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Articles by Sam Watts
On the Shelf: “The Life Impossible”
Reviewed by Sam Watts “The Life Impossible” is a story told through the perspective of a 72-year old widow telling the story of her friend who disappeared many years prior to a student of hers. This story is interesting enough, but the core of the novel comes specifically in who the story is being told between.
On the Shelf: 'What Kind of Mother'
By Reviewed by Sam Watts “What Kind of Mother” by Clay McLeod Chapman, Quirk Publishing, September 2023, $16.99 Reviewed by Sam Watts “What Kind of Mother” by Clay Mcleod Chapman follows Madi, a single mother who moves back to her hometown after the custody arrangement she has with her child changes. Madi makes a living by pretending to be a psychic and selling palm readings to the locals.
On the Shelf: 'Butcher of the Forest'
Reviewed by Sam Watts “Butcher of the Forest” by Premee Mohamed, Tor Publishing, February 2024, $18.99 Reviewed by Sam Watts I’ve always found it extremely difficult to get invested into fantasy stories. Oftentimes the exposition feels like a chore or classwork and I lose interest before any actual connection to the character is established.
On the Shelf: 'They Were Here Before Us'
“They Were Here Before Us: A Novella in Pieces” by Eric LaRocca, Independent Publishing, October 2022, $12.99 “The only thing more brutal than nature is love”.
Thoughts on VR after 10+ years
As I sit here writing this, I’m tired. But we’ll get to why so in a bit. {Editor’s note: This lengthy post may include some crude humour, snark, swears, realism but ultimately is written with love, passion and from a place of hope. Don’t take it personally} I first discovered VR in the ’90s having tried a Virtuality machine at London Trocadero Centre, playing Dactyl Nightmare for a pricey sum.
9 Years of VR - Ruminations & Snippets Pt.1/9
Settle in folks, this could be a long one. [EDIT: yeah 13,500+ words long in total! Actually now multi-part unlocking daily.] As I sit to start to piece this together, it's mid-July 2022, the weekend after the week I was offered my soon-to-be new role as <REDACTED> at <REDACTED>, and subsequently handed my letter of resignation in as Immersive Partnerships Director, at Make Real Ltd.
The Boy of Ten Who Conquered the Ben!
It’s just after 3pm on a cold and blustery April day as I ponder my current situation; I am just over 500m away from the summit of Ben Nevis in thicker than anticipated snow. On my back is a 18kg full suspension mountain bike in addition to another 30kg of kit, clothes and food. Next to me is my 10-year old son, Xavier (Xavi for short), my wife Holly and our crazy spaniel Monty. After five hours of slow and relentless hiking, I hit a wall.
Mark Prince: How the spirit of son Kiyan lives on in anti-knife campaign
9 min This interview was originally conducted in February 2019 but has been republished on May 18th 2021 – the 15th anniversary of Kiyan Prince’s death. ‘Truth is self-evident’ – the words of Mark Prince, a man who outside of becoming light heavyweight boxing world champion, has been knocked down in the most traumatic of life experiences. The breathtaking presence of his 15-year-old son, Kiyan Prince, stood tall in vivid form above his desk.
Announcing MRKL LLP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – February 17th 2021 Make Real Ltd and Keltbray Form Unique Partnership to Create Immersive Training Products for the Construction Industry Leading UK immersive learning studio, Make Real Ltd, and the UK’s leading specialist civil engineering and construction services business, Keltbray, have formed a unique partnership to create a range of branded Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) training application products, to enhance and improve offerings throughout...
"Everybody has felt isolated and cut off"
3 min “Even if you are living at home with others, everybody has felt isolated and cut off”, says Andy Evans, CEO of QPR in the Community Trust as Britain continues to live through one of the most challenging eras in modern history due to coronavirus. As an organisation, the Trust is making sure it is there for not just their fans but the local community by redoubling their efforts to combat mental health issues through the ‘R You OK?’ campaign.
