Dave Bisceglia looked at game jam methodologies and how they can apply to development in his session at Casual Connect USA 2014. “Game Jams don’t have to end when all the devs pack up and head home,” he declared. “In fact, these principles can and should be applied to your dev process. Get access to dev kits and set aside time for your team to start exploring new technologies.”
Dave Bisceglia is the co-founder and CEO of The Tap Lab, an ambassador for TechStars Boston, and mentor at MassChallenge. He also speaks about the games industry at local universities and events, including MIT, Harvard, Boston University, and PAX East.
At The Tap Lab, he heads strategy, business development, and administration. He is also actively involved in game design and QA. With his co-founder Ralph Shao, he started making games after graduating from Boston University in 2009. Since then, they have hired talented people and made some great games, including Tiny Tycoons and their upcoming release, Bigfoot Hunter, which was part of the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect USA.
And yet, with all these accomplishments, the moment in his career that Bisceglia remembers with the most pride was meeting his childhood hero, Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims, who has now become his advisor and friend.
Leveraging New Technologies
Bisceglia is excited about several emerging trends in the games industry. These include micro-location (iBeacon and BluetoothLE), indoor location (WiFiSlam and ByteLight), and augmented reality (Qualcomm’s Vuforia and Google’s Project Tango). At The Tap Lab, they see a huge opportunity with these new technologies, especially in gaming. They have already begun experimenting with micro-location in gaming. They are also looking forward to creating augmented reality games that take into account your physical location, both indoors and outdoors.
He sees the biggest impact in the next few years in the games industry coming from virtual reality, saying it is a very exciting frontier. Bisceglia says, “We’ve just started to scratch the surface with Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. Games like EVE: Valkyrie and No Man’s Sky look like they’ll be very interesting proving grounds for the technology.”
When he is gaming, his favorite platform is mobile (for obvious reasons, he says). Currently, he is playing Supernauts from Grand Cru. He recently made his most expensive F2P purchase, a gem pack in Boom Beach for $49.99. Bisceglia also has an Xbox One and just about every retro console in existence. He and his friends usually buy the same consoles so they can play online together.
With all his work related activities, he has very little time to spare, but he manages to fit in time to sing karaoke and to play Big Buck Hunter: Safari with his friends at the local dive bar. He also likes to show off his skills in a game of bocce ball near the office. At The Tap Lab, they take this game very seriously. Recently, they bought a custom set of bocce balls embroidered with ‘The Tap Lab’.
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