GDC 2007 free video: The making of PopCap's Bookworm Adventures

posted Jul 31 2013

From the GDC 2007 Casual Games Summit, PopCap's Tysen Henderson and Jeff Weinstein share "the good, the not bad, and the ugly" in this free video post-mortem for the multiple award-winning puzzle-RPG hybrid, Bookworm Adventures.

In 2009, Gamasutra caught up with Henderson to analyze how Bookworm Adventures juggles fun and education.

For a breakdown of another PopCap classic, check out George Fan at GDC 2012 discussing How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies.'

GDC Europe 2012 free video: Lessons in storytelling, from Amnesia's creative lead

posted Jul 29 2013

"Having a sense of presence might actually be the best storytelling device we have in our media."

-Frictional Games' creative director Thomas Grip believes in letting players' imagination do most of the work.

In this GDC Europe 2012 lecture, Grip shows the science behind and the practical implementations for maintaining this level of immersion. He demonstrates how even lauded games such as Heavy Rain, Dead Space, and Assassin's Creed break this sense of presence and how games such as Limbo facilitate it.

For other perspectives on storytelling, GDC Vault has free lectures from Kent Hudson on player-driven stories and Antony Johnston on what comic books can teach video games.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1016433/The-Self-Presence-and

GDC Europe 2011 free video: Sony's Mark Cerny gives the long view of the game industry

posted Jul 26 2013

"30 years later, we are still unlearning the lessons of the golden age of the arcade."

- Prior to revealing himself as the architect for PlayStation 4, industry luminary Mark Cerny at GDC Europe 2011 predicted the industry will need at least 20 more years to unlearn the current definition of a "game."

Spanning three decades in the industry, Cerny traces video game history from recent blockbuster titles all the way back to when arcade games flourished.

In contrast to those triple-A titles, he presents recent social and mobile hits such as Angry Birds and Farmville and suggests that the industry needs to unlearn what it believes a game is to accept these hits as games and to move forward.

For more peering into the past, be sure to check out Mark Cerny's postmortem for his classic game Marble Madness for free, given during the 25th anniversary of GDC. More currently, read how he is bridging the gap between casual and console in his upcoming PlayStation 4 game, Knack.

free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015001/The-Long

GDC Europe 2011 free video: 'Broken' game design - it's not all bad

posted Jul 25 2013

"Human beings can enforce rules, too... We don't need to cede all the authority to the machine."

- Douglas Wilson with B.U.T.T.O.N. and Johann Sebastian Joust studio Die Gute Fabrik on making "incomplete" games that can foster festivity, collaboration, and intrinsic motivation.

In this free GDC Europe 2011 lecture, the Sportsfriends developer says not to worry about enforcing rules or preventing cheating. Instead, he says to focus on "deputizing" players and shares lessons he has learned from traditional folk games and design research which support this type of play.

Wilson will present 'Three Folk Games to Inspire Radical New Video Games' at this August's GDC Europe. Passes for GDC Europe 2013 are available now.

free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1014909/Intentionally-Broken-Game-Design-and

GDC Europe 2012 free video: Don Daglow's 5 design tips to cater to American online gamers

posted Jul 24 2013

"We want to give rewards even in that tutorial where you can do nothing wrong because that is what society has led American kids to expect."

- industry veteran Don Daglow on how American society is different, and how many differences lead to games performing differently than in Europe.

In this free GDC Europe 2012 lecture, Daglow - co-creator of the '90s online game Neverwinter Nights, one of the first graphical MMORPGs, offers up 5 tips for designing for American online players, including advice on user interface, the amount of text in-game, and the craving for recognition as an individual.

The intriguingly titled '5 Things About American Online Gamers that Surprise European Developers' is now available for free.

Daglow will present again at GDC Europe 2013, this time on the 'Treasures and Traps in the Next Gen Transition,' which is likely to be just as riveting. Passes for GDC Europe 2013 are available now.

GDC 2000 free videos: classic talks on future of retail, online sales

posted Jul 23 2013

GDC Vault has recently added two new videos from the special sessions of the GamExecutive Conference held during GDC 2000. In these talks, top game executives debate the merit of broadband, the demise of the PC business, and retail versus e-commerce (as these predate digital distribution channels such as Steam).

First up is Interplay president Phil Adam and analyst Ann Stevens of PC Data who talk about retail, as opposed to online, being "the predominant sales channel for the long haul," and look at the decline in prices and revenues of games 1994 to 1999.

The next talk features a three-person panel with Gerry Kaufhold of research company In-Stat, who brings optimistic data on broadband; Robert Tercek, formerly with Sony, on what developers can do with the broadband, and Bryan Neider of EA, who brings the perspective of one of the few successful online companies at the time.

For more from the GamExecutive Conference 2000, check out this talk on mass market appeal with Hasbro Interactive, Mattel Interactive, Red Storm Entertainment, and THQ, or this lecture and round table on managing risk.

GDC SF 2013 free video: Talking to the player - How cultural currents shape game design

posted Jul 22 2013

"The essence of gameplay is procedural dialogue between the player and the game."

- Matthias Worch, the level designer for Dead Space 2 and LucasArts's recently-canned Star Wars 1313, discussing how game design can and does combine traditions of oral and print cultures.

In this free GDC 2013 lecture from the AAA Level Design in a Day Bootcamp, Worch relates story content and gameplay to monologues and dialogues, respectively. He offers practical advice for their designs; for example, he argues that cutscenes (as monologues) should never trigger unexpectedly and shouldn't change the subject matter.

In the month following this lecture, Worch released an altered version of this talk and its accompanying slides.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017638/AAA-Level-Design-in-a

GDC SF 2013 free video: Iterating on Diablo III's game systems

posted Jul 17 2013

"Solve the most important problems first."

- Blizzard's senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng reflects on how he could have saved valuable time when iterating on system design, instead of "geeking out," when he worked on Diablo III.

In this free GDC 2013 lecture, Cheng discusses how his team refined Diablo III's health recovery, command input, and skills support systems that gave the 12-million selling PC hit its strong, tactical combat. Along with his analysis of what stayed and what had to go, he provides in-game demos of the early iterations of each system.

For even more on Diablo III, check out this free GDCvideo on the game's art direction with Blizzard's Christian Lichtner.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017794/Through-the-Grinder-Refining-Diablo

GDC SF 2013 free video: Game developers sound off from the Indie Soapbox

posted Jul 16 2013

"You cannot overhype a game, you can only under-deliver"

- SpyParty developer Chris Hecker at GDC 2013's Indie Soapbox.

All the talks of game developers Emily Short, Tim Rogers, Matthew Wegner, Rami Ismail, Chris Hecker, Renaud Bedard, Rich Vreeland, David Rosen, Colin Northway, and Noel Llopis are now available to view for free on GDC Vault.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1018117/Indie

GDC 2002 free video: Revisiting the 2002 IGF and GDC Awards

posted Jul 15 2013

Stuck in the office today? GDC Vault revisits the Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards show from GDC 2002, celebrating Grand Theft Auto III, ICO, and Halo: Combat Evolved, along with an appearance from Yuji Naka, who received the lifetime achievement award.

The free video is available to watch on GDC Vault now. For comparison, watch the 2013 Game Developers Choice and the Independent Games Festival awards, as recorded by the events' media partner, GameSpot.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1014857/2002-GDC-Choice

GDC Europe 2011 free video: 'Game Content Rating Systems Must Change'

posted Jul 12 2013

"I would like to see an equal treatment for games and movies. I don't see any difference."

-Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream's Guillaume de Fondaumiere in his talk at GDC Europe 2011 on how stricter-than-necessary ratings hurt the games business.

Over 50 games have been banned since 2000, according to Fondaumiere's presentation. In his talk, he makes an argument for adopting the same standards as movies and TV, and explains how ratings currently cause consumer confusion and hinder public funding and marketing. The banning of games in certain regions came up again recently -- see Saints Row IV being refused classification under Australia's new rating system.

Also, don't forget to check out Gamasutra's interview with Fondaumiere on how Heavy Rain was edited to meet PEGI standards.

free video link:http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014947/Game-Content-Rating-Systems-Must

GDC SF 2013 free video: iOS, Android myths dispelled

posted Jul 11 2013

Robot Invader CEO Chris Pruett reviews how Wind-up Knight and Rise of the Blobs were received on iOS and Android in this GDC 2013 talk, comparing what has been accepted as mobile development truths against his own concrete figures.

In this free lecture courtesy of GDC Vault, Pruett examines the validity of focusing on iOS first and localizing in as many languages as possible, and the trouble of Android device fragmentation. While you're at it, check out this related Gamasutra blog post by Gregg Tavares that breaks Pruett's data down further.

Session Name: Fact and Fiction: Lessons from Wind-up Knight and Rise of the Blobs

Speaker(s): Chris Pruett

Company Name(s): Robot Invader

Track / Format: Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit

Description: Everybody has a theory about what makes a successful mobile game, but how much of this conventional wisdom is really true? This session tests the validity of common "best practices" using two Robot Invader games, Wind-up Knight and Rise of the Blobs, as case studies. We will candidly discuss the development, critical, and financial reception of these two games across both iOS and Android. We scoured the Earth for information about what makes a great mobile game. Find out which bits of advice were right on the mark and which led us astray.

Free video link:http://gdcvault.com/play/1018129/Fact-and-Fiction-Lessons-from

GDC Europe 2012 free video: Stop sweating the details and let game design 'happen'

posted Jul 10 2013

For most people, the distinction between a game and a toy is that games rely on a defined set of rules. They dictate how players should experience a game and give structure to a designer's creation.

But for indie developer and Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva (Fotonica), rules aren't everything. At this year's GDC Europe, he argued that truly great games aren't defined by their rules, but emerge naturally if designers give players the freedom to experiment on their own.

"Games happen," Riva said. "They happen largely in the minds of players and not in the things we give them, so you kind of have to let go and stop worrying... We don't really design the games, we design these things, and we hope games will take place in the way we expect them to."

Riva pointed to popular titles like Dear Esther, Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and LittleBigPlanet, noting that they all allow players to piece things together on their own, explore new ideas, and find their own meaning among the tools at their disposal.

"The people who designed these games felt like they could inspire players to make something out of what they are giving them," Riva said.

He even pointed to a quote from world-renowned street artist Banksy, saying that his philosophy for painting very much applies to games. As Banksy says, "The Holy Grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes for people to took at it."

If game developers can manage that with their own creations, then Riva says they must be doing something right.

