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March 7, 2016 01:41
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GDC 2016 sessions I've bookmarked
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| session title | start time | end time | duration | day | description | takeaway | intended audience | location | tracks | format | passes | speakers | gdc vault recording | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A Course About Game Balance | 2016-03-14 13:20:00 | 2016-03-14 13:50:00 | 30-Minute | Monday | Game balance is a task that must be performed on virtually every game, and is thus vitally important to a game designer. Yet there are no textbooks, few writings, and even fewer classes that look at this niche topic in depth. What would a game balance course look like? In this session, game designer and educator Ian Schreiber will present a summary of his college-level course in game balance, examining the major topics covered in the syllabus and a set of assignments that can be used to further build balance skills by putting the theory into practice. | The audience will leave with an understanding of the realistic scope of a battle-tested course in game balance, and the kinds of topics and assignments that might be covered in such a course were they to implement it at their own school. | 3005, West Hall | GDC Education Summit | Session | GDC Education Summit Pass, All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass | Ian Schreiber(RIT) | Video | ||
| Designing Asymmetric Gameplay For 'Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes' | 2016-03-14 14:10:00 | 2016-03-14 14:40:00 | 30-Minute | Monday | On the surface, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a game about defusing bombs, but at its heart is a game about communication between players. Learn how the team developed and refined puzzles both inside and outside of the 'game' to keep players talking in ways that encourage tension, mistakes, hilarity, and occasionally even camaraderie. Hear about our efforts to balance approachability and challenge, how we drew inspiration from board games, and where we stumbled along the way. | Attendees will gain an understanding of how focusing on player behavior can help guide design decisions. This session will highlight some of the insights that can be drawn from outside traditional video games and the benefits of play testing, observation, and iteration. | 2005, West Hall | Independent Games Summit | Session | All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass | Ben Kane(Steel Crate Games) | Video | ||
| Your Games WILL Change the World! It's Your Choice How | 2016-03-14 14:10:00 | 2016-03-14 14:40:00 | 30-Minute | Monday | No matter what type of game you make, your design and development choices have a huge impact on the world we live in. Through direct first hand experience, Michael will share the feedback they have received so far while demoing their game We Are Chicago and how it confirms the powerful impact that games have to shape the views of our society. | Throughout this talk you will be empowered to make your games positive influences on our society and have a better understanding of the impact that your choices have on the people who play your games. | 2009, West Hall | Independent Games Summit | Session | All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass | Michael Block(Culture Shock Games, LLC.) | Video | ||
| Build Architectural and Gaming Environments That Create a Sense of Presence in VR (presented by Unity Technologies) | 2016-03-14 14:40:00 | 2016-03-14 15:40:00 | 60-Minute | Monday | This presentation begins by briefly explaining how and why we perceive 3D and virtual reality. With this knowledge as a foundation we will then learn to use this in building architectural and gaming environments that create the sense of presence and immersion. Each topic will focus on examples based on real and virtual worlds. | After the presentation you will be able to use this knowledge to create a strong sense of presence within (room-scaled) VR environments, enabling you to boost the 'Genius Loci' of your virtual worlds. | 2011, West Hall | Game VR/AR | Sponsored Session | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass, Main Conference Pass | Carl Callewaert(Unity Technologies), Pete Moss(Unity Technologies) | Video | ||
| Teaching the Social Science-y Bits of Games | 2016-03-14 16:40:00 | 2016-03-14 17:10:00 | 30-Minute | Monday | Participants get a crash course in social science terms and concepts, that they can use when teaching about these parts of games. The talk will cover things like markets, votes, laws, groups, networks (of people not wires!), interests, policies, and so much more! Because social science is so incredibly boring, all examples will be drawn from games about blood sports like hockey and cooking. The goal is to give you a richer toolkit for pointing out these social bits to students and explaining what they contribute to the game. | Attendees will gain a vocabulary and set of concepts for identifying and explaining the function of social science aspects of games. Useful for those with only a light background in economics, political science, sociology, etc. | 3005, West Hall | GDC Education Summit | Session | GDC Education Summit Pass, All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass | Edward Castronova(Indiana University) | Video | ||
