Monthly Archives: April 2011

GDC 2011:Wed.06 – Designing LIMBO’s Puzzles

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Jeppe Carlson (Playdead): 4:30pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)

SUMMARY:

puzzle designer discusses his process for designing much-lauded physics puzzles in recent indie game hit, Limbo.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Mostly interesting to hear about the tools they used. One of their programmers created an AI element which automatically playtests the level every time you compile it (run the level, and instantly see what most players would do in it). I think this was a huge insight into why the game turned out so well. Ingenius idea (to simulate the average player). Continue reading →

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GDC 2011:Wed.05 – The Failure Workshop

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Chris Hecker (definition six, inc.), Kyle Gabler (2D Boy), Matthew Wegner (Flashbang Studios), Kyle Gray (Tomorrow Corporation), George Fan (PopCap Games) and Brad Wardell (Stardock) : 3pm -4pm
(official GDC brief) (note: I was 5 minutes late)

SUMMARY:

Each speaker described a game they’d made (or prototyped) which they considered a complete failure. They went into detail about why they exactly they thought it failed.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Some very interesting stories about their quick prototypes (much like the exercise I’d quickly whip up for various instructors at OSU’s Ecampus), and a strong theme around “get to prototype asap, and start testing it.” Continue reading →

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GDC 2011:Wed.04 – Prototype Through Production: Pro Guitar in ROCK BAND 3

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Jason Booth (Harmonix Music Systems) and Sylvain Dubrofsky (Harmonix Music Systems): 1:30am – 2:30am
(official GDC brief)

SUMMARY:

I went to this because I’m a big Rock Band fan. Was hoping they’d expose their development process, but they didn’t really go into useful detail.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:

Hard to say really. They have a lot of cooks. They made a lot of prototypes. They didn’t have time for a lot of careful testing. There are lessons to be learned, but this talk wasn’t as directly useful as others.
Continue reading →

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GDC 2011:Wed.03 – microtalks : Say how you play

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(many speakers) 12am – 1:00pm
(official GDC brief)

SUMMARY:
A series of respected speakers gave “5 minute/20 slides” mini-speeches, to explain “how they play.” They mostly offered personal philosophy and arty thoughts.

EDUCATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:
It is interesting to note that many of these game developers mentioned that they think the modern U.S. educational system is broken…
Continue reading →

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