Wanted to see what I could make in 4 hours!

We're starting a Podcast! THANK YOU, 35 Patrons <3

Thanks to you, we just hit our first funding milestone on Patreon! I promised you guys that when we got here, I would start a weekly podcast. So that's what we're doing!

What would you like the podcast to be about? Design? Interactive Storytelling? Technology? Let us know below!

New Video - The Best Experimental, Weird Games of GDC

Hey, everyone! I'm now trying to commit to a weekly / bi-weekly schedule for posting videos, and here's the first one that came out of GDC!

Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy it <3

GDC & Travels Are Over... Sort of. Update time!

GDC (the Game Developer's Conference) is finally complete... and so is my incessant travelling! 

A ton of cool stuff happened: I got to try out HP's new Reverb Headset (which was awesome - felt like a Rift with extremely high resolution), Oculus' new Rift S Headset (not too terribly exciting, but a notable improvement) and Microsoft...