Category Archives: gaming

My Unofficial Video Enthusiasts’ Guide to Google I/O 2013

If you are coming to Google I/O 2013 you can spend the entire show learning about nothing else but video. YouTube has and entire track this year, and all three days of I/O are full of video goodness. Day 1 (Wed) and Day 2 (Th) are jam-packed with YouTube sessions. Day 3 (Fri) features two YouTube API codelabs.

This year we have two categories of sessions:

  • YouTube API-specific sessions
  • General knowledge-sharing sessions for anyone who loves video

While the former is something expected at I/O, I am particularly proud of the latter since it is great to give back. Here’s the list of sessions that belong to the “general knowledge sharing” category:

  1. Demystifying Video Encoding: WebM/VP8 for the Rest of Us
  2. Secrets of Video Stabilization on YouTube
  3. Designing Products for a Multi-screen World: The YouTube Perspective
  4. Adaptive Streaming for You and YouTube
  5. Semantic Video Annotations in the YouTube Topics API: Theory and Applications
  6. WebM and the New VP9 Open Video Codec
You can find the complete list of YouTube sessions here.

 

In the YouTube API Sandbox we will feature seven companies showing innovative apps for all three days of I/O. All of them will have fun demos but if you are short on time don’t miss the following three:
  1. Epson’s immersive video experience
  2. Media Studio’s tools + marketplace product for video creators
  3. Woowa Brothers (배달의 민족) which is an amazing S. Korean company which makes take-out ordering fun
Woowa Brothers (배달의 민족)

Hope Woowa Brothers (배달의 민족) will come to the US one day!

On the last day of I/O (Friday) get your hands on some of our latest APIs with the help of YouTube engineers at two codelabs:
  1. YouTube Anywhere – Using the YouTube API on Phones, Tablets and GoogleTV – where you will learn how to build an Android app using the YouTube Android Player and YouTube Data APIs.
  2. Mashing Up Videos with the YouTube and the Freebase Knowledge Graph APIs – which will teach you how to use the Freebase API with the YouTube Topics API to build fun and smart apps leveraging the Knowledge Graph.
Last but not least, if you are interested in Gaming check out the session by yours truly and Corey Johnson from Unity, the leading game engine developer: Super-Charge Your Mobile Game with YouTube. We will show you how you can incorporate video uploads and in-game video playback into a sample video game Amir Ebrahimi and I built last year.

 

Have a great I/O! And if you are not coming this year worry not, all of the sessions will be recoded and published on YouTube.

 

MineCon 2011: YouTube API for Game Developers


Last week I had a chance to attend and present at MineCon 2011. It was a fantastic event. The huge number of participants (easily over 4k) as well as the great vibe totally blew my mind. Below is the slide deck from my presentation entitled “YouTube API for Game Developers” with Cliff Samaniego and after that I will share some general impressions from the show.

The conference took place at the luxurious Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, NV and all the amenities were first class. Even the WiFi network mostly worked, which is a big achievement for an event of this size.

Family-friendly MineCon!

The crowd was very diverse, frequently one could spot two or three generations of Minecraft fans attending. It was definitely designed to be a family affair, and the format really worked perfectly. What impressed me the most is the quality of questions directed at various panels by very young Minecraft players. If this is representative of what the next generation will be like, we have nothing to worry about.

 

 

 

My favorite part was the keynote as well as the developers’ panel I watched on second day of the conference. Lydia Winters did a fantastic job running the keynote. The Mojang team history and intro shown in the video below as well as the official launch (second video) were quite memorable.

I took a stroll on the exhibition floor and below is what it looked like. The lines to buy Minecraft memorabilia were onerous throughout the show, but that did not seem to deter fans from trying.

I also took a few photos at the conference, you can find them in the album below.

MineCon 2011, Las Vegas, Nevada

Since I had to get back to San Francisco on Saturday, I did not have much time to explore Las Vegas on this trip. I did, however, manage to capture the famous fountain water show at the Bellagio with my Nexus S during a late night stroll, so here it is for your viewing pleasure.

GDC 2011 : Call of Duty Black Ops Preso

One of the coolest projects I got to work on last year was YouTube API integration with Call of Duty : Black Ops. The game was a smash hit, grossing over $1B in revenues shortly after launch. Black Ops allows one to upload gameplay video clips directly from the game to YouTube. Below is an example of a clip from Black Ops, as well as the preso from GDC 2011 that I was fortunate to give together with my Activision colleague as a part of the Google track. You can download the slides here.
If you missed GDC but are planning to come to Google I/O 2011, we’ll be presenting there as well, so join our session! Agenda details coming soon!

Game Developers Conference Presentation

I will be co-presenting with my YouTube and Activision colleagues at this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on Feb 28th at 4:15pm at the Moscone Center. Below is the title and abstract. If you’re coming to GDC and would like to learn how one gets cool gameplay videos, such as the one in this post, from game console onto YouTube, join us!

YouTube APIs and Call of Duty Black Ops: Game Video Integration Process and Benefits
Over 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. One of the fastest growing categories is game play videos, generating hundreds of millions video playbacks each month. Integration of YouTube APIs in your next project will both provide a fun place for your fans to showcase their best achievements as well as give you the platform to reach out to a large gaming community on the site. In this talk, we will discuss the process of integrating YouTube video API into Call of Duty Black Ops, the biggest game of 2010.  We will describe API features geared towards engaging with the users and building more complex apps around user-generated content. We will also describe monetization and advertising strategies designed to help you market the game on YouTube.com and profit from the integration.
Here is the link to the session on the official GDC schedule and agenda for other cool Google GDC events.