GDC 2010: Overview
Mar. 19th, 2010 04:57 pmFinally getting around to posting my notes. Here's the high-level:
If I had to sum up GDC 2010 in one word, it would be "metrics". If you let me have a second word, it would be "service". The two ideas that were repeated again and again, by many people, in many contexts:
* Don't just guess about game design -- *measure*, empirically.
* Games as 'products' is an obsolete business model; more and more games are becoming *services*. You'll need to keep a team on the game long after your initial ship.
Observations from the Expo floor:
* Anyone whose booth said "We're hiring" had a HUGE line in front of it.
* IGF games were generating way more attention, buzz, and play than big, traditional titles.
* That said, there were a lot of tech and middleware people who were using BioShock 2 as their demo, and these screens were generally being played (though often without much other audience).
If I had to sum up GDC 2010 in one word, it would be "metrics". If you let me have a second word, it would be "service". The two ideas that were repeated again and again, by many people, in many contexts:
* Don't just guess about game design -- *measure*, empirically.
* Games as 'products' is an obsolete business model; more and more games are becoming *services*. You'll need to keep a team on the game long after your initial ship.
Observations from the Expo floor:
* Anyone whose booth said "We're hiring" had a HUGE line in front of it.
* IGF games were generating way more attention, buzz, and play than big, traditional titles.
* That said, there were a lot of tech and middleware people who were using BioShock 2 as their demo, and these screens were generally being played (though often without much other audience).