| Getting Inquisitive About the AI of 'Dragon Age Inquisition' | 2016-03-15 10:00:00 | 2016-03-15 11:00:00 | 60-Minute | Tuesday | With multi-game franchises, AI is often iterated on from title to title providing a sense of continuity in development. By contrast, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the 3rd installment in the series, was the first Bioware game on the new Frostbite engine which meant the game systems and tools had to be completely rebuilt. This lecture will explain how they took this opportunity to address and improve the AI system and the challenges they faced in the process. The talk will cover the systems underlying the party AI system and how they leveraged the modular approach for constructing creature AI. Additionally, Sebastian will discuss issues surrounding working in a larger, more open, more ambient environment than existed in prior games. He will show how the end result of the new architecture is a more flexible, designer-friendly system that served the gameplay goals of the team and the title. | The attendee will understand how the various components of Dragon Age: Inquisition's AI architecture were designed, how they work together, and get concrete ideas for how the techniques can be applied in their own titles. | 134, North Hall | AI Summit | Session | All Access Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass | Sebastian Hanlon(BioWare) | Video | ||
| Cloud Architectures for Games The Best of All Worlds, Your Tech and the Cloud (Presented by Amazon) | 2016-03-15 11:20:00 | 2016-03-15 12:20:00 | Full Day | Tuesday | Game developers are used to building their own technology. But in today's world, the global reach and scale of cloud-based architectures is no longer just an advantage, it's becoming a necessity. Third party services built on top of cloud service platforms are also in the mix. How do you leverage the best of what you have, and connect to the best of the cloud for your game? Learn how to reduce operational complexity, go serverless, and let the cloud handle the heavy lifting. | 3014, West Hall | Programming | Sponsored Dev Day | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass, Main Conference Pass | John Burry(Amazon Web Services), Dhruv Thukral(Amazon Web Services), Greg McConnel(Amazon Web Services) | Video | |||
| SOMA - Crafting Existential Dread | 2016-03-15 11:20:00 | 2016-03-15 12:20:00 | 60-Minute | Tuesday | Frictional Games' sci-fi horror game SOMA was created with a very specific purpose in mind: to explore the disturbing aspects of consciousness, the self and what it means to be human. Designing a game that could, through play, communicate this kind of thematic exploration posed a tremendous challenge. This talk will cover the various design approaches we used and how they helped us achieve our goal. | To get some insight into what it takes to make a game with the aim to explore a very specific and non-trivial subject. What were the biggest hurdles? What went wrong? What approaches worked best? | 2005, West Hall | Independent Games Summit | Session | Independent Games Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, All Access Pass | Thomas Grip(Frictional Games) | Video | ||
| Scale Session-based Multiplayer Games with Amazon GameLift (presented by Amazon Lumberyard) | 2016-03-15 12:20:00 | 2016-03-15 13:20:00 | Full Day | Tuesday | In this session, Amazon engineers will introduce Amazon GameLift core concepts, complete a step-by-step walkthrough of deploying a multiplayer game to the cloud, and demonstrate rapidly scaling a game based on player demand. | 2000, West Hall | Programming | Sponsored Dev Day | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Main Conference Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass | Chris Byskal(Amazon), Geoff Pare(Amazon) | Video | |||
| Game Analytics with AWS: From Mobile Games to AAA titles, Using Amazon Kinesis, Redshift, and DynamoDB to Figure Out What Your Players Love Most (Presented by Amazon) | 2016-03-15 14:40:00 | 2016-03-15 15:40:00 | Full Day | Tuesday | Long term success and viral marketing for your game requires knowing what your players love most. The better you predict and the faster you can respond to players' behavior, the deeper you can engage them with core game and meta game features. Learn how a real-time analytics pipeline for games using Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Redshift, and Amazon DynamoDB can make the difference for your game. Walk through an analytics architecture, and discover tips and tricks other studios have used to great success with millions of players world-wide. | 3014, West Hall | Programming | Sponsored Dev Day | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass, Main Conference Pass | John Burry(Amazon Web Services), Greg McConnel(Amazon Web Services) | Video | |||
| Beginning with the Word: Building a Game Writing Program | 2016-03-15 15:00:00 | 2016-03-15 15:30:00 | 30-Minute | Tuesday | Today there are hundreds of schools featuring video game courses. There are full degrees and specializations in game design, programming, art, audio, management, and more. And an occasional introductory course in game writing. The creators of the only two full writing for games programs will share: why there are only two; how their programs were born; what they have learned as their programs have developed; how writing for games has balanced the genders in a traditionally male-dominated field; what their first students have learned; and how other institutions can provide the one essential missing piece in video game education: writing. | Attendees takeaway the crucial knowledge necessary to establish a successful game writing program: gain administrative support; develop a curriculum and syllabi; attract students; distinguish the similarities and differences between writing for games and writing for other media; help their students to succeed as professional game writers and narrative designers. | 3005, West Hall | GDC Education Summit | Session | All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass | Lee Sheldon(Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Marcus Toftedahl(University of Skovde) | Video | ||
