In this insightful GDC 2019 talk Unknown Worlds Entertainment's Jonas Boetel explains how open development saved the studio's hit underwater survival game Subnautica.

It was a great presentation about the value of listening to your game, iterating on feedback, growing communities, and finding customers along the way; in short, how to thrive on Early Access.

Boetel's learnings about what went right and wrong in the course of making Subnautica are intriguing, especially if you're a fellow game developer hoping to find success on Steam's Early Access platform.

If you didn't catch his talk live at GDC this year, no worries -- it's already available for you to watch on the official GDC YouTube channel, completely free!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.