In Riva's full presentation, he explains how he applied some of these design philosophies to his games like Fotonica and MirrorMoon, and you can see the entire talk for yourself in this GDC Vault video.

Free video link: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1016457/Games-Happen-Design-Lessons-from

GDC 2004 free video: David Perry on game production through collaboration

posted Jul 09 2013

GDC Vault revisits GDC 2004 this week, uncovering David Perry's 2004 production keynote, which focuses on tips for finding and making a license, based in part on his experience with the multi-million selling Enter The Matrix.

Perry (who has since sold his cloud computing company Gaikai to Sony for hundreds of millions of dollars) urges publishers to allow producers to focus on one game at a time. He also offers several tips for making the perfect pitch for a licensed game. Finally, he suggests developers should be recognized individually for their talents and should hire publicists and agents to further establish themselves professionally.

The free video is available to watch here.

Session Name: Production Through Collaboration: Escalating Demands on the Producer

Speaker(s): David Perry

Company Name(s): Shiny Entertainment Inc

Free video link:http://gdcvault.com/play/1019222/Production-Through-Collaboration-Escalating-Demands

GDC SF 2013 free video: Media Molecule's 5 tips for being a better producer

posted Jul 08 2013

Producers fail if the game doesn't live up to its potential, says Media Molecule studio director Siobhan Reddy in her GDC 2013 talk about the 'highs and lows' of making games from new ideas.

Producers must juggle the goals of maintaining the game's creative vision and delivering a finished product; achieving both requires understanding what a team needs from a producer at all stages of development. As Reddy looks back on the iterations of upcoming PS Vita title Tearaway, she explains why her studio eventually scrapped a procedurally-generated world with GPS features, in this free lecture courtesy of GDC Vault.

Session Name: Glitter and Doom: The Highs and Lows of Making New Things

Speaker(s): Siobhan Reddy

Company Name(s): Media Molecule

Track / Format: Production

Description: Learn the true highs and lows of producing games with Siobhan Reddy, GDC Advisory Board member and Studio Director at Media Molecule.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017817/Glitter-and-Doom-The-Highs

GDC SF 2013 free video: Game educators rant about design, diversity, and jobs

posted Jul 05 2013

Free courtesy of GDC Vault is the Game Educators Rant from GDC 2013, featuring Jose Zagal on the best games for learning design, Clara Fernandez-Vara on job ads and hiring practices, Ian Schreiber on diversity in education, and Michael Mateas on answering the question "What do you teach?"

Session Name: Game Educators Rant

Speaker(s): Michael Mateas, Jose Zagal, Clara Fernandez-Vara, Ian Schreiber

Company Name(s): UC Santa Cruz, DePaul University, MIT, Independent

Track / Format: GDC Education Summit

Description: This session will consist of a series of enlightening rants by veteran educators and game scholars. Experience different perspectives on students, schools, pedagogy, the relationship between academia and industry, and the future of game education as presented this cast of colleagues: Clara Fernandez-Vara, Michael Mateas, Ian Schreiber, and Jose Zagal.

free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1018066/Game-Educators

GDC 2004 free video: Will Wright's 'schizophrenic approach to game design'

posted Jul 04 2013

GDC Vault peers into the past and makes free the GDC 2004 design keynote from Will Wright, The Sims and SimCity creator, who shares several methodologies applicable to solo or team designers.

Accompanying several sharp witticisms and anecdotes, such as saying that games in 2050 will require 2.5 million people and $500 billion budgets, Wright encourages paying attention to the workload players must manage and how players parse the language of the game. He also suggests observing fellow designer aptitudes, their "superpowers," which can offer complementary perspectives for creativity and problem-solving.

The free video is available to watch here.

Session Name: Triangulation: A Schizophrenic Approach to Game Design

Speaker(s): Will Wright

Company Name(s): Maxis EA / Stupid Fun Club

Track / Format: Game Design

free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1019219/Triangulation-A-Schizophrenic-Approach-to

GDC Europe 2012 free video: The making of GoldenEye 007

posted Jul 03 2013

In this GDC Europe 2012 video, GoldenEye 007's director Martin Hollis shares the story behind one of the Nintendo 64's best-selling games, one which many say set the standard for single and multiplayer first-person shooters on consoles.

As shared in this free GDC Vault video, GoldenEye 007's design began as a mix of Sega's on-rails shooter Virtua Cop and id Software's Doom, without a hint of multiplayer, and was developed on a $150,000 Silicon Graphics Onyx computer (an approximation of what the Nintendo 64 would become).

To hear more interesting behind-the-scenes stories of how GoldenEye 007 became the iconic N64 game it is today, watch the free, hour-long lecture below.

Session Name: Classic Postmortem: GoldenEye 007

Speaker(s): Martin Hollis

Company Name(s): Zoonami

Track / Format: Game Design

Description: Considered by many to be one of the best and most addictive multiplayer gaming experiences on the Nintendo 64 -- or on any platform in the '90s really -- Rare's GoldenEye 007 set the standard for what a first-person shooter on a console could accomplish. Its single-player campaign was also much better than any movie tie-in deserved to have. 15 years after GoldenEye 007 first hit stores, its director Martin Hollis shares how his team created the biggest release for the N64 without Mario in its title, and how what started as a Virtua Cop-style on-rails project became the legendary FPS that paved the way for console shooters like Halo and countless others.

free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1016460/Classic-Postmortem-GoldenEye

GDC SF 2013 free video: Sexism and sexuality in games

posted Jul 02 2013

"Are we requiring the female protagonist to work harder and sell more in order to prove herself?" asks Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider, in this GDC 2013 video about sexism and sexuality in games, free courtesy of GDC Vault.

In examining his own career, Gaider takes a brief look at how romantic characters evolved from Baldur's Gate II to the Dragon Age series. While he recognizes not all games can or should be all things to all people, he believes the industry could be less dis-inviting of players who would otherwise be paying customers.

He urges those who choose to design minority characters to consider their roles and purpose in the game. Additionally, he suggests those of privilege to seek out possible groups affected by design choices and talk to them, or if security requires it not leave the office, to hire diversely. Their unique viewpoints, he said, should be considered "assets," not "affirmative action."

Session Name: Sex in Video Games

Speaker(s): David Gaider

Company Name(s): BioWare EA

Track / Format: Design

Description: Games have reached the point where realistic portrayals of sex and adult relationships are possible, but what does this mean to us as developers? How much responsibility do we have in addressing issues of sexism and sexuality, and are we inadvertently making statements about what is acceptable, even when we don't mean to say anything at all? Our industry is struggling with a conflict between the desire to be taken seriously as an art form, and the desire to avoid addressing social issues because what we make are "just games." These things have implications on our sales, and while they can be addressed, it can only happen if we are willing to acknowledge that greater discussion of the topic within the industry is merited.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017796/Sex-in-Video

GDC SF 2013 free video: How Western mobile games conquered China

posted Jul 01 2013

For Western mobile games to succeed in China, they need to undergo "deep culturalization," which includes a total re-scripting for a game's story, says Henry Fong in this GDC 2013 lecture.

Fong's company, Yodo1, recently published Alpha Zero and Cut the Rope: Time Travel to Chinese markets to large success. He discusses how his company handled the monetization, payment, distribution, and discovery walls that these games faced when approaching the Chinese market in this free lecture, courtesy of GDC Vault.

Session Name: The Western Games That Conquered China

Speaker(s): Henry Fong

Company Name(s): Yodo1

Track / Format: Localization Summit

Description:This session will explain how to launch a Western mobile game in China on both iOS and Android, by using case studies of various Western hit games that have done well in China. Highlights will include how to localize your games with the tastes of Chinese gamers in mind, how to effectively promote and distribute your games in China's highly fragmented market, how to leverage China's local social media, and how to localize your monetization strategy.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017999/The-Western-Games-That-Conquered

GDC 2001 free video: Building more realistic team AI

posted Jun 28 2013

Clark Gibson and John O'Brien of Red Storm Entertainment (Rogue Spear, Shadow Watch) discuss improving AI, with a focus on designing, organizing, and implementing team AI in this free GDC 2001 video.

In order to get increased realism in team AI, Gibson describes how to give members different roles under a unifying purpose, to allow them to dynamically respond to or change purposes, and to build an effective way to communicate with that AI. O'Brien then describes a hierarchical approach to implementing team AI that worked well for Red Storm and that gives AI programming newcomers their "best chance at success."

You can view this free video now on GD Vault.

Session Name: The Basics of Team AI

Speaker(s): Clark Gibson, John O'Brien

Company Name(s): Red Storm Entertainment

Track / Format: Programming

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1019218/The-Basics-of-Team

GDC SF 2013 free video: Shipping Retro City Rampage on 17 SKUs at once

posted Jun 27 2013

"Retail is the past," Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano says, explaining that even if the retail price was twice the digital price, he'd net less profit. He reflects on this and several more business and programming lessons he learned being a one-man developer and publisher, in this GDC 2013 lecture.

Retro City Rampage's custom-built engine created extra considerations for the developer, who says getting his game up and running took less time than conforming to platform requirements. He discusses the core architecture differences across all platforms, along with programming joysticks, leaderboards, saves, menus and more in this hour-long lecture, free courtesy of GDC Vault.

Session Name: One Man, 17 SKUs: Shipping on Every Platform at Once

Speaker(s): Brian Provinciano

Company Name(s): Vblank Entertainment

Track / Format: Programming

Description:This talk takes attendees through the entire process of developing and releasing multi-platform games, from A to Z, with a primary focus on consoles and Steam. From programming to business and production, it's a content heavy talk that covers a lot of ground. It paints the complete picture by detailing everything from code to contracts. The sheer volume of tasks adds up quickly when developing console games; building a game which can can fit every system's varied requirements and SDK adds even more complexity. Preparation is key and this talk provides the roadmap.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017748/One-Man-17-SKUs-Shipping

GDC SF 2013 free video: Designing Dead Space's immersive user interface

posted Jun 26 2013

Visceral Games' lead UI designer Dino Ignacio speaks in this GDC 2013 video about his team's efforts to immerse the player deeper in the action horror of Dead Space through the evolution of its user interface.

Courtesy of GDC Vault, Ignacio's now free lecture covers iterations UI including the frontend, the bench and the infamous RIG. For the RIG, he illustrates how the team creatively displayed the health bar, inventory, weapon selector, and locator in-game.

Session Name: Crafting Destruction: The Evolution of the Dead Space User Interface

Speaker(s): Dino Ignacio

Company Name(s): Visceral Games - Electronic Arts

Track / Format: Visual Arts

Description:This is an in-depth exploration of the philosophy, evolution, and development of one of the industry's most innovative user interfaces. Dino Ignacio, the lead user interface designer of the Dead Space franchise, will break down the early attempts and concepts that led to Dead Space's interface becoming diegetic and immersive. It will discuss how and why we got to the shipped versions.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017723/Crafting-Destruction-The-Evolution-of

GDC SF 2013 free video: Three talks exploring creativity in game design

posted Jun 25 2013

Courtesy of GDC Vault, this free GDC 2013 video shows The Stanley Parable's Davey Wreden, Spelunky XBLA's Andy Hull, and Loot Drop designer James Lantz offering unique lessons to expand creative game design.

The aptly named "creatrilogy" session includes Hull's "good kind of stealing" and other wooden toy design tips applicable to games, Lantz's 4 different directions to go with genre innovation, and Wreden's 14-tip "tool set for evoking creativity in game design."

Session Name: Creatrilogy: Three Talks Exploring Indie Game Creativity

Speaker(s): Andy Hull, James Lantz, Davey Wreden

Company Name(s): Story Fort, LLC; Independent; Galactic Cafe

Track / Format: Design

Description:What Indies Can Learn from Wooden Toys (Andy Hull, Story Fort, LLC) Most indie games must find creative solutions to deal with the limitations imposed by having a small team, a limited budget, and short development times. In this talk, Spelunky XBLA programmer Andy Hull draws on 5 years of experience working as a wooden toy designer to examine how wooden toys seek to create immersive, engaging, and complete experiences using limited resources. Explore what design solutions game developers can borrow specifically from toy design, and see examples of games that already do.

Genre and Creativity in Indie Development (James Lantz, Independent) James Lantz will discuss how to change the way you think about genre in order to make truly experimental games. His talk will incorporate interviews with creative indie developers, psychological science, and his own perspective. James will talk about how genre can hold us back from, or push us toward, being truly experimental, and how we can change this.

Lessons in Creativity Learned from The Stanley Parable (Davey Wreden, Galactic Cafe) Creativity is elusive, hard to define, and harder to capture. Davey Wreden, creator of The Stanley Parable, offers a simple and concise set of rules that allow us to define creativity more precisely. Through historical examples and personal anecdotes from development of The Stanley Parable, he investigates how these rules serve as building blocks to more deeply elicit the creative spirit in any artistically-minded professional.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1018049/Creatrilogy-Three-Talks-Exploring-Indie

GDC SF 2012 free video: Making psychology work for you in game design

posted Jun 24 2013

Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe presents his research in translating human motivation models into game design decisions in this free GDC 2012 video lecture.

Courtesy of GDC Vault, VandenBerghe's hour-long lecture first introduces the pillars of the widely contributed to "Big 5" human motivation model: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. He then correlates these to his own "5 Domains of Play," discussing how designing for novelty, challenge, external stimulation, harmony between players, and threat to trigger negative emotions can motivate and appeal to players.

Session Name: The 5 Domains of Play: Applying Psychology's Big 5 Motivation Domains to Games

Speaker(s): Jason VandenBerghe

Company Name(s): Ubisoft

Track / Format: Design

Description:Over the last 20 years an often unobserved modern motivational psychology has coalesced around a system called "The Big 5" or OCEAN. Why should we care? Because unlike its predecessors, this one has a titanic landslide of repeatable, scientific evidence behind it. But how does it apply to games?

The speaker has been collaborating with academics and industry colleagues to try and answer that problem - and we have found that we can, without difficulty, connect specific game elements directly to measurable Big 5 personality "facets". By doing this, we have uncovered a completely new way of looking at the motivations of play.

The potential of this connection is broad: it guides the speaker's game design decision-making, it helps explain why particular games satisfy (or otherwise), it offers a statistical framework for playtest evaluation and shows us which audiences we have been missing out on.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015595/The-5-Domains-of-Play

GDC 2001 SF free video: Collision detection in MDK2, NeverWinter Nights

posted Jun 21 2013

Stan Melax discusses the math behind binary space partitioning (BSP) collision detection used in MDK2 and NeverWinter Nights in this programming-intensive lecture from GDC 2001.

This talk explores player control and navigation in MDK2, the memory-saving "Dynamic Plane Shifting BSP Algorithm" used to make the game rich in content, and more. The free video is live here.

For the diagram-filled paper that this talk is based on, check out Melax's feature on Gamasutra.

Session Name: BSP Collision Detection As Used In MDK2 and NeverWinter Nights

Speaker(s): Stan Melax

Company Name(s): BioWare

Track / Format: Programming

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015298/BSP-Collision-Detection-As-Used

GDC SF 2013 free video: 10 bite-size talks on progressive game design

posted Jun 20 2013

Former Naughty Dog lead designer, now USC professor Richard Lemarchand leads the GDC 2013 edition of its design microtalks, offering what he calls "progressive, philosophical, future-looking game design inspiration."

Courtesty of GDC Vault, this free, hour-long presentation features a diverse mixture of speakers, including Kim Swift (Portal, Quantum Conundrum) on being a good team manager, George Fan (Plants Vs. Zombies) on choosing a correct game theme, Mare Sheppard (N, N+) on talking more openly about the psychological pitfalls of development, and Anna Anthropy (dys4ia) on bringing more diversity to industry conferences.

Session Name: GDC Microtalks: One Hour, Ten Talks, A Bazillion Design Ideas

Speaker(s): Leigh Alexander, Richard Lemarchand, Carla Fisher, Anna Anthropy, Ben Cerveny, George Fan, Kim Swift, Manveer Heir, Mare Sheppard, Tom Bissell

Company Name(s): Gamasutra, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, No Crusts Interactive, Auntie Pixelante, Bloom, Independent, Airtight Games, BioWare Montreal, Metanet Software Inc., Freelance

Track / Format: Design

Description:The GDC Microtalks session returns with more short talks packed with gigantic concepts, presented by a bevy of distinctive voices from the world of games and play. The Microtalk concept is game-like and simple: each of the session's ten speakers gets 20 slides, each of which will be displayed for exactly 16 seconds before automatically advancing. That gives each speaker five minutes and 20 seconds to talk about things that they might not otherwise get to discuss on stage at GDC.

Join anna anthropy, Ben Cerveny, Carla Fisher, George Fan, Kim Swift, Leigh Alexander, Manveer Heir, Mare Sheppard and Tom Bissell, along with curator and host Richard Lemarchand, for an hour of scintillating ideas about the past, present and future of play. What will you be talking about after this year's session? it is being used to help guide strategy and production of titles across multiple genres.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017779/GDC-Microtalks-One-Hour-Ten

GDC SF 2013 free video: Selling to both the 'bro gamers' and the 'connoisseurs'

posted Jun 19 2013

Immersyve's Scott Rigby and WB Games' Troy Skinner present applied psychological case studies on Mass Effect and Batman: Arkham Asylum to explain how developers can capture two different consumer segments: the "bro gamer" and "connoisseur."

In this GDC 2013 video, free courtesy of the GDC Vault, hear why Skinner believes Mass Effect 2's sales remained flat compared to the first game and didn't capture both consumer segments, and how his company's Batman succeeded.

Those wanting to know more about the "Player Experience of Need Satisfaction" model, which was used in this study, can read this Gamasutra feature, co-written by Dr. Rigby.

Session Name: The Applied Value of Player Psychology: Putting Motivational Principles to Work

Speaker(s): Scott Rigby, Troy Skinner

Company Name(s): Immersyve, WB Games

Track / Format: Game Design

Description: Developers and publishers are increasingly looking to principles of player engagement and psychology to help monetize their audience and build more successful titles. In particular, there has been an increased focus on sustained engagement and player motivation, including concepts such as "intrinsic" and "extrinsic" motivation, and other related strategies. Few presentations to date, however, have combined a specific theoretical approach to player motivation with its real world application within a major publisher across multiple studios and titles.

This talk will provide the "full arc" of theory and practical application, beginning with a brief overview of the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction motivational model (PENS), followed by a detailed description by industry veterans of how it is being used to help guide strategy and production of titles across multiple genres.

Free video link: http://gdcvault.com/play/1017784/The-Applied-Value-of-Player

GDC SF 2013 free video: Building SimCity's sandbox

posted Jun 18 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free GDC 2013 video sees Maxis' Dan Moskowitz defining what a sandbox game is and sharing lessons learned from building the team's latest sandbox title, SimCity.

Moskowitz defines sandbox games as "goal-free exploration games, where fun is derived from discovering how the game mechanics work." Here, Moskowitz explores how Maxis discovered what worked in its own sandbox using the Glassbox simulation engine, with lessons including determining granularity, finding and re-using patterns that work, figuring out how to scale, and exploring mechanics "breadth first".

Session Name: Exploring SimCity: A Conscious Process of Discovery

Speaker(s): Dan Moskowitz

Company Name(s): Maxis / Electronic Arts

Track / Format: Programming

Overview: At their core, Maxis games are tools that let players delight in their own discoveries of how a system works. As developers of sandbox-style games, we have the unique challenge of simultaneously creating an underlying system and then discovering the fun hidden inside, before we can package it up and present it to players. In this session, Dan will outline a methodology for building sandbox games, giving specific examples from SimCity's simulation, player tools, and feedback mechanisms. He'll also outline advantages and drawbacks to this type of "discovery-based" methodology.

GDC 2001 free video: Ken Perlin on programming better actors in games

posted Jun 17 2013

"Acting in computer games really really sucks," said Ken Perlin at GDC 2001, who went on to give a programming lecture on interactive animated characters and getting better acting in games.

Perlin's lecture is now free, offering an hour of research discussion from the former Director at the NYU Center for Advanced Technology, now Director for NYU Games for Learning Institute.

Session Name: Interactive Animated Characters

Speaker(s): Ken Perlin

Company Name(s): NYU

Track / Format: Programming

GDC SF 2013 free video: The art and tech of Incredipede

posted Jun 13 2013

"Incredipede is about life," which is why developer Colin Northway felt Thomas Shahan's lively, wood-cut art style was the perfect fit for his IGF nominated game, we learn in this GDC 2013 lecture.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, Northway and Shahan share in this now-free video their art design ideas and the surprising tech behind the art, which also makes the Flash demo of Incredipede possible.

