“Augmented reality will have a huge impact on the video game industry,” Igor Degtyarev explained during his session at Casual Connect Eastern Europe 2014. “We are working out the last few challenges.”
Igor Degtyarev is a senior R&D and graphics engineer at Targem Games, the largest game development studio in the Urals. Since much of his career has been closely tied to Targem Games, he identifies his success with the company’s success, including such achievements as shipping their product to different consoles and platforms, evolving their technology base, and expanding to new markets. In his nine years of game development experience, Igor has been a part of the creation of a number of games, including ExMachina, Armageddon Riders, Star Conflict, and others.
Like many in the games industry, Igor began his career without any relevant experience. However, he had burning passion for games and the desire to create them. He has since developed the skills to fill many different roles, from the automatization of processes to new platform support. Because the company is not large, he must function in a variety of areas. But whatever facet of the work he is engaged in, he emphasizes, “Only hard work and concentration on specific goals allow me to reach the expected result.”
Igor finds his work and his free-time activities blend together seamlessly. As a curious person, he is always thinking and acquiring new knowledge in a range of subject areas. But no matter what he is thinking about, he finds it connects in some way to his work.
Passionate About Games
When Igor is gaming these days, he is using a PC, although, until recently, he preferred his PS3. He can’t quite explain why, but he feels his preference is an obvious choice. However, he intends to purchase a PS4 as soon as he finds one attractive game for it, a statement which certainly reveals his opinion of the games now available.
Recently, he has become especially passionate about indie games, particularly the rogue-like ones. He appreciates the constantly changing game mechanic as well as the progressive disclosure of new game features. His current favorites include Risk of Rain and The Crypt of the NecroDancer.
Virtual Reality
As they plan for the future, Targem Games is focusing on next generation consoles and virtual reality. Virtual reality is of particular interest since, according to Igor, it appears to be rapidly evolving, but the direction of its evolution is still not clear. Targem Games is making every effort to keep up and stay on the edge of this exciting technology.
In the next few years, Igor believes virtual reality will come closer to representing real life and will be a significant part of the entertainment and game industries. “The necessary ingredients are already in place,” he insists, “All that remains is the time it will take for VR devices to become widespread and the effort necessary to ensure virtual reality will evolve in the right direction.”
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