Polish your game design skills at the GDC 2016 Game Design Workshop

GDC 2016 organizers would like to give you a preview of the informative and intriguing sessions taking place during the two-day Game Design Workshop which will help kick off the conference next month.

This is just one of the many Bootcamps and Tutorials scheduled during the first two days of GDC (Monday and Tuesday, March 14th and 15th this year) and offer attendees the chance to study critical components of the game design craft.

GDC 2016 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 Riot Games lead designer Stone Librande, Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe, Funomena CEO Robin Hunicke and Amazon Game Studios engineer Kelley Hecker, 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.

Plus, more sessions will be announced for GDC 2016 in the coming months. Stay tuned, and don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering for the conference early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate expires today at 11:59 PM Pacific!

GDC 2016 itself will take place March 14-18th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2016, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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