Session Name: The Art of Incredipede

Speaker(s): Colin Northway, Thomas Shahan

Company Name(s): NorthwayGames.com, ThomasShahan.com

Track / Format: Independent Games Summit

Overview: Incredipede, often described as "beautiful" and "breath-taking," has now been nominated for the Excellence in Visual Arts IGF award. This talk will focus on how a small, three-person team accomplished this. The primary artist, Thomas Shahan, had never worked on a video game before. We will discuss the challenges of working with a non-industry artist, adapting an existing art style to the game, and technically achieving said style. Incredipede is also one of the first major Flash games to use the graphics card-enabling technology Stage3D.

GDC SF 2013 free video: AI Postmortems - Assassin's Creed III, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Warframe

posted Jun 12 2013

Free GDC Video here: http://gdcvault.com/play/1018058/AI-Postmortems-Assassin-s-Creed

GDC SF 2011 free video: Player-Driven Stories: How Do We Get There?

posted Jun 11 2013

Most stories in games aren't taking advantage of interactivity; they're merely copying Hollywood-style linear stories, Bioshock 2 designer andDishonored consultant Kent Hudson asserts in this lecture from GDC 2011.

In this free video, Hudson offers a spoiler-filled talk on how Red Dead Redemption, Morrowind, Deus Ex, Passage,and Portal employ various story-telling devices to allow the player to contribute to the narrative.

Session Name: Player-Driven Stories: How Do We Get There?

Speaker(s): Kent Hudson

Company Name(s): then LucasArts, now independent

Track / Format: Game Design

GDC SF 2002 Video: Practical Game Analysis with Doug and Warren

posted Jun 11 2013

Deus Ex designer Warren Spector and Thief designer Doug Church grill each other on stage at GDC 2002 about their first-person, stealth game design decisions, to exemplify deep analysis without destroying the "magic of game creation."

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free 60-minute panel sees Spector reply to topics such as the expression of narrative from minute-to-minute in Deus Ex, while Church explains such ideas as stretching the "edge of tension" between being safe and being spotted in Thief.

Session Name: Practical Game Analysis with Doug and Warren

Speaker(s):

Warren Spector, Doug Church

Company Name(s): Ion Storm, Looking Glass Studios

Track / Format: Design

Overview: Warren Spector and Dough Church have worked together and separately on games for more than 10 years. Although they often have worked on projects with similar goals, the do not always agree on what methods are appropriate to reach them.

Similarly, although their interests overlap on issues of design, player behavior and effective tools for players and developers, there are notable areas of difference in their ideas and approaches.

In this session, they discuss these and other issues, often agreeing, but at times politely disagreeing about what should come next for games, as a medium of entertainment for players, as a medium of expression for developers, and as a medium of profit for publishers.

GDC 2002 free video: http://gdcvault.com/play/1018278/Practical-Game-Analysis-with-Doug

GDC SF 2013 Video: Fixing toxic online behavior in League of Legends

posted May 21 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free GDC 2013 lecture features Riot Games' Jeffery Lin exploring how to correct toxic online behavior, and how to avoid losing League of Legends players to this bad behavior. Riot gathered a team of specialists and researchers to analyze the problem and implement several experiments designed to improve players' experiences. 

Session Name: The Science Behind Shaping Player Behavior in Online Games

Speaker(s): Jeffrey Lin

Company Name(s): Riot Games

Track / Format: Design

Overview: The player behavior team at Riot uses science to understand toxic player behavior. During this session, Jeffrey "Dr. Lyte" Lin discusses what Riot's statisticians, scientists, and developers are doing with the latest research in behavioral, social, and cognitive psychology to solve one of the biggest problems in online gaming today. From the player-driven Tribunal to the Honor Initiative, Jeff Lin talks about how science can reform toxic players, and reinforce positive player behavior.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent GDC events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers. Those who purchased All Access passes to events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC China already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscriptions via a GDC Vault inquiry form.

Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company. More information on this option is available via an online demonstration, and interested parties can find out more here. In addition, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault admins.

Be sure to keep an eye on GDC Vault for even more new content, as GDC organizers will also archive videos, audio, and slides from other events like GDC China and GDC 2013. To stay abreast of all the latest updates to GDC Vault, be sure to check out the news feed on the official GDC website, or subscribe to updates via Twitter, Facebook, or RSS.

GDC SF 2013 Video: GDC's weird and wild Experimental Gameplay Workshop

posted May 20 2013

Over 20 demos of some of the most innovative game designs were on display during the 11th annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop, as shown in this free GDC 2013 video.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, all of these fascinating micro-demonstrations are now available to view and learn from, including Brenda Romero's bold restaurant research forMexican Kitchen Workers, Keita Takahashi's Tenya Wanya Teens with an LED-lit, 16-button controller; Itay Keren's Indie Funded, indirect side-scroller Mushroom 11; and game design challenge grand champion winner Jason Rohrer with home defense MMO The Castle Doctrine.

Session Name: Experimental Gameplay Workshop

Speaker(s): Brenda Romero, Robin Hunicke, Richard Lemarchand, Chelsea Howe, Ben Esposito, Alexander Martin, Ezra Hanson-White, Daniel Benmergui, Eric Zimmerman, Henry Smith, Itay Keren, Jason Meisel, Jason Rohrer, Jongmin Jerome Baek, Kaho Abe, Kevin Cancienne, Marc ten Bosch, Margaret Robertson, Martin Middleton, Michael Brough, Michael Molinari, Pohung Chen, Ryan Pelcz, Sun Park, Adnan Agha, Emily Short, Richard Evans, Keita Takahashi, Ricky Haggett

Company Name(s): UC Santa Cruz, Funomena, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, TinyCo, Independent, Droqen, Independent, Independent, Independent, Independent, Independent, Independent, Independent, PokPoong Games, Independent, Independent, Independent, Hide&Seek, Funomena, Independent, Independent, Perspective, Independent, Turtle Cream, Hide&Seek, Linden Labs, Linden Labs, Uvula, Honeyslug

Track / Format: Design

Overview: The Experimental Gameplay Session, which debuted games like Katamari Damacy, flOw, Braid, Portal and Storyteller is back for its 11th year at GDC! In this fast-paced, game-packed session we will showcase a selection of surprising and intriguing prototypes made by innovation-minded game developers from all over the world. By demonstrating games that defying conventions and traditions in search for of new genres and ideas, this session aims to ignite the imagination of all game makers. Come see what's happening on in the world of Experimental Gameplay... and be inspired!

GDC SF 2013 Video: Curating the do-it-yourself revolution

posted May 17 2013

Developers Terry Cavanagh (Super Hexagon) and Porpentine (Howling Dogs) call for other developers to highlight interesting games, as they have been on their Free Indie Games blog, in this talk from GDC 2013.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this 30-minute session focuses primarily on the innovation in a large list of games, including Merritt Kopas' Lim, which deals with the gender topic of passing, and Droqen's platformer Asphyx, which asks the player not to breathe in real life whenever their avatar is underwater.

Session Name: Free Indie Games: Curating the DIY Revolution

Speaker(s): Terry Cavanagh, Porpentine

Company Name(s): Independent 

Track / Format: Independent Games Summit

Overview: By hunting down and curating games that defy convention on both cultural and technical axes, Free Indie Games is one of today's most important game-related sites. In this presentation, Porpentine will describe how outsider voices are challenging and redefining the nature of games, talk about Free Indie Games as a response to the huge growth in indie DIY, and present some of the best, most overlooked indie games of 2012.

GDC SF 2013 Video: Game Design Challenge determines humanity's last game

posted May 16 2013

Some of the brightest minds behind video games, including former Uncharted lead Richard Lemarchand, The Sims' Will Wright, and Journey's Jenova Chen, took to the stage at GDC 2013 to share their ideas for humanity's last game, as part of the final Game Design Challenge. 

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this 90-minute panel was the final Game Design Challenge. Ideas include a card-like game where people's memories battle each other and serve as education for aliens about humans, an augmented reality game that consumes reality and leads to nuclear bombing, and an actual game that was built and buried in the Nevada desert for one person to find.

Session Name: Humanity's Last Game: The Game Design Challenge Final Championship

Speaker(s): Richard Lemarchand, Jenova Chen, Harvey Smith, Eric Zimmerman, Jason Rohrer, Steve Meretzky, Erin Robinson, Will Wright

Company Name(s): School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, thatgamecompany, Arkane Studios, Independent, Independent, Playdom, Ivy Games, Stupid Fun Club

Track / Format: Design

Overview: The 10th and final Game Design Challenge brings together winners from the past for an ultimate, final showdown. Over the years, we have seen challenges that range from creating a game that expresses the poetry of Emily Dickenson to a game that uses needle and thread as an interface to a game that tells the story of the designer's first sexual experience. 

This year, for the final Game Design Challenge, panelists must design the last game that humanity will ever play. Is it a game that goes on forever? Or perhaps a game that leads to the extinction of humanity? Or a game that brings humanity immortality? Winners from the last 10 years of the Game Design Challenge will each present a unique solution to this game design problem. As always, you will play a crucial role. After the panelists present, the audience will vote to see who will become the winner of the Game Design Challenge Final Championship.

GDC SF 2013 Video: Quick-fire talks from GDC's localization summit

posted May 15 2013

The second year of the Localization Microtalks at GDC offers six more quick-fire talks, including issues on launching games on Windows 8.

In this free GDC 2013 video, courtesy of the GDC Vault, you'll see how each talk is jam-packed with information. For instance, Oded Sharon explains Dragonplay's trials with Gun N' Bladeincluded simplifying the interface, shortening the tutorials, and adding Facebook integration, while minding the differences of where the game was developed (Korea) and where the game was headed (North America and Europe).

Session Name: Localization Microtalks: Around the World in Sixty Minutes

Speaker(s): Oded Sharon, Luis Wong, David Kim, Fabio Ravetto, Paul Chavez, Liesl Leary

Company Name(s): Dragonplay, IGDA Peru, Animoca, Binari Sonori Srl, Independent, SDL

Track / Format: Localization Summit

Overview: Returning for a second time at the Localization Summit, this special session will present a diversity of topics pertaining to current issues in game localization in a quick-paced format. If you're seeking to gain insights across a broad range of localization topics, this is a must-attend session! The topics will include: Smack Talk, Big Data, and Localization by Liesl Leary (SDL) Why You Should Care About Latin America by Luis Wong (IGDA Peru) Windows 8 Launch Games - Localizing 40 Languages on a New Platform by Paul Chavez (Independent) Stitching. A. Few. Tips. To. Achieve. Smooth. Results by Fabio Ravetto (Binari Sonori Srl), Localization Case Study: How Pretty Pets Became an International Franchise by David Kim (Animoca)

Tales from the Vault 2004 Video: The Legend of Zelda's evolution, from Nintendo's Aonuma

posted May 14 2013

The Tales from the GDC Vault returns with a special session from GDC 2004, featuring Nintendo's Eiji Aonuma on the evolution of The Legend of Zelda franchise.

