Pictured at an IndieCade event in 2011.
Peace of mind. I know that there is always a fresh build waiting for me when I need it, or when I need to share it. It offloads a part of production that isn’t creative and helps me stay focused.
It’s crucial to get feedback on interactive projects, and making it easier to share your work at any point in production, to whomever you’d like, is really helpful.
It also means there is no coordination needed to make a build and share it, and no one gets derailed to do that. They can stay focused on their work.
For larger productions, being able to trigger different builds and deployments based on custom criteria is really helpful in sharing work at different cadences with different groups and visibility – publishers or investors, vs playtesters, vs QA, vs directors, etc.
It really comes down to fewer interruptions. I can continue working as builds are made and automatically deployed. For devices like Meta Quest, this is a huge time saver to set up once, and then have a fresh build always ready to go. It also brings more predictability to the process which means fewer surprises – or at least fewer surprises when you least want them, near deadlines!
It’s also really nice that the remote dev team, distributed across time zones, really feels like they are all in one virtual studio together.
I am a power user of the product and provide feedback. I have been an active user of the desktop client, the command-line interface, and the website. I give feedback on usability and bugs, and share my own game development pains with the team to help with planning new features.
Builds are usually pretty easy to start. But waiting for them to finish and getting them where they need to be is annoying at best, and can sometimes tie up your machine and attention for hours.
It’s pretty easy to get going no matter your experience level. Just request early access and jump into the WVS discord to connect with the community and talk to the team. You can start new projects or import from GitHub super easily, or upload any Unity, Unreal, Godot, or other project you have.
Are you an IndieCade Alumnus? We want to know! If you've been a speaker, organizer, juror, or presented your game at IndieCade or any IndieCade-related showcase (ex. IndieCade @ E3, IndieCade @ SIGGRAPH, etc. - doesn't need to have been a finalist) we'd like to be in touch.