Enhancing Soft Skills Training With Virtual Reality
Skip to content Interpersonal soft skills training is nothing new, and many enterprises making employees undertake roleplaying sessions around diversity and inclusion (D&I), communication, leadership and team building. However, there are a number of barriers to effective learning outcomes that hinder learners’ engagement with content and facilitators’ provision of soft skills training.
Using VR For More Than Learning & Games
Here at Make Real, we’re strong believers in VR and the wide set of use cases for it, beyond just the sectors that we actively service within learning & development, training, simulation and entertainment. Whilst the team is remotely working from home during the current pandemic, here’s a list of some VR titles we’re using to help with fitness of bodies and well-being of our minds.
Interviews, quotes, blog posts & more…
I am Sam Watts, Director of Immersive Technology at Make Real in Brighton, UK. We create and make exciting xR (VR/AR/MR) experiences that bring serious fun to learning & development, training and simulation. Clients and partners include EDF Energy, McDonald’s UK and Vodafone, to name a few, deploying applications in the areas of health & safety, maintenance, utilities, construction, and more. We also create consumer gaming products and location-based experiences for the out-of-home sector.
Hendon FC’s community team receives Cadbury’s kit accolade
2 min Hendon Football Club’s mental health initiative has gained further recognition after being selected as winners of a Cadbury’s competition. The semi-professional club, based in Kingsbury, lead the way in sourcing ways to combat mental health illnesses with a community football team set-up in June 2017 to help support vulnerable young men across Brent.
Opinion: Chronic homelessness need not exist in Montreal
An unidentified man sleeps beside garbage cans inside the Guy Concordia métro station in downtown Montreal, Wednesday December 7, 2016. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette As we walk around our city, we see hundreds of people who are experiencing homelessness.
Pastimes For Pirates Developer Diary #3 - Tacking Where Neccessary
In this third Developer Diary for Pastimes for Pirates, we look at how we’re expanding upon the initial prototype into a more fully fledged vertical slice, one that will hopefully whet the whistles and widen the wallets of virtual reality (VR) games publishers.
Pastimes For Pirates Developer Diary #2 - Navigating The Early Waters
In the first dev blog for VRFocus, we looked at the creation of the initial mobile virtual reality (VR) prototype and how this evolved into a full VR design, ready for pitching to publishers alongside the high-level design document and pitchdeck. Following on from the high of XR Connects and the XR Indie Pitch 3rd place, we had lots of interest and positive initial discussions but getting a new game funded is never a straight-forward process.
Opinion: Why we must keep counting the homeless in Montreal
The practice of conducting regular counts of the homeless is gaining in popularity throughout the western world. Marie-France Coallier / Montreal Gazette A second count of Montreal’s homeless population will take place on April 24.
Pastimes For Pirates Developer Diary #1 - In The Beginning
One page is all it takes – in July 2017, during the Develop: Brighton conference, we met with a variety of virtual reality (VR) platform and hardware companies to discuss our thoughts about what our next videogame title should be. At the time, it was decided that a mobile VR title would be best fitting, to put the studio in a position of gaining invaluable experience designed and developing for mobile and standalone chipsets with the technology moving towards standalone, all-in-one VR headsets.
Opinion: We must work together to beat hunger in Montreal
Local food banks and food counters remain the primary place of entry for many people in need. Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette Can you imagine the feeling of despair felt by parents who are unable to properly feed their children? In Montreal alone last year, according to Moisson Montréal, more than 137,000 people required food assistance, including more than 45,000 children. Most of them had to count on the help of a food bank or a community kitchen.
How to make a blazingly fast VR racing game (that won’t make you sick)
Since we started demoing our first virtual reality sci-fi arcade racing game, Radial-G : Racing Revolved, at events in early 2014, we have seen nothing but genuine surprise at how comfortable 99 percent of players find the game experience. We are now fully launched on the Oculus and Steam stores, and the former has a "comfort rating" applied to titles determined by the Oculus Store team.
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