| Building Safer Spaces in Game Education | 2016-03-15 15:50:00 | 2016-03-15 16:20:00 | 30-Minute | Tuesday | At a time of controversy and conflict, how can we make game education 'safer' for expressions of diversity? Building from last year's 'Socially Responsible Game Education' session, this talk will provide attendees with actionable take-aways for making their classrooms more welcoming to students from diverse backgrounds. It will also address how to model respectful dialogue between students and address in-class conflict and problematic content in student work. The speakers will use 'case studies' from their own experiences in the classroom to illustrate the potential pitfalls and powerful rewards of making game education safer. | This talk provides a concrete framework of classroom practices to aid educators in making game classrooms more welcoming to diverse voices by setting the tone for respectful, inclusive relationships between students and educators and among student groups.<br> | 3005, West Hall | GDC Education Summit | Session | All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass | Bonnie Ruberg(University of Southern California), Jane Pinckard(University of Southern California) | Video | ||
| Applied Game Theory: The Case of 'Posthuman' | 2016-03-15 16:40:00 | 2016-03-15 17:10:00 | 30-Minute | Tuesday | This talk makes a strong case for the importance of lecturing game theory and criticism in a game curriculum through a concrete example: the making of Posthuman, a board game, made and successfully Kickstarted by the speaker earlier this year. This talk also outlines the benefits of board game making for game lecturers and researchers. | Attendees will gain insight into the applicability of game theory for game design in both classroom and workplace settings. Lecturers and researchers will get insights on how to translate their theoretical work into playable board games that do not require any technical skills to produce and can aid them to think about or illustrate the theoretical concepts they are tackling. | 3005, West Hall | GDC Education Summit | Session | All Access Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass | Gordon Calleja(Institute of Digital Games) | Video | ||
| Bare Metal Cloud: The Key to Delivering Online Gaming Worldwide (presented by Internap) | 2016-03-16 09:30:00 | 2016-03-16 10:30:00 | 60-Minute | Wednesday | Hi-Rez Studios is the creator of online, interactive fast-action combat games including SMITE, Paladins and Tribes: Ascend. To support global uptake, Hi-Rez needed to standardize on a scalable, secure and reliable technology platform to meet the demands of a fast growing customer-base. Hi-Rez's top priority was establishing an infrastructure that could accommodate varying traffic spikes and deliver a reliable online gaming experience with the lowest latency possible. Since adding Internap's bare-metal servers to its virtual cloud environment, Hi-Rez has increased efficiency by 33%, delivers 8x better performance than comparable virtual environments and has grown from 100 gigabits of data per year to more than 1.9 petabytes per month with managed storage capabilities. In this presentation, Hi-Rez and Internap will provide insight into the business and technology considerations of architecting a scalable, reliable and low latency gaming infrastructure. | You will learn how the right IT infrastructure solution will enable you to provide your customer-base with a consistently positive game-playing experience, with zero network delay or latency no matter how many gamers are battling simultaneously in one online arena. | 3007, West Hall | Business, Marketing & Management | Sponsored Session | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Main Conference Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass | Todd Harris(Hi-Rez Studios) | Not Recorded | ||
| Everyone's Silent Enemy: Shame and Vulnerability | 2016-03-16 12:00:00 | 2016-03-16 12:30:00 | 30-Minute | Wednesday | The games industry continues to make strides towards speaking openly and outwardly about diversity and discrimination. However true that might be, battling with the inner dialogue and introspection is rarely, if ever, talked about. Depending on how that very dialogue concludes, it can be very difficult to create and tell your stories; It can even result in complete silence. How do we take our tendency towards silence and turn it into a story that can reach and touch others feeling alone? Renee Nejo talks about bridging the severed gap of human connection that our shame creates, specifcially centered around a Native American Narrative and the game Blood Quantum. | The feeling of being alone in your cause or struggle is a fallacy. Human connection is achieved through vulnerability and empathy, which results in safer places to discuss identity, more diversity in stories and creativity, and the healing of severed connection caused by perpetuating an 'us/them' dichotomy. | There are no prerequisites as this topic is part of the human condition. Anyone interested in games' impact on society or games as creative expressions may find that this addresses the struggle to overcome shame through creation. | 3005, West Hall | Advocacy | Session | All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, VRDC Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Audio Track Pass, Expo Pass | Renee Nejo(3 Turn Productions) | Video | |
