The ZAM crew descended upon GDC like the ravenous recently-launched pack of vultures we are, but even we couldn’t cover absolutely every talk worth covering from this year’s conference.
Luckily for us (and you), GDC provides video from many of its talks online for free! Here’s a roundup of some of the ones you may’ve missed (paired with our coverage, if you just want to get the condensed versions):
Full-sized talks in bite-sized packages
Each year, two of GDC’s most popular talks end up being the Indie Soapbox and the Microtalks, both of which cycle through a large set of presenters to deliver short, impassioned speeches on a particular subject. We covered both, but you should totally watch them, of any of the videos on this list.
Classic Postmortems
Another regular feature of GDC are its Classic Postmortem talks, in which designers and programmers of the great games from yesteryear are invited to share secrets and insights. This year brought us postmortems on Ms. Pac-Man, the original Diablo, and REZ. We recommend our writeups of these talks from John Brindle, John Brindle’s Midwestern twin brother, and Kris too.
Rocket League‘s off-the-wall origin story
Corey Davis of Psyonix shares the design history behind one of the hottest new online sports, jet-assisted car soccer. But it wasn’t always car soccer, oh no! Early Rocket League prototypes got much weirder, if you can believe that. Here’s Laura’s write-up from the talk.
‘Been There, Done That’
Elizabeth Sampat and a panel of fellow professionals share their experiences working in the industry not known for being super welcoming to women.
How Bayonetta‘s designers think about action games
Producer Atsushi Inaba shares the design philosophy of Platinum Games, the studio behind Bayonetta, Wonderful 101 and the upcoming Nier: Automata. Laura’s take is here.
‘Crafting Existential Dread’
Frictional’s Thomas Grip shares the highs and lows his studio went through putting story ahead of gameplay design for SOMA. Here’s Kris’s coverage.
‘The Current State of Muslim Representation in Videogames’ panel. Left to right: Romana Ramzan (Glasgow Caledonian University), Farah Khalaf (NZGDA), Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) and Iman Khan (Daily Dot; moderator).
There’s a whole world out there you’re not seeing
Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) joins a panel discussing the current state of Muslim representation in games (spoiler: it’s not great).
A game that takes 30 years to play
Eric Zimmerman, Chris Crwaford, Nina Freeman, Anna Kipnis and Zach Gage participate in the annual Game Design Challenge. Laura provides an overview of the games, and Kris interviewed Zach Gage to hear more about his presentation.
A 3(D) Body Problem
Tyriq Plummer, creator of Catacomb Kids, reminds us that we are literally made of meat and games are bad at modeling this. Danielle really jammed on this talk in an follow-up opinion piece, ‘I want games that hit me like a punch to the face.’
A Case Study in Life is Strange
DONTNOD’s Michel Koch and Raoul Barbet share their design process behind the critically-lauded Life is Strange, a game about tackling “real world problems.”
‘It’s Just Emulation!’
What is and isn’t good games preservation, and how can we do better? Digital Eclipse’s Frank Cifaldi talks about the legal and technical hurdles to preserving the history of games for future generations.
No Trespassing
Bioware’s Patrick Weekes (senior writer) and John Epler (lead narrative designer) come together to discuss the creation of Dragon Age Inquisition‘s “Trespasser” add-on, from idea to final product.
So You Want to Get a Job in the Games Industry
A quirky and inspiring talk from Patrick Miller of Radiant Entertainment (formerly Riot, and I guess maybe Riot again?) on weird jobs in the industry and where to find them.
SUPERHOT. SUPER. HOT.
SUPERHOT. SUPERHOT. SUPERHOT. SUPER: HOT.
Wait where did all this blood come fro
There’s plenty more besides these in the GDC Vault, and we encourage you browse through videos from past years’ conferences as well! You may even want to check out a couple other talks delivered by Reviews Editor Danielle Riendeau and Cloistered Editor Brandon Sheffield, you know, on their personal time.
(Top image source: Franziska Zeiner.)