I’m talking at this 12 months’s GDC, and the discuss will likely be one thing of a sequel to GDC 2010’s “Theme Is Not Which means” (which was the lecture model of two Sport Developer columns I wrote earlier that 12 months). I reconstructed the discuss from my slides and the recorded audio right here:

In 2010, I argued that we have to cease assuming {that a} recreation’s theme gives its that means and, as a substitute, that that means comes from the mechanics themselves. Since then, I’ve seen many individuals level out that we must always cease referring to a recreation’s setting as its “theme” because the phrase “theme” ought to have a wider, and extra important, that means than whether or not a recreation is about “historical historical past” or “an alien invasion” or no matter. Ideally, after all, a recreation’s setting ought to mesh properly with its theme, however we have to cease conflating the 2 by being careless with our language.

This time round, I’m tackling whether or not our video games really succeed at addressing their true themes and, moreover, if we’ve got any thought what we’re doing as recreation designers. To be blunt, I’m swinging for the fences with this discuss, am most likely going to get out over my skis, and [feel free to suggest other sports-related disaster-prone metaphors in the comments]. So, if you wish to see me doubtless crash-and-burn (or possibly pull it off), come to Room 2016, West Corridor, on Thursday at 4:00. Hope to see you there!

Official GDC Description:

https://schedule.gdconf.com/session/you-have-no-idea-how-hard-it-is-to-run-a-sweatshop/893596

Can video games train us about our ourselves? Can a recreation be a press release concerning the world? Will we design video games deliberately or unintentionally?

This discuss addresses these questions and rather more—together with Voros McCracken, Ottoman fratricide, fancy hats, Le Corbusier, nuclear holocaust, Mt. Rushmore, and the 1994 Caribbean Cup. Come learn the way onerous it’s to run a sweatstop. Keep for a hopeful and skeptical take a look at the right way to make video games that say what we would like them to say.