Don't skip the Game Design Workshop at GDC 2017

Heads up, GDC attendees: GDC 2017 organizers would like to give you a preview of the great sessions taking place during the two-day Game Design Workshop which will help kick off the conference later this month.

This is just one of the many Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, February 27th and 28th this year) and offer attendees the chance to study critical components of the game design craft.

GDC 2017 attendees are invited to attend the two-day workshop and take part in hands-on activities, group discussion, analysis and critique. Attendees will immerse themselves in the iterative process of refining a game design and discover design concepts that will help them think more clearly about their designs and make better games.

Featuring speakers like EA Motive design director Kim Swift, Riot Games senior R&D software engineer Marc Leblanc, Funomena CEO Robin Hunicke, and Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe, the workshop presents a formal approach to game design in which games are viewed as systems and analyzed in terms of their mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics.

Working in small groups, attendees will be given specific games to play and will analyze them in terms of aesthetic goals and models. Several different games will be explored and common game design themes will be identified as different groups share their results. For each game that they analyze, attendees will be presented with a concrete design exercise to undertake. An exercise might involve adding a new feature, accommodating a new goal or requirement, or fixing a design flaw.

These exercises will challenge attendees to analyze and identify the design principles at work in a game, and to think flexibly and creatively while working within design constraints. They will serve as a starting point for discussing how the iterative design applies to games in digital and non-digital media. In addition to these analysis-and-revision exercises, attendees will gain further practical experience working with these models through brief collaborative design projects, brainstorming sessions, critical analysis and discussion.

For more details on these and other sessions taking place at GDC 2017, head over to the conference Session Scheduler.

For more information on GDC 2017, which is taking place February 27th through March 3rd in San Francisco, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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