Here, Aonuma shares what he disliked in the original 8-bit Zelda and what won his affection inA Link to the Past. The latter inspired him to create Japan-only action-adventure Marvelous,which caught Shigeru Miyamoto's attention and earned Aonuma his role in creating Zelda.

Along with evolving the franchise internally, Aonuma applauds outside development teams expanding Zelda. He recalls Capcom's Zelda: Oracle of Ages/Seasons entries, HAL's Super Smash Bros., and Link's appearance in Namco'sSoul Caliber II as all important developments for the series.

To hear how Zelda development has progressed from Aonuma's perspective, including often dealing with what he calls the "Miyamoto Test,"check out this free GDC Vault video.

Session Name: The Evolution of a Franchise: The Legend of Zelda

Speaker(s): Eiji Aonuma

Company Name(s): Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Track / Format: Game Design

GDC SF 2013 Video: What game developers can do for NASA

posted May 13 2013

At GDC 2013, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers discussed their Kinect- and Leap Motion-controlled experiments -- the first steps in using game development techniques to help immerse everyone in space exploration. 

In this free video, courtesy of the GDC Vault, NASA's Jeff Norris and Victor Luo looked at the growing relationship between their research and video games, citing examples from 1979's Lunar Lander to the modern EVE Online. The duo also shared lessons learned in creating the Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 free game, Mars Rover Landing. The talk ended with a live demo of a one-ton robot controlled remotely by a Leap Motion controller.

Session Name: We Are the Space Invaders (Presented by NASA)

Speaker(s): Jeff Norris, Victor Luo

Company Name(s): NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Track / Format: Design

Overview: NASA landed a two-ton Martian mega-rover and shared it with the world through the space agency's first console video game. Meanwhile, the same NASA team is driving giant spider robots and humanoids with video game technologies that may revolutionize the future of space exploration. These endeavors are fueled by ground-breaking partnerships with key players in the game industry. The rocket scientists leading these projects will share the surprising crossover between video games and the systems that command real spacecraft. Packed with live demos, this talk will challenge the way you think about the future of games and space exploration.

GDC SF 2013 Video: The Unfinished Swan - From student prototype to PS3 exclusive

posted May 10 2013

Prototypes make excellent "tools for thinking." That's just one of the lessons The Unfinished Swan taught Giant Sparrow creative director Ian Dallas.

In this free GDC 2013 video, courtesy of the GDC Vault, Dallas recalls what he learned while studying at USC, and what he wish he knew while he was making the PlayStation Network game.

Session Name: The Unfinished Swan: From Student Prototype to Commercial Game

Speaker(s): Ian Dallas

Company Name(s):Giant Sparrow

Track / Format: GDC Education Summit

Overview: This is the life story of our company and our first game, The Unfinished Swan, which we released in October for the PlayStation 3. We'll talk about how we took a graduate student prototype, submitted it to festivals, negotiated a publishing contract with Sony, and spent the next 3 years figuring out how to make our game and run our company, which grew from a team of 2 to 12 by the time we shipped. Many mistakes were made, some lessons were learned, all will be revealed.

All GDC 2013 content live and mobile-ready on the Vault!

posted May 09 2013

GDC Vault, the most comprehensive collection of talks and slides from game industry thought leaders, has gone live with all Game Developers Conference 2013 content on the newly-redesigned website.

Updates to GDC Vault include mobile compatibility and features that will help users find content more easily within the online archive, which contains material from over 20 years of the worldwide Game Developers Conferences.

Easier to enjoy, share

New features and functionality make casual exploring of GDC Vault easier and more elegant than ever before. The site now incorporates a vastly-improved interface that gives users the option to browse by event, media type, and category, while a search function allows visitors to find specific tracks. Along with these options, GDC Vault will recommend additional videos listed by session.

The GDC Vault website is also more appealing for frequent visits, as it now features an animated carousel that will dynamically change throughout the year, highlighting featured sessions that have been curated by the organizers of GDC.

Sharing content on Vault is greatly simplified, with integrated social media sharing options for free videos. Visitors can use the new widgets below each video to share interesting lectures on Facebook and Twitter, so followers, friends, and co-workers can learn along with you.

GDC SF 2013 Video: Diverse Game Characters - Write Them Now!

posted May 08 2013

Ubisoft scriptwriter Jill Murray shares practical advice on writing the French Creole female protagonist Aveline de Grandpre from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation in this GDC 2013 lecture. The video is now free, courtesy of the GDC Vault.

"The more stereotypical characters we create, the more we write ourselves into corners," warns Murray. To avoid this, she offers several tips and tools for more diverse characters.

Session Name: Diverse Game Characters: Write Them Now!

Speaker(s): Jill Murray

Company Name(s):Ubisoft

Track / Format: Advocacy

Overview: Variety is the spice of life. Games are a playful exploration of life. Clearly the two are made for each other. For writers and narrative designers, this means building diversity into the cast of characters with whom we populate game worlds. This requires research, imagination, consideration, and yes, the risk of getting it wrong. But attention paid to diversity strengthens every aspect of writing, and opens us to new narrative possibilities and gameplay paradigms. This session is a diversity bootcamp covering everything from "sensitive topics" to finding the nugget of commonality we share with each character we invent.

GDC SF 2013 Video: The ethics and psychology of the 'freemium' model

posted May 07 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault is a live recording of popular mobile developer podcast Walled Garden Weekly at GDC 2013, with guests Eli Hodapp of Touch Arcade and Keith Shepherd ofTemple Run debating the merits of free-to-play (F2P) mobile games.

Walled Garden hosts Arash Keshmirian and Kevin Pazirandeh facilitated the live podcast with several topics, such as exploring how F2P works regionally versus worldwide, whether F2P is ruining games, and whether F2P is the only right way to design mobile games.

Session Name: Walled Garden Weekly: LIVE

Speaker(s): Eli Hodapp, Arash Keshmirian, Kevin Pazirandeh, Keith Shepherd

Company Name(s): TouchArcade, LIMBIC, Auxbrain, Imangi Studios

Track / Format: Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit

Overview:Arash Keshmirian and Kevin Pazirandeh, the duo from the highly-popular iOS developer podcast, Walled Garden Weekly, come to the GDC stage bringing with them two guests: Keith Shepherd of Temple Run, and Eli Hodapp, the editor in chief of the Internet's premiere iOS gaming site: TouchArcade. 

Together, they have reached hundreds of millions of mobile gamers. They will explore the ethical and strategic challenges facing all games on the freemium-premium spectrum by examining benchmark titles such as Clash of Clans, CSR Racing, and even their own games. Attendees are invited to take part in what is certain to be an entertaining and thought provoking conversation.

GDC SF 2013 Video: 'Hothead Developers' Rant

posted May 06 2013

The tradition of developer rants at GDC continues, with 2013's edition including OUYA head of developer relations Kellee Santiago, Eidos turned indie dev Anna Marsh, and Chris Hecker sharing what they feel is wrong with the industry.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free, hour-long panel shows Santiago suggesting a Renaissance-like approach to help better and richer games to be made by people who could otherwise not afford to do so. Lady Shotgun's Marsh encourages more pre-production efforts to avoid crunch and says developers should experience life outside games to avoid otherwise incestuous ideas.

For all the hothead rants, including Chris Hecker's now famous wordless rant, check out the free video above.

Session Name: Mad as Hell: Hothead Developers Rant Back

Speaker(s): Eric Zimmerman, Margaret Robertson, Anna Anthropy, Jason Della Rocca, Kellee Santiago, Anna Marsh, Naomi Clark, Mitu Khandaker, Karen Sideman

Company Name(s): Independent, Hide&Seek, Auntie Pixelante, Execution Labs (Moderator), Independent Developer, Lady Shotgun, Brooklyn Game Ensemble, The Tiniest Shark, GameLike

Track / Format: Design

Overview: Each year the rant session brings together a panel of game developers to b*#%h about whatever the hell they want. In the past, we've heard from angry game publishers and pissed-off game journalists. This year we will blow the doors off the hinges with a panel of the angriest game developer hotheads we could find. So get ready to be schooled in what is truly f@$ked up about our industry. Cutting through the clutter of polite industry chit-chat, the rant session takes on the issues that matter to developers in a no-holds-barred format. 

Fasten your seat belts, and prepare for strong opinions from some of the game industry's most distinguished and dissatisfied game developers. The invited panelists will be given free reign. You have been warned. Co-hosted by Jason Della Roca and Eric Zimmerman, the rant session is about identifying solutions as well as problems. The audience will have a chance to respond to the rants and join in the discussion. Topics will address issues of concrete importance to the game industry. And we may catch a glimpse of a better future for us all.

GDC SF 2013 Video: Bungie's world of Destiny, from concept to production

posted May 03 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, Bungie's GDC 2013 talk is now free, and you can hear art director Christopher Barrett and design director Joe Staten explain the four pillars that inform their world-building for upcoming action shooterDestiny.

Along with these pillars, they discuss challenges they had to overcome such as defining the game world and transitioning teams from concept to production.

Session Name: Brave New World: New Bungie IP

Speaker(s): Christopher Barrett, Joe Staten 

Company Name(s): Bungie, Bungie

Track / Format: Visual arts, Design

Overview:Two decades of success in the gaming industry is no small feat, but after ten years of Halo, Bungie found themselves faced with a tremendous challenge: to build a whole new world, filled with even more amazing mysteries, places, creatures, and opportunities for player investment. For the first time ever, Bungie creative directors will discuss their world building techniques, from concept to production. 

Bungie's directors will also offer key insights into its battle-tested design process. They'll give a glimpse of the brave new world that has been built, a place where the next ten years of great Bungie adventures will unfold.

GDC SF 2013 Video: #1ReasonToBe panel inspires industry

posted May 02 2013

Inspired by the #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe Twitter movement, this GDC 2013 panel shows six game developers and critics who discuss what it means to be a woman in the industry, and what can be done for better inclusiveness.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free video includes experience and advice from Brenda Romero (Wizardry 8 developer), Robin Hunicke (Journey executive producer), Leigh Alexander (Gamasutra editor), Kim McAuliffe (Microsoft Game Studios game designer), Elizabeth Sampat (Storm8 designer), and Mattie Brice (game critic, San Francisco State University master student).