| Taking Minecraft to School: Re-Engineering the Game for Learning | 2016-03-16 14:00:00 | 2016-03-16 15:00:00 | 60-Minute | Wednesday | Minecraft is not an educational game. It's a game used in education. It has gained traction with over 10,000 schools, in spite of the difficulty setting up the Java game and servers in a classroom environment. In this talk, it will be discussed how the Minecraft team and its partners have broken down barriers to entry to make the popular game accessible to K-12 classrooms across the globe. Additionally the talk will cover how the game has been extended with special features designed for education, and make suggestions about how you could make similar changes to your own games. | This presentation will share insights on Education as a market and about the unique use cases of games in the classroom. In addition attendees will learn about the journey of customizing a popular title in a way that's not just palatable but awesome in schools! | All are welcome. No prerequisites. | 130, North Hall | Advocacy | Session | All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, VRDC Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Audio Track Pass, Expo Pass | Michelle Dauphiny Becker(Microsoft) | Video | |
| Includification: How to Make Your Game(s) More Inclusive to Millions | 2016-03-16 15:30:00 | 2016-03-16 16:30:00 | 60-Minute | Wednesday | Did you know that there are up to 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide? As the population of America ages, technology advances, and the entire world lives longer, more and more people with disabilities are going to be playing your games. Learn the top three challenges you can address today to make your game more inclusive, and available to a wider audience and market. Mark Barlet, founder of the international charity for gamers with disabilities, AbleGamers, will walk you through the do's and don'ts of designing games with inclusivity in mind. We'll discuss easy ways you can improve your game after launch or early in the development cycle. Together, we can change the video game development world by including everyone. Listen to learn how to sell more games, but develop with accessibility because it's the right thing to do. | Learn how to develop more accessible games for greater inclusion and increased sales. You'll find out the top challenges facing the disability community, how to solve them easily and quickly, and ways to implement cost-effective design methods early in the development cycle as well as after your games are live. | There are no prerequisites for this lecture. Indie and AAA developers alike can learn from the principles of good game design and inclusion taught by Mark Barlet. Developers and publishers will both benefit from listening to this award-winning speech. | 2000, West Hall | Advocacy, Design | Session | All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, VRDC Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Audio Track Pass, Expo Pass | Mark Barlet(AbleGamers) | Video | |
| Jedi Mind Tricks: Cognitive Biases in Game Development | 2016-03-16 15:30:00 | 2016-03-16 16:30:00 | 60-Minute | Wednesday | A crash course in the cognitive biases that affect our game development teams, especially independent developers. This course will give you the tools you need to understand people and build teams with better culture and happier developers. Have you ever wondered why luck seems like such a major factor in the success of a game or studio? Have you ever felt like an impostor while leading your team through development? Have you tried to motivate your team with mixed results? Learn about the surprising ways your brain can trick you, how they relate to game development and how to avoid these traps. Each of these cognitive biases will be discussed, supplemented by relevant psychological and behavioral research. | Attendees will learn about cognitive biases and how they can affect their teams and studios. The lecture covers survivorship bias, luck, imposter syndrome and motivation as they relate to game development and what steps attendees can take to avoid these biases. Each recommendation is backed by scientific and empirical studies. References and a reading list are provided. | Anyone in a management or decision-making role that would benefit from an understanding of basic psychology and how it applies to game development teams should attend. This lecture is recommended for producers or leads who have an impact on their team culture as well as anyone who is working in indie games or hopes to start a studio. | 3020, West Hall | Advocacy, Business, Marketing & Management | Session | All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, VRDC Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Audio Track Pass, Expo Pass | Daniel Menard(Double Stallion Games) | Video | |
