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Story and presence GDC 2013

Story: Theme Setting Characters Plot Narration Story != plot Narrative The end experience in the player What is holding us back here The basic problem is that every game has a sort of box This sort of box is what the player should sort of understand Blackbox approach When you do something you don't do it for the emotional part you do it for the mechanical part So the mechanical game should fit the emotional feel you are trying to get across Neurology The brain just mold and shapes what ever is appraise Our virtue selves being inside of this virtue world. Our self is based on feedback It is possible to manipulate  When something is challenging it hinders our emotional to fully blossom  Axiom 1  Interaction is to create presence  We are playing a virtue representation of the game inside of our heads Axiom 2 Keep systems simple rely on imagination Story interaction merge = narrative Heavy rain chopping off pinky == p
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Art Of The Walking Dead GDC talk

Art of the walking dead The art process: every major element started with a concept Tried to recreate what we saw. Handcrafted line work colorful textures Atmospheric lighting Colorful textures: Imprefections detail  Kept it loose illustrative Then variations in the texture Then adding line work Atmospheric lighting Enviro 30k verts  No ssaaol Vertex lighting Limited post processing N HDR Reduced light map sizes Production Created style guides to keep the style universal and effienct Info in style guides allow quick iterations.  Trust in what you do beat as a studio and let that shine as a product.
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GDC Good Level Design Talk Notes

Good level design Players should be presented with concurring design that can be done in any order Good level design constantly teaches the player something new Theory of fun The human mind enjoys processing patterns If this pattern (...?) always ends to soon this ends and enjoyment ends Learn to play -- to challenge -- to surprise (cycle) Good level design is surprising Key it fresh by not following in a routine Fun is actually created through uncertainty and constantly putting the player create into (I am not sure how is point ended) Disrupt paradigms Take risks if you want to stand out You grey box it test it as soon as possible Good level design empowers the player   "You should dream no small dreams because they have no power to move the hearts of men." Good level design is easy medium and hard Risk vs reward Easys paths medium paths and hard paths The payers can pick their own difficult dynamically (burnout) By
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The art of Dear Esther GDC Talk

Building an environment to tell a story Robert briscoe Started from a mod in 08 Was originally a research project it did pretty well Was built around exploring the world Engaging voice over Rich detailed history and story Make the background apart of the story telling process  immerse the player Realism vs immersion Looked at impressionistic paintings They were so mysterious immersive and atmospheric Impressionistic qualities A string sense did light atmosphere Evoking emotions over reality Expressionism through the light colors Test 2 Came more softer and colorful colors Brought more creative freedom Realism isn't the holy grail of immersion Importance of detail Connecting the story of the world Missing important narrative details huge potential to add to the story Terrain is like the stage in which the story takes place Connecting the story to the environment Make sure the details are consistent with the story or else it wil really break the sense o
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GDC Notes: Properties of atmospheric games

Properties of atmospheric games Tonal cohesion Internal consistency nothing to due with realism Specific detail Ff6 Meteoric prime MGS4 snake struggle crawl Atmosphere: in order to work at all needs to be order Atmosphere is its unique feel Games that create this type of tone and create assets that work around this tone Atmosphere have no fidelity requirement Theme central idea of work Tone authors attitude towards the theme Atmosphere: theme+ tone People were always getting ready for tomorrow.. For a thousand years they haves ruled. Yet now, there are only ten... Why it matters Atmosphere should fit with everything else in the game Sometimes fun needs to take a back seat to atmosphere It can give you a cohesive experience The pieces dont fit together okay it fits perfectly. That's what atmosphere should do Can create the impression that the game is better than it really is. Atmosphere builds investment into the player
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GDC Notes: Level Design

Level design case studies Cut the rope The goals in level design Make player feel smart Appeal both to causal and advanced player Keep players hungry for more -Positive reinforcement -Self manageable difficulty -enable planning (not trail and error) -the solution of the level should look logical, elegant and reproducible -Level design shouldn't uncover the weakness of the game/engine -tutorial level shouldn't be passable without using the principle it explains -it's ok to break those rules For level designers the important thing is fail rate and skip rate Player wants more Level design postmortem Level design is about teaching Teaching the player of how your mechanics work Teaching them how to become a master at your game Consider the target audience Level design micro and macro Level design Marco Add elements progressively, one at a time Could be some be form of practice Treat a combination of elements A a+b b c A b a+b c a+c b+c a+b+c  
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GDC

Gdc was awesome as well as San Fransisco. It was nice to see people, teachers, and friends loose up and enjoy the moment of being somewhere else. Not having to worry about work or school but just to learn and enjoy the possibilities of video games, and what they can be with like minded individuals. I had fun this week and of course will miss the city by the bay. I will post the notes I took on some of the talks I went to, but right now I'm just reminiscing. Sitting in the airport I saw a quote by Walter Cronkite and it hasn't hit me till now, getting ready to leave. The Quote reads, " Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible." I'll be back next year.
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