Session Name: #1ReasonToBe

Speaker(s): Brenda Romero, Robin Hunicke, Elizabeth Sampat, Mattie Brice, Leigh Alexander, Kim McAuliffe

Company Name(s): UC Santa Cruz, Funomena, Storm8, San Francisco State University, Gamasutra, Microsoft Studios

Track / Format: Advocacy

Overview: Inspired by the #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe hashtag discussion, join us for a rapid, fun microtalk-style celebration and exploration of what it means to be a woman in games. Each panelist will share her experience, its highs and lows, and explore a vision for a future industry that is inclusive for all. Panelists include Brenda Romero (Game Designer in Residence, University of California at Santa Cruz), Robin Hunicke (Co-Founder, Funomena!), Leigh Alexander (Editor at Large, Gamasutra), Elizabeth Sampat (Game Designer, Storm 8), Kim McAuliffe (Microsoft Studios) and Mattie Brice (MA Student, Creative Writing, San Francisco State University).

GDC SF 2011 Video: Remembering LucasArts' groundbreaking Maniac Mansion

posted May 01 2013

GDC Europe 2012 Video: How game publishers must adapt in the new digital world

posted Apr 30 2013

The role of video game publisher has been in a constantly evolving state since the birth of the industry, but in the age of Kickstarter, iOS and Steam, that role is in more of a flux than ever.

At GDC Europe 2012, a panel of publishers from Konami, Microsoft and Capcom, along with investment firm CFC Capital, met to discuss where publishing is headed, why there are fewer bets being made in triple-A, and why publishers are still necessary even in an age where self-publishing is easier than ever.

The panel, Ask the Publishers: Adapting and Succeeding in a Changing Games Industry, is presented in its entirety above for free courtesy of the GDC Vault.

Speakers: Matias Myllyrinne, Careen Yapp, Zack Karlsson, Noah Musler, Dan Sherman

Track / Format: Business, Marketing and Management / Panel

Overview: This industry is undergoing dramatic change. How do the publishers adapt and succeed in such a landscape? On one hand, what do they see as the lasting trends? On the other, how have their thinking and actions evolved to take these into account? The traditional market of AAA console publishing is a space where publishers have placed fewer and fewer bets as the budgets of AAA console games have escalated to new heights. Are these bets they continue to make - if so, how? The value chain is being redefined as digital distribution gains on retail and new business models are disrupting the industry with free to play. How does a publisher role change to add value to developers on platforms such as the ipad or services such as Steam, PSN or XBLA? How do publishers view the new forms of financing keep emerging - from Kickstarters, to completion bonding and investment funds. Are these competitors or substitutes for traditional publishers? The panel will go through these and other shifts in our industry and how they see one can best seize these opportunities and avoid the threats.

GDC Online 2012 Video: Guild Wars 2's programming tricks revealed

posted Apr 29 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault is another free video from its extensive archive of recorded GDC sessions. 

This time, ArenaNet's Cameron Dunn talks about the programming challenges of shipping its ambitious MMO Guild Wars 2 in "Guild Wars 2: Programming the Next Generation Online World," from GDC Online 2012.

Speakers: Cameron Dunn

Track / Format: Programming / Lecture

Overview: During this session we'll discuss some of the key technical challenges we encountered while developing Guild Wars 2. All modern MMOs uses an enormous range of technologies - from the server backend, to the client graphics engine, to the web hosting infrastructure. The gameplay innovations of Guild Wars 2 - dynamic events, World vs. World, and our agile combat system - come with their own unique technology demands, which we'll discuss. We'll also talk about Guild Wars 2's patching system, which allows us to roll out new builds in a matter of minutes without requiring downtime. 

GDC 2013 Video: The Myst 'Classic Postmortem'

posted Apr 26 2013

GDC Europe 2012 Video: Managing a game studio doesn't have to be like herding cats

posted Apr 25 2013

Managing a game studio is never easy, regardless of your team's talent or experience. As Sproing CEO Harald Riegler puts it, leading a group of passionate and diverse developers can sometimes feel like herding cats -- but it doesn't have to be that way.

Riegler, whose credits include games like Silent Hunter Online and Skyrama, has been overseeing dev teams for more than a decade, and at this year's GDC Europe, he explained that the best way to lead a company is to establish a strong sense of studio culture.

Creating that culture takes time, patience, and a lot of effort, but Riegler has found when developers work under a set of unified, guiding principles, they tend to work better as a group, and are happier doing so.

"Why do we need a good company culture?... Every studio has some kind of culture, whether its a good one or bad one, and that culture will largely decide the success of a studio or a team," he said.

Throughout his GDC Europe presentation, Riegler discussed his own management style, and offered a number of tips to help studios establish a healthier and more productive development environment. You can check out his advice for yourself by watching the full video of his talk.

GDC Europe 2012 Video: Identifying your mobile player's habits

posted Apr 24 2013

Given the rapid growth of today's mobile market, it's become increasingly important for developers to keep an eye on the space's latest trends. Platforms, business models, and even audiences are evolving at an extremely fast pace, and those of you looking to succeed on mobile will want to keep a close eye on how the market has changed.

Some companies, like Flurry Analytics, work to help developers keep track of those changes, and at this year's GDC Europe, Flurry's Richard Firminger gave an in-depth talk examining the latest data on today's mobile users, games, and business models.

His talk covered everything from app distribution, player demographics, game usage, and more, giving developers the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their next mobile game. For instance, Firminger offered a breakdown of player spending habits, noting that older players are much more likely to spend money to unlock content in free-to-play games.

"If we look at who pays, Generation Y [age 30 or younger] plays, while Generation X [over age 30] pays. As we get older, we get less patient, we have less time, and we're much more prepared to pay our way through the game," he said. It's useful information, particularly if you're looking for the best target audience for a microtransaction-based game.

Of course, Firminger's presentation was full of even more data on today's mobile market, and you can check out the entire talk for yourself by watching the above video, courtesy of the GDC Vault.

GDC 2012 Video: Scaling Words With Friends' sudden enormous success

posted Apr 23 2013

While it's now one of the most popular games on mobile devices, the Zynga-published Words With Friends experienced some real growing pains as it climbed its way to the top of the charts.

Zynga With Friends CTO Vijay Thakkar took a moment to reflect on the game's production at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, and explained that the game's sudden success and unforeseen hiccups taught its developers quite a bit about operating games on a large scale.

One of the biggest challenges, Thakkar explained, emerged because of the game's rapid growth. Shortly before Words With Friends -- and its developer Newtoy -- were acquired by Zynga in 2010, the game's user numbers were increasing at an incredible pace, and the dev team wasn't prepared to keep up with that massive jump in scale.

"We got to the point... where our servers were struggling," Thakkar said. "We were building Band-Aids on top on Band-Aids on top of Band-Aids, and they were all scalable solutions, and we were growing, but we needed to make sure we were planning for the future."

To solve the problem, a team of 20 engineers set out to create some brand new server architecture for the game. After working on the reboot for more than two months, however, the team realized its approach was far too complicated, and that it had overlooked a far easier, and much simpler solution. It was a touch decision, but the team chose to put aside all that work and started over from scratch.

"The most inspiring part of that for me is the lesson that you should never, ever, ever be afraid to take a step back, look at your game, look at your development team, look at what you're doing, and consider a pivot," Thakkar said.

That's not to say developers should change direction whenever something isn't working, but Thakkar explained that it's important to re-evaluate your plans once in a while to keep your team from developing tunnel vision. If you're too committed to your original plans, it's easy to overlook some helpful alternatives.

For even more lessons from Word With Friends' development, you can watch Thakkar's presentation here on GDC Vault: http://gdcvault.com/play/1015675/Words-With-Friends-Building-and

GDC 2013 Video: The ethics and psychology of the 'freemium' model

posted Apr 22 2013

Session Name: Walled Garden Weekly: LIVE


Company Name(s): TouchArcade, LIMBIC, Auxbrain, Imangi Studios

Track / Format: Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit

Overview:Arash Keshmirian and Kevin Pazirandeh, the duo from the highly-popular iOS developer podcast, Walled Garden Weekly, come to the GDC stage bringing with them two guests: Keith Shepherd of Temple Run, and Eli Hodapp, the editor in chief of the Internet's premiere iOS gaming site: TouchArcade. 

Together, they have reached hundreds of millions of mobile gamers. They will explore the ethical and strategic challenges facing all games on the freemium-premium spectrum by examining benchmark titles such as Clash of Clans, CSR Racing, and even their own games. Attendees are invited to take part in what is certain to be an entertaining and thought provoking conversation.

GDC 2012 Video: Creating the audio for Bastion

posted Apr 19 2013

If there's one thing the industry will remember about Supergiant Games' Bastion, chances are it'll be its audio. The game's rich, ethereal score and iconic narration gave the game a very unique tone, and went a long way toward establishing its striking aesthetic.

And at the 2012 Game Developer Conference,Bastion's audio and music designer, Darren Korb, discussed the ins and outs of how he made the game's sound stand out from the pack.

Of course, there were plenty of factors at play, but one of the game's most successful elements, Korb explains, was its narration. It allowed the game to tell its story without ever interrupting gameplay, and as it turns out, this iconic feature only came about due to a stroke of luck.

When he began working on Bastion, Korb happened to live with his childhood friend and actor Logan Cunningham, and his voice acting skills helped inspire Korb to give in-game narration a shot.

He explains, "[Supergiant was] kind of experimenting with different narrative techniques that allowed us to give the player a story without making them stop and doing the wall of text thing...And the fact that Logan was a talented actor and was my roommate made me think, 'Well, hey, let's just try narration!'"

After just a few voiceover sessions, the team knew it was the right direction to take. As the project went on, Korb learned even more about working with game audio, as he outlines in the  presentation.

Video: How Double Fine's 'Amnesia Fortnight' turned terror into triumph

posted Apr 18 2013

According to Double Fine's Tim Schafer, "we live in crazy times." The game industry is being pulled in two directions, where big publishers are growing more enormous by the day, while independent teams are finding new ways to subvert the limitations of traditional businesses.

Mid-sized companies like Double Fine, then, are put in an awkward position, as they don't have the size to compete with the huge juggernauts, and lack the flexibility of the smaller indies. There's just less and less room for those in-between to find success, and just a few years ago, Schafer's studio realized it needed to try something new.

And at GDC 2012, Schafer and numerous other Double Fine employees hosted a presentation on a new approach to game production, dubbed "Amnesia Fortnight," which forgoes large-scale production in favor of something more suitable for a mid-sized team.

"We spent ten years as a one-team studio making one game at a time.. and it was very entrenched into our culture that that's the way we did things, but we managed to 'turn the battleship'... into a fleet of tugboats," Schafer said.

By splitting the studio into smaller, more agile teams, Double Fine was able to avoid the creative pitfalls of large-scale development, and release unusual downloadable titles like Costume Quest,Stacking, and Iron Brigade. These games were a drastic departure from full-scale console titles likePsychonauts or Brutal Legend, but they were essential in keeping Double Fine on its feet.

To learn more about Double Fine's new approach to development, be sure to check out the studio's full presentation, courtesy of GDC Vault.

Video: Building browser-based games using HTML5

posted Apr 17 2013

Now that HTML5 is ubiquitous across desktops, tablets, and smartphones, it seems reasonable to assume that it would be a great solution for launching easily accessible games that don't require installs or third party plugins.

It's a nice idea in theory, but Swrve programmer Marc O'Morain claims that learning to use HTML5 for game development is more difficult than it sounds. Luckily, he already has plenty of experience working with HTML5, and at GDC 2012 he shared his knowledge to help other developers understand and adopt this emerging web standard.

During his session, O'Morain explained that if you really want to create multiplatform games with a single code base, HTML5 is going to be your best bet, as no other technology offers the same functionality.

"[18 months ago], we wanted to see if we could make a game that would work across browsers, and in tablets and phones, so Flash was out of the question for us, and HTML5 was really the technology there. We wanted not to be writing native code, we wanted to write a cross platform code base that would work across devices," he said.

"But when I started working with the technology, I found it very difficult to find information about how to build a game in HTML5, and I want this talk to be the talk that I would have liked to have gone to 18 months ago so I could have learned this stuff."

To see O'Morain's presentation for yourself and to learn how to make your very own HTML5 browser game, simply watch the video.

Video: How developers are still fighting their arcade heritage 30 years later

posted Apr 16 2013

The industry needs to "unlearn" how it defines games, argued veteran game designer Mark Cerny at last year's GDC Europe while discussing the rise of social and mobile games.

He's had more than a little experience with transitions in the industry, having gone from making classic arcade games like Marble Madness, to working on console platformers likeSonic the Hedgehog 2, and even lending a hand to modern blockbusters like Resistance andUncharted.

"Unlearning is where you take the lessons that you paid for in blood, and you throw them out and you start all over again," said Cerny. "it's very hard to do. And we now have to do that with what we believe a game to be, those of us who are making those triple-a console titles.

Cerny expects it's going to take developers 20 years to unlearn their current preconceptions of what makes a game (e.g. narrative, death, endings, chances to fail). Why so long? The industry is slow to change, and he says that many developers are still unlearning the lessons of the golden age of the arcade 30 years later.

For example, many of those games were distinguished by being notoriously difficult and killing players willy-nilly. "You had to kill the player once a minute. ... Marble Madness was four minutes long. We needed players to earn that over the course of several months. So that level of difficulty was just required."

He said that because of that mindset, developers would add features in games just to make them harder, and continued making them needlessly difficult or punishing even as games became longer. "The idea is still, for no reason at all, if you aren't dying, it's not a game," Cerny added.

To learn more about Cerny's thoughts on how the industry is changing and needs to change, be sure to watch his full presentation above, courtesy of GDC Vault. Note that GDC Europe will return soon to Cologne, Germany this August -- more details on the event and registering online are available here

Video: Are some subjects too complex for video games?

posted Apr 15 2013

If you're reading this site, chances are you believe in the potential of video games - that they can evoke powerful emotions, and deeply affect the people who play them. Plenty of games have already proven that the medium is capable of dealing with complex issues, but are there subjects that video games just aren't equipped to handle?

Margaret Robertson of the experimental game studio Hide&Seek explored this very question at GDC 2012, as she and her team ran into some real trouble when working on their interactive media experiment, Dreams of Your Life.

The project was originally planned as a game that explored the death of Joyce Vincent, a woman who went unnoticed for three years after she perished in her London flat. Hide&Seek wanted to create a game that explored the complexities of death, and how someone like Vincent could slip through the cracks and become forgotten by society.

The only problem was that making a game that captured those themes proved too great a feat. "We really tried, but we couldn't find a game that fit within the things that [the team] talked about," Robertson said.

In the end, the team created an interactive online story that satisfied their goals, but the fact that a game never came together really concerned Robertson. She admits the fault could lie with the team itself, but what if there's a larger issue? What if games just aren't capable of dealing with certain complex themes?

"The scary thing is: Maybe this just doesn't work. The reason I love making games is that I see them transform people in this really incredible way... but it feels so much to me that the reason games manage to accomplish that has a lot to do with the fact that the constraints the games set up are temporary and arbitrary," she said.

"The minute you bolt those structures onto something [like death] that's real and enduring and ongoing, there is a tension."

For more from Robertson's thoughtful - and surprisingly positive - GDC presentation, simply click the Play button on the above video, courtesy of the GDC Vault.

GDC 2011 Video: Pitfall! Postmortem: The making of an Atari 2600 classic

posted Apr 12 2013

Pitfall!, Activision's classic platformer, isn't just one of the most successful releases of the Atari 2600, it's also one of the most iconic and revered games from the early 1980s.

The title was the top selling game for the console for an impressive 64 weeks, and is so fondly remembered that Activision co-founder and Pitfall! creator David Crane recently set out to fund its spiritual successor via Kickstarter. And at the 2011 Game Developers Conference, Crane took a moment to reflect on how his popular action title came to be.

During his classic postmortem, Crane explained that Pitfall! arose because he was growing weary of the types of games that were appearing on the Atari 2600. In the early '80s, the console boasted plenty of vehicular combat games, Pong-derivatives, and other simple titles, and Crane was looking to make something a bit more dynamic.

"I didn't want to make every game I did out of jets and airplanes and tanks and things. I really liked the idea of trying to get an animated character into a game... But every time I tried to figure out a game to make out of it, nothing came to mind," Crane said.

"So I sat down with a blank sheet of paper and I drew a little running man, looked at it, and said, 'Well, he's running, so let's give him a path to run on... let's put the path through a jungle... In literally 10 minutes, or 15 minutes max, I had the design document. That's it!"

With the simple design document in hand, Crane says it then took about 1,000 hours of programming to bring Pitfall! to life.

To learn more about the whole process, as well as the challenges Crane faced along the way, check out his full classic postmortem in the above video, courtesy of GDC Vault.

GDC 2013 Video: How Assassin's Creed III's many studios collaborated

posted Apr 11 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this free GDC 2013 production panel features five Ubisoft studio leads who discuss the different models used to encourage three years of positive collaboration on a large scale for Assassin's Creed III.

Co-development can bring teams several benefits, game director Marc-Alexis Cote shared. Focusing on a limited amount of features allows for a high level of polish which shines through, working on a popular product can be very motivating, and working with and learning from top talent can be personally and professionally rewarding.

One of the improvements that Cote suggested was to have talent embraced by every studio, regardless of hierarchy. When one team offers to help with something the lead studio typically handles or planned on handling, that suggestion should be considered rather than rejected up front. 

To hear more of Ubisoft's lessons that Cote believes unlock some of the keys to next-gen development, click on the above lecture.

Session Name: Three Years of Collaboration onAssassin's Creed III

Speaker(s): Marc-Alexis Cote, Alexander Hutchinson, Damien Kieken, Francois Pelland, Hugues Ricour

Company Name(s): Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft, Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Singapore

Track / Format: Production

Overview: Building the Assassin's Creed experience requires the creativity of hundreds of people. Ubisoft has leveraged the power of its studio network in the hopes of improving the quality of its games, and to create new ideas and distribute risk. This session will feature a panel formed by the five studio leads of Assassin's Creed III. 

The panel will aim to brief the audience on the challenges of distributing the creation of the game, and on the different models that were tried over time. Each panelist will share his experience of working in such a way, as well as the advantages and hardships it can bring.

GDC 2013 Video: Making the Atari coin-op classic Crystal Castles

posted Apr 10 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, Franz Lanzinger's hour-long GDC 2013 lecture is now free and features a postmortem of Atari arcade gameCrystal Castles with an unplugged session of Lanzinger himself playing the game's music live.

The music that was so recognizable in-game was because Atari then had no system in place to license music. That didn't stop Lanzinger from giving a live piano jam session at GDC, featuring OST snippets that were borrowed from Beethovan and Tschaikovsky.

Afterward, Lanzinger reflected on what he felt went right and wrong with the game itself. He was satisfied with the level warp system, non-violent but exciting gameplay, and trackball controls. 

However, he admitted those controls also limited the sales of the game. He also lamented not writing a cohesive storyline and not preserving code from early field tests, which were regrettably lost forever.

He later shared his relationship with Atari. He recalled being against programming in joystick controls in the game home release. He also had to write a long essay about why his game needed to have an ending, which was against the grain for arcade games at the time. 

Lastly, the other original team members behind Crystal Castles joined the stage for a special Q&A wrapping up a memorable, 60-minute postmortem at GDC 2013.

Session Name: Classic Game Postmortem: Crystal Castles

Speaker(s): Franz Lanzinger

Company Name(s): Actual Entertainment, Inc.

Track / Format: Design

Overview: Why was Atari coin-op so successful at creating dozens of original and highly influential games in just a few years, many that still sell today? In this 30-year anniversary classic postmortem Franz Lanzinger, the original programmer and designer, will analyze, review, and spill the secrets of Atari's classic arcade game, Crystal Castles. Featuring Bentley Bear picking up gems and getting chased by trees and bees, Crystal Castles broke ground as a fast-paced, yet nonviolent, 3D isometric game. 

It was Atari's first arcade character game with an ending and included an ingenious secret warp system. Franz, also a professional pianist, will perform the music on his stage piano with the audience getting a live, close-up view. The talk will feature rare documents, sketches, photos, videos, and even actual 6502 code from the heyday of Atari coin-op, defiantly known as "Coin-op, the real Atari."

