Final GDC Next 10 talks announced: SWERY's D4, Storyteller

'Future of games' conference GDC Next organizers have announced the last two talks included in the 'GDC Next 10' special session series of innovative, yet-to-debut games: Daniel Benmergui's comic-strip-like puzzler Storyteller, and Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro's Kinect-powered, episodic noir mystery D4. As part of the November LA-based 'future of games' conference's cutting-edge content, representatives of each game will be invited to give a world-exclusive talk about the concept, inspiration, and design behind the title. Each GDC Next 10 game has been picked by GDC organizers as a game to watch for the future; one that is doing something decidedly different in today'’s increasingly crowded game market. This week's first addition to the Next 10 is Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro's Xbox One Kinect-powered, episodic noir mystery D4 [trailer] from Access Games. Suehiro is best known for his work on Deadly Premonition, and Polygon's Griffin McElroy described his 20-minute demo as "the strangest 20 minutes of video game I've ever seen in my entire life." Suehiro will share the challenges of designing for Xbox One's Kinect and of focusing on sensory experiences and empathy in his talk, 'D4: Dawn of the Dreaming Director's Drama.' He promises to share his unique approaches "as professionally as possible," while also presenting simple but often-overlooked approaches to game design. The final inductee to the GDC Next 10 is IndieCade selection and IGF Nuovo award winner Storyteller [trailer] by Daniel Benmergui. Storyteller gives players a puzzle to solve -- a puzzle in the form of a series of comic-strip-like sequential stories that require different combinations of narrative devices to be "solved". Benmergui will go into detail about how he translated narrative devices into game mechanics in a talk titled 'Using Plot Devices to Create Gameplay in Storyteller.' He will also explain designing a game about telling stories caused him to reflect further on unusual design questions that illuminated more about how we relate to games and stories. These games join previously announced GDC Next 10 inductees Capy Games's Super T.I.M.E. Force, Team Dakota's Project Spark, Double Fine's Broken Age, The Odd Gentlemen's Wayward Manor, HumaNature Studios's Doki-Doki Universe, Obsidian's Project Eternity, Dynamighty's CounterSpy, and Grand Cru's Supernauts, all of which are the subject of detailed behind-the-scenes talks at the show. GDC Next is the spiritual successor to GDC Online, and will take place alongside the App Developers Conference on November 5th-7th, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This new event aims to highlight the future of video game development, with tracks including 'Next Generation Game Platforms', 'Free To Play & New Business Models', and 'Smartphone & Tablet Games', as well as cloud and indie game tracks. Check out the GDC Next Session Scheduler to see the other announced talks and begin your planning. Previously announced talks include Sony on free-to-play for PS4, Square Enix on its Collective publishing platform, and sponsored sessions from Tencent, Google, GREE. Online registration is in full swing for GDC Next; registrants can save up to $200 on ADC, GDC Next, or a combined VIP All-Access Pass. For all the latest news on GDC Next, subscribe for updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Also, check out ADC's recently announced talks, with FitStar on testing and scaling to prevent service outage at launch, and Zimmdot on creating native iOS and Android apps by integrating Javascript. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech