Case Studies

CityEngine increases game developer's productivity on environment creation by 400%, reducing labour costs and time to market 1 Esri Canada | Other Ocean Interactive Speeds Up Video Game Development with GIS Challenge In Giant Cop: Justice Above All, a video gamer becomes a 200-foot-tall police officer patrolling Micro City. The officer is responsible for enacting justice by scooping up citizens who dare to misbehave in ways such as starting fights or vandalizing property. These lawbreakers are thrown in jail – in the game's case, a state-of-the-art trash bin. In September 2015, Other Ocean Interactive presented a mouse- and-keyboard prototype of Giant Cop at EGX, the largest games event in the UK. While the prototype was well received by critics and the public alike, Other Ocean Interactive thought the game could be further improved by adding virtual reality. While developing for virtual reality, the company had to make several iterations to optimize the game. In video game design, this process can be time-consuming and costly, taking a team of at least 3-4 staff members months to make significant changes. For Giant Cop, the team had to make these iterations by hand. For example, Jon Lambe, the company's lead artist, worked on one of the game's residential districts where a road needed to be added and another removed. He had to hand cut out the existing road, fix the spot where the road was removed, create a new road and then place the road into the city. This prompted him to find a solution that could make the iteration process more efficient. Based in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Other Ocean Interactive is a fast-growing company that is succeeding in the gaming industry's newest frontier: virtual reality. Its latest video game, Giant Cop: Justice Above All, puts video gamers in the uniform of a police officer who patrols the virtual Micro City. In early 2016, the company was introduced to CityEngine's powerful capabilities at an international game developer conference. Since then, it has used CityEngine to efficiently produce virtual cities, quickly create game features and integrate various systems. Ultimately, these benefits have enhanced Giant Cop's visual quality and user experience, while streamlining the development process and reducing labour costs.

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