Video: Anna Kipnis' GDC 2013 talk on MolyJam

posted Apr 09 2013

At GDC 2013, Double Fine's Anna Kipnis discusses how fake Twitter account @PeterMolydeux inspired the Molyjam game jam, which had more than 1,000 participants including the real Peter Molyneux. This free lecture, courtesy of the GDC Vault, is about how the jam was invented, organized, and became viral so quickly. The @PeterMolydeux account was created as a parody for Peter Molyneux's "fantastically ambitious game ideas." In two weeks, Kipnis' local game jam based on the account's tweets quickly caught the attention of international press and developers.  Session Name: Molyjam: How Twitter Jokes Can Save Video Games Speaker(s): Anna Kipnis  Company Name(s): Programmer, Double Fine Productions Track / Format: Independent Games Summit Overview: Fake Twitter account, @PeterMolydeux, has been lovingly parodying Peter Molyneux's fantastically ambitious game ideas. In two weeks, our modest plan for a local game jam based on these tweets exploded into an international event, with over a thousand people participating in more than thirty cities worldwide. This story is about how Molyjam was invented, organized, and became viral in such a short time. It's about why jams like Molyjam are important to stave off creative stagnation in our industry, and (best of all) the kind of bizarre, preposterous games that resulted from this exercise.

Video: How social games evolved between FarmVille and CityVille

posted Apr 08 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault is another free video from its extensive archive of recorded GDC sessions.

This time, Zynga's Mark Skaggs discusses his lessons learned between launching FarmVille and CityVille, in a case study that shows how far social games have evolved in just a few short years from GDC Online 2012.

Speakers: Mark Skaggs

Track / Format: Design / Lecture

Overview: The evolution that occurred in social games between the 18 months from the launch of FarmVille and CityVille represented a new "generation" of social games. In many cases, a traditional game would still be in development over that period of time. Hear Mark Skaggs, SVP of Games at Zynga, and creator of FarmVille and CityVille describe his top lessons learned from creating break out social games. Learn about Mark's new mindset on creating games today, how to tackle the challenge of making data-driven decisions, things that went wrong over various projects and what the "next generation" of games will bring.

Video: Dead Space 2's art director goes 'beyond horror'

posted Apr 05 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault is a free lecture given at the Game Developers Conference 2011 byDead Space 2 art director Ian Milham on taking EA's sci-fi action sequel "beyond horror."

Where Dead Space was accessible, believable, relatable, and immersive, Milham shares thatDead Space 2 team sought to add variety, memorability, and more character. The team did this by mixing up the colors used and adding dramatically different environment designs, enemies and "epic moments" that players would talk about and remember distinctly after the game.

Session Name: Beyond Horror: Art DirectingDead Space 2

Speaker(s): Ian Milham 

Company Name(s): Electronic Arts Redwood Shores

Track / Format:Visual Arts

Video: How Habbo kept players engaged with smartphone spin-offs

posted Apr 04 2013

Paul LaFontaine, then CEO of Habbo developer Sulake, discusses keeping players engaged in a game world as they move across platforms in this free video lecture from GDC 2012, courtesy of the GDC Vault.

He shares that one problem Sulake has is the split attention span of its core, teen players that is frequently diverted by several devices. To recapture their attention, while allowing them to move across platforms, the studio created two mobile adventure games to complement Habbo's online world.

Niko awarded badges that displayed in Habboplayer profiles, and Lost Monkey awarded players a pet they could bring back to the Habboworld. One game was downloaded twice as many times as the other. Find out which and why in this free lecture.

Session Name: Moving Audiences Across Platforms

Speaker(s): Paul LaFontaine

Company Name(s): Sulake Oy

Track / Format: Social and Online Games Summit

Overview:It used to be said that getting a new customer was harder than keeping an existing one. Not so with closed online social networks, mobile platforms and competing devices. Now the harder task is keeping the attention and loyalty of a customer whose interests span Facebook, smartphones, and open web. This session is for game designers faced with difficult platform marketing challenges and aims to share practical field lessons on techniques that work.

The session is broken into sections that cover the ecosystem, the marketing problem, techniques that tie games together and ways of adapting gameplay. Data will be shared regarding techniques that worked, and those that did not.

GDC 2012 Video: Valve on Portal 2, the 'sequel to a game that doesn't need one'

posted Apr 03 2013

Valve writers Chet Faliszek and Erik Wolpaw reveal in this free lecture from GDC 2012 their creative process behind Portal 2, sharing an early experiment that didn't have Chell, GLaDOS, or even portals.

Courtesy of the GDC Vault, this video shows Faliszek and Wolpaw discussing how Valve iterated and eventually decided upon the sequel to Portal, even though popular opinion often suggested it didn't need one. This lecture provides a glimpse at an alternate, 1980s era Aperture Science where a mysterious mechanic known as "F-STOP" propelled the gameplay and where we hear Chell's first and only spoken dialogue.

Session Name: Creating a Sequel to a Game That Doesn't Need One

Speaker(s): Chet Faliszek, Erik Wolpaw

Company Name(s): Valve

Track / Format: Game Design

Overview:Erik and Chet will discuss how Valve created Portal 2, the sequel to the beloved game nobody thought needed a sequel. The talk covers the entire process from inception to the completion and reception of the game.

Video: What comic books can teach video games about storytelling

posted Apr 02 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault comes a free lecture from comics and games writer Antony Johnston, who has worked on games from EA and Sega, in which he explores what these two mediums can learn from the other.

Given at GDC Online 2010, he discusses an economic approach similar to editing comics to cut down the dialogue, exposition and scene duration for games. He recreates scenes from Alan Wake and Mass Effect to show how scenes can be made even more effective with this technique.

The session is available here.

Session Name: From Comics to Consoles

Speaker(s): Antony Johnston

Company Name(s): Freelance

Track / Format: Game Narrative Summit

Overview:Comics and games: a match made in heaven? What can games learn from comics, and how do the skills of one medium translate to the other? Veteran comics writer Antony Johnston, who has also written games for EA and Sega, discusses the similarities and differences between comics and games, the effect of transmedia on both media, and what games writers can learn from studying -- and writing --comics.

Video: A fireside chat with Minecraft creator Notch

posted Apr 01 2013

Chris Hecker (SpyParty) asks Mojang's Markus Persson about the creation and growth of Minecraft and about his personal and professional growth alongside the game in an intimate, virtual fireside chat from GDC 2012, now free courtesy of the GDC Vault.

Over the hour-long Q&A, Persson tackles balancing realism and abstraction in Minecraft, his approach to designing mechanics on a large-scale first, and the importance of maintaining a consistent theme. Persson also addresses piracy, which he views opportunistically.

Session Name: A Fireside Chat with Markus 'Notch' Persson

Speaker(s): Markus Persson, Chris Hecker

Company Name(s): Mojang, definition six, inc.

Track / Format: Game Design

Overview:Okay, so there won't be a real fire. However, there will be an HDTV on stage showing a video of a fire, along with some in-depth discussion of Minecraft the game, Minecraft the phenomenon, games and game design both indie and not, and any other interesting topics into which we meander. There will be a Q&A throughout, however the Q's are going to be solicited over twitter sometime in February, so we can choose the best and most thought-provoking questions in advance.

Video: Bungie looks back at the original Halo

posted Mar 29 2013

GDC Vault organizers highlight a special, free lecture from some of the minds behind Bungie's seminal Halo title from the 2003 Game Developers Conference.

Marty O'Donnell, Jaime Griesemer, and Mat Noguchi from Bungie speak about how experimentation and communication were key to designing, engineering and scoring the first Halo. They describe how they rapidly iterated on level, character, and gameplay designs to figure out which direction they wanted to go. 

The team even touches on some development lore, discussing how Halo was a real-time strategy game and third-person title before it finally became a first-person shooter. 

This free video is available here.

Session Name: Halo: Development Evolved

Speaker(s): Marty O'Donnell, Jaime Griesemer, Mat Noguchi

Company Name(s): Bungie

Track / Format: Localization Summit

Video: Jon Blow on 'The Truth in Game Design'

posted Mar 28 2013

Courtesy of the GDC Vault is this free lecture by Jonathan Blow from the Game Developers Conference Europe 2011. Here he looks at Conway's Game of Life and his own games, Braidand the upcoming The Witness, to explore a different way to approach game design.

More ideas came out of the development process and ended up in Braid than what was put into it, says Blow. By leaving it up to the system of the game to answer the questions behind Braid, starting with what happens when the player can reverse time, he was able to observe what interesting things could happen rather than force predetermined things to happen.

Session Name: Truth in Game Design

Speaker(s): Jonathan Blow

Company Name(s): Number None, Inc.

Track / Format: Game Design

Overview:We illustrate that games, being algorithmic systems implemented on computers, are biased toward revealing truth, so long as we do not quash the truth in order to force our own high-level wishes into the design. We can use games as instruments, like telescopes or elec-tron microscopes, to observe aspects of the universe that we would not normally have access to.

Video: The 5 best - and 5 worst - ways to network for a game job

posted Mar 27 2013

GDC Vault highlights from the 2012 Game Developers Conference a free lecture on the 5 best and worst practices to network for jobs, presented by now senior recruiter for Crystal Dynamics, Lindsey McQueeney.

Some of McQueeney's tips for job match-making success include online networking, local groups and communities, conferences and events, and friends. She also offers practical examples for each, such as joining a local IGDA chapter and volunteering.

Session Name: gHarmony: Networking Your Way into Acquiring Your True Love Job Match in the Game Development Industry

Speaker(s): Lindsey McQueeney

Company Name(s): then 38 Studios/Big Huge Games, now Crystal Dynamics

Track / Format: Game Career Seminar

Overview:Feeling unwanted or ignored? Having trouble forging lasting relationships with game studios and developers? Concerned that it's your breath, your BO, or worse?
Join senior games industry recruiter, Lindsey McQueeney as she addresses the top 5 best and worst ways to make an impression, with a focus on appropriate networking, as well as provides actual Developer anecdotes regarding their first forays into networking their way into the industry.

Video: Designing puzzles that make players feel smart

posted Mar 26 2013

GDC Vault offers for free a lecture from the 2009 Game Developers Conference on how to design puzzles effectively to help players feel smart, given by Tiger Style's Randy Smith. 

Rather than providing too much advance information or dumbing the challenge down, Smith argues for user-centered puzzles that provide "guidance on demand." He shows Tomb Raider and Portal puzzles as excellent examples that scale to the players' needs and provide more hints only if necessary.

In this presentation, Smith covers puzzle structure along with six principles of user-centered design: visibility, affordances, mapping, visual language, feedback, and conceptual models.

Check out the free video here. 

Session Name: Helping Your Players Feel Smart: Puzzles as User Interface

Speaker(s): Randy Smith

Company Name(s): Tiger Style

Track / Format: Game Design