| 10 Ways to Make Your Game More Diverse | 2016-03-16 17:00:00 | 2016-03-16 18:00:00 | 60-Minute | Wednesday | How can games be made more diverse, respectful and inclusive? This talk will discuss ten ways to do just that. From doing the research, to an integrated approach, to design, to being aware of context, making diverse games is a PROCESS involving not only story but art, design, and production. Drawing on her experience writing the anti-colonial steampunk adventure 80 Days - named Time's Game of the Year 2014, awarded IGF 2014 Best Narrative, and nominated for four BAFTAs including Best Story - Meg Jayanth will talk about making diverse and respectful games from a practitioners' perspective, using specific and approachable examples. This talk will show that diversity cannot simply be an afterthought - game creators need to engage with ideas of inclusion, representation, and cultural respectfulness in every aspect of the game's world-building, design, mechanics and narrative in order to have a real impact. | 'Diversity' isn't a singular goal - and so this talk will use specific examples to extrapolate a framework to help developers identify relevant issues so they can devise and implement strategies to make their games more inclusive. There are no simple solutions, but this talk will provide useful, approachable strategies and methods. | Anyone involved in the development process is welcome. Particularly writers, narrative designers, producers and game designers should attend. Developing diverse games has to be a team goal and this talk will be relevant to a broad audience.<br> | 3020, West Hall | Advocacy | Session | All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, VRDC Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Audio Track Pass, Expo Pass | Meg Jayanth(Freelance) | Video | |
| Video Games and Astronauts: Building Crew Interfaces for a 21st Century Spacecraft (presented by SpaceX) | 2016-03-17 15:00:00 | 2016-03-17 15:30:00 | 30-Minute | Thursday | SpaceX is designing crew interfaces for the Dragon 2 vehicle that will transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. This talk explores the parallels and overlap between that exciting task and the software engineering involved in video game design.' | Career Center Theater, Career Center, North Hall | Career Development | Career Center Sponsored Session | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Main Conference Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass, Expo Pass | Matthew Monson(SpaceX) | Not Recorded | |||
| How Strong Soft-Skills Help GameDevs - A 15 Year Veteran | 2016-03-18 09:00:00 | 2016-03-18 09:30:00 | 30-Minute | Friday | Soft skills are the personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. Do you really understand the value of 'soft skills' as a game developer? Here are stories of proven practices in the trenches where the 'fuzzy' stuff helped to get things done. Making a better game, by being effective in your communication, effective in your listening, in your problem solving and other valuable skills. Being aware of your team, your individual peers, what their objectives are and getting to the bottom of it. The 'fuzzy' stuff can help you be a better teammate, it can help you through the tough times, in the end you will enjoy the ride and be proud of what you've accomplished along with others. This is important for sure, are you willing to 'Lend me you ears'? | To get an understanding of the importance of soft skills in game development, in what can be a highly creative touchy feely field. Learn of some way to work with people, project your ideas, listen to others and in general what's out there for you to continue on this journey. | Those that work in a creative environment or are part of or manage a team with various personality types and skill levels. This talk is also for anyone that provides or seeks feedback from others on cencepts, prototypes, iterations as well as those that have a desire to strengthen their people skills.<br> | 130, North Hall | Game Career Seminar | Session | Student Expo Pass, Expo Pass, All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass | Leo Zuniga(Vicarious Visions) | Video | |
| Rise of the Moderator/Translator - Case Study: Lionbridge and NCSOFT (presented by Lionbridge Game Services) | 2016-03-18 10:00:00 | 2016-03-18 11:00:00 | 60-Minute | Friday | Lionbridge Game Services and NCSOFT are partnering to present this session describing structure and best practices for running a Moderator-Translator Team program. Lionbridge has developed a Moderator-Translator Team model for community teams which provides moderation and engagement within community channels as well as quick turnaround localization all performed by the same team members. In this session we'll talk about the ins and outs of how to recruit, train and manage a team of home-based, bilingual, games-obsessed community workers who can perform double duty for you. We'll describe the agile work model, the close collaboration between the Moderator-Translators and the Community Managers, as well as the tools employed to keep everything running smoothly and efficiently. Spoiler alert: communication isn't email-based :-). Using the NCSOFT program as our example, we'll walk you through how a simple process CAN ACTUALLY REMAIN SIMPLE when done right. | 3007, West Hall | Production | Sponsored Session | All Access Pass, Audio Track Pass, GDC Education Summit Pass, Independent Games Summit Pass, Main Conference Pass, Student Expo Pass, Summits, Tutorials & Bootcamps Pass, VRDC Pass | Omeed Dariani(NCSOFT), Chloe Swain(Lionbridge Game Services), Linda Tsoi(NCSOFT) | Not Recorded |
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